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3rd Trimester
For those with dogs
What are you doing with them while in the hospital? Last time my inlaws kept our dog but cant this time. If it wasnt going to be cold out I would leave her in the back yard and ask a neighbor to feed her and let her in/out for the night. I dont want to board her and her be in a kennel all day but not sure what to do. Oh she is a blue healer 60lbs
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Re: For those with dogs
We have a 60lb lab mutt and we plan to feed her before we leave home then deal with the situation as need be. We have a neighbor that has a key for emergencies and he takes her out and lets her play with his dog when we need him to, so he's our go-to for the first 20 hours or so (as long as he's home and available).
We don't want to call my parents until the baby is actually born, but if we have to call them before then because of the dog, we will. They'll pick her up when we call them and watch her while I'm in the hospital.
My two big ones are going to our trainer's kennel facility. He said he'd take them for 2 weeks for free and give them some refresher training while they're there.
The chihuahua is going to stay at our house and a coworker is going to stop by a couple of times a day and let him out for a little while.
The plan is when we think it's time, DH will load up the dogs, drive them over there while I pack the last few things and be ready to go when he gets back. My coworker has a key to our house so I just have to call her and tell her she's on duty.
My Chart My Nest Bio
We have friends down the street who usually watch our dog when we're out, and they have a key to the house, so we can just leave and call them. Though now we're thinking they might be invited to the birth. Hmm! We'll figure it out though, we're lucky to have several friends living nearby, and they all like our (spoiled) dog.
When we were living in Texas, and didn't have friends nearby, we found a lady who did in-home dog boarding. We've found someone like that everywhere we've lived. It's a great alternative to kennels, basically your dog stays as their pet for however long, playing with their kids, out in their yard, sleeping on the couch (or not). All the women we've found (4 total in different cities) had surprisingly clean, peaceful homes, so it wasn't sketchy or anything. Our dog was always very happy in these arrangements. We'd definitely have someone like that on-call, and have either her or DH handle the pickup/dropoff once we were heading out.
Edit to add: You have to set this sort of thing up in advance, by the way, there's an interview/screening process to make sure your dog's personality is a good fit for their home.
Hopefully our three will be fed and let out one last time before I go to the hospital - if I'm home I will make sure it gets done and I will ask DH to do it when he grabs the bags if I go to the hospital from work or something. My dad will let them in/out as needed while I am in labor (our house is not that far from the hospital) and then my parents will take them home with them for the duration of the hospital stay.
Thankfully my parents are always welcoming of our three, and if they get to be too much they have the option of sending one or two of them over to visit my grandparents for a while, who adore them and live right next door.
We have trouble with boarding because one of our dogs is a pit bull and many places will not accept them. And my beagle mix requires medication.
"Be the Lego Lady"
1. We are going to have him in his kennel and my boyfriend or someone will have to run to our house to feed him and let him out when needed (our house is blocks from the hospital)
2. Have you researched boarding? Many places don't lock your dog up in a kennel the whole time. That isn't what we pay for. My parents have taken their Golden Retrievers to lodges and boarding places where they get cots and tv's in their kennels with them... and the kennels are more like 8 x 8 rooms. It was like $45 a night... but that is Wisconsin. Look around and you might find somewhere surprising to take them!
We're thinking it all depends on the time I go into labor. If it's the middle of the night, they will just be put out in their dog run, and we will call our neighbors at a decent hour in the morning to go over there and feed them. Hubby will come home at some point (we live 45 minutes away), and let them out for a little bit and come back to the hospital.
I'm hoping my uncle will still be living in the area and we can call him to come and stay with them. They love him and he has watched them before. We haven't talked about boarding them, but this is another option we would be comfortable with. Our vet does boarding so they would be in good hands.
We have two 60lb free-roaming, self-feeding mutts. They are THE world's easiest dogs, just need let out 2-3 times per day; my neighbors will help us out. We have a fenced in yard so literally, they open the door, dogs run out, pee/poop and come back in. They self-feed and rarely eat while we're away, so just refilling food and water is all they need.
We boarded my Boomer for 3 days once and he didn't pee or poop the entire time. He came home, peed in our living room, then started peeing blood. He developed a UTI from holding it so long.
I'm NOT saying that would happen to your dog, you just never know how it will turn out. I hope you figure something out!
Twin boys born too early at 17w4d and 18w2d in February 2010
Transabdominal cerclage placed September 2010
DS born at 35w1d in February 2011
Twin girls born at exactly 36w in February 2013
We use www.fetchpetcare.com for most of our dog sitting. They will come to you or your pup can go to them. They are located all over the place and our licensed/bonded/insured.
Freya is my 60lb 1yr old GSD/Malamute/husky mix. apache is our 90+lb 9yr old Alaskan Malamute. They love their dog sitter and she'll even send us pictures.
Also Freya's obedience trainer is a dog sitter so we have two options. We may keep them here since there will be enough stress with a sudden leave, my being home for a few days and then a new baby but we'll see.