Boarding Kennel Holiday Blues

Boarding kennels have differed opinions, a lot of people will go out of their way to have their dog looked after by friends or family and even change their holiday dates around to make sure their dog is well looked after, instead of putting them into kennels.

  Having worked in a boarding kennels myself, i personally know that dogs are well looked after and cared for in kennels, if not, the kennels should not be open and they would be closed down by animal welfare services.

From working in this environment i have picked up the best things to look for when choosing a kennels, here are a few tips:

#1 Word of mouth and/or Reviews of the kennels.

 Asking friends or family reccomendations of kennels they may have used or looking up the kennels and finding peoples trusted reviews on their dogs stay at the kennels.

#2 Visit the kennels.

 All decent kennels will allow you to go and visit them to have a look around and see the basic routine and sleeping facilities for the dogs.

#3 Ask as many questions as you can.

 From working at a kennels i was constantly being probed for answers as to how to the kennels run, routines, feeding patterns, sleeping routines and walking procedures, this is never annoying as it is understandable that people want and need to know how their dog is looked after.

#4 Trial stay.

 If you are really concerned about your dogs safety and health in a kennels, you can always put your dog in for a one nights stay before you go on holiday, just to see how they react to the kennel environment and will not feel so lost when you do leave to go on holiday.

Dogs should not be kenneled, only if: 

 -They are in very ill health as this is a liability and i know i couldnt personally forgive myself if anything happened to my pet while i was away. (Although kennel staff will give out medication to pets and keep watchful eyes on them if they are aware of a dogs illness).

 -They have severe seperation anxiety, if your dog cannot be without you and follows you everywhere this could be a very stressful thing to do for your dog, leaving them in a new environment with no personal contact with yourself. A personal reccomendation would be home boarding or leaving with family and friends and getting your dog seen by a professional trainer to help avoid seperation anxiety.