How to board a dog for the first time: a two-week plan

Every dog who stays overnight at Dogtown has passed the free evaluation, and the evaluation needs paperwork. Rabies, DHPP and Bordetella must be current, and you need a city dog license. In Gloucester that comes from the City Clerk at 9 Dale Ave, $20 for a spayed or neutered dog with a current rabies certificate in hand, and it is late after April 30. Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea license through their own town offices. Bring the license number and the vaccine records to the evaluation.

The evaluation itself is a temperament test and a few supervised hours in a playgroup, on a weekday between 6:30 and 9:30 AM by appointment. It is free, it is the same one that daycare and walking dogs take, and it is the point at which our handlers decide which group of 7 to 10 dogs your dog belongs in. Do not leave it to the last week; the slot you want may not be there.

The biggest error is making the first stay the long one. A family books a two-week vacation, boards the dog for the first time on the way to the airport, and the dog spends the trip learning that the suite is where people vanish. Do a one- or two-night trial first, ideally while you are still in town, so that a phone call from the front desk means a ten-minute drive rather than a flight.

The second is overpacking. Six toys, three beds and a week of loose kibble in a bin is a bag our handlers have to manage, and a bed that goes into the laundry with a hundred others can be hard to find on pick-up day. Bring the food pre-portioned, one comfort item, and any medication with the instructions written out exactly as your vet gave them. We provide the bedding.

The third is changing the food. A new brand started the day before the stay is a stomach upset waiting for the first night away. Keep the diet exactly what it was for at least a week either side of the dates.

You do not have to build this schedule alone. Tell the front desk your travel dates at the evaluation and our team will place the daycare days and the trial night around them, book a groom for the last morning so your dog comes home clean, and add the Classic bundle (+$10 a night, a daily homemade pupsicle or puppy cup and 10 percent off grooming) or the Deluxe (+$15 a night, a stuffed Kong or Toppl, daily treadmill or enrichment play, an orthopedic memory-foam bed and 15 percent off grooming) if your dog would use them.

Hand it over sooner if your dog has never been apart from you, guards food or toys, or has been turned away by another facility. Those are the dogs our handlers want to meet at a longer, quieter evaluation, and sometimes the honest answer is a run of daycare days first and the overnight stay a month later than you planned.