What would you be looking for or asking when choosing a boarding kennel for your dogs? My dogs went to a boarding kennel last year for the first time. The one that I used I was happy with but as I had left it quite late to book it was my second choice as my first choice was fully booked. This year I decided to go back and look at my first choice and I'm not sure that I am as keen as I thought. Two kennels share a run which is opened to each kennel hourly, so every other hour the dogs are shut in the inside kennel. As I wanted my 3 small dogs to share a kennel I am not happy with this arrangement as I think they will have limited space. There are only two kennels that have there own runs and due to staffing she is not sure she will be opening them this summer. The other alternative is for my dogs to have two kennels that share a run to themselves which she is not happy about as obviously this will take a kennel that she will not be able to put another paying "guest" in. This kennel is much more expensive than the one I used previously but I would be happy to pay it if I felt my dogs would be better there but I'm not sure about it. The kennels are spotlessly clean and they have an exercise paddock right next to the kennels where the dogs are walked with some off lead exercise if they feel the dogs are suitable. The kennels I used last year were clean, the dogs had their own run and they were walked on the lead twice a day (although the owner of the kennel I went to see yesterday says they had their own run because they are not walked at all). When I picked them up they were fine, no signs of stress no weight loss and seemed happy. They did run out of food while I was away and were fed something different despite me telling them that it would upset them, but that was my only complaint. What would you do?  Sorry for the long post but I am feeling very stressed about them going into kennels again so I need to be comfortable with what I decide. 
jane

There's no way I'd want a dog of mine sharing a run with a strange dog, even if they were never in it together. The kennel environment is stressful enough without always having to share 'territory' like that. I don't believe the staff would clean the run of pee and poo between each dog's access to it!

> The other alternative is for my dogs to have two kennels that share a run to themselves which she is not happy about as obviously this will take a kennel that she will not be able to put another paying "guest" in.

Surely, if you are willing to pay for 2 kennels, she shouldn't be worried about losing income?...............

>They did run out of food while I was away and were fed something different despite me telling them that it would upset them, but that was my only complaint

If you were more than happy last time with this particular kennel, maybe supply a huge quantity of their own food so they don't go short :-)

My thoughts exactly Jeangenie. I am also concerned that if they were particularly busy it could be more than an hour before the dogs are let out into the run. The young man that showed me around understood my concerns and he would have preferred my dogs to have had one of the larger kennels with its own run, it was the owner who tried to talk me into them being ok in a kennel with a shared run. She said they would be better having time shut inside as it would help them to calm in a stressful environment, but once inside they cannot see what is going on but would hear lots of strange noises and barking so surely that would be even more stressful. The more I write on here the more I am convinced that I would be happier using the kennels I used last year and as Jo said make sure there was a huge supply of food available to them. Thanks, this forum is such a fantastic source of info, advice and help, don't know what I'd do without it!!!!!!
jane