Your pet is part of the family, but does that mean it should come on holiday? Vet Pete Wedderburn looks at the options for spending summer with - or without - your pets
You have booked your flight, accommodation, and hire car. For once, your holiday has been organised in advance, and you can now sit back and relax until that date in August. Or can you? Have you thought about what to do with your pets while you are away? If you want to do the best for your dog or your cat, you need to be equally organised about booking your pet's plans far in advance. By early April this year, a well-known boarding kennel in Connemara was fully booked until September. If you have not finalised plans for your pet yet, time is running out.
Pets are dependent on their owners, just like children are on parents. Cats are straightforward, a bit like sensible humans in their late teens. As long as you provide food and a bed, they will manage to look after themselves reasonably well (a friendly neighbour calling in twice a day is enough for most cats). Dogs are more complicated, and can be compared with children under the age of 10. It may be acceptable to leave them alone for a short while in the daytime, but that is the limit of it. If you are planning on going away for more than one day, you need to include your dogs in your holiday plans.
So what are the options? If you are travelling within Ireland and the UK, you may take your dog with you, as long as your holiday accommodation permits this. You do need to ask the specific question "Are dogs allowed?", because some establishments have an aversion to dogs, quoting complications such as noise, mess, and nuisance to other guests.
However, an increasing number of hotels, B&Bs and self-catering accommodation appreciate that most dogs are well-adjusted, clean, sociable individuals, and it is no longer difficult to find a place that suits both humans and animals. To make it easier, there are books and websites listing establishments that pride themselves on being "pet friendly" (see panel). If you are travelling further afield, to Europe or North America, it is now possible to take your dog with you, but your pet will need a European Pet Passport. This has taken the place of the six-month quarantine period that used to be part of Ireland's protection against the introduction of rabies.
The pet passport is, in some ways, more complicated to obtain than a human passport. Your pet needs to be microchipped, given a rabies vaccine, and then blood-tested to confirm that the vaccine has created a protective level of antibodies against rabies. Even then, there is a six-month wait until the passport becomes valid, so you need to plan far in advance if you are thinking of taking your furry friends on your European tour.
You also need to remember that it can be more difficult (and expensive) than you might expect to take an animal on an aeroplane. Not all airlines accept pets, and there are certainly no €1 flights for dogs and cats.
It is arguable whether many pets would choose to go on holiday with their owners. Long journeys and the extremes of foreign weather do not agree with most pets. A comfortable stay in the local boarding kennels is often a much more attractive option.
Boarding kennels in Ireland are unregulated, with no need for licensing or independent inspections, and so the care varies in quality. You should choose a boarding kennel carefully. Good kennels are happy to show visitors around, but you should telephone first to arrange an appointment.
Try taking a "dog's eye" view of the kennels. Do the staff at the kennels genuinely like dogs? Dogs love social contact, so check that the dogs are walked regularly, and that the staff have time to spend just socialising with their charges. The kennels should be clean and (virtually) smell-free. Check the food preparation area. Are the kennels themselves comfortable, with a separate sleeping area? Is there piped music, which can relax dogs? Do the dogs bark incessantly? It is normal for dogs to bark when they see a stranger, but this should settle down in a few minutes if the animals are relaxed and comfortable in the kennels. Do the kennels have a strict vaccination policy, and does it include "kennel cough"?
If they are prepared to take your dog without full vaccinations, this means that there will be other unvaccinated dogs on the premises, which presents a serious disease risk.
When you have chosen a kennel, leave your dog there for a trial weekend. If all goes well, go ahead and confirm the longer summer booking. Whatever you do, finalise your plans soon. Summer holidays are just around the corner and you don't want to make a dog's dinner out of your pet's holiday arrangements.