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The overnight bag
How to pack for your dog's overnight stay (and what to leave home)
The overnight bag is smaller than most first-timers think. A suite at 210 Eastern Ave already has bedding and a full day of enrichment attached, so what you pack is the food, the medicine and one familiar smell.
What you need
Food by the meal, medication with notes, one comfort item, and nothing else
Our written policy is short. For an overnight stay you may bring food, pre-portioned is preferred, any necessary medications, and a small comfort item like a blanket or a toy. We provide comfortable bedding and plenty of enrichment. That is the whole list, and the table below sorts the rest of the house into what stays home and what to ask the front desk about before you pack it.
Pre-portioned means one bag per meal, labeled with the dog's name and the feeding, so the count is obvious and a change in appetite is visible the same evening. Medication means the container it came in plus a written note of dose, timing and how you hide it. The comfort item means one: the blanket from the couch, or the toy that lives on the bed, not the whole basket.
| Pack it | Leave it home | Ask the front desk first |
|---|---|---|
| Meals in labeled bags, one per feeding | The bulk food bin and the scoop | Raw or refrigerated diets |
| Medication in its container with a written note | The big bed; bedding is provided | Supplements and treats on a schedule |
| One blanket or toy that smells of home | The toy basket and the crate | Long-lasting chews and bones |
| Leash and a secure collar for the handoff | Puzzle toys; enrichment is provided | Anything your dog guards |
The method
Pack in the order the front desk will use it
Pack the night before, not in the car. Start with the food, because the count has to be right: nights times meals, plus one spare meal in case pick-up runs into the next window. Then the medication and its note, then the comfort item, then the paperwork. The bag itself should be one you do not mind coming home smelling of turf and other dogs.
Write the notes as if for a stranger, because the person reading them at 9 PM may be one. The dog's name on everything, the meal count, the medication timing, your vet's number and yours, and the pick-up window you booked. Sunday pick-ups for overnight guests are 8 to 10 AM or 4 to 6 PM only, and the note should say which one you chose.
- 01
Count the meals: nights times feedings, plus one spare, into labeled bags.
- 02
Put medication in its original container with a note of dose, time and method.
- 03
Choose one comfort item that already smells of home and will survive a wash.
- 04
Write the notes: name, meals, medication, your vet, your number, the pick-up window.
- 05
Clip the leash and collar to the bag so the handoff is one motion.
- 06
Add the enrichment to the booking rather than the bag: a frozen Kong ($6), a lick mat ($5) or a puzzle game ($7).
Where it goes wrong
The whole toy basket, the loose kibble and the new diet the night before
Overpacking is the classic. A duffel with three beds, six toys and two bowls is a bag that a handler has to inventory, store and reassemble, and a bed that went through the laundry with fifty others is harder to hand back than a single blanket. The suite has bedding, and the day has enrichment built in; the one comfort item is a smell, not a furniture set.
Loose kibble in a bin is the second: nobody can tell whether a dog ate half its dinner, and a dog off its food is the first sign a handler wants to catch. The third is switching food the week of the stay to something easier to pack. A new diet plus a new room is an upset stomach on night one; keep the food the same for a week either side.
- One comfort item, not a furniture set
- Meals bagged, never loose
- No diet changes in the week either side
- Notes written for a stranger
The Cape Ann version
Salt in the blanket, the Sunday windows and a bag on the Pup Van
If the comfort item is the blanket from the back of the car, wash it first. A blanket full of sand and salt from a winter beach day is not what you want on a suite bed, and there are plenty of those days: dogs are allowed on Gloucester's beaches from October 1 to April 30 at the time of writing, Good Harbor on even-numbered days and Wingaersheek on odd.
The Pup Van collects overnight guests for $10 each way in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, and the bag rides with the dog, so label it. Holiday weeks and the big Gloucester weekends, the Fiesta in late June and the Schooner Festival on Labor Day, book up early, and a stay that ends on a Sunday has to fit the 8 to 10 AM or 4 to 6 PM window.
When to hand it to us
Let the booking carry the extras, and the studio send the dog home clean
Everything that is not food, medicine or a smell belongs on the booking, not in the bag. The Dogtown Classic bundle at +$10 a night adds a daily homemade pupsicle or puppy cup and 10 percent off grooming; the Deluxe at +$15 adds a stuffed Kong or Toppl, daily treadmill or enrichment play and an upgraded orthopedic bed. Single add-ons go on too: a sniff room session is $7, a treadmill session $10.
A bath before pick-up means the blanket is the only thing that comes home smelling of the stay. Baths are priced by size from $55, a nail clipping is $16, and grooming needs no evaluation, so it can be added to the last morning when you book the nights. The stay itself does need the free evaluation first, on a weekday morning between 6:30 and 9:30 AM.
- Bundles and add-ons go on the booking, not in the bag
- A bath from $55 on the last morning
- Free evaluation before the first stay
At Dogtown
What the suite already has
Bedding and a daycare day are built in; enrichment add-ons and a bath before pick-up go on the booking rather than in the bag.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
Can I bring my dog's own bed to the overnight stay?
How should I pack my dog's food for an overnight stay?
What do I write for medication instructions?
Can I add a groom to the end of the stay?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
Rules and dates change. We re-check every beach, licensing and ordinance page each spring and fall; the source above is the current word.
Keep reading
Next step
Food, medicine, one blanket.
Book the free evaluation for a weekday morning, then reserve the nights and put the extras on the booking instead of in the bag.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
