Can I please ask those who are boarding their pets soon to make sure they have seen the premises they intend to leave their pet in. As usual we are getting the same reports as last year about people being unhappy about where they left their pets last year having not looked before booking.
Most good boarding establishments will by now be full or nearly full with those not so good picking up those who left it to late, so if you have not booked yet it is more important than ever to check the place out first.
Do make sure the pets vaccination is up to date as the usual requirements for boarding, not getting into discussions about herbel vaccinations etc, some kennels insist on the kennel cough vaccination as well.
One of the most annoying things for us  who board is people who are only interested in how much it costs not what the premises is like. Remember it is your pets holiday as well they deserve it after having to put up with us humans all year long. Also make sure the place you leave your pet is licenced by the local council, wherever it is.
Happy Boarding
Bazza

I am going to cornwall for two weeks on friday and have booked my 4 dogs in for the odd day or two so my hubby and i can do things without worrying about the dogs being left  in the car for too long. I am hoping to check out the kennels at the weekend. they are all up together with their vaccinations and they had to have the kennel cough vaccine. I am hoping the dogs will be ok, two of them are real mummys girls.

I didnt go on holiday last year because i didnt want to leave Toby in a boarding kennel with him being so young,
we are not going on holiday this year either, next year im thinking of taking Toby on holiday with us because i will be to stared to leave him in kennels, he gets lots of attention which he will not get in a boarding kennels,
Years ago my mother left one of our dogs in a kennels and i remember it being so ill when we returned, dont get me wrong im not condemning boarding kennels im sure there are good ones out there, but im to scared to use one personally,

Heidi

I went to view a kennel yesterday and I was left gutted. They are not walked kept in a rather small cage to sleep (rather pongy) and put outside in a small cage during the day to do their business. The lady seemed nice enough though . I have never used kennels before so I don't know what to expect I hoped they would maybe at least walk them for some one on one attention but she said it was too busy. They were all barking like mad at each other I felt terrible. The lady said he would love it and is just the right age (1 1/2) to get used to it but unfortunately it won't be in that one. Maybe its just me but I will keep looking.

I wouldn't leave mine somewhere like that either. :( Sounds awful. :(

That sounds horrible!  No dog would love being there :(
The kennels my dogs go to take them out twice a day, groom them daily and they have a lovely kennel with a large indoor bit and then an outside run.  A bit like animals in a zoo have (rubbish description I know! :)
We checked out several kennels before we felt comfortable leaving them there.  My rabbit even went this year and had a fab 3 tier hutch :D

Hi Bailey
             It sounds like the kennels you view fall far short of the new guidlines drawn up by the Institute of Environmental Health whose job it is to issue the boarding licence. I would suggest you contact them and report this particular kennels for not complying with the new standards, its the job of the health inspectors to withdraw the licence if the place was in that condition. In my own area my inspector has been very strict about the guidlines to the extent they are now bylaws.
I know of at least 3 kennels around here that decided the expense was too great to improve the kennels so they closed down, which is what is wanted.
Kennel owners nowadays should not be allowed to continue as they have in the past by offering a kennels that are sub standard. It is this type of establishment that gives the industry a bad name and if the local inspectors are not prepared to enforce the regulations then they in turn should be exposed in the local press and removed from their jobs.
It is only by the way of the pet owners constantly complaining and insisting kennels meet the new regulations that this type of place will be forced to improve or close down. A local council around here uses the excuse that they are aware of the situation of some kennels and are monitoring it, unfortunately being a kennel owner myself  ( may be considered a case of sour grapes) I am not in a position to complain about this particular councils officers failing to do their duty, in fact up till recently I understand that they did not realise they could actually charge business rates on the boarding establishments that they cover,but it is so annoying that the council I come under is very strict and rightly so, yet the neighbouring council has a couldn't care less attitude.
The only way foreward that I can see is to create a seperate body with a standard that list that highlights  and bad points of boarding establishments and awards a star system or good kennel guide using something like the hotel trade. This way more conformity will be attained throughout the country ,as at the moment it is down to the individual council inspectors ideas on what is passable and what is not.
This I think is what either the Kennel club could be looking into or the ( I know what your going to think) the RSPCA as it definately needs some sort of national body to enforce the standards.
Yes i do feel strongly about this subject only because I don't want pets to have substandard accommodation while the owners are on holiday or whatever.
Bazza

