Pet Sitter or Boarding Kennel? How to Vet Either Before You Travel in Melbourne

By Eleni Papadakis

The suitcase in the hallway

The bag is out, the flights are booked, and the dog has worked out that something is happening. She is following you from room to room, and she has started sleeping on the suitcase. Somewhere in the middle of all this is a decision you have been putting off, because it is the least pleasant thing on the list: who has the animal while you are away.

It is the quiet part of a holiday that nobody puts on the countdown. For most people, the hard bit of a trip is not the trip. It is the stretch either side of it, and the particular worry of handing an animal you love to someone you do not know yet, or leaving them somewhere new. It is a worry most people carry quietly, and it gets lighter once the questions are written down on paper.

If you are making this decision late and quickly, you are in good company, and it is a smaller job than it looks. This article sets out the three arrangements honestly, the one Victorian rule that changes the question, and the checks worth doing whichever way you choose. There is no single right answer. The animal in your house is the one who decides.

Three arrangements, not two

Most people think of this as a choice between a sitter and a kennel. There are actually three arrangements, and the middle one is the one most people do not know is different.

Someone comes to your home

Here, a sitter stays at your house, or calls in once or twice a day, and your animal stays in its own space. For a nervous cat or an older dog, that is often the whole argument: familiar smells, familiar routines, familiar sleeping spots, and no car journey at all. What changes is that someone you are trusting has your keys and your home. Your animal has company for a set window rather than all day, so it is worth being clear about what that window looks like.

Your pet goes to their home

This is the arrangement most people do not realise is a separate option, and it is the one with a rule attached. Here the person looks after your animal at their own premises, alongside their own life and sometimes their own animals. In Victoria, this is the arrangement that brings in the boarding registration rule, and the next section explains it.

For the right animal, this is the warmest option there is. For the wrong one, it is the least predictable, and it is worth being honest with yourself about which animal you have.

A kennel or a cattery

A kennel or a cattery is a purpose-built place with staff, set hours, and a design made for animals that are not at home. It deserves its due rather than being treated as the last resort. There are vaccination requirements, animals are separated, more than one person is present, and there are premises a council can inspect. That structure is the point of it.

What it costs the animal is worth saying honestly too. It is unfamiliar, it is busier, and some animals find it hard. That is not a reason to rule it out. It is a reason to know your animal.

The Victorian rule that answers a question for you

This is the part that makes this a Victorian decision rather than a general one, and it is the part missing from almost every page you will find on the subject.

Boarding is a registered business in Victoria

Under the Domestic Animals Act 1994, a boarding establishment is a domestic animal business, and all boarding establishments must be registered with the local council in the municipality where they operate. They also have to comply with the mandatory Code of Practice for the Operation of Boarding Establishments.

The useful consequence is simple. You do not have to take anyone’s word for it, because registration is something the council holds. If you want to know whether a premises is registered, you can ask the council that covers it. That is a question with a real answer behind it, and it is worth asking.

Including the small ones, and including home boarding

Here is the part that surprises people. Victoria’s own guidance describes small boarding businesses that offer home boarding for a small number of animals from the same household, and it puts them in the same category: still a boarding establishment, still required to register.

So a person minding your dog at their home is not outside the rule because the operation is small. If someone tells you otherwise, that is worth one more question, asked kindly. It is a protection you can use rather than a trap to set, and knowing it exists takes the guesswork out of the choice.

What that gives you to ask

Two questions, and both have real answers. Are you registered as a domestic animal business, and with which council? This applies where your animal is staying at their premises. Where the sitter comes to your own home instead, the registration question does not arise in the same way, and the checks in the next section carry more of the weight.

The checks that work for all three

Whichever arrangement you choose, a good deal of the checking is the same. This is the part worth doing properly, because it is where the trust is really earned.

What to check whoever it is

Ask for a police check and sight it, rather than taking a mention of one as enough. Ask for two referees from people whose animals this person has actually minded, and be willing to ask what went wrong on a job as well as what went right, because the answer to that tells you more. Hold a meet and greet before anything is booked, with your animal present, because your animal’s reaction is real information. Check public liability insurance. And agree a written emergency plan: which vet, who can authorise treatment, how you are contacted, and what happens if you are uncontactable in another time zone.

