Dog Houses (Boarding Kennels in general)

Member Name: kimm

Product:	Boarding Kennels in general
Date:	01/09/01 (453 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None.

Disadvantages: Cruel, cramped

When we were moving house, we had no choice but to put our dog in a kennel for a couple of days. We looked around and at first sight seemed OK. This was to be a big mistake as our poor dog must have wondered what on earth she had done to sent to this dog house.

When we went to pick her up we discovered how she had been kept. The kennels were tiny and there was no outdoor run. The only thing she had to look at was the four walls. She had to go to the toilet basically in her bedroom.

They don't walk the dogs, supposedly because it's near a main road. Funny but there were plenty of fields around and if you don't walk them you should at least build some kind of exercise pen. So, the only exercise or time spent in natural light was when they cleaned out the run, once a day. The place where they put them whilst this was being done was about as small as the run the dog had come from. So, if your dog has to stay there for 2 weeks while you're on holiday, it must be terrible.

So, no walks to look forward to, no romping around in a field or pen, no human contact except to have a bowl of food shoved in front of your face once a day...and I'm hoping they fed her.

When we went to pick our dog up, she was in a terrible state. She couldn't walk properly and collapsed. When she went to the toilet she was bleeding. She looked so relieved to see us and it had only been 2 days. Thank goodness it had only been 2 days. If we had left her any longer her heart would have been broken and she would have died from neglect. We took her home and had to spoil her rotten until she was back to normal again. She still doesn't like going into the car as she thinks she might be taken there.

It is disgusting how these people can treat these animals who have paid to be looked after properly. It doesn't take much to play with an animal, take it out and make some fuss of it. I felt awful that I had let her
go there, but at the time we had little choice. It wasn't cheap either. A friend of ours had taken their cat there when they went on holiday and their cat almost died from depression. They were lucky that they were able to nurse it back to health.

How can these people be allowed to run businesses like this? It should be stopped. I would advise anyone to inspect a kennel thoroughly before putting your dog in one. We made the mistake of thinking it looked OK. From previous experience, our dog had come back happy and full of beans after being to a kennel. You need to make an appointment to visit it and come back when the kennel is closed to see if they really play with the dogs in the pens/fields. Also, happy dogs won't be barking ALL the time and should calm down after a while. I would also advise that you bring your own food, because they may feed your dog any old cheap rubbish. This is really important if your dog has food allergies.

Summary: