Animal Boarding Establishments

Re: Animal Boarding Establishments

Sally Everitt — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 07:46:49 GMT

Dear Alan,

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health provide Model Licensing Conditions for boarding establishments http://www.cieh.org/advresult.aspx?SearchBox=boarding.

The MLC's for dog boarding conditions are quite old now (1995) but those for cats have been updated to include references to the Animal Welfare Act. Those for Dog Boarding are in the process of being updated in a similar way.

The legislation which covers boarding (The Boarding Establishments Act 1963) is decidedly out of date and is difficult to apply to the many different types of "boarding" now being offered. A working group has been set up to try to address some of these issues and consider how home boarding "Doggy Day Care" and all the other variations should be regulated.

If anyone has any particular concerns that they would like raised at the meeting please let me know and I will pass them on.

Sally

Re: Animal Boarding Establishments

Mark Hedberg — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 20:00:54 GMT

Many local councils ask for evidence that the owner/operator has been suitably trained to operate a boarding kennel or cattery. (Kennel and Cattery Management, or similarly named.)

(Disclaimer, I work for the College of Animal Welfare, which offers such a course. And to take a page from the BBC, other courses are of course available from other providers.)

So evidence of training would be one licensing condition that's a good idea - kennels obviously shouldn't be run by just any one who fancies a punt, our course is a week long full time course.

Your local council should be checking for:

• Dog handling - does the kennel have handling equipment, muzzles, provision for dealing with difficult dogs or dog attacks.
• Health Care - proof that owner or on-site staff can recognize signs of good and ill health
• Parasites - worms, fleas, lice, ticks, mange, mites
• Disease control - does the kennel have plans on how to deal with infectious and zoonotic diseases, and prevention of disease spread?
• Vaccination - does the kennel require up to date vaccinations? (They'd better!)
• Nutrition - how/what/when they feed
• Breeding and Reproduction - mating, care of the pregnant bitch/queen, labour (in fairness this could probably be optional, but sometimes owners aren't aware their pet is pregnant)
• Animal First Aid - how do they deal with emergencies? Are they trained in animal first aid?
• Cats - examination, general care. body language and restraint
• Training - puppy training, training aids, nervousness (this could be optional as well, but if they board puppies, can they deal with puppies?)
• Health and Safety - the responsibilities of supervisors, policies, laws and regulations, handling of chemicals, safety of pets and visitors
• Kennel and Cattery construction - what's local planning permission like? Complying with it is a good idea.
• Kennel and Cattery Management - husbandry, finance, legal matters, The Animal Boarding Establishments Act.

In fairness, this is taken from the outline of our course, and obviously if the kennel owner has done combinations of other courses, or perhaps a certificate or diploma in animal care, or some other recognized qualification that proves competence, that is quite sufficient as well. But the above list is a good baseline to go with.

Work experience is a tricky one; the kennel operator may have worked for years in a kennel but if it was a dodgy kennel all they were doing is memorizing bad practice.

Hope that helped!

Cheers,

Mark

Re: Animal Boarding Establishments

Rob Loxley — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 18:07:54 GMT

[quote user="Alan Tevendale"]Am I wrong to think this set up is unlikely to ever be suitable?[/quote]

I think you could make it so, but lots of vigilance and thought needed and supervision (=manpower & ultimately, cost), whereas my suspicion is this may not be the case if they are just left thrown together for a cheap as chips boarding 'experience'

[quote user="Alan Tevendale"] Presuming that the animal is vaccinated and not due to coming into season whilst boarding or an entire male to be boarded with bitches; then is there a problem here?[/quote]

6 months seems arbitrary, and I can't immediately see their reasoning

Re: Animal Boarding Establishments

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 17:59:48 GMT

[quote user="Alan Tevendale"]These dogs are left in a large pen in a warehouse type building. This has raised some concerns with the local council and certainly does with me as well. I would be worried about the potential for injury, stress, disease transmission as well as appropriate supervision. Am I wrong to think this set up is unlikely to ever be suitable?[/quote]I cannot think of a more unsuitable environment. I would most certainly raise grave concerns over this. I was once asked by the local authority to inspect pets shops with the environmental health officer who like most of his ilk had no experience of these establishments. I told my fee which was I considered fairly modest and I didn't hear from them again. Just as well for the pet shops or I'd probably have closed them all down!

Re: Animal Boarding Establishments

Bob Russell — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 17:43:14 GMT

We have a kennels locally that run on a fairly free range system.

http://www.copiedhallkennels.com/

They will be licensed by New Forest District Council so may be worth having a chat to Environmental Health (02380 285000) and perhaps checking which vet does their licensing now.

Get a few dog bites and scraps and requires a higher standard of management but dogs generally seem to enjoy the experience!

Re-reading your post suggests the place may be a bit dodgy if unsocialised dogs are kept confined in 'packs'. The place above exercises the social dogs together but they are housed in small groups.

Re: Animal Boarding Establishments

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 17:25:13 GMT

We have a client who takes paying dogs into her house. Max of two dogs. They just run with her own dogs. The dogs seem happy. All hers fully vaccinated.