Starting home dog boarding business.

[doggyboarding]

Hello,

I am considering starting a home business for dog boarding. I am looking for all tips, guidance, advice and any perspectives I haven't considered please.

Some info:

-will get licence, full insurance, and do a dog first aid course
-we use dog boarders ourselves for holidays
-we have 2 small dogs who are friendly
-I would only take 1 dog at a time, or 2 from same family
-only want small-medium dogs
-have a detached house with secure garden
-live next to a massive park
-our dogs sleep in bed with us; happy for boarded dog to join, sleep in with older teen DC, or downstairs as requested
-we live 5 mins from our vets

I only want to do it on a small basis for now, just to bring in a little income for us (I can't currently work). I am also considering day time daycare too.

Thank you!

Wha if the dog(s) don’t take to yours or vice versa?

Sounds like you've considered most of the issues.
I would add that for new clients, you should insist on a one/partial day/night stop over (without owner obvs) prior to booking in for any length of stay, jic there are any issues they haven't been honest about.
Also, will you be asking for evidence of vaccinations, pet insurance, registration with a vet, microchip?
Get yourself familiar with all of the local dog walking/boarding/lost dog Facebook pages too - you can get some interesting information from those...

Other than that, if it's anything like here, you'll have your arm bitten off (by clients, not dogs hopefully), people are always looking for this kind of set up instead of the trad kennels now.

Some L/a wont give a license with children in the property so check that’s out 1st

I wouldn't let another person's dog sleep with my dc even if they are a hulking teen. You've got to think worst case scenario the dog gets aggressive then who will be to blame?

I'd want laminate flooring everywhere and some kind of flea and worm policy. All vaccinations must be up to date and I'd consider cleaning standards - all food and water bowls sterilised etc. It'd only take one dog carrying giardia to ruin the entire operation.

Your house insurance will need to be considered on terms of running a business and having clients coming to your home. Not all home policies allow this.
Also consider the possible nuisance to your neighbours with cars coming and going and noise from dogs barking (not a problem if you are reasonably isolated of course).

I do think having the dogs effectively living with you as family pets sounds (excuse the pun) barking mad though. The client's dogs need to have their own space, just throwing them in together with you family and dogs is a disaster waiting to happen.

My dogs go to a boarders in their home and have a lovely time, I prefer it as I could never send them to a kennels ever. They have their own dog too.

I will make a website/Facebook and be very clear what the set up is. I will have meet and greets with my dogs and theirs. One night trial definitely. If our dogs don't mix well then it'll be a clear no.

Thank you for all of these points, some things I hadn't considered! The licence is ok with children thank goodness. Home insurance is a good one to think about. We have laminate flooring throughout the downstairs, and we're fully detached so no problems with neighbours. Definitely will have fleas and wormed up to date only, same with jabs.

What is your plan should you suffer an emergency such as illness or your husband or child is hospitalised whilst someone’s dog or dogs are in your care?

A good question @CharlieKirkRIP I will have to give some thought to this, but quick answer would be the same as what we'd do with our own dogs- either me or OH will be at home with them while the other was gone. And worst case scenario my sister will come look after them.

Also insist on meeting the potential client at your home so that you can judge how you feel they would interact with your own dogs.
Be firm and say 'no' if, for any reason you don't like a particular dog. Just say it wouldn't be suitable if you don't have an obvious reason.
I really think the client dogs should be sleeping separately than your own dogs and should only be allowed f downstairs to reduce mess, fog hair, mud. Also it's not fair that your own dogs should share the bed with any other random dogs.

Never ever feed the client dogs in the presence of your dogs and vice versa.
Don't underestimate the real danger of possessiveness, the owner might not tell you or it might only happen at your place, but resource guarding can be a real problem.
Basically don't trust your own dogs and don't trust the other dogs either. Don't leave them alone in the house. Be on it 24/7.
And get your family on board to pitch in and help when needed.
There's a reason trusted home boarders can charge £25-£50/day.

Really good points @Branster thank you. Plan on meeting in the park opposite mine with my dogs, then all coming in to ours together. Definitely need to get the vibe from the dogs together. And guarding is something I hadn’t considered, and feeding them alone- will research dog gates now.

Morning all, I’ve been up all night researching and feeling pretty positive about it.

I’m going to apply for a license this week and hopefully get the visit booked in for as soon as possible.

Now first task is to get a logo and a decent website built! That’s a task for the teenager.

My friend does this, things she has done/had issues with:

dh is registered licensed too so she can go out and leave dogs with him

she does not have her own dog, this is a massive advantage that imo she doesn’t charge enough for as she mostly ends up with reactive dogs that wouldn’t play nice with others or very scared dogs.

