This summer, I'll be heading to New York for a week and then Israel for a couple weeks. At home I have a cat that I take care of. I'm going to miss him and I know that he'll miss me for a few days at a time. Granted, my family will be taking care of him by visiting the home once a day, but that's still not the same. He's not with 'Mommy'.
So when you travel, how long do you travel without your pets? When you come back, do your pets typically shun you or do they get extremely excited?
The longest I've ever traveled without my pets is probably about a week. It seemed like forever without them! I missed them SO much! When I got home they were very excited to see me. They are both very loyal, good dogs.
The longest time that I have been away from home is about a week, but I had some friends who came over and took care of the dogs while I was gone. I still worried about them, you just never know what might happen, and you not be there to take care of things.
My friends did an excellent job of taking care of the dogs, but I am sure that they missed me and wondered where I was at . They are always used to me being home, and not gone any longer than a trip to the grocery store, or something similar to that, and I am always home in the evening in any case. They were very glad to see me when I got back home again, that is for sure ! !
The longest we've ever traveled without our four dogs was four days. Although is was lovely to get away for that long, I felt all kinds of guilt about leaving them. When we returned, they were all super needy puppies. At the same time, though, you could tell that they all really bonded during that time (instead of their usual two and two partnering), so there were definite positives to finally boarding them.
A couple years ago my family took a vacation to Florida for a week. We left our dog to roam free like normal in the house. And I had my parents go over twice a day to check on him. Being a Great Dane, he was very gentle and affectionate towards everyone. While gone, this dog had a melt down. It was the first time we had ever left him. He stopped eating all together. My mom would call and say he was roaming outside lost like he was trying to find us. He would even lay by our car like he was waiting on us. After this incident, we have never left without him!
I do contract and short term jobs and assignments. Some require me to travel far and be away from home for weeks or even months. Luckily, there are other relatives who care for the pets. There was a time I had travelled to the coast and stayed there for am extended period of time. Our pet dog, a puppy was very close to me. When I returned home, I found that we had become strangers! Instead of affection, suspicion was written on his face!
The longest time I have traveled is 7 days from what I remember. When I came home, our dogs went berserk and one even wanted to bite me. They showed their anger although temporarily only. Maybe it was their way of getting back at me for leaving them for a long time. I cannot imagine how they would react if I would be away from home for a month.
When my husband went to Singapore for a week of seminar, the reaction of our dogs was not the same as when I came home. There was frenzy, all right, but there was no threat of biting. And in fact, the smallest dog was nibbling the hand of my husband obviously due to delight.
I've never been away for too long. I would be gone for an hour or so and our dogs would be all excited and all over me when I get home. Our pets would probably be the only ones who will be truly excited to see us home. Their reactions are priceless. I don't mind coming home to this forever.
I've only been away from my dogs for three days. And it sure felt like three weeks! I had to call the people at home every now and then to check on my dogs. It's surely something that I would try not to do again next time. But unfortunately, there are vacation places which do not allow dogs. Hopefully, they would be more open-minded about it. Nevertheless, that experience made me realize how much I love my dogs.
The longest I've ever traveled without my pet was for the summer to help out at my Grandma's house. My dog hated being on the plane so I had my mom watch her for the summer, so she was still with family. If it wasn't for my mom petsitting, I won't leave my dog longer than a weekend. I've had couple bad experiences with petsitters and doggy hotels in the past.
I was gone for four days on a business trip and left my dog at one of those doggy hotels that are supposed to be better than just a kennel. They were supposed to let the dogs out to play and exercise them. When I got back, she was in the corner whining. As she gently got out of the kennel, she was so stiff that it was obvious they hadn't been walked. I complained to the manager who made some lame excuse about new staff and gave me a discount. When I got her home, she basically wolfed down half a bag of dog food. Now I won't let anyone I don't personally know take care of my pets.
