DogVacay.com – Dog Boarding Community

Finding good care for my dog has always been one of the more difficult parts of vacation planning. DogVacay made it easy. The website is clear and responsive. I found a number of attractive sitter options and chose Mary Beth. She was wonderful with my dog, and I felt like I was leaving my pup with a friend. I look forward to having my dog visit her again.
DogVacay is well organized, and they seem to do a good job finding quality people for their service. I was certainly lucky to link up with Mary Beth, but other reviews show that this service has attracted a number of kind and caring sitters. I have already recommended DogVacay to friends and will continue to do so.

Erica is amazing. We were so lucky to find her and I don’t have to stress when I travel because I know my dog is in great hands. She is very easy to work with and sends a good amount of updates.

We found terrific overnight care for our shy Duck Tolling Retriever with a dog-​loving couple who made her feel at home during her first stay away following fairly recent adoption. DogVacay made communication clear and simple. We’re already planning another time away for Flush in the same home — where she even has a canine friend to play with. Happy all around with this much-​needed service!

We had a super experience when we used DogVacay. The family who boarded our corgi provided excellent care for her. My husband and I had an intense 8-​day work meetings & family wedding trip, so it was wonderful to have complete peace of mind. Our dog sitters were completely on top of all communication, and provided the warmth and TLC that our dog needed. We will definitely use DogVacay again!

I’ve been using DogVacay for a few weeks and it has been great. I tried using a certain dog day care and my dog is always sick, or pooping up random objects from daycare. I’ve used the same host and she is in such better care.

My pup has had the same DogVacay home boarding host for the past 4 years. We love her! I’ve also met several other nice potential hosts over the years – just in case she isn’t available. I recommend doing a «meet and greet» so you can assess the home environment, neighborhood, etc. of the potential host.

Great dog sitter I felt so comfortable leaving my dog with them, also loved getting picture updates!

We’ve used DogVacay a couple of times now for dog sitting and have had great experiences every time. The service is easy to use and communication with your «concierge» is timely and seamless. Nick, our last dog sitter, was amazing. Our dogs are apprehensive to new people but during our meet and greet with him, they were incredibly comfortable and played and interacted with him. He even got a belly rub out of one of them ;) This had me at ease from the get go and confident he would do great with our girls. He sent pictures and videos of them playing and sleeping so I knew they had adjusted and were settled in. I would use Dog Vacay again in a heart beat and strongly recommend their services.

I travel quite often for work/​play and use DogVacay for my dog Scout. Having the opportunity to schedule a Meet-​and-​Greet with potential sitters has been awesome and I’ve been able to find a few favorites in my neighborhood that I use often. This service is wonderful as it is super flexible and Scout comes back happy and very tired from playing with friends each time. I highly recommend!

I have been using DogVacay for about three years. It’s been amazing. I have a very anxious and emotional toy poodle who would be traumatized at being crated in a regular kennel. For a comparative or less expensive price when using DogVacay, my dog can now be in a dog lover’s home. All our DogVacay pet sitters have been quite awesome.

New to Chicago and this website has an abundance of animal lovers that will watch your pet in thier home or yours while you travel. Great service, easy to use and informative website. Great alternative to kennels. We left our dog with Tisha (in her home) for a weekend and received regular texts and pics on how our pup was doing.

I was lucky in that I found an instant connection with the person I chose on
. She was amazing with my chihuahua, arranged to NOT have large dogs during my 10 day vacation, and was truly sad when I picked him up.
You are really on your own while checking out each independent contractor, so a meet and greet is essential; and although I didn’t do so, I would recommend a day trip or two to see how happy your dog is when you pick them up. Like I said, I found an instant connection and sense of confidence (a real «gut» feeling) with the wonderful dog lover who watched my chihuahua, so I just wasn’t worried. In fact, when I picked him up he didn’t want to leave her!
But it is true they are all independent contractors for dogvacay so be sure you have that confidence when leaving your family member (who can’t talk and tell you how things went).

Used
for the first time and will definitely use again! Our sitter, Sheila was great with our senior citizen dog. I scheduled a «meet & greet» about two weeks before. Sheila’s home was clean and comfortable and our dog seemed at ease there. It is highly stressful for me to leave my dog with someone, but I felt very comfortable with Sheila. Sheila responds quickly to inquiries and kept me updated via texts while I was away. Will definitely use again! Thanks Sheila!

