Kennel Ettiquete

[SeeGee]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question that have been building up for awhile.

I have stated before that I am new to the dog world and don't have alot of knowledge about the way things work.

We left Charlie (male desexed beagle 8 months old) at a kennel recently - we have used them once before and we were neutral about how it all went. Charlie seemed happy and calm after that stay so we had no reason to feel concerned, though we werent thrilled with some other aspects staff wise (just very fast, not interested in alot of detail, quite short on the phone).

This time, once we picked him up, we were cuddling and playing on the floor at home - we found a bite mark on his groin. Its obvious to us that it is another dog bite, and we know that there was a group of beagles staying at the kennel during the time Charlie was there so it can be assumed that the play got a little rough. Its not a bad bite, it was scabbed over, and there was no redness or swelling, and Charlie doesnt seem bothered by it at all - its more us. His behaviour was quite normal and calm.

The thing is no one at t he kennel mentioned it to us. Is this acceptable? Do these things happen and I just need to suck it up and accept that this happens sometimes? Or is it a little off? The dogs are meant to be supervised whilst playing....

Set me straight guys. Is this acceptable and I just need to keep learning how it all works?

Thanks for all your time guys, you have all been invaluable in assisting me in expanding my knowledge.

Jacqui

[Kirty]

Well, I personally would not want my kennelled dogs mixing with other dogs. If you are happy for him to have play time with other dogs though, then I think you need to accept that minor scrapes will be part and parcel. They may not have noticed it and hence not told you. If they did know it was there though, they should definitely have told you.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

Not OK if it was one of my dogs. You could call them and say neutrally "we've just discovered a bite on Charlie, what happened?". How they react should tell you a bit about their attitude.

Personally if it was my dog I'd cut my losses and wouldn't take him back to that kennel because my view is that the supervision/dog skills are inadequate if that has happened. I also have to admit on the odd occasion ours have been in kennels, we have made sure they will not be playing with other dogs. While my dogs might be OK (and one isn't anyway), you never know how other people's are going to react.

A friend of mine had a dog killed in kennels when his BC was put in a run with two Goldens. Perhaps the kennel people thought that Goldens are always lovely and there'd be no problem. Sadly, they were very wrong.

[Guest Willow]

Well, I personally would not want my kennelled dogs mixing with other dogs. If you are happy for him to have play time with other dogs though, then I think you need to accept that minor scrapes will be part and parcel. They may not have noticed it and hence not told you. If they did know it was there though, they should definitely have told you.

More or less what I would have said.

Personally, I would find another kennel which doesn't allow dogs from different households to play. many years ago, we took out 7 month old kelpie x to a kennel that did allow play under certain circumstances, but we specified that she was NOT to mix with other dogs, as she was aggressive (she was not a "normal" puppy) with other dogs. When we went to pick he rup we were informed she had been put in with a little JRT and had caused a fight. I was livid, and I'm sure the owners of the JRT would have been too, knowing that a known aggressive dog had been put in with theirs to play. I was disgusted with the kennels, as they had totally gone against our directions.