All of your ideas are great, and most are what we did with out dog. We put her in a create in a secondary bedroom with a postit note on the door. We took her to doggy day care, and sometimes we took her for a ride around town...she loves to travel!

The dog run thing might work as long as it is a closed top unit.

Good luck!

I have three cats and a toy poodle of 6 pounds. I remove all cat posts and store in the basement during showings. I clean up and remove 2 of the 3 litter boxes (I have one in the basement that I clean out well) and place the other 2 in the garage (covered) during the showings.

Then I crate all three cats (2 go in a medium crate together and one in a small crate) and take them with me in the car with the dog. My neighbor who sometimes watches my cats (and I hers) will let me bring them over to her house especially now that it is so hot out while my house is being shown.

My cats are gettting smart lately and will disappear when they see me get out the crates so now I have to grab each one of them and crate them and THEN bring the crates up from the basement.

We did different things with different pets.

In one house we had 4 cats at the time and put them in the utility room with a do not open note on the door (with a pic of the utility room) and said it would be available for inspection if wanted.

In our next house we had 3 cats and we put them in a large multi cat cage and put a cover over it. Worked very very well.

We also had 2 large dogs at the time and we boarded them with friends for the duration of the time the house was on the market.

I'd remove pets if I worried for their safety--not everyone will be careful not to let pets dash out the door, or keep their kids from harrassing them, and not everyone will act with common sense to avoid being bitten by a caged pet. Loose pets ARE a liability if they are capable of biting, even if you think they never would. BUT, leave some obvious clue you HAVE pets like dishes or toys. That way a buyer can't later claim the presence of pets was concealed from them, a gray area about disclosures that could be stressful, even costly, if you hide EVERY clue to their presence. Also, though many on here have mentioned it, get rid of pet odors if they exist by cleaning, not covering up with air fresheners. Air fresheners, potpourris, and candles, are a dead giveaway that some persistent odor lurks, perhaps from animals, mold, or poor housekeeping. That includes getting dogs bathed, cleaning cages, and keeping litter boxes clean. Owners may not notice it themselves but believe me, buyers do.