Advice about starting up Kennel business

[musketeersmama]

Dear wise & experienced mumsnetters, I'm longing to start up a doggy daycare/kennel business and wondered if any of you have experience of this? What are the pitfalls, am I mad?? Or is it the absolute best job in the world working with all these gorgeous pooches? Any advice or experience appreciated!

Stuff off the top of my head / things I would check before using a boarding service....

What experience/qualifications do you have? Are you a member of any professional bodies or associations (or do you plan to be)?

What insurance do/will you have? What does it cover? For example, does it cover one dog injuring another, accidents that result in harm to the dogs, a dog damaging your property?

What facilities do you have? e.g. outdoor or indoor kennels, secure exercise field? Are you going to do pickups/drops offs? If so, what transport vehicle are you using?

Is it just you are will you be working with anyone else?

What's the maximum number of boarders you would accept at any one time?

What would a typical day with you be like for the dogs? i.e. what activities etc.

What do you plan to do about time/off or holidays (e.g. any back up coverage or should owners make other plans)?

What if they are not gorgeous pooches but dogs that are trickier to take care of? How would you handle that?

Great questions missbattenburg
Mine would be:

Are you willing to accommodate any dietary requirements? Eg, freezer space for raw fed dogs.

Would you accept dogs who don’t have their annual boosters?

Thanks guys, great questions!
Not a member of any professional body as yet but would plan to become one.
There would be two areas for sleeping: one for outdoor/large dogs & another for smaller or nervous dogs. There will also be an outdoor secure exercise area plus plenty of space for walks & possibly an exercise field.
No drop offs/pick ups. Happy to accommodate different diets.
There would be me and one other person to start and I'd plan to start with a small number of dogs.

Also, I’d want to know that dogs were supervised at all times in outside exercise areas. One of mine can be quite feisty and if dogs jump up at it’s face it really hates it and will tell them so.

I’d also want my dog to have it’s own private sleeping area.

Do you have the correct licences from the council for boarders?

How many different sets of dogs would you exercise together at any one time?

What would be your action plan if a dog seemed depressed/stopped eating?

Do you have any experience with large breeds/difficult dogs etc?

Do you have a good vet who will be happy to visit should it be required?

Have you got the relevent insurances for liability/accident/injury?

Will you ensure all dogs are either vacc'd or titre tested before boarding?

Will you require Kennel Cough vacc's for boarders?

How often will the dogs be interacted with/exercised?

These are the ones top of my head 😬 I'd bloody love to run a boarding kennels - with some EB kennels for rescue too. So jealous!!

How experienced are you with dog behaviour? If you plan to have groups of dogs who don't live together interacting you need to be very confident in your ability to monitor behaviour and intervene before anything becomes an issue.

You'd need to come up with some kind of behavioural you would do on prospective clients and be able to pick and choose dogs that are likely to get on

You'd need to make sure you have enough space so that dogs can be separated into smaller groups (or if individuals need to be separated from the rest of the group) should there be any problems.

It's also important to consider that, even if all the dogs get on great, running riot together all day isn't necessarily good for them. Obviously owners will want their dogs to get stimulation and exercise but at the same time it's very wise to provide them with some down time as well.

You would need a license, there re inspections on a regular basis. Another serious condition is that dependent on your councils regulations, staff member needs to present on site at all times. Would you be able to arrange for someone to be present 24hrs a day?

Questions from other posters above are a really good place to start.

From experience (my parent owned a boarding kennels and cattery) you need seperate, enclosed, secure areas for each animal. Many dogs don't socialise well and you do not want to send a dog or cat home missing part of an ear or worse.

We walked and exercised each animals separately too unless they came as a pair/group.

I'd want to know what your security was at night time and how high your fences are for jumping dogs.

Here's a link to a council in my general area of the country if you look at the policy you'll see that animals have to be housed and exercised separately, construction of enclosures is clearly defined and so on. You need to look up the policy for your council to get the specific but it is strictly regulated.

www.oadby-wigston.gov.uk/pages/animal_licences

I think you need to decide what it is you would be offering. We use a home boarder who is also our weekly day care. The dogs stay in her house which is quite different from a kennel. She has a farm that she has converted to provide dog care. She has different enclosed areas (fields) that dogs can run and play in and has different areas so she can seperate dogs if need be.

This set up is ideal for us as our terriers don't get off lead on walks very often but love playing with other dogs so being able to run around is their idea of heaven. As they are there every week it's not a worry to leave them when we go away. She is also very flexible. Bit I agree with pp that for this type of setup you really need to have above average knowledge of dog behaviour. I really trust that ours know how to deal with a group of dogs and judges which dogs are ok to be in together

Before we started with her she came to our house to meet the dogs, go through all her procedures etc and asked LOTS of questions about the dogs. She won't take uncastrated males and insists on up to date vaccines inc kennel cough.

