Who would you leave your dog with?

There are very few people I'm comfortable leaving my dogs with, because of their special needs. This is my order of things:

1) Leave them at home and let my mother come in and care for them.
2) Leave them at my mother's and they can board in a basement room.
3) Leave them at a friend's who owns a boarding kennel, who knows my dogs very well and can handle them without touching them or dealing with them much at all.

If I had to go beyond number 3, I'd consider not doing what it was that required leaving, or taking them with me. My dogs are my number 1, and with that bargain I've accepted their special needs and the fact that they can't be cared for by just anyone.

     I have to think you are more "normal" than you think. We have seven dogs, and they usually go with us everywhere, jobs, vacations, day trips. They are either home or with us. On some jobs where both DH and myself are on the road, we carry 4 or 5 of the dogs with us, and a good friend comes over to the house to take care of the others, and the livestock. We like to leave a couple good dogs home just in case the sheep get out. They can repen the stock so much easier than people can!!

My Frisby stays with my parents when I'm at work. (We live in the same house--I'm in the upstairs 1/2 and they live downstairs.) If they are not home (rarely), there are 2 people who may come visit Fris to take her out, give her meds, etc.--Frisby's "Aunt Janice" (a neighbor) and my uncle. That's it. Since Frisby was diagnosed with IMHA, we try really hard to make sure she's never left for more than an hour without her humans.

When my English Spinger Celeigh was alive (and I didn't live where I live now), there was one kennel where I would board her. (We tested several.) Celeigh loved it there. She did not do well with sitters coming to the house for walks or to stay with her; it didn't work at all. She did do well with my parents when we moved back to New England.

 Thankfully I have some good dog sitters that I can call when ever I need to. My dogs don't stay with my family members because my family, while they like dogs, can't handle 4 aussies.

My dogs have only ever been watched by family or friends.

My daughter takes care of all the dogs if we are not home.   But if she is unavailable River goes to the pet spa, Brooke to my SIL and Hailie to her grandfathers.

 My dogs are boarded when we are out of town and I have two kennels that I would trust to take care of them - both are all inclusive, give meds as requested, exercise the dogs on grass at least 4 times/day, and have no trouble handling Maggie's special needs (no other dogs, give all food in toys, etc.) or my special requests (i.e. Kes only plays with other dogs for up to two hours before a break of an equal amount of time to minimize the risk of overarousal and torn pads).

If I had someone caring for the pets in my home I'm MUCH more picky and right now it's only my DH or a friend from work who are trusted to care for my animals here, in large part due to the fact that we don't have a fenced yard and I have two escape artists.  If an emergency happened, I would send the pups to the kennels.

I do also have provisions for the pets if I die (Kes to a friend, Z to DH, Maggie to my parents).

I think it's important to plan for worst case scenarios when it comes to our pets' care.  I always want to have at least 2 options for care in an emergency.

99% of the time all 3 dogs are with us if we're traveling/vacationing, that 1% they're not with us they're at my parents who live right down the street from us.

We very seldom ever go anywhere that would cause us to have to find someone to take care of our animals. The last time we actually took a vacation, Bella went with us.  But if need be, Bella goes to my mom's because she loves her dog and they get along famously.  Since we also have 2 cats and a pot belly pig, we usually enlist my sister to come and stay at our house to take care of them as well as Reggie & Jake. 

If something happened that family wasn't available, we would just have to flat out stay home!  If it was some sort of weather related emergency that required evacuation, we would become one of those people you see on TV because we would refuse to leave.

 I am a fairly mobile young person, so I really NEED to have something available in place for doggy caretaking if I have to travel, be away all day, etc. Rascal is also fairly special needs (he is fear-aggressive), so I have to be very particular about where he goes. I need somewhere where people know how to be gentle and non-threatening towards him, yet aren't afraid of him.

When I moved where I am now, I spent weeks researching daycare/boarding options in the area before finally settling on one I like. I only board him a couple of times a year, if that - he usually goes to live with my BF's mother if I have to leave him - but for me, it's an important safety issue to have a place I know I can comfortably leave him for a while if I have to.

But, unlike many of you (it sounds like), I don't have an extensive family in the area, so that makes a huge difference!

I do have one friend I would trust to watch him, but she's not a dog person and has 2 cats at home. She would take care of him in an emergency, but it would be a HUGE imposition, so it's only a very last resort.

I have a neighbor who is quite dog savvy; and if needed I could ask her to watch the dogs....but she travels quite a bit.  The hooligans can be a handful...so the last time we went away, I boarded them...which worked out quite well.  Buddy is an extremely easy keeper, so we had my sister come to the house, take care of Buddy and my mom while we were away.

I think you read too much into the question. I think it meant - if you would not feel comfortable leaving your pet with them- why should they own a dog?

Casey... Casey is special. There are only a few people that can handle him. So would I feel comfortable leaving him with just anyone? Heck no. BUT - in general-term speaking - if I liked this family enough - would I leave my 'normal' dog with them if needed? I've adopted out a lot of dogs. And for my personal fosters - I DO ask myself, is this a good family for MY dog (as I do think of them as MINE until they go home).

 Not that you said.. but I do want to add that I do try and make sure the applicants and the dog are a good match. I've seen where all they need to do is fill out a piece of paper and thats it, the dog is theirs.