Hi All

I am soon moving to Suffolk to a house with a large garden backing on to fields - has always been my dream after years of living in the built up home counties and working full time.

I have four dogs one of whom is a sheltie who I hope to breed a litter from when she is two.  I would also be interested in offering holiday "fostering" for just one or two dogs at a time as we will have plenty of space in the house for this.  I love dogs and thought it would eke out my pension (I  took early retirement but am fit and healthy).  I would also love to foster for a local rescue - apart from my sheltie all my dogs are rescues and I think rescues do a grand job and I would love to be part of it. 

In order to board one or two dogs at a time (for payment -  not rescues)  in my home has anyone any idea of how I should go about this?  Obviously I would need the appropriate insurance - but anything else?

Any advice gratefully received!

Happy New year to you all by the way!

Snowflake

Hiya,

You need to contact your local council as you need a liscence for home boarding which is done on a yearly basis.  Each council has different rules, with some you can only board multiple dogs from the same household, with others you can board from different households.  With some you need 6ft solid fencing but with others there are diffrent rules with that.  It varies quite a lot.  It's done on a yearly basis which involves an inspection of your home and garden/land.

Good luck

Hello,

Afraid I do not know much about the home boarding side of things apart from what has already been mentioned with regards to contacting the local council and insurance.

On occassions I do have the 'pups' that I have bred back for a holiday & after one came back and nearly destroyed my house (which is rented) I made sure that I now have a list of rules - the dog must be fully vaccinated and up to date on worming & flea treatment, they must have insurance inc 3rd party, they must be crate trained (should they need to be crated), must be socialable as they be living with my girls, any males must be neutered & finally they come back when they are called! I do not accept any money for looking after them but I do tell the owners that any damage must be paid for and if I think that the dog needs to visit the vet I will pay for it and they must pay me back. Since having my own little rules in place I have not had a problem.

If you are looking at home boarding I would suggest that you tell the owners that the dog should come and stay with you for at least one night before they are planning on going away just to make sure that everything is ok before the owners go off on their hols. I say this as a friend of mine did home boarding and she had 3 dogs from one family staying while the owners were getting married then going on their honeymoon. They did not settle on the 1st night (which is not unusual) however on the 2nd day they decided to destroy her kitchen inc walls/tables/cupboards then one cleared an 8ft walled garden and she had trouble catching it. Eventually she had to ring the owners and tell them to come and get their dogs as she could not cope. As it was their wedding day they were not happy and didn't pay for any of the damage that the dogs had caused!!

Good luck

You will have to be fully insured and visited by your council as suitable for boarding.  

I use a dog boarding service similar to what you want to do.  She is a member of http://www.nards.co.uk/ and they also have a contract that she has adapted for her own use as well.  She also has a check list type questionnaire that you have to fill out, with commands dog knows, any issues, any 'no go' areas, ie some dogs will not have their paws touched.  Normal routine, times of feeding etc.

If my dog is on any meds (hes on optimmune for dry eye) then I have to sign a seperate form with times/quantities and a permission signature.  Regarding vets, if its an emergency then she will take my dog to my own vets if possible (its a vet hospital and only around 3 miles away) and ring me from the vets, I would expect to pay over the telephone if I was on holiday or arrange with the vets myself when I got back.  I certainly wouldnt expect them to pay the vets bills (also I would imagine that she would be able to get hold of me within the time my dog was being treated).

She has a lovely house, and also facilities to seperate her own dogs should she need to.