Hello everyone,
We recently adopted a wonderful 6 month old Working Sheepdog x which we had to put into boarding kennels early in December and then again over Christmas. It's nothing we're planning to do regularly, but we were hoping that our dog would get the best of care there with experienced people who know what they're doing. We tried long and hard to find good, reliable kennels. We do not own a car which made it rather difficult to get at certain places, but we decided to pay a pet taxi.
The lady from the pet taxi charged us a ridiculous amount for a 20 minute drive, dragged my dog around on the leash and managed to get his paw stuck in the cage she wanted to load him into so that he cried in pain. She did not realise what had just happened and when I intervened she started blaming the dog, albeit jokingly and called him 'silly'. He has never seen a cage and has never jumped into a car before, which I had told her previously.
At the first kennels in early December I did not get any confirmation of my dog's stay there whatsoever. I told them to please not overexercise my dog and to give him 50 mins exercise per day max. The new environment would be more than enough stimulation, he's still a puppy and I want to be careful with his joints and bones and I certainly do not want an overstimulated sheepdog in my house. I got him back, five days later, very dirty, stinking very badly and was told that he'd been wonderful and had played with every single dog in the kennels. He was exchausted, but worst of all his eyes were bright red and our puppy had caught serious conjunctivitis which had to be treated by our vet. I understand that a new environment is very stressful for the dog and that they're likely to develop an infection in such situations. I would not have blamed the kennels for the infection itself, this happens, but I do blame them for not listening to my instructions and for not telling me immediately about such an obvious (and highly contagious!) health problem.
For the longer period over Christmas I decided to take him to different kennels, and the new ones kindly agreed to look after him despite the medication he still had to be given due to his conjunctivitis and even though he was not allowed to have any direct contact with other dogs for the first couple of days. I left him there with a much better feeling, their questionnaire was very detailed and they uploaded some pictures of him on Facebook while we were away. Although he looked well, I noticed on those pictures that they walked him on a retriever choke lead, even though I had given them my own harness and lead. When we got back two and a half weeks later, the most obvious change was that he had gained a whopping four pounds which makes quite a difference in a dog that weighed 26 pounds when he brought him in. Again, he was incredibly smelly with an awful scent of excrement and urine. We were surprised to see that he would refuse to sit, even though this was a command he liked a lot. As soon as we saw his rear the case became clear: it was soiled all over with poo and matted fur that it had become very painful for him to sit (not to think of to defecate...). It was a long, tedious task to cut the stinking, filthy mess out, pretty painful for him and very unpleasant to all of us. Underneath the matted coat we discovered that his bottom was sore and on the verge of eczema. Again, I at a loss why these issues were not addressed.
We really tried so hard to find good kennels and certainly did not go for the cheapest ones. I would not say that I am a fussy pet owner and do not expect my dog to come back smelling of flowers and shampoo, but I am rather disappointed and cannot believe that this is what you can expect from kennels? I'd really appreciate some feedback and suggestions as to what I could have done better.
We recently adopted a wonderful 6 month old Working Sheepdog x which we had to put into boarding kennels early in December and then again over Christmas. It's nothing we're planning to do regularly, but we were hoping that our dog would get the best of care there with experienced people who know what they're doing. We tried long and hard to find good, reliable kennels. We do not own a car which made it rather difficult to get at certain places, but we decided to pay a pet taxi.
The lady from the pet taxi charged us a ridiculous amount for a 20 minute drive, dragged my dog around on the leash and managed to get his paw stuck in the cage she wanted to load him into so that he cried in pain. She did not realise what had just happened and when I intervened she started blaming the dog, albeit jokingly and called him 'silly'. He has never seen a cage and has never jumped into a car before, which I had told her previously.
At the first kennels in early December I did not get any confirmation of my dog's stay there whatsoever. I told them to please not overexercise my dog and to give him 50 mins exercise per day max. The new environment would be more than enough stimulation, he's still a puppy and I want to be careful with his joints and bones and I certainly do not want an overstimulated sheepdog in my house. I got him back, five days later, very dirty, stinking very badly and was told that he'd been wonderful and had played with every single dog in the kennels. He was exchausted, but worst of all his eyes were bright red and our puppy had caught serious conjunctivitis which had to be treated by our vet. I understand that a new environment is very stressful for the dog and that they're likely to develop an infection in such situations. I would not have blamed the kennels for the infection itself, this happens, but I do blame them for not listening to my instructions and for not telling me immediately about such an obvious (and highly contagious!) health problem.
For the longer period over Christmas I decided to take him to different kennels, and the new ones kindly agreed to look after him despite the medication he still had to be given due to his conjunctivitis and even though he was not allowed to have any direct contact with other dogs for the first couple of days. I left him there with a much better feeling, their questionnaire was very detailed and they uploaded some pictures of him on Facebook while we were away. Although he looked well, I noticed on those pictures that they walked him on a retriever choke lead, even though I had given them my own harness and lead. When we got back two and a half weeks later, the most obvious change was that he had gained a whopping four pounds which makes quite a difference in a dog that weighed 26 pounds when he brought him in. Again, he was incredibly smelly with an awful scent of excrement and urine. We were surprised to see that he would refuse to sit, even though this was a command he liked a lot. As soon as we saw his rear the case became clear: it was soiled all over with poo and matted fur that it had become very painful for him to sit (not to think of to defecate...). It was a long, tedious task to cut the stinking, filthy mess out, pretty painful for him and very unpleasant to all of us. Underneath the matted coat we discovered that his bottom was sore and on the verge of eczema. Again, I at a loss why these issues were not addressed.
We really tried so hard to find good kennels and certainly did not go for the cheapest ones. I would not say that I am a fussy pet owner and do not expect my dog to come back smelling of flowers and shampoo, but I am rather disappointed and cannot believe that this is what you can expect from kennels? I'd really appreciate some feedback and suggestions as to what I could have done better.
