Boarding kennels - to board or not to board

fletch...

Heres our dilema, wer going on holiday for 2 weeks at the end of the month but my dad who usually dog sits for us while we are at work has taken a turn and can not mind our dog while we are away.
ive been looking at dog boarding homes on the net and im not sure if its just me being over protective over my dog or do these places look nasty? I mean why do you have to pre arrange a viewing of the places?

our dog usually sleeps on the bed and gets upset if im not around for more then a few hours.

So im kinda gettn a bit worried over this now. are there any recommended or "avoid like the plague" boarding kennels I should know about? pm me if its the bad ones incase we get sued.

oh and shes a samoyed just over 1 year old, not spayed yet

Thanks

iguana

We put our dogs in a kennel for a long-weekend last year and hope never to do so again. The dogs were in a terrible mental state when we got them back. The place was well recommended and we thought they'd be ok, but we were really unhappy with it.

Since then we've arranged for a pet-sitter to look after our dogs in their home and we were much happier with it. We took the dogs to visit the sitters a couple of times before we went on holidays.

Unfortunately I can't recommend one as we are in the UK, but it's worth looking into.

fletch...

Thanks Iguana, the dog sitter in thier own home is a good idea, i will look into that.

Sigma Force

Not all boarding places are dives it's only the bad few, there are people who can come to your home or people who can take the dog into their home or kennels that have indoor and outdoor areas. It depends on your location or how far you are willing to travel.
The reason you have to make an appointment is probably from a practical point, it's busy work looking after animals a kennels priority should be the animals in their care already so if they have to allocate say 2 hours in the morning to cleaning and feeding, having to stop every 20 mins to take calls or show someone around means they would be behind time and the job may not get done until the afternoon.

The most practical time for kennels to clean is the morning when it's bright and the animals are hungry and needing to get out and about after a nights sleep.

Most kennels are run by one or two people and don't have a large staff.

Also some kennels have their own dogs too and may sometimes need to do grocery shopping, trips to vets with their own pets, may have to buy dog food/supplies etc. Depends on the kennels although there is usually someone on a kennel premises all the time they are there to keep an eye while the kennel owner does whatever has to be done. Kennels are a full time job no weekends off so people need to be able to get practical things done.

I don't board dogs etc but board guinea pigs and although there is very rarely someone not here however jobs still have to be done and boarding places are home run buisnesses so there is family life that can interfere with times. Doesn't mean they are a bad kennel if they cannot receive people 24/7.

Heard good things about yuppie puppies in Bray (not sure where you are based).

MsFifers

I have a friend who uses a kennel when she goes away and the dog loves it so much, he can hardly be persuaded to come home.

Your dog sounds a sensitive sort though, so maybe you should try the pet sitter route first.

BTW - if you do want boarding the best kennels and catteries book up really fast so you better start ringing around now, just in case you can't find a sitter.

If you post what area you are living in you would probably get a few recommendations of places to try.

ValerieR

If you were considering boarding, most kennels require that dogs have been vaccinated against kennel cough a little while before they come in. I don't remember but I think they have to be vaccinated a couple of weeks beforehand ...
I would double-check the latter (I haven't boarded my dog in 4 years) but it's something to take in consideration ! :-)
ValerieR

animalcrazy

There are lots of people like me who petsit in their own home and not kennels. I only petsit small pets though. www.clarepetsitting.webs.com