kennel owners chat

AS you may or may not know we owned a boarding kennels and cattery for about 25 years licenced for 115 dogs and 42 cats.

This evening I have been chatting to a pal whole had a kennels not far away from ours. He has just been saying that he applied for his 2019 licence in November 2018 and now sept 2019 he has just got it from CannocK Council

Are we glad we got out or not!!! the person who bought ours apparently had a low marking of just 1 out of 5. Why becuse he had not listed his daily proceedures down in a book or had staff meetings on training. Don't forget he has the same staff we had for all those years and more, as we kept them on

Anyway my mate says also now they want eveything listed in a kennel or cattery IE toys- rest areas ie bed/blankets and now insisting on tubular heaters as well as heated beds and the temp must not go below 10 degrees at night even in the summer. OH and smoke detectors installed as well

From what he was saying he council now want most of the day doing paperwork instead of looking after the animals.
so it seems everything must be written down in "officialdom" language they understand.

OH the biggest joke of all inspectors must have a years training in kennel inspection first. Not this guy that inspected his kennels, It was his first and he was a food inspector and knew nothing about kennels at all. Last week he was inspecting food shops.

They now have a check tick box umpteen pages long and this is the third stage of getting he license at last, 9 months late

AS if life is not tough enough looking and being responsible for other people pets you get clowns like this who know nothing telling you what and how to do it.

tell me are we glad we sold up or not!!!!!

Aint running a boarding kennels just great

Re: kennel owners chat

Sounds like you escaped just in time, Realspeed.

I appreciate that Kennels - like any other business - have to be correctly run and maintained. But no-one should lose sight of the fact that the animals should be top priority. They are probably feeling vulnerable, wondering why they have been 'abandoned' there, and missing their home/owners. A little TLC goes a long way to reassure an anxious pet and is far more important - in my opinion - than book keeping and box ticking!

Re: kennel owners chat

ST

that was the immediate thought that went through my head as well. These people have no idea of what to check, whereas my pal had owned kennels for over 30 odd years and like us worked hard to build a good reputation with a wide clientel

In this line of work pets come first second and third, Inspectors well down the list especially when all they do is tick boxes.

We had a fantastic inspector when we started having taken over a kennels that needed a lot of work to pull straight. Phil Davis(our inspector) as I said was great, when he first turned up I asked him what he would like to see improved (creep creep). He knew we couldn't do it all at once far too much but he said a long as we do some improvements year on year he would give us our licence. from then on we hit it off and he never gave us any problems.

We really got on with Phil over the years, he even turned up (usually for a cup of coffee) but one time I was putting up a new kennel kitchen ceiling and he helped holding up the boarding until I got it fixed.

Even the local police we got on well with and they recommended us as well, they boarded their own dogs, not police dogs, with us

Now it is completely different from what my pal says, they don't have a clue apart from making sure kennel doors open outwards. The long time experience of ourselves and my pal count for nothing as far as they are concerned. They are muppets of the first water.

If a kennels arn't run properly word soon gets about and bang goes your business. Local vets also boarded their own pets with us ,so we must have been doing something right I suppose.

it takes hard work and long hours to build up a reputation and these idiots can knock it down in minutes, they don't have a clue.

All i can say is we are glad to have sold up before these pratts started trying to tell us our business and what to dos

It was great looking after othe peoples pet, and those that had moved away to Southern Ireland and also as far as Cornwall to name but two places, still boarded their dogs with us when they visited friends/relatives in our area. To me that says it all.

To be able to build up a business from 350 clients on the books to 5,500 boarding with us in the recent years we had he kennels took some doing but we did it.

My pal did the same building up a emendous business, now he pickes and chooses who he wants to board.

In 25 years we had a few complaints, unfounded. Typical was we would refused an animal because of old age
How anyone could do that after say 15,18 years with their pet to go on holiday is beyond my comprehension.


sometimes with nervous dogs/cats in a thunderstorm we would be up at night with them until the storm was over or the animals had settled


this grooming parlour I redid from 3 ft of straw and goat muck and a cocrete floor and brick walls




laid floor tiles- tiles the walls- new ceiling- walkin dog shower/tray (tiled inside). new sink and cupboards - lights/ power - overhead power track-, this is so the grooming table could be in the middle and dryer cable hung from the ceiling for safety.


one big conversion that didn't take me all that long but worth the effort and clients appreciated it when looking to board


same with the isolation room next door



even double power sockets for 2 heat lamps if necessary in each one

one of the kennels in to second block



. All kennels had new mesh front sides back

again all tiled out for easy cleaning

exercise field looking towards kennel blocks



dogs exercised individually (free running) unless from same family (see the 2 dogs in there?)


This is the standard we set out to achieve and maintain

Re: kennel owners chat

It used to erk me no end that it cost more to board my dog when I took my family on holiday than it cost for my kids.

My youngest son has a dog and he now uses pet minders to look after the dog when he is away; very much cheaper than kennels and the dog is basically with a family as a pet. I suppose pet minders are the Uber of Boarding Kennels.

Re: kennel owners chat

Bruce
Over here it is more expensive to use a pet sitting service is way more expensive. Where I live kennels charge around £15 a day and pet sitters £20/30 per day.

