I've gone on vacation with just a auto feeder on the tank, but it's not pretty when you come back, everything survives though.

As for the dogs, I take my lab and husky to Gone Wild Kennels in Cochrane. It's a farm and my dogs love it. The owner, Dave, is a good guy too.

http://www.gonewildkennels.com/

best place i know for dogs
 

http://www.countryclub-petresort.com/
they are awesome!!!! give it a look we brought our 3 cockers there and they didn't wanna leave lol

just got back from costa rica, my 24 nano did just fine, everything survived with flying colors with 0 feeding for 1 week. could always get something like a reefkeeper control unit which Im hoping to have in a week or two which will monitor temp and ph. They are also releasing a salinty probe right away. And the .net module will send emails to a blackberry. So if anything does happen have someone handy to phone. Then just set up a webcam. Peace of mind while on the road.