If you’re leaving your dog for a month (for work or some other critical unavoidable reason), there’s a few things you need to be aware of to make sure your dog gets the care it needs while you’re going.
Leaving your dog at home alone while you are gone a day or two probably doesn’t carry a lot of risk (as long as you make sure they have all the essentials like food, water, shelter etc.), but going for a month is generally too long to be leaving a dog alone by itself.
You’ll want to organise someone else to care for your dog while you’re gone.
Below we’ve listed some options you might explore for your dog’s care, including supplies and information you might want to leave with your dog’s carer.
Let’s check it out!
(NOTE: this is a general information guide only, and is not professional advice, or a substitute for professional advice. A qualified vet or animal expert is the only person qualified to give you expert advice in regards to your pet/s)
5 Key Tips For Leaving Your Dog For A Month
Leaving A Dog For A Few Days, Or A Week
When leaving a dog shorter periods, we’ve put together this guide for leaving a dog for a few days up to a few weeks.
First, A Word Of Caution About Leaving Dogs For A Month
Under regular circumstances, you would not leave your dog for long periods circumstances for a number of reasons.
There are situations though where for family emergencies, for work, or in the situation of a crises or a similar event, you may have to leave for dog for up to a month.
It’s important to note that if you know there’s a chance you’ll be away for long periods like a month in advance for work for example, you either reconsider getting a dog if you haven’t bought one yet, or you make sure you have family that definitely wants to share caretaking responsibilities if you are going to be gone say for example one or two months out of the year.
Onto considerations for leaving a dog for up to a month …
1. First, Make A Notes Of All Important Information For Your Dog, and Leave A Month’s Worth Of Dog Supplies
This is just a general list, but some things to prepare and organise would be:
Buy enough food supplies for a month
Feeding routine – what you feed them, how much, when you feed them. There’s several options you have for feeding your dog when you’re away from the home
Make sure water is always clean and filled
Leave enough frozen uncooked bones for the month
Make a list of allergies
Detail when and how often your dog goes out to potty
Contact details of vet with some spare money, or pet insurance details
Leave your pet’s leash, harness and doggy poop bags
Leave dog toys
Leave your dog’s bed
Instructions for any medication
Leave any cleaning supplies such as pet stain remover, doggy pads, deodorisers etc. – especially for puppies
Make a note of things to watch out for around your dog – do they get really excited or really crazy about a particular thing like the postman, motorbikes, a certain type of food etc.
Make a note of any aggression triggers, or potentially harmful situations to watch out for – does your dog get territorial around other dogs, do they get possessive over food and need to be left alone?
Apply that month’s flea treatment and any other treatment before you go
Make it clear to your pet’s carer what date and time you are leaving, and when you are getting home
Consider your pet’s carer’s lifestyle and schedule – is it going to fit in with your dog and vice versa. If they aren’t home a lot, they live in an apartment or another non doggy friendly area – it might not be a good fit.
Consider if your dog has any conditions which might be unmanageable for you to be gone for a month, like separation anxiety for example. A vet is the best person to speak to about the risk of physical, mental or health based concerns for your dog.
So, now you have all the supplies and details handled. What are your options for leaving your pet in care? Well …
2. Leave Your Dog With Your Family
Probably the best option. Do you have parents, brothers, sisters or cousins in your area that might be able to have your dog at their place for the month?
Family are usually happy to help out as long as you make it easy for them.
Try offering to take them out for dinner or doing something special for them as a thank you.
3. Leave Your Dog With Your Friends
If you are going to leave your dog with a friend, make sure it’s someone you know and trust well enough to be a competent dog carer.
You might want to give it a second thought if your friend works a crazy schedule or they have a family and you live by yourself.
You don’t want to be putting your dog into situations where you don’t know how they will react – such as around other dogs and kids.
If they do have dogs and kids, it might be worth taking them around before hand for a meet and greet to see how they behave.
4. Leave Your Dog With A Trusted Pet Sitter
Pet sitters can either come to your place, or can take your dog to their place.
You can also go through a professional pet sitter site, or you can sometimes find local house sitter sites (which are much cheaper as you offer someone free accommodation in exchange for taking care of your house and dog) and find people on those sites who have experience pet sitting.
If going through a pet sitter website, make sure the pet sitter is certified or belongs to some type of organisation or association where their details have been registered and certified.
This can ease a lot of the concern that your pet is going to be well taken care of or having someone else in your house.
If you go through a house sitter site, you obviously take the risk that the person knows what they are doing and is competent when it comes to pet care.
If you go through a good house sitter site that requires a registration fee and both house sitters and house owners to register and confirm their profile and details, you can ask the house sitter for a reference or several references of owner’s they have house and pet sat for before.
5. Leave Your Dog At A Boarding Kennel
Similar to a pet sitter that belongs to a pet sitter association or is certified, dog boarding kennels usually have specific experience in caring for dogs and pets.
Like a certified pet sitter, a dog boarding kennel is going to cost the most money of the above options.
We wrote a guide on what you might consider in finding a reliable and competent dog boarding kennel.
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