It's hard enough to leave your dog behind when you go on vacation. Knowing that he or she will be well taken care of helps a lot to ease the guilt and worry you might be feeling.

Anytime you need to go away on vacation, stay long hours at work or have regular scheduled activities that take you away from home you must consider how your dog will be cared for. Dogs provide entertainment and companionship but are also a huge responsibility. You show respect for your pet by taking its needs into consideration and planning accordingly.

Fortunately there are many services available to assist you in caring for your dog during times when you can't personally give them the attention and care they need. What are they? Which is best for your pet?

DAY CARE

Social animals like dogs can suffer emotionally from a lack of attention. If your dog has access to the outdoors they will be able to relieve themselves when necessary but a house-bound dog will physically require a walk or you will come home to an accident on your rug and a frustrated animal.

Day care centers provide the needed social stimulation most dogs crave. At the day care your dog will spend time with other dogs and have people looking after its physical needs. If you have a young dog this can be especially important as your dog may become destructive with a lack of supervision and an abundance of unused energy.

BOARDING KENNELS

If you plan to be away overnight or for longer your dog may be placed in a boarding kennel. This can be expensive but will ensure your pet is cared for daily and overnight.

IN-HOME CARE

If you are comfortable leaving your dog at home all day you may find the in-home services of a visitor or dog walker to be sufficient and less costly while still providing personal attention. This has been our choice in the past. We hired a professional care-giver to come over twice a day to feed and play with our three dogs.

Now when we go away a family member, my mom, stays at our home. My niece and nephew have stayed with her. We were only gone for 2 nights.

When I was young we always took our dogs with us on trips or had a trusted neighbor come over twice a day to feed them. That worked well for us.
In-home care can be as basic as someone taking your dog for a walk in the middle of the day or as inclusive as having a sitter stay in your home with your pet.

Examine your situation and budget when choosing a method of care. Take your pet's best interests in mind. If you are having someone come to your home be sure they are reputable. Licensed businesses should be insured and bonded when employees are trusted with entering and locking up your home.

Isn't that little face so sweet. Can you imagine making him suffer one minute with fleas?

The minute any of our dogs start scratching I assume it is probably fleas and give them each a dose of flea drops. We have found that Frontline or Advantage work the best, although they are more expensive. Prices on the internet are about the best you will find.

If our dogs need it, I give them another dose after 30 days. Even though we live in an area of the world with lots of fleas, in the last 18 years I have seen perhaps 5 fleas. I don't give them a chance to take over our home.

Before we bring any stray or new dog into our home we put a dose of flea drops on the animal and keep it separate from the others for 24 hours. That's all it takes for the flea drops to kill any fleas the dog might have.

Fleas are a tiny almost invisible insect and something that most people never even think about, until they, or their pets become infected. People then realize that fleas are a major problem to many of households and will take whatever measures are available to eliminate them.

Fleas are an irritation at best and a major problem at worst. Not just to our pets but to us as well. The most common symptom of a flea infestation is itching. This comes from several sources. Firstly, fleas just itch when they crawl around on skin because this is very irritating. But worse than this is that fleas bite their host…and this can include you! They bite to feed on the blood of the host, and the bite causes irritation, itching and scratching.

However, the health effects of fleas can be worse than just the associated itching. Fleas can cause and transmit a range of medical conditions in animals and humans.

Dermatitis caused by fleas is responsible for more than half of all pet skin complaints treated by vets. This can result from excessive scratching or from an allergy to the flea bites, and can be caused by as little as one bite in a particularly sensitive individual. And the dermatitis can become more serious leading in some cases to secondary infection.

Fleas can carry worms from one host to another. Cat fleas, for example can carry and transmit dog tapeworms. This is generally not a problem for people, but can certainly be a problem for our pets.

And because fleas feed on blood they can transmit diseases from one host to another whenever there are blood borne diseases. Many years ago, it was fleas, not rats, that carried the plague which decimated much of Europe. The fleas were responsible for transmitting the disease from host to host. Even today fleas can transmit the plague in some remote villages in Africa, although this does not generally occur elsewhere.

Fleas therefore, are not something to be ignored if your pet is infected. In the warm months it is particularly easy for a wandering pet to pick up fleas very quickly and it is important to be aware of this possibility.

So what do you do if your pet is scratching and appears unusually irritated? Firstly, suspect fleas and then inspect your pet.

How do you determine if there are fleas present? They can be seen on your pet if you comb through the fur. Fleas are fast moving so make sure to look closely.

Check where you animal sleeps. Pets with fleas usually infest their bedding (or yours if this is where they sleep).

Be vigilant and keep note of any places where fleas are found as these are the places which will need to be treated to remove the fleas.

And how do you find out if you have fleas in the house? You'll see or feel them. If you find a flea on your person, chances are you've probably got fleas in the house.

A simple trick for detecting fleas is to walk around any suspect areas in your house with white socks over your shoes. Then check the socks for fleas.

Alternatively you can put a shallow dish of water in the suspect area on the floor. Suspend a light bulb (taking proper safety precautions) about 6 inches above the water and leave the light on at night. Try putting a few drops of dishwashing detergent in the water to break the surface tension. Fleas are attracted to the light and some will fall in the water and drown. So, if you find fleas in the water next morning you've got fleas!

Moral of this story – If you have fleas don't ignore them. The problem isn't likely to go away. Do something about it soon. I highly recommend Advantage or Frontline, or something else that your vet says is just as good. Whatever you do, don't wait. With these products and others like them there is no longer any reason for you or your pet to suffer from fleas.