OldieThe bag is packed, the ride is booked, and the dog is watching us with the look that means he knows. A sitter, or the neighbour who adores him, has said yes to a few days. Now comes the part we always underestimate: explaining a whole routine that lives mostly in our heads.
This is a reflection on what we've found is worth writing down before we leave an older dog with someone else. It isn't about what any particular dog needs. Your vet knows your dog, and the list below is the shape of a handover, not its contents.
The routine is longer than we think
With an older dog the day has more moving parts than it used to. Tablets at set times, something stirred into the morning food, a shorter walk taken slowly, a rug on the slippery bit of floor. Most of it we do without thinking, which is exactly what makes it hard to hand over. We know the dog will eat the tablet if it arrives inside a particular treat and spit it out otherwise. The sitter doesn't.
A 2024 study of the owners of 151 dogs at a New Zealand veterinary teaching hospital gives a sense of how fragile medication routines are even at home. Medication noncompliance was recorded for 47 percent of owners, and the same share said that nobody had shown them how to give the medication1. The most common challenge owners reported was a dog who resisted. The authors note that the sample was small and self-reported, and that the true figure may be higher. To us it reads as a reminder that giving a dog its medicine is a skill, and a sitter is being asked to learn it in an afternoon.
What the veterinary guidance says to leave
The 2023 AAHA Senior Care Guidelines for Dogs and Cats are written for vets, but they include a plain list for the moment the main caregiver goes away. The guidelines say that if the primary caregiver is going to be out of town or unavailable, the client should have a letter given to the pet sitter that includes a phone number for the client; the time zone they will be in; who the pet sitter is and an authorization for them to make decisions; how the client is going to pay for any services rendered in case of emergency; and a designated family member, friend, or other representative who is authorized to make healthcare decisions for the pet2. The same guidelines suggest clinics give families of senior pets medication information that covers dispensing instructions, pill-giving tips and side effects to watch for2. That's a good description of what a sitter needs too.
The ASPCA's advice for anyone leaving a pet with a sitter is shorter and overlaps neatly. Make a list of any medications your pet is currently taking, the dosage, when the medication should be given and how often, and go over it in person before leaving3. Make sure the sitter knows who the regular vet is and where the nearest emergency clinic is. And tell the vet when you'll be gone or out of reach, and who is authorized to make decisions about the dog while you're away3.
The sheet we'd write
Put together, the handover we'd leave on the kitchen counter has five parts. None of it is advice about the dog's care. It moves what we know into someone else's hands.
- Who to call, in order. Us, with the time zone we'll be in and how reachable we'll really be. A second person who knows the dog and can say yes to treatment if we can't be reached. The regular vet. The nearest emergency clinic, with its address.
- The medicines, one line each. The name as it appears on the label, when it's given, how it goes in, and what the vet told us to watch for. Copy the label rather than paraphrasing it, and leave the containers with the sheet.
- The tricks. Which treat hides a tablet. Which door the dog won't go through any more. Where the ramp is. Whether the stairs are fine or off limits now.
- What normal looks like for this dog. How fast the bowl usually empties, how far a good walk goes, what a tired evening looks like. A sitter can't notice a change without knowing the baseline, and a change is what the vet will want to hear about.
- Permission and payment. A line saying who may approve care, and how it will be paid for. A note to the vet's office that we're away, as the ASPCA suggests, so nobody at the desk has to guess.
Then the part we most often skip: doing it once together. If the dog takes a tablet in the evening, we'd leave the night before and let the sitter give it while we're still in the room. The New Zealand study's most common problem was a resisting dog. A single supervised attempt tells the sitter what resisting looks like for this one.
Keeping the list in one place
A paper sheet works, and we'd still leave one. The trouble is that it's a snapshot. The vet adjusts something, a new tablet is added, and the sheet on the counter is out of date before the trip. Oldie is a care tracker for senior dogs: medications, care tasks, vaccines and weight, shared with everyone in the household, so the list a sitter is handed is the one we actually keep. More about Oldie.
Whatever form it takes, writing it down lets the person we trusted with the dog stop guessing, and lets us stop worrying long enough to go.
This post is general information only, not a diagnosis. Your vet knows your dog.
Questions, or a topic you'd like us to dig into next? Reach out any time: help@myoldie.com. We read everything.
Sources
- Factors Associated with Medication Noncompliance in Dogs in New Zealand (Odom TF, Riley CB, Benschop J, Hill KE). Animals 14(17):2557, 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.
- 2023 AAHA Senior Care Guidelines for Dogs and Cats (Dhaliwal R et al.). Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association 59:1-21, 2023, PDF from the American Animal Hospital Association. Accessed 2026-11-03.
- Pet Sitter Safety: What to Know Before You Go. ASPCA, December 5th 2017. Accessed 2026-11-03.
This is general information, not a diagnosis. Your vet knows your dog.