07-07-2018, 11:26 PM
14
Re: Our kennels and cattery we owned
Originally Posted by deylon
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This looks lovely,how many animals can do you take in?
Not only clean but we used expensive product called odourgene to keep it smelling nice and Trigene for the heath side both puton the floors every day. That was one of the first comment made by people viewing prior to boarding.
Also had a Mr Davis (environment health) on our side and looking after us. That was before the council decided on a reshuffle and he left as he had got another job as an event organiser, missed him a lot. His replacement was doing traffic noise accessment before he took over, absolutely useless he was had not got a clue
Did this by when we first bought the place I called him in and asked his advise on what he would like seen done. What a winning move!!! he often came in for a cuppa and even helped when I was putting up a new kennel kitchen ceiling. he helped hold it while I did the fixing.
Got also local vets viewed and a couple actually boarded their pets with us so got strong endorsements from the local vets, an added bonus.
Then the local police (not police dogs) had their pets stay and got to know a lot of them as well. Tea breaks usually, funny how they knew it was a radio black spot area, as that is when they turned up.
Once a car and caravan came down the lane(footpath with access) to us. the owners came from Southern Ireland on their way to France and at the local service station found their cat had got into the van. Those in the service station directed them to us at the same time you know who were on a tea break. We luckily had one cat pen spare, so rang their vet in Ireland for proof of vaccination and tok the cat in.
meanwhile 2 you know who helped turn their caravan around. On the way back the collected the cat and said typically Irish " be sure we will recommend you to all our friends back home"
Strange as it may seem even the local gypsy camp people ,who had fixed premises for their vans, were with us after we rescued one of their horses. We caught one walking down the lane after its tether had been cut, so we kept it in our top field until they owner collected it. So not only the police but those who might have caused problems were looking after us. Long story but that is the shortened version
Started out with only 350 clients left on the books and finished jup with 5,500 clients so must have been doing something right. we had clients from across the country who had moved away but came back to see their families and left their pets with us as they were previous clients.
In about 24 years of having he establishment we only had 3/4 complaints. One was because the farmer was muck spreading and they thought it was our kennels, and another wanted to board a cat age 18 years for the first time, we refused to board it and the third time a dog came in with a sore (heat spot) and we went to the vets the owner collected the dog a few days later and didn't follow up the treatment which we were paying for. Mr Davis told them more or less where to go when they tried to claim off us.
Without mentioning names we even had some well known people board their pets with us as well.
Oh forgot to mention we did help out initially with Midlands Lab. Rescue and several went into service as sniffer dogs for customs and the forces, They tried them out in our top field to see how they reacted.
We used to have school children for work experience for 1 or 2 weeks until new regulations were so restricting we had to stop doing it. before teachers who arranged work experience visited and so did the parents and that was great, everyone was happy, then those busybodies stepped in demanding we abided by every stupid rule in the book. One was the child had to be accompanied at all times by someone of the same sex. Ok for offices but not in a place like ours, damn thick idiots hadn't got a clue. This was just one of the new rules so we stopped doing it.
Silver Tabby
Do we regret giving it up ? . No not really, new laws made it a lot harder to work by. The invalid access was one, fire notices another and the local bylaws were impossible to abide by.
On example was to maintain a regular warmth throughout the kennels, and other all exercise areas must be covered ( how do you cover a field and what with and what height}
All drainage must have grids over them ( so dogs can trap their toe nail in?)
Bylaws enforced by the institute of environment Engineers who never viewed privately owned kennels , I asked them and they didn't even know what i was on about.
So that was what finally made us decide to sell up, RED TAPE
08-07-2018, 12:32 AM
15
Re: Our kennels and cattery we owned
emergency overflow kennels very rarely used. Think only time full was with that Icelandic volcanic ash problem when planes were grounded and our clients stuck abroad. Then they got cleaned out and made ready
Still floor tiled and power points for heating , different access to exercise field
Also the very large kennel for huge dogs.
Kennel kitchen front half including 2nd CCTV watching both kennel blocks for staff safety
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