Beginning A Boarding Kennel

[dogmate]

Hi guys,

Its looking like i might be made redunadant in my current job and its always been my dream to own boarding kennels.When i was a teenager i used to work at some but now years later i still have that dream sitting there. So my question is whats the things that you look for most in a boarding kennel.

I have made my first move and booked an appointment with a business coach its all still a dream but just thought i'd love some more ideas to jot down when i talk to the business coach next week. I might not even loose my job yet the meetings for that is on Monday going to be a lonnnng weekend....

[HazyWal]

Ososwift is in the process of building her boarding kennels and she started a great thread on what people look for in a boarding kennel. I'm not good at finding old threads but hopefully someone will come along and post the link. :)

[eyeopener]

I would like to find a boarding kennel that has more than just a big enclosure for exercise, something that a swimming area would be ideal. I also have issues with needing air conditioning for some of my dogs in summer if kenneled which has been an issue in the past. i would prefer a smaller kennel n to pay more & know my dog/s is getting the best possible care. Oh they must be willing to feed the diet I supply also.

[Jetpoint GSP]

Personally i've never used a kennel for my dogs - ever - and I probably won't. I would much rather have my girls at home in their own environment where I know they are safe and comfortable and with someone responsible looking after them.

IF I was looking for a kennel this is what i'd be looking for.

- willing to feed the food I provide - I will not have my girls on a different diet simply for someone else's convenience, i'm not paying for convenience i'm paying for for my dogs to be looked after well. The ability for my girls to be given bones every second day that I provide for them.

- absolutely no contact with other dogs, my girls together and not in contact through a fence or anything. They wouldn't have this at home and I would hate them to be barked at all day long through the fence by someone else's dog. Not to mention fleas!!!

- My girls have never had a flea on them in their life. I have had friends who have boarded at well recommended kennels whose dogs have had flea problems after coming home.

- large exercise yard with some swimming area.

- large yard attached to their shelter/kennel area with some shade as well. My girls are large active dogs and spend a lot of the day running and playing with each other.

- play time with a person both morning and evening. My dogs are people dogs and don't like to be left on their own without people around.

- the ability to bring their own clean bedding so it's more like home for them.

- A vet on call at all times for any veterinary attention needed.

- A clean, tidy professional appearing premises, house and yard.

So you can see why I don't board my girls as I think it's quite a lot to ask for a 'kennel' and these services just aren't available, even if they were I would still be hesitant as i'd much rather them in their own home where they can be around people all the time. Plus I also have horses that need looking after so it's easier for me to have someone at my house looking after all of them than dogs in one place and trying to get someone to do horses as well.

[GeckoTree]

Quite simple just nut out a business plan and it's costing. I dont look for anything in particular.

[Teebs]

Staff that know dogs.

We have a few kennels around here, one they have everything you want, full time staff, play time, dogs running together, air con, heating blah blah blah

You couldnt pay me to use them

There is another out the other side of town, no where near as flash, and they know dogs. Had no issues when i asked about Atlas and Kaos, both problem dogs, nothing was too hard and they suggesting things i was going to suggest before i said it. Hands down, this is the palce i will be leaving my dog at if needed.

I rather a run down kennel with people who know their stuff over a kennel that looks amazing and is staffed by people who have no idea

[Dogsfevr]

First thing would be to see what your council/state laws are.

Each state is different & even in my home state each council has different requirements that kennels must meet

I would think very long & hard before heading down this path.we run/own kennels but i wouldn't do it again .

I love being in this field but its under appreciated & a 24/7 365 job

[Tazar]

Similar to eyeopener and Jetpoint, small place, lot of dog experience, clean. A place where my dogs where treated like members of the family.

Eyeopener and Jetpoint - just out of curiousity what would you be willing to pay per night for a place that met all of your needs - combined?

Edited September 13, 2012 by Tazar

[persephone]

So my question is whats the things that you look for most in a boarding kennel.

cleanliness

an owner/staff who genuinely LIKE working with dogs ..and who have a good knowledge of how they tick

a willingness to listen to dog owners,and to endeavour to follow diets etc.

pens which do not have water/food containers near an entry gate

[Dingbat]

Having recently had one of my sweet little angels killed at a Sydney facility, I have a clear idea of what I SHOULD have looked for

1. Owner and staff who don't just know but very obviously LOVE dogs. who are happy to spend time answering all questions and allowing a complete inspection of all facilities.

