Packing for a Bernese Mountain Dog spending a week with a sitter means thinking at giant-breed scale: the food fills a bin and anything forgotten is hard to substitute for a huge dog with a sensitive stomach. Pack in the order the sitter will use things — food, walking gear, coat care, comfort, paperwork — and label as you go.
Food for Seven Days, Measured Before You Leave
Pre-portion your Bernese Mountain Dog's meals for the full week into daily bags or a labeled bin, because asking a sitter to measure a giant breed's food from a sack invites generous errors that this breed's stomach punishes. Add a buffer of a couple of extra meals in case your return slips, packed separately and labeled as spares. Include only the treats your dog normally gets, in their usual container, with a note that rich novelty treats from the sitter's own kitchen are kindly declined. Pack the feeding bowls your dog uses at home — a familiar bowl at a familiar height helps a dog that may eat hesitantly in a new house for the first day or two.
Walking and Outdoor Gear Sized for a Giant
Send the harness your Bernese Mountain Dog actually walks in, fitted as you use it, plus the sturdy leash and a spare — a week is long enough for a chewed strap or a lost clip to become a real problem with a dog this strong. Pack waste bags in genuine quantity, since a giant dog on two walks a day empties a roll faster than sitters expect. In wet or cold weather add the towel routine: large towels for paws and that magnificent waterlogged belly fur, so the sitter is not sacrificing their own bath towels. In warm weather, pack the cooling mat your dog knows, because a black-coated giant in someone else's house needs its cool spot established from day one.
Coat Care, Cleaning, and the Drool Kit
Include the brush and comb you use at home, because a week without a brush-through leaves a Bernese Mountain Dog's thick coat matted behind the ears and around the legs, and the sitter needs the right tools rather than a borrowed slicker meant for a terrier. Pack an old sheet or blanket to throw over the sitter's sofa or car seat if your dog is allowed on them — the shedding from this breed in a week is substantial and a barrier keeps everyone friends. Add the drool and cleanup kit: hand towels near water bowls and your usual floor cleaner for accidents.
Comfort Items That Smell Like Home
Pack your dog's own bedding or a blanket from its usual sleeping spot, unwashed, because the familiar smell is the fastest way to help a devoted Bernese Mountain Dog settle in a strange house. Send one or two proven favorites — the toy that survives, the chew style you trust — rather than a bag of novelties the dog may ignore or guard. If your dog has a nighttime routine, pack what it requires and write it on the care notes: the sitter who can reproduce bedtime exactly gives the dog its best chance of sleeping through in a new place. A worn item of your clothing goes in this category too; many Berners park themselves on it for the week.
Paperwork and the Notes That Travel With the Bag
Finish the bag with a folder holding vaccination records, your vet's and the emergency clinic's details, and your contact order, plus the written care notes covering meal times, the rest-after-eating rule, walk limits in heat, and the warning signs that mean an immediate vet call. Tape a short version of the essentials to the food bin lid where a busy sitter will see it daily. KinsLe's Care Pass sends your Bernese Mountain Dog's feeding amounts, exercise limits, and contacts to the sitter alongside the packed bag, so the instructions and the equipment arrive as one matched set.