Ya Gotta Tell Them!
I read an article recently about a Dog Day Care Facility who had a dog escape during the middle of the day and no employee noticed. When the dog’s owners returned at the end of the dayno dog. The article did not share if there was a happy ending to the story, but what the article did share was that, after the fact, the owners told the day care the dog was a fence climber.
I used to own a boarding kennel and dog training facility. Over the Christmas holiday one year, a new family brought me their two Cocker Spaniels to board for two weeks. The wife dropped the dogs off and instructed me to clean the dog’s ears daily. Knowing that not all dogs enjoy an ear cleaning and since I was not familiar with my new guests, I questioned her how well the dogs would accept the cleaning. She assured me they would be fine. On the first attempt to clean the ears I received the worst bite of my professional career. I thought the dog crushed my finger – had it not been so painful, it was almost comical. One of those moments where the dog had my hand locked between his jaws and I had to use the other hand to pry open his mouth! He made a very strong point that he didn’t want to have his ears cleaned.
Fast forward two weeks to when the owners were to pick up the dogsthis time it was the husband who picked them up (wife dropped them off). As soon as he came in the door I informed him that the dogs never got their ears cleaned and that the male bit me badly on my first attempt. His reply”oh yeah, I’m sorry, they bite us all the time when we do that too!”
The point to sharing these stories is to encourage you share information about your pet’s behavior and personality with pet care providers. If the Day Care had known the dog was a escape artist, they could have taken precautions to make sure he did not escape. If I had known the cockers would bite with ear cleanings, I could have taken precautions and kept their ears in better health and my hand in better health. I could share a million more stories like these – my only guess as to why they happen so often is that sometimes pet owners might be a little ashamed of their pet’s behaviors. My advice to you is to forget about the embarrassment and share with your pet care professionals what they need to know to help keep your pet safe.
On the other hand – there are many pet care providers out there that just don’t care enough. I’ve seen many of them – and I cringe when I think about the heartbreak they could cause because of their reckless or careless behavior. I wish I could tell you exactly how to avoid those type of pet professionals – but I can’t. I can however give you some suggestions from the perspective of someone who took care of pets for a living.
1. Everything in the pet business should be clean, clean, clean! I’m not kidding when I say this – my kennel and training facility was cleaner than my home. And I firmly believe that if the pet business owner doesn’t care enough about the cleanliness of the facility – what else don’t they care about? The business doesn’t have to be ‘state of the art’ modern – but it should be very clean.
2. Meet the staff. Try to meet and talk with as many employees as possible. That is difficult from the business owners perspective – they have work to do. However these are the people that will be caring for your baby – try to meet as many as you can.
3. Get references – and call those references. There is nothing better to calm the nerves of a nervous pet owner than to talk with other pet owners who have experienced the care provided by this pet business.
4. Most states mandate that pet care businesses be licensed. Call the licensing agency and the Better Business Bureau and ask if there are any reports of abuse or misconduct with the business you are considering.
