Boarding Kennels.

[Steve]

O.K. Clearly Ive been naive but there's not a chance my dogs would stay there.

[Danois]

I think it is naive to think that accidents/ illness/ injury will not occur when your dog is boarding but it comes down to using a kennel which you have trust and confidence in.

If I used a kennel in a tick area then I'd ensure my dog had a tick preventative before he went there. If I owned the kennels I'd have it has a condition of boarding and if a dog arrived without having been treated then it would be treated on arrival. I would expect the kennel to check over dogs daily if they had been out in grass etc.

Not sure how this would be manageable in bigger kennels - I deliberately use a small kennel where the dogs get a lot of one on one attention. And I have accepted responsibility for ensuring I have a dog which allows itself to be handled by others and which is not going to present as a problem for the kennel.

As for injury - injuries can happen at home easily enough so it follows that they can easily happen in boarding. I would expect the kennel to contact me and let me know what is happening and let me deal with the vets. I think I'm more worried about the injury my dog can do with his tail to the owner of the kennel I use

I would only expect a boarding kennel to be liable to me if they had been negligent or for any wilful acts or omissions.

[PAX]

I recently boarded Monelites dogs, I threw the ball in the ball chuckit like I and Mon have done a million times, I was watching the dog retrieve the ball and she injured herself. I did nothing wrong and the dog did not appear to run, turn unusually, but she still got injured,

Thankgod Mon is my freind, thankgodness she understands...do I leave dogs looked up, miserable, but safe??

Sometimes bad stuff happens, you need to have a relationship with your dog boarder, ask around, look at how happy the dogs appear in their care.

Most of the dogs I mind drag the owners up my drivewahy to the kennels

[wayrod]

The latest trend to enter the boarding kennels industry is warehouse kennelling. They provide the glamourous surroundings that look visually pleasing to the owners, ones that pay the bills, but provide for the greater number of pets to be housed in the smallest amount of area.

Also are these warehouses manned 24/7/365? Penalty rates for quality staff alone should make them cost prohibitive to operate.

I see the UK style kennels operations, should be the way we should go, just adapted to suit Australian conditions. Kennel facilities with 20 or less units in a building to ease the spread of biosecurity concerns.

Check out www.boardingkennels.org to see how some of these kennel operations in the UK and surrounds are now changing.

Edited April 23, 2011 by wayrod