2. Facility under active supervision at all times

3. Someone on hand to Immediately take the dog to a nearby, highly experienced vet in need.

4. Large, individual runs that are absolutely secure and have some degree of separation between each run. The entrances to each run should lead into another secured area - so that no dog can escape completely. Sheltered area that is open enough to allow cooling airflow, but can be enclosed somewhat for winter warmth.

5. Capacity to ensure that small and large dogs - or dogs that are otherwise incompatible - are kept completely separated- that is, absolutely out of eyesight of each other. Not in adjoining runs.

6. guarantee that feed times would be fully supervised to ensure that each dog eats its own food

7. allow own food

8. Special large exercise yard and special exercise time grass and trees and maybe a pool

I could go on.....but hope this helps

[sandgrubber]

My dogs are social and don't need pampering; they have no escapist tendencies. I don't mind them getting some different sort of food for a week or two, so long as they get quality food, and they are healthy. So I'd look for a place that provided group exercise, didn't keep them locked up during the day . . . some place to swim would be a big bonus. Willingness to treat dogs as individuals. Having someone in attendance is important, and that someone must be skillful in handling and judging dogs . . . ie, be able to recognize what dogs are going to have problems socializing, and keep them separate. Loving dogs is not enough. I've hired many young people who love animals, but are pretty clueless in terms of predicting behaviour.

Grassed exercise areas. Clean and not at all smelly (including the kitchen). Well lit, well ventilated, doors to the back of the individual kennels that open directly onto an exercise area. Good if the kennel is well enough established that they can simply turn away. I prefer feeding twice a day, not cause the dogs need it, but because it requires that each and every dog in the kennel gets looked at twice a day.

I started a boarding kennel years back. I found that there's a market for many sorts of kennels. You will find that it is expensive to maintain large individual exercise areas that do not allow contact between dogs. There are dogs who will have a go at other dogs through a chain link fence. You can double the fence, but it's expensive and you end up with an area where you can't cut the grass. If you have, say 20 kennels, each with it's own run, which is what a lot of DOL people would want, you'll go nuts trying to keep the grass mowed. Gravel or cement runs are awful, particularly in hot weather.

Heating and air conditioning presents serious quandries. People with apartment-style lap dogs want A/C. It's expensive and to be effective, requires closed, insulated kennels, which makes both ventilation and cleaning more difficult. Evaporative cooling is bad. Dogs, apart from the flat faced breeds, have quite effective systems for cooling themselves through evaporative cooling, and if you put them in air that is humidified by evaporative cooling, it compromises their natural cooling systems. The best cooling system is cold water circulated through the floor, particularly in the sleeping area. This allows the dogs to cool themselves like they do in nature . . . by finding some cool dirt and lying there. Look into putting a radiant heating/cooling system into the floor. You can use the same system for slab heating in winter by piping warm water.

Edited September 13, 2012 by sandgrubber

[OSoSwift]

I would suggest you do lots of research and searching of photos of kennels on the net, find the type you like and go from there.

Build kennels you would be happy to put your own dogs in. It will be hard to convince people you have great kennels if you don't truely believe in them yourself.

Know that not everyone will like everything you do and all your ideas, that is not a bad thing it can help you look at things differently , but it does not necessarily mean you are doing the wrong thing either.

Some people have unrealisitic expectations about what they want from a kennel

Many people have very reasonable expectations and can help you build great kennels

Getting all the crap through council will be enough to do your head in. If you are not just a tad stubborn and determined think long and hard about if you really want to go down that road.

Research, research, research. Know your subject inside out.

[Nekhbet]

It depends what your budget is ... you can easily go into a six figure investment if you want a luxury kennel set up with no adjoining, air con, synthetic turf etc

remember too your council will want you to remove the waste - so you will have to pay for a big bin on site. Also you will have to be responsible for creating drainage and waste water run off, you will have to see if your property is approved for that as you will use a LOT of water. Plumbing jobs can cost thousands to have done properly, dont do it well and you can flood out or have backed up stinking drains full of dog waste and chemicals.

[Life Of Riley]

I just opened my boarding kennels, it was a very long and expensive process.

We were lucky that the property we purchased had the kennel building as it was previously used for greyhounds but it still cost around $100,000 to renovate the kennels, kitchen, do all the fencing, advertising, concreting, council permits ect and that of course doesn't include purchasing the property.

The permit process is long frustrating and exhausting.

