When it comes to arranging care for your furry companion while you are away, it is not unusual to focus primarily on what you think will help your pet to feel safe, comfortable and happy. It’s easy to imagine that allowing them to stay home, in a place that is familiar to them and where a pet sitter can come to deliver them the care they need, is truly the best option. However, this inclination doesn’t take into account the fact that in your absence, your home is not actually the same place that it is while you’re there. It’s far quieter, emptier and less active. Furthermore, while you know your pet very well and you can usually tell when something is amiss, a pet sitter–even one who loves pets and has the very best of intentions–may not know when something is going on. This means that your pet may feel and be less safe, comfortable and happy in your home while you’re away than they would feel and be in an entirely new place–like a boarding facility. In fact, if you take a moment to consider pet boarding, you make quickly realize that it’s far better than pet sitting.

The Benefits of Pet Boarding

Probably because we dislike the idea of placing our pets in facilities other than their home, we often equate all of these facilities with one another. In other words, we imagine pet boarding facilities to be not altogether unlike kennels–big, noisy, impersonal spaces that don’t really seem to cater to a pet’s emotional needs or desires. In actual fact, professional boarding facilities are incredible spaces that are designed precisely to meet all of a pet’s physical and emotional needs and desires. Furthermore, many pets, especially dogs, actually enjoy their time at boarding facilities because they are stimulated in new and exciting ways.

Following are some of the top benefits of pet boarding over pet sitting:

• Professional training and experience. Pet sitters may love animals dearly, and may even have a lot of experience interacting with animals, but very few of them have professional training and experience in working with animals. The staff at boarding facilities are professionally trained and experienced in working with animals and are therefore better able to watch for and detect subtle cues that can indicate something is amiss with a pet’s health. Top boarding facilities also usually have a veterinarian on the premises during business hours and on call during non-business hours so that pets can receive emergency care if and when necessary.
• Constant care. Pet sitters normally come to visit, feed and exercise a pet for one or two hours a day, and it’s this time that you pay for. Even if they were willing to spend the entire day at your home with your pet, affordability of this level of service would likely be an issue. This means that your pet may very well feel lonely for the vast majority of the time you’re away, and if they experience a medical issue just after the sitter leaves, they have a long wait until the sitter’s return. At a boarding facility, pets receive constant care throughout each and every day of their stay and are far from lonely. Top boarding facilities, like 121 Animal Hospital and Boarding, take dogs out four times a day and even offer socialization groups to qualified boarders. Medical issues and other problems can therefore be detected and addressed shortly after they arise, which means better health and safety for the pet.
• Safe environment. You have probably invested time and money into making sure that your home is pet friendly, safe and comfortable. While you are there to regulate your pet’s activities, it probably is. However, in your absence your pet may very well go looking for you, and this can cause them to try and access spaces that were previously off-limits to them. They may also take out their anxiety and stress on items and fixtures in the home, thereby making the environment far less safe for them. Since a pet sitter is not sitting in your home all day long with your pet, they may miss these things. Pet boarding facilities, however, are designed to be completely safe and secure environments, with sturdy run dividers, fencing and gates. Furthermore, with constant care and supervision, boarding pets are not on their own for long enough to alter their environment in unsafe ways.

Considering these points, it’s easy to see why pet boarding it a better option than pet sitting, and how owners can feel much better with the knowledge that their pet is safe in a boarding facility, rather than alone in an empty (albeit familiar) home.

For more information about the benefits of pet boarding, contact us today.