Is it better to leave an anxious/nervous dog to board with an individual or travel with them (for travels b/w 3-7 days)?
tl;dr On the one hand, I could see traveling with him a good opportunity to introduce new stimuli/people (in bursts, with space for downtime), but I worry that it's more stress more often (given he seems most comfortable with routine). On the other hand, I could see that boarding gives him more predictability & routine.
----
Context: My partner and I adopted our rescue dog ~9 months ago, when he was 1 y.o. He lived most of his life on the streets and was understandably anxious the first ~6 months with us. He has never been aggressive (opts to run away) but is very very hesitant and nervous around people. He has made incredible progress with time, counter conditioning, and exposure to new things (at pace & with rest). He is a lot more open to people & new things, but still gets stressed somewhat easily.
Nowhere near an exhaustive list, but here are some pros/cons off the top of my head:
Boarding with individual
Pros
Pros
tl;dr On the one hand, I could see traveling with him a good opportunity to introduce new stimuli/people (in bursts, with space for downtime), but I worry that it's more stress more often (given he seems most comfortable with routine). On the other hand, I could see that boarding gives him more predictability & routine.
----
Context: My partner and I adopted our rescue dog ~9 months ago, when he was 1 y.o. He lived most of his life on the streets and was understandably anxious the first ~6 months with us. He has never been aggressive (opts to run away) but is very very hesitant and nervous around people. He has made incredible progress with time, counter conditioning, and exposure to new things (at pace & with rest). He is a lot more open to people & new things, but still gets stressed somewhat easily.
Nowhere near an exhaustive list, but here are some pros/cons off the top of my head:
Boarding with individual
Pros
- More consistency & predictability with routine and people
- He's usually around 1-2 other dogs (which he loves)
- Stressful adjustment since he doesn't trust people off the bat. Usually doesn't eat and has diarrhea.
Adjustment can be anywhere b/w 3-5 days. - I worry that I am babying/shielding him from what I think is less stressful but might be better for him in the long run??
- Expensive (which we don't mind as much since we budget for it)
Pros
- He is exposed to new experiences, people, pets, stimuli.
- Though it might be stressful in the short term, he seems to adjust overtime and be even more open to new things. It also has helped us build trust b/w us.
- We think it might help him in the long run with more opportunities to desensitize
- We love getting to see him try new things and join us on our day-to-day adventures.
- He seems to be more stressed more often
(to address this, we'll aside time & space for him to decompress). - People (especially new people) can stress him out
(though, explaining what he needs/wants helps) - We usually cut our trip a bit short since we don't want him to be stressed for a long period of time (not as big of a problem for me since I love being home lol)