I listened to what everyone told me, I am a vet nurse so I have a lot of contacts in the animal industry. I had a list of everything I wanted and then i had to be realistic and decide what was essential. We are a small kennel that have 20 - 30 dogs at a time, We decided that seperate grassed exercise yards were essential as we don't mix dogs from different families and clean facilities were the top of our list.

Ultimately you will never please everyone, decide what is important to you and stick with it.

[dogmate]

Fantastic ideas and its good to know that i have already thought of all of the things mentioned. My husband and i met at dog training so both into dogs but he would remain in his current job. I feel we would start off small but build the kennel block with the idea of extendig should we be successful. We are meeting with a business coach in two weeks to get realistic goals and fears set down. We have been minding friends dogs for the past 5 years and christmas time its usual for us to have 15 dogs inclusing out own 5. So whilst i would never claim to be experienced but by having this many with us plus working fulltime i feel we cope very well and if e did it as a business it would be fulltime. In the quick phone conversation with the business coach when i made the booking it was intersting that she said that you need to consider various streams of income or value adding not just purely minding dogs so my other line of thought is a doggy fitness/boot camp idea with swimming and exercise corrective diet etc for the chubby bubbies, training i have been training dogs since 1988 and never stop learning i also take a puppy class at my local vets so have them as a contact and emergency reasons. Dogs are my passion and my life and they have kept me sane through lots of life changes and my goal in setting up kennels would be to mind the dogs in a friendly family environment. Of course its still a big dream and we need to see what council would approve or not approve but this is just my first starting point. One of my fears is snakes we have repellers all around but how did you guys that have done kennels before or still do how do you prevent this. I'm thinking shade cloth from ground level up high to prevent entry plus also more repellers. Of course the usual keep the area tidy from hiding spots and walk around the are before letting dogs out my cats do an excellent job at mousing to keep away any food supply for snakes. The shade sails seem great for shade in runs they can be taken down in winter to allow more sun. lets hope i still have a job after Monday and then this will still remain my dream.....

[dogmate]

I just opened my boarding kennels, it was a very long and expensive process.

We were lucky that the property we purchased had the kennel building as it was previously used for greyhounds but it still cost around $100,000 to renovate the kennels, kitchen, do all the fencing, advertising, concreting, council permits ect and that of course doesn't include purchasing the property.

The permit process is long frustrating and exhausting.

I listened to what everyone told me, I am a vet nurse so I have a lot of contacts in the animal industry. I had a list of everything I wanted and then i had to be realistic and decide what was essential. We are a small kennel that have 20 - 30 dogs at a time, We decided that seperate grassed exercise yards were essential as we don't mix dogs from different families and clean facilities were the top of our list.

Ultimately you will never please everyone, decide what is important to you and stick with it.

hello perfect Paws,

Thanks for your reply i am wondering if you are in a rural area what you do to prevent snakes. We dont have heaps but the reality is they can be around in summer. I guess this is one of my fears besides the whole funding the dream thing....

[Life Of Riley]

We are in a semi rural area and we don't have a huge problem with snakes, in 18 months we still havn't seen any but they are around the area, there are a few farms which have seen snakes. We check the yards before letting any dogs out but my partner says that because I am so obsessive about our grass looking like a golf course the snakes have no where to hide. Our yards are 20m long by 5 metres wide and we have 28 of them and a large 80m x 5 metre yard so it does take a while to check them all.

[OSoSwift]

I have the perimeter fence fully enclosed with 1.2 metre snake mesh that is buried in blue metal. Along with everything mowed, scalpes around the external fences so there is no cover for them to hide in near the fences and I check double and triple check.

[sandgrubber]

If you want to offer swimming, this looks like a good product.

http://www.arthurspools.com/abovegroundportablepoolsfordogs.htm

(be sure to check out Olla's page at http://www.arthurspools.com/ollatheswimminglion.html)

I think they might want a distributor in NSW or VIC. A couple of people in WA have gotten pools from them. The shipping cost was ~$750, but there would probably be deals if you wanted to order mutiple pools.

[eyeopener]

Similar to eyeopener and Jetpoint, small place, lot of dog experience, clean. A place where my dogs where treated like members of the family.

Eyeopener and Jetpoint - just out of curiousity what would you be willing to pay per night for a place that met all of your needs - combined?

I have paid $70 a night but around $40 to $50 would be better. I am talking very large dogs.