I dont trust anyone with my dog right now (she is 10 months old) - we have gone without a holiday abroad this year because of pup.  Instead we took her with us to Newquay for a week.  One day I might leave her with doggy experienced family members - but not yet...She gets upset when we leave her, and hey, its not like she would know we are going on holiday without her (if we did,) so who can blame her for getting stressed?  Kennels? - not for us thank-you!
Sarah :)

If possible I think it's better for dogs to be home boarded,there are a lot of people doing this now and the dog becomes part of their family for the duration of the holiday.I even take pics of the dog while on holiday and give to the owners,I think it shows you are actually caring for them when they see the pics of their pet curled up on the couch with you,find a good homeboarder and stick to them,they are worth their weight in gold,Sandra.
oops,just remembered please visit premises with your dog beforehand and also make sure the person holds insurance for this type of thing.

Sandahar
                Please don't forget those that do home boarding still have to be licenced and inspected by the local council and have a certificate of proof. Failure could result in the dog being removed and put into a kennels, and those looking after your dog being prosecuted, and if they are doing it for money and not declairing it to the tax man will result in them also being done for tax evasion. Simple questions such as "Can I see your Licence to look after dogs in your home "  and "are you insured for vets bills etc "
In a previous thread there was a person trying to do it properly and was having great trouble in getting insurance to cover these circumstance. So just be careful out there.
Bazza

My pup is going to a pet sitter (who is registered has all the certificates etc. )  When I go away with my mates next month my OH is looking after him and he is going to the dog sitter on weekdays whilst he is at work and when I go away with OH later in the year I will be booking him in with her again.  The dog sitter is fantastic, she has lots of room for the dogs to run around and she takes them out 2/3 times a day on different walks where they can swim in the lake or river.  She is really devoted to the dogs and she is one of the few people who I will trust with Fagan.  I couldnt put him into kennels I dont think he would enjoy it and to the kennels I feel he would be just another dog where as with the dog sitter he is an individual  JMO (and maybe im getting slightly sentimental about my little Angel )

The licence is supposed to be displayed in a prominent position according to my environmental health office so people shouldn't have to ask to see it.
DaisyM

Rozzer
           If you read carefully what I said I was not saying anything about wether you should or should not use boarding kennels that is up to the  pet owners choice, All I was saying was that there are good and bad kennels and owners of pets should check them out first.
I also do not say don't use other places such as "Pet care homes" again if you read my other post you will see that I am only pointing out the pitfalls that are out there, hopefully to bring to peoples attention that although on the surface it seems a far better idea, you can be caught out if you are not aware.
If people prefer not to use boarding kennels that is up to them, all I would say is that on many occassions we get a phone call saying there is family heath problems and can we take the dog in, most of these relate to older dogs which have never been in kennels in their lives and suddenly through nobodys fault the dog has to go into one, which by the way we wouldn't take purely due to the stress, and can result in the dog getting problems health wise due to stress.

With regard to "pet care homes" there is no guarantee that the dog isn't going to be left for long periods while the home owner is say for example gone shopping or out for the day, or even if the owner has a court order against them for animal cruelty in the extreme situation, whereas boarding kennel owners are required by law to be on the premises during the animals stay (24 hrs) and also they are not allowed again by law to operate boarding establishments if having been prosecuted for animal cruelty. So when deciding if you want to leave your pet somewhere these are considerations that must be taken into account.
Bazza

Bazza, all the reasons you give are very true, and that is why I employ people from a registered firm, with full insurance etc, to look after my dogs in my home while I am away. The terms of contract also state how long the sitters may be absent for any one time (2 hours during daylight, one hour after dark). I have found this works very satisfactorily and (having 4 dogs) is only marginally more expensive than kennels. For me, the benefits are immeasurable.

