Options For Dogs During Short Stay In Chiang Mai?

[gregb]

My wife and I will need to go to Chiang Mai for a day or two at a time over the next several weeks for some medical procedures at Suan Dawk. Nothing life threatening but something that we need to do.

I am soliciting advice on what to do with my dogs during these short trips. I hate leaving them at home alone for that length of time, and putting them in a kennel is even worse. I'm wondering if there are any short stay places near Chiang Mai that would welcome my pets. It would need to be more than just a hotel, because I can't take the dogs with us to the hospital, even though the hospital procedures themselves wouldn't take more than a few hours.

My other concern is that my dogs, both male age 3, do tend to view themselves as the alpha male, and think nothing of picking fights with dogs twice their size. If there are no other animals around to pick on, then many time they are content to fight with each other. The real problem is, to date they've always come out victorious, and have yet to learn the value of humility. I once watched helpless and in horror as they got away from me and decided to go after the neighbour's Doberman. Despite being much larger, she decided not to attack the two of them and scampered away. They're great with people, but I would have to say that leaving them with other animals without someone to watch them would be a mistake.

They also can't be anywhere near motorcycles. A motorcycle comes with 100 meters of these 2 and if there isn't a fence or a restraining device there is no command in any language which will cause them to break off the attack. They wouldn't come back if you threw a steak at them. They never actually bite anyone, they just scare the he!! out of the poor person riding the thing. I think this tendency comes from the mailman riding his motorcycle up to the house every day. They probably barked at him when they were younger, he probably reacted aggressively, and over time they learned to interpret any motorcycle as a threat to their territory.

So I have a few concerns. If I brought them with us to Chiang Mai, is there any place we could stay that would let them stay with us? Next, when we had to go to the hospital, would there be anyone to watch and control the sons of Satan? Or, should I give up on this idea and put them in a kennel, as much as it pains me to do so?

Thoughts?

[gregb]

So just to follow up on this, I didn't come up with a solution and wound up kennelling the poor canines. I felt terrible about it but had no choice.

While I was in Chiang Mai however I saw several ads for the "Pooch Resort". They bill themselves as VIP accommodations for dogs. Better than a kennel at least....the dogs can run around. If I am forced to make the trip again I will probably contact them and see about boarding the dogs there for a few days.

Please note, I didn't actually use their services this time so I can't comment on the quality of the operation, but for anyone else stuck in a similar situation you can consider this option. There seem to be several hits if you google for them.

[tipsy]

I have used pooch resort a few times, I thought it was very good. Dogs had a large area to play/run in all day. My dog had a few issues and the owner called me to let me know what was going on and was very helpful, professional and flexible. My dog loved it as he got to play with all the other dogs, but that's my reason for posting.

If your dogs need to be separated from other dogs then pooch resort may not be the best choice. (I may be wrong and they may be able to accommodate this.) Give the owner a call, I forget his name but a very nice guy and explain the situation.

Other choice for kennels is luckydogs, the forum sponsor. I have used this too, also good but I prefer the pooch resort. PM neinke, im sure she will be happy to hear from you.

Other than that no other choices I know of. I'd offer to help but the big boss wouldn't be happy

Edited February 20, 2009 by tipsy