If they are coming to your home

These questions apply only to this arrangement. How are the keys held, and how are they returned? Does the sitter stay overnight, or visit and how often? Would anyone else ever come with them? Will they send updates, and how often? And the small things that turn out to matter: whether the bins go out, whether the mail is brought in. You are entitled to know who has a key to your house. Ask, and ask it plainly.

If your pet is going to them

How many animals are on the premises at once, and how are they housed? How are unfamiliar animals separated? How much of the day is supervised rather than merely present? What exercise does an animal get? What vaccination and health requirements apply? And can you visit the premises before you book? That last one is the strongest practical test in this section. Visit before you book, and if a visit is refused, that is a decision made for you, and you can take it as one.

What you are actually comparing

It helps to see the comparison clearly, because the two sides are not selling the same thing.

Two different things being sold

A person is selling time, attention, and a substitute routine. A kennel is selling premises, supervision, staff cover, and a system that does not depend on one individual being well that week. Those are different products, and comparing them like for like does not work.

The honest trade runs like this. The sitter option can be warmer, and for one animal it can be the gentler choice, but it can fall over the moment one person is unwell. The kennel is more predictable and less personal. Neither is better. They suit different animals and different trips, and the comparison is yours to make rather than one to be handed.

The question that predicts how it will go

There is one signal in this whole decision that is both the simplest and the most counter-intuitive: the more questions the sitter asks you, the better the sitter usually is. Someone who asks about medication, food, habits, what sets your animal off and what calms it down is taking the work seriously. Ask them what they want to know, and let their answer tell you.

The second signal is quieter. A recommendation from someone whose animal you have actually met beats a five-star rating, because the rating only tells you that a booking completed. It does not tell you how the animal came back. Ask a friend whose dog you know, and you will usually get a straight answer.

Before you hand over the keys

The last piece is the paperwork, and it is the part that makes the difference between a smooth stretch away and a stressful one. It is also the part worth doing for your animal rather than for anyone else.

What the sitter needs from you

Write it down rather than saying it once on the doorstep. Your vet’s details and the after-hours vet. The microchip number. The council registration. Vaccination and treatment records. Feeding amounts and times. Any medication, and what happens if a dose is missed. Your animal’s habits, fears and quirks. Your own emergency contact. And written authority to approve veterinary treatment up to a limit you set. A written sheet is kinder to everyone, and it means nothing important depends on being remembered. It takes fifteen minutes to fill in, and it buys a good deal of peace.

What the animal needs from you

These are the unglamorous basics that decide how the time away goes. Microchip details current. Council registration current, which in Victoria is required for dogs and cats from three months of age. Vaccinations and worming up to date. And something familiar sent along with the animal, because a familiar smell is a small comfort in an unfamiliar place. Victoria’s own boarding advice says the same things: visit first, keep health and treatments current, and leave something that smells of home. It is not complicated, and it is worth doing calmly in advance rather than in the last hour before the taxi.

The person your pet meets first

One warm restatement. Pick the arrangement that suits your animal rather than the one that eases your own worry, because an animal cannot tell you why you chose it. Ask the registration question where it applies. Sight the police check, and speak to two referees. And write the emergency plan down, because the plan is what you will be glad of at two in the morning in another time zone. None of it is difficult. It just needs doing before the bag is zipped.

Then one gentle action, and it is the whole decision in miniature. Ask the sitter what they want to know about your animal, and let how they answer decide it. Someone who asks good questions is someone who will notice when something is off.

One quiet line, because it matters: this is about choosing who cares for your animal, not veterinary advice. Your vet is where your animal’s particular needs go. Everything else here is a choice you can make well, with a little preparation and a few honest questions.

Sources: Agriculture Victoria, domestic animal businesses and boarding establishments. Local council pet registration and domestic animal business registration. RSPCA Victoria. Consumer Affairs Victoria, making a complaint. Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, small claims.