When Melanie received an invitation to a friend’s birthday party in Bristol, she knew she would have to find someone look after her Cocker Spaniel, Stanley.
Stanley’s doggy fact file
Name: Stanley
Breed: Cocker Spaniel
Favourite treat: apple / being showered with attention when people are around
Best trick: does getting treats through charm alone count?
Favourite place to sleep: any bed in the house, especially after he’s kicked the duvet onto the floor
Naughtiest habit: selective hearing and hoax requests to go outside when he doesn’t need to
Secret fact: Stanley loves dancing!
An adopted rescue dog, Stanley suffers from separation anxiety, which is why Melanie always makes sure to book a dog sitter any time she knows she’s going to be away from him for more than 3-4 hours. For this particular occasion, Melanie had the bright idea of booking a dog-friendly place to stay for the weekend so she could attend her friend’s birthday party, whilst she then booked dog sitter to look after Stanley while she was out.
Here’s Melanie tale in her own words:
“I had a birthday party to go to in Bristol, which coincided with Guy Fawkes night, but we didn’t want to leave him all weekend. We found a dog-friendly place to stay on Airbnb and booked a Bristol based dog sitter with DogBuddy. It was great because we could check in on him and know he was not far away if anything stressed him out too much (for example a mega firework display!). Generally, when we know well in advance that we’re going to be out for a longer time we book a DogBuddy sitter.
Melanie and Stanley’s story truly begins in her childhood village where her family’s Cocker Spaniel Bert was known and adored by all – so much so that the local post lady named her puppy after him. Zoom forward to a just a few years ago:
“I really wanted to get a dog but my job in London had long and anti-social hours so it wouldn’t have been fair or possible to get a dog. Two years ago I started my own business and now I work from home. I was keen to get a dog but still wasn’t sure whether logistics would allow, so I decided to do some fostering for a dog charity so that I could both help dogs who needed a temporary home and get to look after a dog without a long-term commitment. The rescue charity I found deal exclusively with spaniels so I chose them as I had already had experience with this breed.
We thought Stanley would get adopted really quickly as he’s so lovely but he was with us three months before the first inquiry came in for him. By that time we just couldn’t let him go so he stayed!”
How is Melanie’s experience with DogBuddy different from previous experiences of booking dog care?
“DogBuddy has been so useful. In the instance of the trip to Bristol, the fact that you can find a dog sitter anywhere in the UK wide network, allowing us to find a sitter miles from home was so great. And the knowledge that the sitter has access to vet support via DogBuddy in case they should need it is really important to us.
The first DogBuddy sitter we used actually came to our house which was great. Since then Stanley’s gotten more settled and goes to stay with sitters near our house.
We prefer dog sitters because it’s a more comfortable experience for Stanley, we get to meet the person who will be looking after them and see testimonials for that specific person and get updates from them while he’s there. It’s very reassuring.”
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