House/Animal Caretaker

Feb 25, 2013
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We are looking for some feedback and suggestions as to what people do with their pets and home when they travel.
Our primary concern is the safety and well being of the animals and that the house be occupied while we are away.
The main focus for us is the care & safety of our pets. That they don?t escape or eat stuff tossed into the yard. We are somewhat overprotective, but have listened to other people?s sad tales about the things that go on.

Appreciate any helpful information or recommendations.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
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so far we left our house (and pets) in a care of one of the family workers. he even scoops the litter box - i think he finds it funny. no real problems so far, in a way, apart from the fact that few years ago one of our cats went out and was killed by neighbour's dog :( but that could have happened even with us here, in DR, at work.

the guy feeds dogs and cats, changes the water, looks after the house. this year when we go we shall take the epileptic cat to dr bob thou, she needs meds and a better care than normal folks can offer her. it is not easy to medicate a cat.

we leave him a full stocked fridge plus some money for transport and food plus just money for doing a favour. not a lot, mind you. maybe a 100 dollars altogether for two weeks stay. dr bob charges 300 pesos per day to take care of the animal. not sure he takes pets in normally, my sick kitty is an exception thou. he's been taking care of her for a while now.
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
5,542
1,325
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Hi, I pay one of my sisters in law, to clean house and stuff every other day, open windows, air rooms, etc..... and feed dogs and cats.
Atnight I pay a brother in law to sleep in a out house we have, clear dog poop, let the dogs out to conuco, bathe them from time to time ( at least the small ones), water plants and flowers, clean pool.
I pay another guy to look after conuco, like twice a week, he gets paied in platano and stuff.
I pay 2 first ones like 5000 pesos a month, since they only work a couple of hours a day.

Problem number one, for some unknown reason, all dominicans are scared of big dogs, u have to be sure they dont hit the dogs, or dont tend them because of fear ( I have them round from time to time so the dogs are used to them).

Problem number two, on the phone everything is always fine, when u get home there is always problems...

Problem number three, dominicans are not the most reliable of people, it is hard to trust them even if they are famliy, people lie all the time here for so e reason or other
 

J.Baby

New member
Dec 23, 2012
104
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Find a proper property management service, and let them handle it. Depending on how long you are going to be gone, why don't you just bring the animals with you? Dominican people don't regularly come across as animal lovers to me, although there are always exceptions. God bless the Domincans I know, love them to death, but I wouldn't leave my dog with any of them. For some reason they always want to pick him up by the scruff of his neck, which he hates; they also have a wonderful habit of giving him large rounds of salami, and then I have to hold him upside down and pat him and shake him until the whole piece pops out. They don't seem to understand that a three pound dog cannot eat a huge piece of salami. Asking them to stop doing it hasn't resulted in much success. They just pick him up by the scruff of the neck and apologize. I haven't quite figured out the Dominican mentality when it comes to pets. To us they are children with fur, but they seem to regard them the way I used to regard bugs caught as a child.

Is there not a non dominican that can look after them? If you knew a Dominican who was an amazing animal lover from the get go, I doubt you'd be posting here. I'm sure they exist in theory, but are hard to find.