To not want to use dog boarding kennel again?

[Lis1992]

So we used a boarding place that was recommended to us. I had been researching for ages and because we got a recommendation from a dog trainer and walker and reviews etc were good we used it. Now the thing is I got dog back last week, healthy and in good condition. I’ve no complaints in that respect so that is why I’m wondering AIBU to be fussy about this. My dog came back as clean as he went in and I can’t help why he isn’t a bit muckier after the walks and runs he was scheduled to get. They were supposed to be given enrichment activities each day also like snuffle mats etc. I asked could we get a photo of him taken during his stay as it would be lovely to have in the collection. ( It is his first time away from us and he is into everything - he’s a two year old very active, wheaten terrier) . The man told us he would do this and when I collected him he said I didn’t get that photo- I never bother bringing my phone out to the kennel.

I just said it’s fine as what could I say. By the way, I had offered to pay for him taking a quick photo even just of him in his kennel, or out for a run, to have for the collection! So I didn’t feel it was an excessive demand.

My other gripe is that the teddy I gave him and his frisbee were clean. (We had just washed the teddy so it was sent clean) Now , I know he might still have been given them and didn’t play with them, but it’s almost like they weren’t given to him.

another thing is, I gave him extra biscuits and treats- he gets one to two mini biscuits of a high quality each night before bed. they’re both huge packets and I got none back. Maybe just that they’re so busy, they didn’t think of it? Again, not sure if that means anything. Finally, when collecting I asked how he got
on- I got a quick , ‘fine yeah’ and told
the amount I owed immediately after. I still have a tip. And he did seem well looked after so AIBU? My partner said because he came back in great condition, that we should use again. I have these niggling doubts because of what I said above though!

Look, if the dog is happy but you're not 100%, why not just try out other local recommendations the next couple of times? Nothing wrong with that.

what did he seem like in himself? my dogs came back from kennels incredibly quiet and weird for a few days. I never sent them back, as they come back from dog sitters all happy and their usual selves.

@Leo227 He’s great in himself and looks his usual self too.

Kennels aren’t great. YOU get a holiday, your dog gets prison. Ok bit dramatic! But I don’t think it’s great.
Nobody looks after your pooch like you do. DM has mine. He’s also stayed with friends I trust.

Some kennels do pupdates whilst you’re away, but they advertise it.

I would go for a boarder personally, charge more but they’re in the person’s house.

If you're not happy then you're free to try a different option next time.

I do think though that if your dog is clean, healthy and happy then you're doing pretty well.

I put my dog in kennels once. Chose a recommended one, and Paid extra for 1:1 attention every day, which I don’t think happened - we were supposed to get a diary of what she did during these session but it couldn’t be found’ when I went to collect her.

My gorgeous dog came back physically fine but mentally broken ☹️ It took her weeks to recover. She was so sad. Never, never again. It was five years ago and I still feel bad about it.

Find someone local who will have him in their own home.

After some questionable experiences at kennels we found a lady who only accepted 4 (proven non aggressive) dogs at a time.
Our dog loved going there and at night slept communally with the other dogs beside the Aga in her kitchen. She sent regular pics of Pongo playing in her garden.

Similarly my daughter has located someone for her dog who takes them into her own home. It’s more expensive but worth every penny.
I hate kennels. After a dog’s comfy home life, in my mind they are verging on barbaric.

I worked in a kennel at weekends when I was at school and it wasn’t a great place, however they would wash any dirty dogs before they went home in their on-site grooming parlour which was nice but on the other hand, if owners sent in their own beds, toys etc they wouldn’t use them, they’d leave them in a room until collection. I don’t know why, maybe incase they got dirty. I very much doubt they’d remember to give your dog his biscuits at night tbh.

Anyway, the upshot of me working in a kennels is that our dog will never go to one, he has been to a home boarder but now stays with a friend who has lots of dogs and animals so one more doesn’t bother her 😂.