You really need to consider space to separate your dogs from the visitors, your dogs might not like it either. We had a friends dog to stay here and billy pup was absolutely fine until it came to morning bed cuddles. I would make the downstairs the default for visiting dogs unless they become very unhappy and need the cuddles

friend and her dh are regularly woken in the night, fine for my menopausal never sleeps properly friend, less fine for your very important exam taking teens.

Her kitchen door was eaten in the space of half an hour when she left 2 small dogs alone.

You never know what you’re gonna get every dog is different and comes with its own unique baggage.

leave time for a deep clean in between each set of dogs

Dogs have different Houdini abilities, you need to be able to have several secure areas to separate them and an air lock kind of arrangement every time you open the front door.

book out your own dog free weekends/holidays at the beginning of the year and do not budge it’s a very popular commodity you’d be offering.

take a non refundable deposit every single time (unless it’s for me of course)

if you’re in Bristol they are trying to bring in plans to charge small businesses for using the parks, I can’t for the life of me think how they’d police it but worth bearing in mind.

Oh and check your home/contents insurance, I have problems with mine as I’m a music teacher and apparently regularly visiting people that are the same people week in week out for years and never left alone are a security risk. 🙄

Each dog you board has to have it's own room. Not that they stay in that room but you must have the ability to split them all up if necessary. That will decide how many dogs you can legally board.

Download the Animal Welfare document from cfsg.org.uk to see what other conditions you must meet.

Make sure you house is safe, safe, safe from escape.
The amount of dogs who go missing from home boarders is horribly high, compared to kennels which is the much safer option. Sadly I have first hand experience of this, I volunteer for a county wide search and rescue group. We are in double figures for home boarded dogs this year ☹️

Be prepared to have your furniture chewed, dogs not to be house trained. People will lie. There are people who move their dog from carer to carer because they aren't welcome back.
We have a local FB group for animal care professionals in our area, if you have one of those, join it. There are always warnings about bad dogs and bad payers.
Go in with your eyes wide open.

Planning permission? You should check with your local council.

My first doggy daycare and holiday person had my dog 6.5 years before she retired.
She only had dogs overnight that she knew from having them in the day. She said they made this decision after just having someone's dog for an overnight and it being so awful they made the owners come and get it.

She also just did smaller breed dogs. They all got along fantastically. They simply wouldn't take on a dog if it didn't fit the pack.

I had an hours interview with my person with my dog seeing how he interacted with them and their dogs in their home before they took him on. I actually turned down someone I was thinking of using as they made no suggestions to meet us first just 'yeah bring him round for the day'...eerr no thanks.

I had a wonderful sitter for my dog. She insisted on a home visit before taking anyone on. If you passed that, then there was a trial at her house.

She was looking after my boy when I was away and sadly, he had to be PTS. It wasn't her fault, he was old and lost his back end. We'd known each other for years by then and I absolutely trusted her to make the right decision. She remains a friend.

Thanks for these! Will definitely have proper meet and greets with our dogs and theirs.

We have enough separate space for dogs to be kept apart.

Good point about making guest dogs sleep downstairs.

I have ordered a star gate for the stairs.

There was a man who had been in business 50 years on the radio the other day and his advice for people starting out is to be an expert. He said fine to have a course from online but at some stage get actual accredited qualifications that people can trust and get to be the best out there in terms of knowledge. I’d add phone the person if you have issues that your gut tells you to contact them over- we had our dog in a kennels and they told us he hadn’t been eating when we were collecting him. He’d actually lost a good deal of weight (6 days away). Had she rang us we’d have gotten a relative nearby to take him home and stay with him. I would never ever ever recommend her (and she came recommended from friends)

You can’t just leave them with your sister - the person in charge needs to be licensed and checked by the council as well.

You also need separate, enclosed rooms for all the dogs in your care in case of sickness or if there’s a fight.

Does your mortgage provider allow you to run a business like this from home?

Yes I’ve checked with home insurance. Not sure why mortgage provider would care?

We have enough separate rooms.

Because until your mortgage is paid off the bank can, in theory, call the full value of the loan in if you're found to be breaching the conditions of your mortgage. Lots of residential mortgage prohibit running a business from home, some where it's predominantly admin or computer based is alright, others where there are customers entering your home can be a big no-no.

They probably won’t care but some companies restrict mortgages for business purposes and would require a commercial mortgage. I’m ok as I use one room only to teach from and it is also used as a library/music room by the family and the number of hours per week made a difference too, overall i teach for less than 20 hours and home tutoring was one of the ok business on the list. It’s a long time ago for me so I can’t remember exactly the criteria, but i did check with them.

Ok I’ll check, but we moved in less than a year ago and I poured over the documents at the time (first time buyer) and I don’t remember seeing anything. But I’ll check anyway, thank you!