By Hannah Geisler
Welcome to Hannah the Heart Pet Services LLC!
Planning a vacation can be both exciting and stressful for many reasons. In my experience, coordinating my pets’ care is at the top of my vacation to-do list. But sometimes, it’s not always clear which path to take. Below are the many pros to having a pet sitter come to your home.
Estimated read time: 7 minutes
1. Familiar scents, sights, and sounds
2. It's more peaceful
3. Maintain a familiar routine
4. Home security
5. Individualized care
6. Disease and injury prevention
7. Convenience and knowledge sharing
1. Familiar scents, sights, and sounds
I’ve had to move several times with my cats, Thelma and Louise. Louise appears to be as chill as they come but Thelma always takes time to adjust her senses to the environment she’s in and appears jumpy and uncomfortable for a few days. I’m sure that my cats aren’t the only ones who differ in this regard.
A huge benefit to a pet sitter coming to your home is that your pet doesn’t have to adjust to the environment they’re in which decreases a lot of stress. Your home has little noise pollution, intense odors, and visual overload that may be found in other environments.
When it comes to noises, cats are able to hear about 1.6 octaves higher than humans and one octave above dogs. This means that fluorescent lights, lights dimmers, computer displays, and tea kettles are all sources of high frequency noises that cats are aware of.
Fun fact: you can play low volume classical music for your pets while you’re away to induce a calming effect and there are actually pet specific composers out there now (Ward, 2012)! Who would have thought?
Another source of potential stress is unfamiliar and potentially intense odors. Through smell, dogs can detect what another dog likes to eat, they can identify gender and mood, and they can also detect the health of the other animal (Llera & Buzhardt, 2022). Odors that could be offensive to dogs and cats are cigarettes, carpet fresheners, cleaning agents and disinfectants, potpourri, hair spray and perfumes, scented litter and other air fresheners (Ward, 2012).
Another sense that is majorly affected when taking your pet out of their home is sight. Bright lights, other dogs/cats in sight, people moving around, etc can greatly overwhelm even the calmest of pets.
In many, but not all, boarding facilities, pets are not allowed to have their own beds and toys in their kennels. This is for safety reasons because even dogs who aren’t prone to eating things they shouldn’t may become anxious and start chewing on their beds or toys in destructive ways. There’s just not the level of supervision there to keep dogs and cats safe from this.
What this results in, however, is your dog or cat being in a totally unfamiliar environment that may smell like other stressed animals and strong cleaning products. This is not comforting to your pet whatsoever and may cause some animals more stress than others. At home, however, because the pet sitter is present and paying attention to your dog/cat only, he/she can afford to take some risks in the pet’s favor.
2. It's more peaceful
No loving pet owner wants to think that their pet is stressed but what exactly does stress do to our pets?
According to DVM Kevin Tudor (2013) stress is a major problem when removing any pet from its home. Cats especially are uncomfortable outside of their normal environment. What this all adds up to is vomiting and often bloody diarrhea which may endure for the duration of their time away from home.
A lot of pets also tend to eat less due to fear and timidity which causes weight loss. Some pets even accidentally injure themselves when away from home because they are so anxious that they bite at their cage, etc.
Later in his 2013 blog post, Dr. Kevin Tudor states, “In 30 years I have yet to treat stress induced bloody colitis in a pet that has been cared for by a sitter.”
There’s no doubt that your pet is going to experience some level of stress while you’re away. That’s inevitable given how close they are to you and you to them but having a sitter in home clearly ameliorates this stress.
3. Maintain A familiar routine
Some pets require a very specific diet, supplement, medication, and exercise regimen to stay healthy, happy, and well. Pets, like humans, thrive with routine and are very tied to it. There are some pets that are more flexible than others but I’m sure that you’ve encountered an animal in your life that you swore wore a wrist watch given how antsy they got at meal time.
My dog Betty used to know exactly when twelve o’clock struck for her afternoon treat. This is all easily maintained by a pet sitter.
I strive to gather a thorough history of the pet and their quirks/routines so that I can best replicate them while their owner is away.
Many boarding facilities, however, only do medications and feedings at set times. For liability reasons, kennel technicians may only be trained to put medications in food which may not be what your pet is used to.
