Why did you have to always board with Diesel & Kahlua? Why wouldn't Kahlua do well with the house? Just curious... You will a vet & groomer, it's like a crap shoot, gotta try until you get it right.
oh well this is a bit of a drawn out explanation going back to experiences with Cerberus.
So Cerberus was a very easy dog. He was sweet and eager to please and loved everyone and was very calm and mellow. He was easy. As I mentioned we used to have family and friends watch him when we went away. At the very end I decided not to do that anymore because nobody was as responsible with him as we were. All of my family has little dogs and they would just leave the front door open and trust the dogs not to run off. Cerberus was good but if you just let him outside and ignored him in the front he would eventually wander off. This occurred more than once and we would get calls from people in their neighborhood who found him. After the second time we decided they couldn't be trusted.
Diesel is super energetic and as trained as he is there are things about him we know and know how to handle. Like when he alerts and how to call him off. We know him well enough and have patience with him and no how to handle it when he is about to go into shark mode. It just means he needs a bear hug. He literally wants you to pin him in a bear hug on the floor and as soon as you get near him he flops on his side and waits for you to wrap your arms around you. If you don't do that he gets more wild and crazy and loud. Most of our family are afraid of him because he is "big" (to them) and black and "looks like a pit". If he starts going into crocodile shark mode they would probably panic and yell at him which is not what he needs.
Kahlua on the other hand is very very sensitive and fearful of new people and new dogs. She doesn't like new people. She doesn't like new dogs. Anything new is super scary and she responds to scary by going on the offensive. She is also really sensitive of being yelled at. Any discipline for her has to be super tempered. We don't yell at her unless she is about to hurt herself and its the only way to get her attention. With her fearful nature I wouldn't want to risk putting her with anyone who is going to yell at her or try to punish her or who doesn't know how to manage her fear issues. They could cause serious personality issues with her that it would take a lot of effort for us to correct. When we board them we can make sure that the places we leave them have highly trained staff that know how to deal with large high energy dogs and with fear issues and sensitivities etc. I don't have to worry about a family member thinking that yelling at my dogs or god forbid smacking them (even lightly for kahlua would be very very bad). I definitely can't have them leaving doors open around them because they are not low key like Cerberus was. He slowly wandered the neighborhood until someone found him and then he was happy to just hang out with them. I guarantee that Kahlua and Diesel wouldn't be that way. They would be chasing scents, exploring, running, getting in fights (Kahlua), eating everything in sight, just general badness.
Also most of my family and friends think its cool to leave the dogs outside all day or in the garage at night etc. My dogs aren't those kinds of dogs. They aren't outside dogs. You leave them unattended in an environment like that and even if the temperatures are perfect they will eat something they shouldn't and Kahlua can escape almost anywhere if ignored. She jumps, climbs, digs, etc.
If we knew anyone who we truly felt were responsible enough and equipped to watch our dogs and believed the same as we did we would probably have them watch them. Until then vetting and finding good resources is our best option.
