Vacation: 5 Reasons to Leave Your Pet at Home This Year

Every loyal pet owner thinks of their animal companions as part of the family and includes them in everything from birthday parties to movie night. It only stands to reason that they should join us on vacation too, but there are several reasons why it would probably be better to make arrangements to leave your pet with a caring pet sitter instead.

Avoiding a Stressful New Environment

Animals always struggle in new surroundings, and the challenge is even greater when you’re already far from home. Young animals in particular may increase their chewing, scratching, and spraying behavior, quickly racking up expensive charges on your hotel bill. More importantly, though, is the discomfort your pet will experience in a strange new environment. It could impact sleeping and eating habits, possibly landing you at the vet back home.

Eliminating Travel Troubles

Many pet owners believe that if their animal tolerates the 20-minute drive to the vet, it will be easy for them to deal with a few hours on the highway. That’s not always the case, and the issues are even more severe with air travel. Your pet will be in a carrier below deck, away from your caring eye and experiencing frightening sights, sounds, and smells while surrounded by unfamiliar other animals.

Protecting Health

Travel is a very common factor in the spread of disease. Unclean food and water, vector insects, and infected animals all provide potential routes of infection for your pet during travel. Even with proper vaccinations, your pets could be at risk of a very serious illness while on the road, particularly because animals do not understand the idea of taking precautions to avoid infection. For your pet’s health, leave him or her at home.

Destination Policies

Traveling with a pet requires you to check with every destination and make sure that it’s pet-friendly. That includes hotels, restaurants, attractions, shopping, transportation, and everything else on your itinerary. This can make it very difficult to do everything you want to do, keeping you from making the most of your trip.

Runaway Risks

Perhaps the most frightening thing that could go wrong when you travel with your pet is for him or her to run away. Unlike an unauthorized jaunt back home, there are no neighbors to recognize your pet and no local social media networks to access. What you do have is an unfamiliar area to search and a deadline to find your pet before you have to head back home, with or without them. Your pet is safest staying home.

It’s hard to think of leaving anyone out of your family vacation plans, but in the case of your beloved pet, it’s probably best to make other arrangements. Maybe you can make up for it with a “pet-cation” at the dog park or the cat cafe so that your companion doesn’t get shortchanged on family fun. Just make sure you’re thinking of your pet’s best interests in your plans.