I have nothing against good kennels - I just haven't found one that is suitable, and can satisfactorily house all 4 of my dogs together in reasonable space.
:)

I will be boarding my dogs for the first time in 5 years, including two five month old pups. A friend and I spent a whole day going round local kennels, 4 in all. One I walked in, and out. Thats it. Two were really good, showed us round, all dogs seemed happy, ie coming to see us and tails wagging. Large kennels and good sized outside runs all very clean, no smell of dog poo or pee or disinfectant. The dogs were walked three times a day and everything else I was very happy with. The fourth Kennel we went to was like a doggy hotel, Again everything was clean, dogs seemed content. Kennels and runs were an excellent size. But what it did have was the facility to take four dogs in one kennel and run. Built on to the end of the building were two living room sized kennels so that a full family of dogs would not have to be seperated from their 'siblings' so to speak,  We we shown the woodland walk at to the rear of their premises that runs alongside a little brook, and if allowed by owners dog would be place on a long leash and allowed to paddle and enjoy the swim.  In the yard there was a massive run about the size of a half tennis court so that the dogs could be let in there to have a 'maddie' off leash and not get stir crazy. They feed whatever is required including barf, they will take your feed and keep it in their freezers. Its wonderful. Guess what, they were fully booked.

Bazza,Maybe your council requires a licence but my does not,I think all councils are different.Up here our council only requires one if you are kennelling dogs outside as in boarding kennels.sandra.

Sandahar
               In England, don;t know about Scotland etc, but it is a LEGAL requirement that a licence is needed to board/look after a pet for financial gain. If your council does not know or has not been informed that a premises is looking after a pet for financial gain, then my  concern would be why don't they, and I would  inform them about it just to be on the safe side. I know you are going to say about how well the pets are looked after and how nice the people are and I am not doubting what you say is true, however from the legal standpoint  and for peace of mind, anyone who is looking after a pet for financial gain for someone else does have to be licenced. Should anything happen the consequences can be horrendous and to me the risk is just not worth it.
Bazza  

Never mind Kay, get in early next time.

One point with house/pet sitters and pet carers (especially in their home) be VERY carefull of security.  Bazza hasn't mentioned it, but we have heard of several "accidents" whereby dogs have escaped from the house they were being cared for in and also took off on a walk.  One dog that lives near me was looked after by a pet sitter and escaped over their fence, was taken to a strays kennel and kept the obligatory 7 days then re-homed, all BEFORE the owners had returned from their holiday!!  Imagine their horror, and you know what, NO insurance (most only have public liability) and they had no claim to their pet of 8yrs!  Fortunatley it turned out ok, (found out where the dog had gone) but not before a LARGE sum of money was passed over to cover all vaccination, food, bedding expences the new owners had paid!  A good pet sitter is good, but they are few and far between.  Similar comments apply to family, my family love the dogs, but there is no way I would ask them to care for them when I go away, no way would I put on them such a HUGE responsibility, especially when they know how picky I am!!! :D :D
Dawn.

Jeanne
             Its so nice to hear of someone whose first consideration is their pet and have gone to the trouble of carrying out checks as you have done. Obviously I would recommend boarding kennels as that is my line of work, but for those who prefer to go another route such as yourself and in certain circumstances especially with older or poorly pets,  I also would recommend  a  registered pet sitting service  or house/pet registered service such as you use, strange as it may seem, even I will be the first to admit that some dogs/cat just don't like to be boarded and that is the best alternative. 
It is those who are more concerned with getting a holiday at all costs irrespective of where the animal goes and not doing checks first that concern me. As I have already posted, the owners have only themselves to blame if the arrangements they make are to the deprement of their pets.
Just today I received a phone call from a lady saying that they have a 5 month old boxer which is the love of their lives, and they did leave it too late to book with us, through recommendation,  so they went to somewhere else. The next words she said was the dog came out sick and had diahrrea??? took it to the vets  (the so called kennels owners didn't bother) and it cost them a small fortune to get the dog back to normal. When I asked her if she viewed the so called kennels, which was up a long farm track, first she said no they wern't allowed to even view first and handed the dog, on the boarding date, over the counter so to speak, never to see where to dog was taken.
She said the people sounded very nice and trusted them, however she now realises that there is the possibility that there wasn't any kennels and the people were doing it illegally. When I also asked her if she took the vet bill to the kennels to get reimbursed for the cost she said she didn't think that they were insured either. To top it all and not really her fault she didn't realise that she should have lodged a formal complaint to the local authorities to get the place checked out.
This is just one of many similar cases we hear about week in week out and when we say did you report it to the authorities the answer is invariably NO we were only too pleased to get or pet out and away from there and will neverboard/use/recommend kennels again.
If only these places were bought to the attention of the licencing inspectors then something would be done about them, but it seems that the general public  just can't be bothered to put pen to paper.
  