My parents owned a boarding kennels when I was growing up.

Every dog was walked twice a day, dogs that would reliably recall were able to run on an enclosed paddock and play fetch, every kennel was cleaned daily, dogs had clean bedding and food twice a day, but it wasn't like being at home and lots of owners seemed incapable of understanding that.

They wanted their bedding and toys used then complained when their bedding was dirty or torn. They wanted their treats given then complained when there were no treats left or too many treats left.........

We had people who wanted their chihuahuas nails painting every day, who wanted status pics 3 times a day, who only wanted the dogs fed freshly cooked chicken, or thought it was completely acceptable to rock up, bang on the door and insist they could drop their dogs off at 3am because they had a 7am flight, even though none of those services were offered and opening hours were clearly communicated.

We literally never had a day off, we were walking, feeding, cleaning dog kennels on Xmas morning, all through the summer holidays, birthdays .....

If you want someone to treat your dog like it's their dog, spend hours a day playing with it and have a 100% home from home experience then find and pay for that. Your dog is clean, fed, happy, healthy and has been given back to you in the same condition you left it.

Its quite common practice for kennels to bath & groom the dogs as standard on the day of collection so that they don’t go home looking or smelling manky, so being clean for his pick up is not an indication that he hasn’t done anything, just that they’ve taken pride in sending him back in in good condition, this would not bother me at all, in-fact coming back smelling lovely is a bonus. Its likely the treats were just an oversight. Its a shame the individual didn't send you the photo you asked for peace of mind though.

You will know if your dog doesn't like it there. My mum runs a dog boarding service at her house (max two dogs at time and treated better than her children 😂) every dog I've seen arrive goes absolutely nuts with excitement.

There's some amazing options out there for dog boarding, if your gut is telling you somethings up then it probably is.

I’ve only used home boarding so far - we don’t have family who’ll have DDog, she’s done one week with her normal dog sitter she goes to 3 days a week when I’m at work already - DDog came back from that all happy and bouncy. We then tried to do another week but her normal sitter was away at the same time and recommended a friend of hers who lives next town over and does dog home boarding- DDog came back from that nervous and jumpy for a few days, very clingy to me. It could be that she just didn’t know that family like her normal dog sitter and her dh, but I won’t use them again.

DDog is coming away with us this summer, we might do a week at Christmas without her, but only if I can get a week her sitter can have her!

another option- but a lot more costly - is a sitter in your house for the holiday.

I think you need to look at home boarding where they will keep to your dogs routine and you will get pictures etc.

I doubt any large boarding kennel can give that type of individual service unless they only take a handful of dogs at a time.

It took us 3 attempts to find the right kennels for us. 1st one was lovely and our dog was fine but I just felt she didn't have much time for the dogs(the place was also a caravan park), 2nd place had great reviews and recommendations but no animal of mine will ever go there again as my elderly dog came out limping. The 3rd place was amazing, paid my dog so much attention, sent us loads of reassuring pictures the entire time and had a blast.

@LimeCheesecake what do you/would you pay for a dog sitter to stay in your house for a night/week?

OP IMO you are over thinking this.
My dog goes to boarding kennels. I drop him off and pick up on the agreed dates I don’t expect any communication from them; no news is good news. He comes out happy wagging his tail and clean. He had to go back twice in quick succession last year the second time he jumped out of the car and ran in.
I have no idea what they do with I’ve never asked or even seen the kennels but they seem like genuine people. Frankly that’s good enough.
Maybe I don’t have high expectations I’ve owned horses much of my life and kept them on livery you quickly learn few if any do exactly what they say they are going to do regardless of how much you pay or how well known they are. Im assuming kennels are the same.

We never put our dog in kennels, I know I wouldn’t have been able to go on holiday and relax, I would have just worried about him.

Our dog was always looked after by family, on the rare occasion we had a holiday and couldn’t take him with us.

