Your pet's first stay away from home: how to help it settle

In the study of 29 pet dogs measured at home and then in a boarding kennel, stress-related hormone ratios were higher in the kennel and the dogs were more active. Individual dogs varied a lot, and the authors read the change as arousal rather than proof of distress. That fits what most owners see: a dog that is busier, more alert and sometimes off its food for a day, then settles.

Fear is different, and it can last. Merck lists vet clinics and boarding kennels among the common places for dogs to feel afraid, and says a frightening experience can make a dog anxious in similar places later. A first stay that goes badly can make the second one harder. That is the case for building up slowly, choosing the setting to suit your dog, and making the first stay short.

Home boarding with a sitter and a stay in a kennel are not the same experience. A kennel means a run, other dogs barking and staff who change shifts. Home boarding means a family home with fewer animals, but also strangers, new floors and a new lift. A sitter in your home keeps everything except the person. Which suits your dog depends on its temperament, age and health.

Texas A&M's vets say it is common for a pet to skip food for the first 12 to 24 hours in a new place, and that mild loose stools, pacing, panting or hiding can show at first. A dog may bark at new sounds, such as a neighbour's door, a pressure cooker whistle or the lift. A cat may stay hidden under a bed for most of the first day. None of that alone is a reason to cut a trip short.

What matters is the trend. By the second day a dog should be eating, toileting normally and taking walks; a cat should be eating something and using the tray. A good carer tracks this: International Cat Care says a cattery should ideally record each cat's eating and toileting every day. Ask for the same from a sitter or home boarder, and ask them to tell you the same day if a meal is left untouched.

Agree in advance what a good daily update covers: how much your pet ate at each meal, whether it toileted normally, how the walks went, how it slept, and a photo. A short message with those five points tells you more than ten videos. If you are in a different time zone or at a wedding with patchy signal, give the carer your backup contact in the same city, and tell them who can make a vet decision if you cannot be reached, as International Cat Care advises catteries to ask.

When Petym opens, this is how a stay will work: your pet's plan is followed as you write it and logged as it happens, and you get a photo update every day of the booking. In an emergency, the sitter calls you and takes your pet to the nearest 24-hour vet on the city's list.

Merck describes separation anxiety as a dog panicking when it is left alone, with signs often worst in the first 15 to 30 minutes. It is a condition your vet can diagnose and treat, not disobedience. The ASPCA notes that most dogs with separation anxiety do fine as long as someone is with them, and that such dogs should not be left alone outside their training while they are treated. The RSPCA estimates that 8 out of 10 dogs find it hard to cope when left alone, with half showing no obvious sign.

For a first stay, that points to a sitter who stays in your home, or home boarding where someone is in the house all day, not a kennel where the dog spends the night alone in a run. Tell the carer the full picture: what happens when you leave, how long the dog copes, and what helps. Talk to your vet before the trip. Any medicine or behaviour plan is the vet's decision, and the carer follows it exactly as written.

In one shelter study of 60 newly admitted cats, 82% lost weight in at least one week, and cats with high stress scores in their first week were 5.6 times as likely to develop a respiratory infection. A home stay is not a shelter, but it is why a cat's appetite is the first thing to watch. Stress can also bring cat flu back, because the herpesvirus behind much of it can stay hidden in the body and flare up later.

International Cat Care says most cats do not want to share space with a cat they do not know, which is why a good cattery keeps households apart so cats can never touch through the mesh. For many cats the simplest first stay is no move at all: a sitter visiting at least twice a day, as Cats Protection advises, or staying overnight. If a cattery or home boarding is the only choice, the cat boarding guide covers what to check, the vaccines and the questions to ask.

Heat comes first. PDSA lists flat-faced, old, overweight and thick-coated dogs as most at risk of heatstroke, and a large UK study found dogs aged 12 or older had the highest odds of heat-related illness. In May and June, a first stay needs a cool room, walks only in the early morning and late evening, and a plan for power cuts: ask the carer what the inverter runs and which room stays coolest when the AC goes off.

Festivals come next. In a survey of 1,225 dogs, 52% were at least partly afraid of fireworks. A first stay over Diwali means facing the crackers in a strange place without you. If you can, make the first stay a quieter week, and leave Diwali for when your dog already knows the carer. In the monsoon, ask about tick checks: the brown dog tick lives in houses and kennels as well as outdoors, and tropical guidelines say to prevent ticks all year.

Exercise is a legal duty, not an extra. The Animal Welfare Board of India notes that neglecting to exercise a dog kept in close confinement is cruelty under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Every stay should include walks or play, on the society's rules for leashes and lifts.

The housing society shapes the stay too. In home boarding, your dog meets a new gate, new guards, a new lift and new neighbours, often several times a day. AWBI's 2015 guidelines say pets should be leashed in all common areas, and a careful boarder will already know the society's walking areas and busy lift hours. Ask about them at the visit. If your dog is nervous in lifts or reacts to community dogs at the gate, a sitter in your own home, on routes your dog already knows, removes that part of the change.