Bazza - chill pill, just adding an opinion - not actually commenting on your post...Just my 'ol humble opinion of boarding kennels - seems a relevant enough post to do so!
:)

Rozzer
          Hi don't mean to cause offence and  please accept my apology if I have. Its only that I do get so annoyed that so many people don't take the simplest steps to ensure their pets welfare while they are on holiday, you would realise how many times this happens if you also worked in similar circumstances and being in the boarding business I can hopefully point people in the right direction, or at least give them some idea on what to watch out for. After all we all want the best for our pets
Bazza

I was surprised at the different standards boarding kennels had when I looked around for one.  One I didn't even bother getting out the car to look around, the yard was bad enough.  It was also important to find one not too far away, as if needed for a weekend it had to be close enough to pop the dogs in before we started the journey.

The one I selected might not have had everything I wanted, but gut reaction told me that these people would care for my dogs.  It is a small family run kennels (it used to be a show breeding kennels).  The grounds are immaculate as were the kennels (all stainless steel lined), there was a radio hanging up playing for the dogs, the only thing I didn't like was although the kennel was large (inside a large shed building) there was no outside run.  The advantage is that they are warm and dry (also had an infra red lamp) which is important for my Dally, I think the collie might have preferred an outside run.

At the end of the day though, I know they will be safe and secure, I would not feel this with an outside pet sitter, in your own home is different as the dogs will be more settled.

My first holiday was ruined by worrying about them, the next time we arrived Dexter pulled the owner towards the kennel block without a backward glance at me.  I know he would not of gone off like that if he was not happy there.  I enjoyed that holiday far more!!

Sandra

Bazza,I'm in Scotland and do you really think that I'd be daft enough to set up a business without checking out all legal requirements.You only have to be police checked too but as an additional peace of mind for my clients I also went through Disclosure Scotland to show my nice clean record for keyholding duties.Things should be tightened up up here and I will propose this at my next community council meeting.:) sandra.

A few people on here were concerned because kennels didnt "walk" the dogs, and some claimed that other kennels walked the dogs three times a day.

When a kennel mentions they walk them so many times a day please put your mathematical heads on. Ask how many dogs they board and how many staff they employ!
3 walks a day = approx 1.5 hours
20 dogs = 30 hours
even with 3 kennel maids per 20 dogs would mean 10 hours a day just walking, thats without everything else a kennel maid has to do! (Cleaning, feeding, administering medications, grooming etc etc etc)

Also if they do walk the dogs, WHERE do they walk them?? Do they have their own land?? Many kennel insurances are invalidated when the dog leaves the premises as there are so many risks involved. Other dogs attacking the boarding dog, boarding dog pulling over and injuring kennel maid, dog slipping lead etc etc etc.

I worked in kennels from the age of 12 and i attended the only training school for kennel maids in the UK and still keep in touch with many, and i have yet to find any kennel maid that works in kennels where the dogs are actually walked!!! Especially in peak periods. July/August, Christmas and Easter.

Sorry to put a downer on it but just one of the many bug bears i have with kennels.(or more specificaly kennel owners who lie to their clients!)

Although i no longer work in Kennels, i have found a wonderful kennels for my dogs and regardless of where i moved my dogs would not go anywhere else. And no my dogs do not get walked but they do have large outdoor play areas and my dogs love going there.

I would be surprised if kennels walked the dogs three times a day unless they were a very small kennel. BUT I do know that the kennels that I use walk the dogs every day at least once, because my daughter worked there at weekends for at least a year and walked the dogs .

Daisy

Hi Bazza - not offence, just a little surprised my comment caused such a reaction....Hey ho, I am listening though :)
Sarah