Recommended Pet Sitters or Dog Boarding Places

Just curious for those of you who have pets- does anyone know of a good pet sitter or a place to board dogs around here?  I have 2 dogs- and one (my lab) does not do well in daycare type environments- she was actually kicked out the last place I sent her to so those places aren't an option for me.   Ideally I'd like to find a place where they will receive plenty of attention- my lab is VERY needy and needs a lot of attention.  She gets stressed out very easily when boarded in kennel type places so I'd like to avoid that if possible.

We used to board our dogs with a retired lady who had a business in her backyard- she had a lot of land and loved dogs.  She kept her clientle small so she could make sure to give them plenty of attention, which worked really good for my lab.  She spent a lot of time with them and knew how to handle the dogs- think of the female version on Ceasar.  It was a small business and she knew my dogs really well and we were really comfortable leaving our dogs with her and knew they were in great care.

I'm hoping to find someone like that in this area- any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.  With picking out next year's races that require traveling, I need to start looking into boarding or pet sitting options.  Pet sitting would be ideal, but I'm a little nervous turning over the key to someone I don't know.