Their lives are so short, we had our dog from a pup til he was PTS at 13, part of the responsibility of dog ownership.

@Lis1992

& everyone else...

what do you pay for kennels?

what would you pay for a dog sitter in your house?

I currently do this for friends, but I'm being made redundant next year & am thinking about doing dog sitting in their own homes . I've (obviously I've looked at what people say they're charging, but I'd like to hear from owners as well what they feel is reasonable. I can't do it at my house as I don't have a fenced garden & can't fence it).

tia

£20 per 24 hours seems reasonable. But my mum pays £50 per day for her dog!

I worked in kennels as a late teen.

I would never, ever leave a dog in kennels. It is doubtful your dog had all the exercise and care you expected.

Maybe try a home boarder?

Prices- my normal doggy day care lady charges £25 for a working day, then £40 for 24 hours / overnight care at her home.

I haven’t used at my home dog sitters, friend with a dog and 2 cats has paid £55 per night but was quoted one company £95 for 24 hours. The £95 one was via a company that did all the insurance etc for them, not sure how much the sitter would actually get from that.

We pay £15 a night for our brilliant kennels. Our dog skips in quite happily and is well, happy and clean when we pick her up. As a pp said, you’re really overthinking this, as long as your dog’s happy and healthy nothing else matters.

I'm a bit torn here because I think you were expecting a lot from a "standard" kennels, and probably should be looking at house sitters/himeboarders instead

However think YANBU because at the end of the day they agreed to your requests? On the basis they agreed but didn't fulfil the requests, I wouldn't be using them again

I visited several then got a recommendation from a friend. The kennels are at someone’s house and she has a field behind. She’s a gun dog person (mine are springers). They have a large section at the back, an equally big bit at the front and had an hour a day in the field, which is stock fenced so safe. I took their bed, food and bowls. I don’t want to leave them again, it half kills me, but it’s the only way I’ll get a holiday.

You're complaining because your dog came out of kennels happy and clean?

The treats were probably an oversight - unless you specifically asked for them back they probably just forgot about them and, as many people have said already, many kennels will give dogs a mini groom before they're collected. But even if they don't, they should be giving them a good wipe down/wash if they take them out on a particularly muddy/dirty walk route.

Having said that, considering how nice the weather has been recently I cannot understand how you think your dog could get noticeably dirty whilst in the kennels and being walked on (presumably dry and non-muddy) routes and why it is a failing that the dog was returned clean and tidy as surely you'd also be unhappy if you dropped off a clean dog and picked up one that was absolutely filthy?

The same for toys and bedding - except for when they're newly washed soft toys/blankets, so obviously smell of the detergent, I could not tell whether my mum's dogs bed was washed two days ago or two weeks ago, the same for toys - unless she has just brought a toy that she has been slobbering all over for the last hour, I couldn't tell the difference between a toy she hasn't played with for days and one she was playing with yesterday based on dirt alone.

Again, where did you expect the toys to have been used that would have had them come back to you absolutely filthy? If they're fetch toys like balls/frisbees then they may not have been used, not because your dog wasn't exercised, but because the kennels have their own for all the dogs to use so they don't have to keep track of whether the pink ball belongs to Daisy or Trixibelle or whether it was the frisbee that belonged Rover or Rex that was cracked when two dogs had a tug of war over it ... So much easier to just use their own and leave anything that isn't a "comfort" toy packed away.

My mum's dog loves going to the kennels - we are good friends with the owners and have visited many times, as soon as we are getting close on the drive over she starts barking, her ears prick up and her tail wags, she can't wait to get out of the car - one time in the summer I was pulling up in the car park and as I stopped, the kennel owner came out of the entrance as she'd seen our car and DDog hurtled out of the open back window to throw herself at her 😂

The staff at the one we use are lovely, but much like when we drop toddlers off at nursery, I would much rather have a staff member interacting with the charge in their care rather than faffing around with a phone because Lily's mum wants a picture of her looking happy to be there.