Boarding your pet

Yes its that time of year again when people are thinking about booking holidays and where to board their pets.

We are already getting enquiries about boarding pets during this time and yet again the pet age subject is rearing its head.

As a kennel owner myself my advise is if your thinking about boarding a pet don't try and put an old pet into a boarding establishment unfamiliar to the pet, it could in some cases cause undue stress. Obviously if an older pet is stressed this could result in a couple of things. First is not settling down and causing weight loss , second not eating and leading to a vet visit, as well as other unforseen problems

As a guide line we have a policy of not accepting any pets for the first time of boarding with us over the age of 9 years. Many boarding establishments don't worry about the pets age as long as they get the booking. This should raise some concerns.

So always always visit a boarding establishment before making any firm arrangements well in advance, and ask around about the place that you are going to entrust your precious pet to.

Think of it like buying a second hand car, you don't buy it without seeing first. Its the same with boarding, we have so many people comming to use saying that if they had looked at the kennels first they would never have left their pet there, but it was too late to find elsewhere

Couple of pointers

Make sure the establishment is licenced by the local council, the licence MUST be displayed in a prominant place. There are some that try and avoid this by claiming they have been police checked, this means absolutely nothing generally to do with animal boarding so don't be taken in by it. If they don't have a boarding licence issued by the local authority then don't board with them. Home boarding especially I have seen advertised this way. Licence should have "Boarding Establishment Act 1963 section 1" as the heading with the date of issue at the bottom. Home boarding should have something similar referring to this Act.

Check to see that you pet is insured during the stay , you don't want to come off holiday to get a huge vet bill. Check to see the amount the pet is covered for.

If going to board for the first time or going to a new establishment do a trial period first before leaving your pet for 2/3 weeks. That way the boarding owners can access your pet to see if it settles in and also how you feel about leaving a pet.

As a quick heads up you should be able to just turn up to inspect during visiting times, if you have to make an appointment then ask why.

Make sure your pet is FULLY vaccinated, what is happening now we find is vets are saying its ok to board with just the first vaccination ( not talking about boosters). Well good boarding establishments won't accept the first vaccination,so get you pet fully vaccinated at least 3/4 weeks prior to boarding.

There is now what vets term life long vaccinations, this doesn't mean the pets are vaccinated for life, its not often clearly explained by them, but what it means is you don't have to pay for future annual vaccinations. Watch out for this and double check.

In the past this has lead some members to go on about rescue/strays/friends
looking after pets. PLEASE NOTE this has nothing to do with these places so should members want to comment about them please use your own thread.

This is about commercial boarding establishments only

Tumbleweed ( kennel owner since 1993 )

Brilliant advice!

Do you make exceptions? Some breeds/individual dogs have many years left in them... a small/medium 9year old doesnt compare to a 9yr old large breed....and some people have emergencies which means their pet needs to be boarded...and it may never have needed it before...what do you suggest then?!

interesting actually, especially as the subject has come up for us for the first time ever, as Bruno is 11 next March and we are going on holiday in May, we are taking mother in law with us and normally she dog sits so I am currently looking at options for poor bruno whilst we are away. kennels was only ever going to be the absolutely last option as he has never to my knowledge been kennelled and I think he would despise it. BUt its interesting to hear that most kennels wouldn't recommend it too...

You have to ask as a kennel owner "where has that dog been boarded for the last 9 years and why isn't it going back to somwhere it knows". We make no exceptions because if we did you get "well you boarded my friends dog for the first time at for example 15 years old so why won't you board mine its only 13?" which can lead to more controversy,hence across the board age limit for the first time. Agree with your age/dog type arguement but we do draw a line somewhere and that is 9+ years

We through many years experience have found the age of 9 years plus of boarding for the first time involves more visits to the vets, mainly due to stress situations as older dogs take longer to adapt to being in kennels.

Dogs that have never been boarded before just arn't used to being in a kennel with many other dogs in a kennel block and it can affect older dogs more so.

Take the example of putting an elderly person in a rest home for a short stay, they can get confused and worried but usually the reason can be explained to them, you can't do this with a pet. A elderly pet that has lived with a family/person for all its life is going to find it harder to accept the temporary situation it finds itself in.

You may well find when collecting a pet when asking "how did the pet cope"? the kennels owner will say fine no problems, but try and book again and get told something like "we are already full" or in other words politely saying "we don't want your dog back"

Every business has its policies which can vary, take motor insurance as a good example, one company may accept an applicant another company may not. One may charge twice the amount of another.

Hopefully CC this answers your question

Quote " BUt its interesting to hear that most kennels wouldn't recommend it too..." unquote from Brundog

Don't know where you got that from definately not from me.

what I said was quote " Many boarding establishments don't worry about the pets age as long as they get the booking. This should raise some concerns." unquote

Brundog
I refer you to back to my original posting about boarding for the first time and how to go about it. Definately do a trial weekend first. Should your dog not cope you are on hand to collect saving further stress. Remember the most expensive kennels may not always be the best, its the care they get while being boarded that counts.

Ask your vet, they won't recommend which kennels directly but more than likely say something like "my staff use this kennels" or here is a list start at the top.

I can only give general advice and pointers its up to the pet owner to make up their own mind

Realspeed

i should perhaps of said that the ones that wouldn't question it are perhaps ones that don't have the best interests of the dogs in question just the money....

However there is very very unlikely I would actually kennel him - he would go demented with other dogs on either side for 2 weeks - he is dog aggressive and I couldn't do that to him.

Quote "However there is very very unlikely I would actually kennel him - he would go demented with other dogs on either side for 2 weeks - he is dog aggressive and I couldn't do that to him" unquote

Well said just one of many reasons for a trial period first.

Realspeed

Maybe its an oldie rescue dog?

...or just not needed to board anywhere previously...like I said, people do have emergencies.
My friend had to board her 10 year old GSD for the first time in kennels due to an emergency. He coped absolutely fine..

Also, I do agree that a 'trial' helps to some extent, but take my dogs that have been boarded at kennels regularly throughout their lives for 2-4 days at a time, never had any problems. I then went away in the summer and they were boarded for 11 days. The state of them when I got back was terrible, they had been well looked after but suffered kennel stress and dropped a huge amount of weight. Its not something I would do again for that period of time.

Mine's just the other side of the age range - she's 7, but she's never been formally "boarded" before... but she's definitely been in a kennel block with lots of other dogs - she's a greyhound out of racing kennels and into a home environment... now I guess she should just never be allowed to be boarded anywhere because she's had a cruddy start in life huh? Despite the fact she's quite likely to cope with the noise of a lot of dogs together much better than lots of dogs!

Thank heavens she can board at the RGT - and they'll take the other dog as an honorary greyhound! Despite the fact it's well in excess of a 2 hour round trip to get them there and back. Otherwise we'd be snookered at short notice - with relatives that would be able to watch the dogs living 12 hours drive each way away - like people say, emergencies happen and emergencies are the ones you can't plan for whereas most of the time you can do.