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Long stays
How to prepare a dog for a long overnight stay
A weekend away and two weeks away are different jobs for a dog. The first is a novelty; the second is a new routine, and a dog that walks into it already knowing the building, the handlers and the playgroup settles in days rather than fighting it all trip. Most of this page is about the month before you leave.
What you need
What you need: a month of lead time, a scale for the food and a person on Cape Ann
Lead time is the ingredient people run out of. A dog that is new to Dogtown needs the free evaluation on a weekday morning between 6:30 and 9:30 AM, then a few visits of growing length before the long one. Count back from your departure and put the evaluation four to six weeks out; for Thanksgiving, Christmas or the school vacation weeks, book the nights as early as you can, because those weeks fill.
Then the practical kit. A kitchen scale, so every meal for the stay is weighed and bagged rather than guessed at the counter. The medication list on its own sheet. One comfort item that smells of home, a blanket or a shirt, not a bed we have to store. And a named person on Cape Ann who could collect the dog if your flight home from Logan is cancelled: a neighbor in Gloucester, a relative in Essex, anyone the front desk can call who can be here inside an hour.
- The evaluation booked four to six weeks before departure, Rabies, DHPP and Bordetella on file, a city license
- A kitchen scale and enough bags for every meal plus two spare days
- One comfort item that fits in a suite
- A local emergency contact with a key to nothing and permission to collect the dog
The method
The method: four visits of growing length, then the long one
The build-up is the method. Each visit is a little longer than the last and each one ends with a report card in the app, so by the time you book the fortnight you and our handlers know how your dog eats, sleeps and plays here. A dog that has done a daycare day, a single night and a weekend has already learned the thing that makes a long stay easy: you come back, every time.
Keep home steady while you do it. Same food, same feeding times, same bedtime. If the dog will need a groom before pick-up, book it into the stay rather than the week before, so the last day here ends with a bath and a clean coat. And write the care sheet during the weekend stay, while you can still notice what you forgot.
- 01
Four to six weeks out: the free evaluation on a weekday morning, with the vaccine records, the city license and the new customer form.
- 02
The following week: a full daycare day for $42, dropped off and collected inside the weekday windows, then read the report card.
- 03
Two to three weeks out: one night in a suite for $78 with a lick mat or a frozen Kong for the first evening. Note what came home untouched.
- 04
Ten days out: a weekend, Friday or Saturday to Sunday, collected in the Sunday window between 8 and 10 AM or 4 and 6 PM, with the comfort item this time.
- 05
The week of: weigh and bag every meal with the dog's name and the meal on each bag, add two spare days, and write the care sheet and the medication list.
- 06
Departure morning: drop off inside a window, hand over the sheet, confirm the pick-up day and time, and leave without a long goodbye.
- 07
While away: read the report cards in the app and let the front desk message you rather than calling in daily. If a return is delayed, message the day you know.
Where it goes wrong
Where it goes wrong: the first stay is the long one and the diet changes on day one
Booking two weeks as the first stay is the mistake that causes most of the others. The dog arrives knowing nothing, the owner is on a plane, and every small problem, a skipped meal or a restless first night, has to be solved without any history to compare it against. If you are out of time, shorten the trip or build a rushed ladder: a daycare day and a single night in the same week beat nothing.
The diet change is the second. Owners buy a new bag of food for the stay, or a bigger bag of the wrong flavor, and the dog spends the first three days with an upset stomach in a strange place. Send the food the dog is eating now, weighed into the same portions it gets at home, and enough that we never have to substitute. If a change is coming, make it a month before the trip.
- Never let the long stay be the first stay
- The food the dog eats now, weighed, bagged and labelled
- A Cape Ann contact who has agreed to collect the dog
- A written list of anything the dog must not have, from chicken to a particular toy
The Cape Ann version
The Cape Ann version: the Sunday windows, the van, the storm plan and Ollie's Law
Long stays usually start and end on weekends, so the Sunday windows shape the booking. On Sundays Dogtown is closed for daycare and open for overnight-stay drop-off and pick-up only, between 8 and 10 AM and 4 and 6 PM, so check a Sunday evening flight into Logan against them. The Pup Van runs for $10 each way in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, and for a long stay it can be the kindest start: the handoff happens at your door and the dog rides with a handler it already knows.
Two local realities belong on the care sheet. Winter travel means a nor'easter can delay a return by a day, so write down that the stay may run a night longer and that you authorize it. Ollie's Law, signed on September 20, 2024 and in effect since December 19, 2024, directs MDAR to set daycare and overnight-stay regulations that are due in 2026. Any facility you use for a long stay should be able to tell you its emergency plan and which vet it calls; for after-hours emergencies on the North Shore that is often the 24-hour Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital in Woburn. Ask us, and ask anyone else you consider.
When to hand it to us
When to hand it to us: a suite with the daycare day built in, and the bundle that fits the length
An overnight stay at Dogtown is $78 a night and includes the daycare day: a matched playgroup of 7 to 10 dogs on the turf and the indoor floors, water breaks, a settle, then a quiet suite with 24/7 monitoring at night. For a long stay the bundles earn their keep. The Dogtown Classic adds a daily homemade pupsicle or puppy cup and 10 percent off grooming for +$10 a night; the Dogtown Deluxe adds a gourmet stuffed Kong or Toppl, a daily treadmill or enrichment session, an upgraded orthopedic memory-foam bed and 15 percent off grooming for +$15. A bath or a full groom before pick-up can be booked into the stay.
Report cards come through the Dogtown app, and the front desk answers messages in it, so a two-week trip does not have to mean two weeks of wondering. If your dog has never stayed anywhere, start with the evaluation and let our handlers tell you honestly after the first night whether a long stay is the right plan or whether daycare days with a sitter would suit it better.
- $78 a night with the daycare day included and 24/7 monitoring
- Classic +$10 or Deluxe +$15 a night for stays of a week or more
- A groom booked into the last day, report cards in the app throughout
At Dogtown
The stay, and the days that lead up to it
Suites with the daycare day built in, the practice days before the long one, and add-ons that make a first evening easier.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
How long can a dog stay at Dogtown?
How much food should I pack for a two-week stay?
Will my dog forget me or be upset when I get back?
What if my flight home is cancelled?
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
A daycare day, a night, a weekend, then the trip.
Book the free evaluation four to six weeks before you travel and let the practice stays make the long one easy.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
