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The tag wiki description says it's for travelling with pets, but there are a few questions where the owner is travelling and wants to arrange holiday care for the pet.

Here are two that are currently tagged "travel" (I'm sure there are others where the owner is travelling that are not tagged "travel"): How should I accomodate my cat if I travel for work?, Is there any way to make sure my bearded dragon has enough to eat while I'm on vacation?

I went to change the tags on the questions but I couldn't find an alternative tag.

I see a few options here.

  • Just remove the travel tag and don't bother about retagging (or just retag with something broader like )
  • Remove the travel tag and create a suitable tag for arranging care of your pets whilst you're away
  • Change the tag wiki description so that it also includes when you are travelling and leaving your pet behind.

I would lean towards one of the first two - I don't think that travelling with a pet and arranging care of your pet whilst you're away are close enough to warrant using the same tag.

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  • Yes, there is this: care tag.
    – Esa Paulasto
    Apr 9, 2014 at 11:09
  • @EsaPaulasto Edited the question based on your comment.
    – starsplusplus
    Apr 9, 2014 at 11:13
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    Why in the world do we have a "care" tag? That could be anything! I mean, if properly applied it would belong on probably 75% of the questions on the site, right? If so that makes it pretty useless. (Yes, I've read the wiki excerpt; it didn't help and there is no full wiki.)
    – Monica Cellio
    Apr 10, 2014 at 23:23
  • @MonicaCellio That's exactly what I thought! You expressed it much better than me :)
    – starsplusplus
    Apr 11, 2014 at 9:00
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    Followup question on the "care" tag: meta.pets.stackexchange.com/q/747/31
    – Monica Cellio
    Apr 11, 2014 at 14:57

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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I think the wiki page for should be updated. I think lumping those questions in with care is too generalized. It is a question about travelling and how to take care of your pet while travelling, only in these instances the owner and pet are separated from each other.

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  • I endorse altering the definition of the "travel" tag to cover this. This is the entire reason why wiki tag definitions can be edited.
    – JoshDM
    Apr 9, 2014 at 13:58
  • @Josh/Matt: Just to clarify, would you be suggesting that the examples I gave in my answer should all be moved to this new, broader travel tag?
    – starsplusplus
    Apr 9, 2014 at 14:14
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    Yes. travel would include everything to do with travelling, whether your pet comes with you, or stays at home.
    – Spidercat
    Apr 9, 2014 at 14:18
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I mostly agree with expanding the scope of the tag as suggested by Matt S., but I've also thought a couple of new tags might be useful:

  • for questions about having someone watch your pet while you're away, either in their home or yours.
  • (with a synonym ) for questions about having pets stay at commercial facilities that specialize in caring for animals. This could probably also apply to questions about day-care facilities.
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    Those are good tags, I'm surprised we don't have any questions using them already
    – Spidercat
    Apr 9, 2014 at 18:39
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Situation one: pet is travelling.

Questions will be about things like:

  • how to subdue/calm the pet whilst in transit
  • any veterinary or legal requirements regarding taking the pet to other countries (border control etc.)
  • what containers or restraints to use
  • dealing with motion sickness in pets

Situation two: pet is being left at home (either alone or with a different guardian).

Questions will be about things like:

  • how long the pet can be safely left alone
  • how to search for a good kennels/cattery/pet-sitter
  • how to prepare the pet emotionally for your absence
  • setting up timed feeding, lights, etc. whilst you are away
  • what instructions are needed to give to a friend who's taking care of your pet

My thoughts

I think these two situations are very different and there's really not much overlap between them. Furthermore, we have a wide range of questions about the owner travelling with a pet already: the tag as-is is quite nicely defined. There are a number of questions about leaving your pet alone (both for short and long periods of time) that could benefit from a new tag of their own.

For example:

Dog crying at night in different house
Preparing a dog to stay alone without crating
Is there any way to make sure my bearded dragon has enough to eat while I'm on vacation?
Are ambient noises useful for keeping the dog calm while I'm away?

These honestly seem like they would be much better suited to a leaving pets alone tag (obviously with a better name than that) than lumping them in with questions about pets that are travelling.

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Okay, an answer is better than a comment, so that also downvoting is possible. This is for the question asked in question title alone.

Yes. The tag should be fit enough for use with such questions.

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    The care tag is very broad. I was asking if there was a tag for that particular care requirement.
    – starsplusplus
    Apr 9, 2014 at 13:44
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    'care' tag should be used in conjunction with 'travel' for these.
    – JoshDM
    Apr 9, 2014 at 13:59
  • @starsplusplus - it's okay for tags to be fairly broad. It's the collection of them that build a context.
    – Joanne C
    Apr 9, 2014 at 18:32
  • @JohnCavan Surely there's a limit to how broad, though? As Monica pointed out, "care" could cover almost the entire site!
    – starsplusplus
    Apr 11, 2014 at 8:59
  • @Esa This really doesn't answer the question. Almost any "should there be a specific tag for X?" question could be answered with "yes, use the care tag." By this reasoning, we would have hardly any tags.
    – starsplusplus
    Apr 11, 2014 at 9:03
  • @Stars - Yes it is somewhat broad, but what else do you do, when you leave pets home alone, but take care that they are safe and sound even when you return. Caring for your pets is a wide field of things to do and, ahem.. to take care of. Then again, a lost case is already obvious by the three downvotes ;)
    – Esa Paulasto
    Apr 11, 2014 at 9:55
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How about a new tag ?

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  • That would also cover the wild birds coming to your feeder at your backyard, eh? I've been thinking about the definition of a "pet". There's something about feeding wild birds and crafting places for them to nest in.
    – Esa Paulasto
    Apr 9, 2014 at 19:59

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