Human interaction during excercise

Question
Henry,

I am looking at boarding my dog while I go away for business. I am wondering when looking at kennels, what type of human involvement do you provide with your kennel animals during their excercise/play time? Is there any type of standard that should be given to a dog in this situation?

Answer
There are kennels that put a boarding dog in the same small crate used for sick animals with near zero interaction, some that on closed days only have a person potty the dog outside once a day, all the way up to expensive spas ($50/day and more) where each dog is pampered, played in groups but only during day time business hours. There are doggy day care facilities some emphasize day long exercise and interaction, but this only produces a tired dog at the end of the day. There are AKC guidelines for sanitation and kennel operation, as well as ABKA and other organizations.

Dogs and cats rest most of the time then spend their energy in bursts of activity.  At our kennel we only are open form 9-12 and 6-7 so the animals get their proper rest period in the afternoon. That's because most cats and dogs nap in the afternoon as a way of life. When the animals are awake, they have both and indoor and outdoor private run sized for proper exercise area of various sized dogs (giant breeds have 40 feet and toys have 8 feet to run back and forth for exercise.

While outside the inside is cleaned, sanitized and bedding replaced. We ask customers to bring the dogs favorite toy and during business hours they are in constant human contact from feeding, cookie treats and interactive play. That mimics normal home pet activity and minimizes stress, separation anxiety and in 15 years the dogs are always happy to return.

Our dog runs are fiberglass and unchewable plastic and the wire portions are very small openings so a dog can't chew. Fencing with openings big enough for the dog to chew are a problem because a dog can break its teeth on chain link or other hard metal, or get cut from the chewed wire ends. We use double fencing between runs with a 3" space between (the wall thickness) so a dog pawing or chewing on one side cannot touch the other dogs fencing. Soft music is on 24/7 so the dogs are never in silence wondering if there is someone home.  

The HVAC system has a medical grade biological filter to kill any airborne bacteria that might be brought in. Dishes are stainless steel and washed in a high temperature washer.  We use three products for general cleaning to kill bacteria, fungi and virus to sanitize floors and walls.

Bedding is washed daily and fresh bedding provided daily for each dog. We use filtered softened water from our own well, so no chemicals, or bacteria.  

Besides security conscious employees, we have overt TV cameras that watch the entire pet area and surrounding grounds that goes to a 16 channel DVR and Internet accessible. We've a professional smoke, fire, entry alarm system that is monitored 24/7 and we can see the video in our house 150 feet away. There are also driveway alarms and cameras so we even catch people who just use the drive and parking lot to turn around or decide our drive is the place to bring their disabled car for towing. The kennel has its own septic system apart form the house system.

In case of power outage we have emergency heat and power generation. We have propane tanks as a back up to commercial gas pipe delivery.

Our employees all receive training in dog handling, care, first aid and general operations including practice with our own pet dogs, not customer dogs. A full kitchen provides proper food handling, medication handling, special diet preparation.  The grooming area is a separate room away from the boarding area you have to pass through the office area to get to boarding or grooming rooms. Training is done in a separate building set up just for dog training including agility and other challenge, rally training items.

We have fed Pedigree since day one and have not had a common problem of diarreah due to diet change. Since the massive dog food recall of other brands, we ask customers if they wish to provide their own food so there is no diet change. Dogs receive a mix of dry and canned food that we have found to be a better diet and dry alone or cannned alone. Likewise cats get Friskies dry and canned food. Litter is changed daily, not scooped.

We wrote our own book and DVD for training. Obedience training customers get both as a reference resource and employees receive a copy as part of their training.  

The things to look for in a facility is, is it a safe, comfortable, clean stress free environment that protects your pet and maintains a life rhythm similar to home. Or as we say, the best home away from home.

Regards,
Henry Ruhwiedel
Westwind Kennels LLC