AboutJeff Lutton Expertise How to pick a good kennel, dog daycare or overnight facility. Should I leave with friends or have a dog walker come into my home. How do I know that my pet will be taken care of properly?
Experience I have had a dog since I was 3 years old. In my professional life I was traveling quite a bit so my dog boarded more often that I would have liked. I got tired of the corporate world and now own a doggie day care and overnight facility. My expertise is in how to pick a kennel for your pet when you travel.
Question Im doing a reasearch paper on the saftey of dog boarding. So can you tell me some tips on what makes a kennel safe? And how do you pick a kennel to put your dog in?
Thanks,
Melissa
Answer That's a pretty broad question but I'll try to give you some high level points on how to pick a kennel. Ultimately the same points used to pick a kennel relate to some form of safety. Whether that's minimizing sickness or the general safety of the dogs.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 charged a small fee) which will last anywhere from 20 minutes to a day.
4. 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.
5. 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.