I bring my 2 Chinese Crested to Kathy M. in West Chicago… this woman and her husband have dog boarding down to a science. I love bringing my dogs there… I (travel 12 – 15 nights a month) and when I ask the boys if they want to go see Kathy and Bob it is like asking them if they want to go to the dog park… I hate that I have to be gone so much… I hate leaving my dogs… however it is a lot easier knowing that they are going someplace where they feel loved and cared for and have a whole lot of fun with other dogs… Kathy and Bob know dogs… I would recommend and I do to anyone that this is the place to take your dogs for a home away from home atmosphere… when I go pick up the dogs they are worn out from all the fun… and Kathy sends pics and updates nearly daily… it just eases my mind knowing they are in such good hands.

My DogVacay experience just went from a disaster to a dream all thanks to fantastic, responsive customer service and an incredible find for a sitter.
Travis, our «concierge», went above and beyond to find a good fit that met our requirements. We spotted a listing that sounded perfect, verified her availability and scheduled a quick meet & greet. She was AWESOME and Travis managed everything from there.
Stress = gone.
A huge thank you to DogVacay for making sure we weren’t left hanging after the previous host cancelled on us. You came through big time and saved our vacation.

Our sitter, Iris F., was an awesome find! Never tried
before, and was a little hesitant, but after our «meet and greet,» I was totally at ease with Iris and her home and her beloved pets too!
The dogs enjoyed their stay so much, they wouldn’t come with me when I got there to pick them up!

After striking out with 14 people on
, I tried dogvacay. Due to them not marking they are busy but mostly they have other animals and they do not list them on their profiles (my dog isnt great with other dogs)
Contacted Erik D. and he not only responded right away but was able to watch my pup.
Sent a few photos through out the weekend and said he had a few friends to play with him. Which was great b/​c my dog has A LOT of energy and can play for hours.
Will go here again any time I need my dog to be boarded.

If you are looking for a pretty painless way to search for a place for you furry friend to stay, DogVacay is a good place to start. I’ve been very satisfied with their sites user interface and the one time I did have to use their customer service.
DogVacay is a great alternative to boarding your pet at a professional boarder, imo, because of the personalized experience. Obviously this means that you will have to do some personal vetting but I would argue no more than when you pick a professional boarder.

I am super happy with this website. We moved to the Chicago area a little bit ago and we left behind THE BEST dog sitter (seriously — 10 $ a day, fenced in farm, a woman who fostered dogs and constantly had friends for our dog to play with… plus she’d clip his nails and give him a bath. It just doesn’t get better than that). Coming from that experience, I was really, really, really not looking forward to having to take our dog to a kennel that charged up to 70 $ a night. I really want a second dog, but sometimes it’s necessary to travel and leave the dogs, but I just can’t afford to pay that, so ended up not adopting!
DogVacay is the perfect solution. The prices are reasonable — I’ve seen 25 $ a night and up… I personally pay 33 $ a night, but mostly for location convenience. It’s no fenced in farm, but there’s room for the dogs to play, and the sitters take the dogs on walks. My pup has a lot of energy, but he comes home happy and healthy. The hosts respond promptly to reservation requests and keep us updated with our pup’s antics. My dog is friendly and mostly pretty good, but he’s a bit of a bully and a scavenger (very interested in garbage and stealing food), but we haven’t had any issues with him snatching food due to the attentiveness of the hosts.
I’m sure that the experience will vary with the selected host, but compared to cage free boarding facilities that we might consider, this is significantly more intimate and WAY WAY less pocket draining. I am very happy to have discovered this website and can’t recommend it more.

I hosted on
for over 2 years. It was really great, I never had a bad experience. When I worked from home, I hosted all the time, and when I went to work on-​site full time, I watched pups on the weekend. I always had great doggies to sit, it was fun meeting a new one every time, or seeing ones I’d sat before. It was also really great to see owners so happy that their pup is healthy, safe and usually worn out from the dog park.
I highly recommend both hosting and using DogVacay as a service to find dog care for your bud.