The problem is a lot of pet sitters do not have what is called a home boarding licence, they are back street setups. What people don't realise is a lot of pet sitters are not insured against anything happening to a pet, or they are not always at home such as going shopping leaving the dog alone in a house or even more dogs in one room and they are out.

The law over here states with kennels someone must be on or very close the property 24 hours a day and open to inspection at any time by an environmental health council officer. pet sitters don't have to do this.

I can well understand people using pet sitters but do they actually realise how much more an animal is at risk of something happening?.


If I heard what you are saying in money terms I would be a millionaire. There are companies that say the people they use as pet sitters are licenced under their contract. OOOH how wrong, the sitter themselves must be licenced not the company ,so many get conned by this as well. The licence must be on display in a kennels or a home sitting service

Having been in the business for around 25 years if you had heard the horror stories we have about back gates being left open by dustmen for example, and the dogs escaping to be run over or lost. Also the times a dog went sick taken to the vets and the owners coming back to a huge vet bills often running into £1000s because the home pet sitter doesn't have a pet insurance in place.

Have to say it scare me how little research people do before using a licenced or unlicenced home pet sitting service.

Questions like what do you do if a dog goes sick, where do you put the dog away from any others . Do you insist on seeing any vaccination certificates. Which vet do you use in an emergency situation. Can I see where the dogs are staying in your home. How many do you take at any one time. How do you exercise the dogs and how often and where. What facilities do the dogs have in the way of toys, What disinfectants do you use that are pet safe. How often and long are the dogs left alone if you go shopping. How many are you licenced to board. Do the dogs have seperate water bowls. Are they all kept in the same room even down to what do they sleep on, if only blankets are they washed every time a dog goes home

kennel owners have no problem in answering any of the qjuestions above, Such basic question often are not asked of home pet sitting services

Re: kennel owners chat

Way back in 2003/4 when I went off touring India - the two cats I had at that time went into a cattery for the first time ever.

When I went to the cattery to inquire about facilities/prices etc., I was given a full conducted tour by the owner - and was really impressed. When making the booking I had to show the cats vaccination certificates and give a brief medical history. When taking them in I was also asked to bring one of their own blankets, a list of their favourite foods, and a list of things they liked to do!

The hygiene was impeccable, the owner was a qualified Veterinary Nurse and lived on the premises. Each cat accommodation cage (for want of a better word) had secure indoor and outdoor sections, the out bit was grassed - also had catnip growing in it - and was closed off at night. The indoor section had two levels with beds on both of them - beds on the upper level were heated.

The owner spent a large part of each day grooming, talking to and playing with her guests, litter trays were changed twice a day and - last thing at night - each cat was given a treat. Usually one or two prawns, a spoonful of tuna or a couple of cat biscuits.

Have to admit to shedding a few tears when I left my two having never left them before. Usually they stayed in their own home and were cared for by one of my friends - but - as I was off to India for so many weeks - it seemed unfair to impose. I need not have worried - they had a wonderful time.

Re: kennel owners chat

ST

Nice to read and see your cats were ok. Too many people think of a cattery or kennel like a prison which is the wrong image. Our cattery was opposite our house. Each pen had an upstairs sleeping compartment shut at night but a flap left open. Each pen had a heated plastic bed . Not only that but the whole cattery block was alarmed and covered by CCTV. also a security corridor ran the whole length of the cattery



one half of the security corridor accessed though 2 doors either side

i




Before was an old one car garage type of thing with a rickity home made cat pen for 6 cats at this end. the front area was broken concrete .

So what i did was match this end with the other and grass the front of. Completely replaced the roof with twin wall plastic sheeting. Added power to every cat pen and ligting to the corridor. Refurbished the cattery kitchen and alarmed the whole lot. even turfed the front to match
.
I am going to say it, i think it was the best cattery in the area and proud of it. he cats had something to look onto and see clients come and go, so always an interest for them


even went as far as building a new front entrance. Rear exit was ok ish



from this



which actually fell down with a gentle push at the start of the replacement

Re: kennel owners chat

Pen - that's the word I should have used in place of cage, Realspeed. Sounds much better - thank you.

You obviously put a lot of thought into the planning of your Kennel/Cattery and your concern for the welfare of those in your care shines through.

I bet you would still be there if all these new restrictions had not been imposed?

Re: kennel owners chat

ST

Thank you. We left because we were going to retire mainly, yes we do miss the place won't say we don't, but no longer have the worry about everything concerning running the place. Hate to think how mucch we spent doing everything up but it was worth it. not only to make the place look better but easier to run and better for the animals I hope.

Total site area including home was just under 2 acres

Re: kennel owners chat

I am sure there are fantastic kennels out there and yours sounded brilliant but my experience with them is less than stellar. Only used them 4 times in 35 years so very little experience really and each one was a terrible disappointment.
First one we told them to feed the dogs separately as we had a greedy girl who would eat it all, we came back to one who looked like a little skeleton and one could hardly walk she was so fat.
Next we came back to two with very bad kennel cough.
Then we were called back early because one escaped from the next kennel we used. Luckily after two days we found him but that could have been worse.
Next we found when we returned after we actually provided the food one should have that she had been fed the kennel food they provided and we had bloody diarrhea for about three weeks if I say my dog is intolerant of a food I mean it, it's not a fad.

We haven't used one since our first chihuahua came along as rarely it seems they will take responsibility for tiny dogs, Fair play I'd rather be told that than they take them on and they come to harm.