I have only ever left my dogs with friends once -- then decided never again. If they have kids or are unfamiliar with dogs, it is too easy for a door to be left open or a side gate. I'd only ever leave my dogs with other very experienced dog owners. Too many sad stories too of dogs escaping from people they don't know, looking after them in an unsecure environment and not realising how quickly they can be out and away.
At the risk of destroying people's ideas about how dependent their dogs are on them... icon_whistling :lol: ... from working in rescue I can confidently say that most dogs are quite happy in kennels OR a boarding environment in a vacation situation (eg so long as it is not for weeks on end where they get no attention). Indeed kennels are often *much less stressful and strange* than home boarding because the dogs aren't mixed with other strange dogs, they are safely confined but also get lots of exercise time at a good kennels, and also are secure against thieves. The bland surroundings of a secure kennel can be much better than someone fussing over them or someone who leaves lots of dogs alone together in a home boarding situation (as one new home boarding kennel in Ireland is doing -- npw that is a potentially dangerous environment to leave strange dogs mixed, uncrated, at night when unsupervised! :shock:
Also if a home not used to dogs or used only to their dog, your dog may well get into something dangerous -- most people forget to dog proof their home to ALL dogs, when doing casual minding of a dog; they forget that other dogs may get into stuff their own doesn't.
A good kennesl gives dogs lots of supervised play time outside their kennels and when in kennels, well adjusted dogs mostly just sleep or do meet and greet with the adjacent dogs.
Dogs are also a lot less upset than we like to think when they are somewhere new and their owner isn't there. As anyone who has fostered for me will know, most dogs are unsettled for at most, ONE night and then, usually only for about 10 minutes of trying to see if they can get people to come back and pay attention to them. They adjust very quickly and easily. This goes for people I know who have kennels or have worked in them -- most dogs are not any more bothered being at a kennel than left at home all day alone, which many people do already. In a kennel many dogs will get more attention and time out to play and go for a run than they'd have in a typical day in a working person's own home!
The routine of a kennel environment is quite reassuring to dogs, too; home boarding doesn;t always have that same consistent structure s you really need to know what the environment is like.
I've used both facilities. My home boarding person no longer home boards at this time; so I kennel with a friend who runs a kennels and gives excellent care. I know my dogs adore the big grassy garden area they have for the dogs to run around in and I have arrived without the dogs seeing me -- they were all quite happy and playing around in their kennel. They adore the person who minds them and jump all over him, which mine do only with people they know well and like. So I am quite happy to opt for kennels -- or professional home boarding.
As for a six month old -- when I was doing general rescue dogs much younger thsan this are routinely kennelled until they can be homed ad again in a good kennels they will have a blast playing with other dogs -- indeed it is a great opportunity to meet other dogs and socialise (we often forget that most of us don't have the chance to let our dogs do this very much and in that sense a kennels is a great opportunity). I would much prefer a young dog to be safely kennelled than just looked after by friends or neighbours; there's too much they can get into and at that age, they are too much of a burden for most people to handle (not fully housetrained etc).