Thank you everyone for your responses, this is so helpful!
I was planning on having separate enclosed sleeping areas within the 2 buildings and thought I'd exercise the dogs in small groups or individually depending on their temperament. I don't have huge experience of different dogs other than having had dogs all my life and am hugely interested in dogs. Is this naive of me to think that's enough? Are there courses that anyone could recommend?
I've got an amazing vet & would insist on kennel cough. How high do you reckon the fence needs to be around the enclosure? The dogs would be supervised any time they'd be in there or out of their sleeping quarters.
I haven't researched insurance so am unsure of that as yet.

Well, my Rommie lad could scale 8ft fences like they were gates so maybe i'm biased 😂 But i'd say at least 6ft with inverted tops to them.

Insurances I think you'd need a couple; public liability, insurance for the dogs accident/injury whilst in your care (there is a name but i'm having a brain fart).

Tbh if your experience with dogs is limited to your own i'd hold off. Maybe begin with homeboarding whereby you only take one family's dog(s) at a time. This would give you some experience with different dogs but in manageable chunks. You'd still need licences & insurances tho

My old springer could manage 6ft but 8 is pretty impressive 😂
Home boarding sounds like it might be a good way to begin too

He was an utter shit 😬 He threaded carpets up & destroyed net curtains too. Oh & tried to escape from tiny windows out of a first floor flat 🙄 But he was a Romanian street dog so I let him off 😂

Home boarding is great, and actually a lot of people are turning to it now because many dogs struggle in kennels. Would be a great way to start up, build a clientel, build a reputation. Then if you decided to expand later on, word of mouth would probably be a massive form of advertisement for you 🙂

I think you should spend some time volunteering in a kennel or somewhere like the RSPCA.

There are loads of good points to working with animals and I enjoyed lots of my time growing up and working in a boarding kennels and cattery.

Like any job there are downsides.

• dogs like people can have dodgy belies when they go on holiday. The joy of slopping out enclosures covered in poop wears thin.
• they won't all be well lead trained or return when you call. Chasing after dogs to get them back after exercise will form part of your regular activity
• you'll probably be nipped/scratched fairly often. The dogs don't know you and your ways, just like you don't know theirs and some have bad histories or triggers you won't know.
• At some point a dog will get Ill in your care, not because of your care but just because of age, illness or disease that you can't control. You may have to call someone on holiday and explain that there beloved pet needs to be put to sleep.
• Some pet owners are just weird and to an extent you have to submit to their foibles. We had dogs that needed to be hand fed, freshly cooked chicken and rice. Their food must never be placed in a bowl. Others that had clothing like hats or sunglasses. A chihuahua that needed its nails painted everyday and it's hair put in a ribbon.

Like I say, most of the animals were lovely, some great points like lots of cuddles and fun walks, but you need to know the downsides before investing in setting up a business.

This was 8ft before she put the inverted tops on 🙄

I think it would give me a bloody heart attack discovering a dog like that!

Also he on earth did dog get down? Please, please tell me he didn't jump from 8ft in the air!

Aw guys, just checking back back now and that made me proper lol!!
Thanks Katescurios! I can't imagine the hand feeding but I suppose it all goes with the territory, like I say, I'm trying to imagine all the downsides rather than just focusing on all the great bits. Did you have someone on site at all times or did you manage to be off site for afew hours in the evening or whatever?

You have to have someone on site, the rules if our council were 24hr 365 on site and capable of dealing with an emergency. It made holidays and evenings out difficult as we had to arrange for someone to stay at the housing just in case the dogs needed anything and we could rarely just pop out for a family lunch or anything without some preplanning.

we will be dropping our dogs off at a kennel next week. copy of immunizations being up to date required along with the name of the vet who's care they are under. we have to provide food. no toys no blankets (in case they eat them or become possessive). some consent type forms to fill in case of serious accident or injury to the pet (allowing them to take the pet to the vet and accepting all costs).
the dogs that come together are in the same fenced section cat flat to outside run enclosed on all sides (top too). wood heating to inside section which is warm and clean. the dogs are walked several miles a day. set times for drop off and pick up as they are "out walking the dogs" at other times. other than pet care they do not accept or release animals on Sunday.
buckhorndogranch.ca/
the website seemed painfully slow but they do have a good FB presence.
btw we don't believe in dog psychology but the fellow is good with aggressive dogs.

Will you take dogs who require medication such as insulin or tablets for ongoing medical conditions. Will you charge extra for this service?

Do you offer settling in sessions so maybe spend odd day here and there

Online booking option

I use homeboarder and fortunate one stop shop ,groomer and dogwalker,daycare,homeboarder she is also qualifed trainer and there are two of them so holiday cover

If homeboarding where are dogs allowed in house ?
Ours varies depending on dog and dogs needs
How much walking and where
Raw feed
Do you have children and if do their experiance of dogs