Expert: Jeff Lutton - 1/5/2008

Question
This is my 1st time boarding my dogs.  I have 1 month to find a good kennel. How do I go about this?  I called a few I thought sounded good, but when I went online, they had bad reviews.  Not all places have reviews on some of the sites.  I'm afraid these places will tell me one thing to get me to go with them, and be completely different towards my dogs once I'm gone.   PLEASE HELP!!

Answer
I would take reviews with a grain of salt.  After reading some reviews about my competitors many of the complaints are explained in my boarding packet about how the dog will react after boarding for more than a day or two.  

For the most part people don’t get into the business to make a quick buck, it’s because they love dogs.  The down side of that is that loving dogs doesn’t translate into running a business effectively.  Here are a couple tips to pick a good kennel:

Ask to see the facility, if they say no that is a red flag.  One caveat to this is some places will give tours, but only during certain time periods to minimize the disruption to the dogs.  

Use your nose.  If it smells bad in the lobby, that maybe a sign that they don’t do enough cleaning.  My employees spend almost 2 hours out of 6 hour shift cleaning.  

If your dog is social, take them to a facility that runs a daycare during the day.  Your dog will get to play all day and won’t miss you a bit.  Expect to go through an evaluation process (you’ll probably get charge a small fee) which will last anywhere from 20 minutes to a day.  

Ask how they feed and track feedings.  The dog should have its own space to eat (crate, room, run, etc) and be able to eat its own food.  Ask what the procedure is after the dog hasn’t eaten in 2-3 meals.  After two missed meals we will typically add a small amount of wet food (assuming the dog doesn’t have allergies) or some peanut butter.  

Most of the time you get what you pay for.  I’m not saying you can’t find a good bargain but many places will charge a premium for a reason and many are dirt cheap for a reason.    

Use your gut.  If something doesn’t feel right then it probably isn’t.  

Hope this helps,

Jeff