This varies by facility so it’s always best to ask how your pet will be receiving its medications/being fed. If you’re able to, it may be better to board your pet with a veterinary hospital rather than a kennel for this reason since they specialize in medication administration.
Additionally, if the pet is stressed, he/she may not be eating as well which can cause weight loss on top of them not getting their meds. Obviously, this can cause a whole host of problems that may go unnoticed for a period of time given that there are several pets to take care of versus just your own.
4. Home security
Don’t you just feel safer knowing that someone is home to bring in your packages and that the newspaper isn’t being left out and signaling to burglars that you’re away?
I find that many people choose in-home pet sitters for this reason. It’s also comforting to know that if something goes wrong in the house that you’re only a phone call away to fix it.
I have had this situation come up when the power went out at my clients’ home and I was able to update her as soon as the power returned.
Of course this requires a great deal of trust in your pet sitter. That’s why it’s important and recommended to select a responsible adult with pet care experience who is someone in your circle of friends or friends of friends.
5. Individualized care
I can’t stress enough how important and beneficial this is. When your pet is at the center of someone’s attention, I think that they know it.
When I am at my client’s homes, I am available via text, call, or email 24/7 and always leave my phone on sound. I text photos and videos of their pets throughout the day and aim to respond ASAP to them. I also email my clients a Google doc of their pets’ activity for the day which is updated in real time.
I think this is a nice way for my client to see what I did with their pet throughout my stay. Another big element of individualized care is that I have the option to take their dogs for long walks, hikes, or have extended play time outside which is something you just can’t replicate anywhere else.
6. Disease and injury prevention
This is a big one for me. While most boarding facilities are very clean and well maintained, there is always the element of other dogs and cats being around and as possible sources of disease.
Most people know about Bordetella, aka “Kennel Cough,” which is something you should have your dog vaccinated for every six months if you’re boarding or interacting with other dogs. Kennel Cough itself is not usually a life threatening disease but it is a pain in the butt to get rid of, causes your dog to have to be isolated for weeks, and incurs medical expenses. It often is complicated by bacterial infections and is not something I would want a dog predisposed to breathing issues (Bulldogs, Pugs, etc) to be exposed to.
There are a host of other infectious diseases like Canine Influenza, Distemper, Parvovirus, and various intestinal parasites that can be transmitted while in kennel as well. Kennels are required to use disinfectants that will kill these diseases, however.
Routine checkups and vaccinations are highly recommended for your pet to keep them safe even if you do have an in-home pet sitter.
Another possibility when interacting with other dogs is injury. This may be in the form of a dog fight, which is albeit pretty rare in daycare/boarding facilities but do occur. This may also be self-injury via biting at cages due to anxiety.
7. Convenience and knowledge sharing
I have taken clients to the groomer or the vet in the past while pet sitting and I know that my clients appreciate me accommodating them and their pets’ needs.
I have also been able to give some advice to owners to make their pet’s lives and their lives better, too. For example, a client told me that his Great Dane’s urine was ruining his grass to which I told him that there are supplements that you can give that neutralize the acidity of your dog's pee which prevents it from yellowing and dying.
I also noticed that when I was pet sitting for my Labrador Retriever client that her poops were rather dry so I suggested adding water to her meals which made a difference.
Some pet sitters have little experience but it helps when you’ve worked three years in a veterinary clinic and have taken care of many different animals to give some well educated advice. It’s also nice that I have so many friends who are veterinarians, vet techs, pet sitters, and animal people in general who are happy to share their knowledge with me. I love to learn and help my clients in any way that I can hence the starting of this blog!
Thank you for reading!
I hope that you've found this helpful and feel more well informed on which way to care for your animals while you're away. This will be the first of many blog posts so stay tuned!
References
Llera, R. & Buzhardt, L. (2022). How Dogs Use Smell to Perceive the World. Know Your Pet.
Tudor, K. (2013, October 24). Pet Boarding vs. Pet Sitting - Which is Better?. Pet MD.
Ward, E. (2012, December 3). Sights, Smells, and Sounds That Stress Your Pet. Vet Street.