What are some reasons why I wouldn't be able to board my dog?

So if your dog were ill, if they had an infectious disease like kennel cough, we would not accept them to be boarded because that's just not fair to the other animals that are here. So that would be one reason. If you declined to do the preventative care that we recommend, like vaccines or deworming, things like that. If you said, "No, I don't want to do that." Well, then, we have specific protocols in place, so we would say, "Well, sorry, we can't board your pet."

Our boarding facility requires a certain set of vaccines, and the whole purpose behind that is to best protect your pet that is going to come and be around other animals. So if your pet didn't have the required vaccinations, they might not be able to board at a facility or our facility. The reason you may choose not to board at a facility depends on your pet's stress level. Maybe you felt that your pet was better at home, and you could get a pet sitter to come into the home. Maybe it would eat better, and there could be other health reasons that make you want to do that. But that can be facilitated well at a boarding facility like ours, where we can offer special care for those patients or boarders with special needs.

You have to consider the situation with your dog. If they are in high medical need and you don't think it is appropriate for somebody to take care of the dog in the way you think is in your dog's best interests. If you have a dog with special needs, understand that at the dog boarding facilities, many individuals are not trained to handle some of the situations arising with your particular pet. So keep that in consideration. Some other reasons will be if you have a very aggressive dog that may not do well with the handlers because, obviously, they have to be able to handle your dog and take them outside, or maybe they have to avoid interaction with other dogs. Also, consider if your dog is a very high-anxiety dog, and we'll talk more about that in a moment; there can be some other reasons why you may not find it appropriate to board your dog. I'm always going to circle back to the fact that if you need to leave town and leave your dog with someone or at a boarding facility, always try to see if you can get an in-house pet sitter or take your pet to somebody else's house. If you can get more in an in-home environment, that will always be less stressful and a better situation for everybody.

Any patient that is currently battling an illness, like if your dog has just been hospitalized for a few days for bloody diarrhea or vomiting or has just had major abdominal surgery, these are times that I would not recommend boarding. If we've had a major life or health scare, I would recommend finding someone to stay with your dog 24-7, like an in-house pet sitter or a family member.

When considering boarding for a pet, especially one recovering from a life-threatening disease, major surgery, or a significant health scare, it's important to weigh the risks. While boarding facilities do their utmost to provide care and supervision, they often have multiple animals to look after, sometimes as many as twenty, forty, or even fifty dogs at a time. This high volume of pets can limit the amount of individual attention and immediate care each animal receives.

In such scenarios, if something were to go wrong with your pet's health, the staff might not be able to address it immediately due to their responsibility for other animals. Therefore, I generally advise against boarding pets in these sensitive health conditions. The risk of inadequate immediate care in the event of a health complication is a significant factor to consider. It's always best to ensure that pets recovering from serious health issues receive the focused and specialized care they need, which might be challenging in a standard boarding facility.