Choosing a Boarding Kennel for your Dog

What Should I Look For?

All Boarding Kennels are different and so are all dogs and their owners. What will suit one owner and his dog will not suit another, so it is important to find out about all the Boarding Kennels within your area, both by visiting and talking to other dog owners about which kennels suits them and their dog. 

Anyone who knows a variety of breeds will accept that different dogs have varying requirements, and the type of kennels that suits one dog may not suit another.

How Well Will My Dog Settle in Boarding Kennels?

The majority of well-reared and socialised dogs will have no difficulty in boarding happily; terriers are always looking for trouble and they find the kennels environment great fun; hounds are pack dogs, and however much of a house pet they are, they find kennels easy to handle. Gundogs, again, are traditionally, used to being with other dogs which makes makes Boarding Kennels a familiar situation; though the Hunt Point Retriever breeds can become stressed in a Boarding Kennel environment simply because they tend always to be on their toes and so much is happening around them that they may become over-stimulated.

Guarding breeds who have this characteristic encouraged at home don't stop guarding when in kennels, which can make it a very stressful experience for them. They will prefer to be in a situation where they do not feel obliged to defend their territory constantly; so a Boarding Kennels where they are not challenged by activity of both humans and other dogs will suit them better.

The majority of other breeds, as long as they have been brought up not to be excessively dependent on their owners, will board well. Those dogs who are insistent on spending every moment with their family will often not accept spending time in a Boarding Kennels happily, and show evidence of separation anxiety, in which case alternatives should be sought.

What Should I Expect from a Good Boarding Kennels?

All kennels should offer a common range of factors:-

• They should look and smell clean
• Bedding should be clean and comfortable
• They should be dry and draught-free with a source of heating
• All dogs should have access to an outside exercise area during daylight hours
• The resident dogs should look cheerful and interested, with no sense that they feel threatened either by the situation or other dogs
• Water should be available always
• Whilst there will probably be an explosion of barking when you arrive, this should subside fairly soon
• Vaccinations should be insisted on; whatever the current debate about vaccination this is the only way that you can be sure that your dog is protected in a strange environment
• Food and feeding regimes should reflect what the dog is accustomed to at home
• Owners should be encouraged to bring toys for their dogs; gundogs, especially, like to have something to carry around
• Details of the owner, the dog's health and his vet should be taken, together with a contact number for the boarding period
• The Boarding Kennel should be happy to administer any medication, but make sure you bring sufficient supplies, measures and instructions.
• Hours of opening, prices and how the charges are applied should be quite clear. There is no excuse for finding that your boarding fee has been boosted by a range of extras. 
• It is reasonable to expect that your dogs are insured for the duration of their stay, but check on benefits and limitations and whether you are expected to pay extra for this.

Check how well the Boarding Kennels staff know their boarders and about dogs in general; ask some leading questions about dogs you can see - name, age, what is the breed like in general so you can get a picture of their competence and knowledge.

Boarding for the First Time

Ultimately, your decision will be based on a mix of factors, principally whether you are prepared to trust these people to care for your dog. Take him to the kennels for an overnight stay, preferably mid-week when there will be less coming and going. This is your best test of how your dog has coped; if he looks cheerful then all has probably gone well. If neither he nor the kennels owner look happy then it hasn't been a good fit.

Don't necessarily blame the kennels for your dog not settling; think about his personality and work out what would suit him best. Dogs are like people in that personalities vary hugely; he may be the equivalent of an Ibizan clubber or he may be more of a hill-walking type. Find him the type of kennelling that suits him best.

Finally, if you have a dog that is liable to bite accept that though you love him dearly his daily boarding fee won't even cover a course of antibiotics and the kennel is perfectly entitled to decline to take him.

When Should I Start Boarding Him?

Try and start boarding when the dog is young, say six months or so. This will make kennels a perfectly natural experience for him, just another new thing in his life. Leave it until he is five or six years and it will be much more difficult, and don't think about boarding an elderly dog for the first time. He won't understand and will be utterly desolate.

Remember the Kennel Staff

Most Boarding Kennels are open all year, weekends, Bank Holidays, Easter, Christmas and New Year. Few jobs are more demanding in terms of time, commitment and responsibility. So if you want to be a favoured client who will always be found space, say for an overnight stay in the busiest week in August, when everyone else is being turned away, treat the kennel owners with consideration:-

• Don't expect them to be open when you know they are closed "because you're here, anyway, so I didn't think you'd mind". 
• Don't phone on Christmas morning to ask how he is because you feel guilty at leaving him.
• Don't make bookings for the busiest times of year so you're covered in case you can't persuade the neighbours to feed the dog and then make a feeble excuse for cancelling. Kennels have a list of repeat offenders and they may well share it with other Boarding Kennels in the area.

If you do need to cancel - and the majority of cancellations are for good reasons - give the kennels as much notice as possible so they have an opportunity to re-let the kennel.

Leaving a dearly loved pet with strangers is a wrench, which is why a trial stay is such a good idea. In fact, we think it is so valuable that we don't charge for it in our kennels because we know what an immense difference it makes to both dog and owner. Do your homework well and there's no reason why your dog should not board well and happily.