Dilemma...opinions...

Okay so Cosmo is now just over 7 months and we have been debating boarding trainee Guide Dogs. A dog would come to us in the evenings (around 18 months of age, male and neutered) and be with us at weekends too for 12 weeks,these dogs are in the last half of their training and would leave us to go to their new owners. It would mean my OH having to drop the dog and pick it up from the training centre each day...so a hefty commitment time wise. They would also like us to do it from the start of July...which means we would have the dog over the summer holidays.
I can see lots of pros and cons. We could offer a good home over the 12 weeks to a pretty well trained dog. It wouldn't be 'in' Mon -Fri, we could drop it at 8 and pick up at 6 and we are still able to go away for a couple of days as they would arrange cover. I think it would do Cosmo good to have another dog in to play with and be socialised with (as Biff is as useless as a useless thing bless) and Biff won't care either way as long as the dog doesn't bug him too much!
The downside is of course, that it's the summer hols and we don't want it to restrict the stuff we'd do with my son... We weren't planning on it until later in the year but they do need people...The other side of that is that of course we are totally restricted anyway because Biff can't do grand days out these days...

Edited to add...they would come out first and check we were all okay with the dog selected for us to board..
What do you all think?

IMO - plan stuff with your son that includes the dogs. He loves being with them anyway, and it sounds like a perfect summer recipe to me. I say go for it Ailsa - I think it'd work really well.

HTH xx

Thanks Vicki, the joy is of course that at the weekends the dog could come anywhere with us which could work well.
We were planning on booking some training lessons half an hour away from here for my son and Cosmo over the summer and then doing days out from there so we can still do that in the week...
Ultimately my OH has the final say as it will be him doing the picking up and dropping off...bang go any summer lie ins!

The other thing is we could well be called upon to board puppies over the summer, which could be a bigger headache really as Cosmo would really go daft then and they would be with us 24/7. These trainees will be totally exhausted Mon -Fri as they will have been out 'working' all day. They just need a comfy bed and a tickle..

I can feel myself talking myself into this.......

Ailsa

I think you are almost there with your decision. What does your son think about it as it would mostly impact on his Summer hols?

Can you tell me more about the training days he will be doing over the hols too, they sound interesting.

I think talking yourself into it was pretty much on the cards anyway. Tell OH life's too short to sleep in.....

They're not whole days just sessions then we'll have a day out...I'll PM you!
Had a long chat this morning (he was up at 8 and that was a lie in! With a young dog and child in the house there is no such thing as a long lie in in our house!)
WE need to chat to Guide Dogs....

Don't forget that you can take guide dogs (even those in training) to many places you wouldn't be able to take an ordinary dog so it might not be as restrictive as you think. On the plus side, your guide dog lodger will be well trained, which makes things easier.
I did puppy walking once and I really enjoyed it. I found the Guide Dogs Association really helpful and supportive and I got a great feeling from being able to contribute.

Thanks Sally, part of the appeal is that we know that we are really grateful when one of our pups is boarding rather than in kennels. We have puppy walked four times now and boarded pups too so we know a lot of the trainers at the centre already!

Having puppy walked though we know they are not all as good as they could be and so are going into it with our eyes open!!!!

The main downer is having to take him and drop him...but we know we will board before we puppy walk again and are thinking better in the summer than mid winter to be getting up and out....

TBH, if you're having the dilemma in the first place, then its likely that you would have trouble maintaining the commitments.

In these situations its better to be brutally frank, and err on the side of caution than to try and make it work.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Chris it does help. Although we are terrible at making decisions and making commitments...we don't like change much!

We will board...just when....