Big Stretch Boarding & Daycare

06/23/2025

Today (and tomorrow) is a day for leaving the dogs inside in A/C. Frozen kongs and ice cubes all around. You get a treat puzzle! You get a treat puzzle! You get a treat puzzle! *Is that Oprah quote too out of date yet? 🤣

06/21/2025

Okie, the tiny guest with a largest personality. She's tired from yelling at all the big dogs 🤣

06/20/2025

Enjoying the much improved weather this morning.

Not the mosquitoes though lol 🫣

06/06/2025

NBDHS is also hosting a microchip event tomorrow at Barkfest.
https://facebook.com/events/s/barkfest-microchip-clinic-and-/4079607622310281/

RICHARD & THE POWER OF MICROCHIPS

Every year, microchips help reunite missing pets with their family. For tabby Richard, his microchip helped him fly home to Calgary!

In February 2024, the then 3-year-old orange tabby Richard arrived to the North Bay Humane Society as a stray. Unbeknownst to staff, Richard had been missing for almost six months, having run away from pet mom Krista during a visit to North Bay. Thankfully Richard was microchipped, so finding his family was easy using our microchip scanner. The hard part was that Krista and her family were now in Calgary and Richard had no way home!

Enter heroes Jeremy and Angel from Pilots4Paws, two pilots who offered to fly Richard to Calgary through their charity's non-profit mission to reunite lost pets with their families. After a scenic flight across the country in a small two-seater plane, Richard arrived in Calgary and was embraced by Krista. Amazing story, right? That's the power and importance of microchipping your pets -- a reliable system when you need it most!

Register for Barkfest: www.nbdhs.ca/barkfest

Support Pilots4Paws: https://www.pilots4paws.com/

06/05/2025

Dogs lately 🐶

Slacking on posting, too busy doing dog lady stuff and gardening 🤣

04/24/2025

A day in the field for Big Stretch; kitty visits, and chicken check-ins. Plus, a visit to our #1 four legged postal worker in Thorne.

If you were wondering, I will happily accept tips in egg form 🐔🥚🤤

04/09/2025

**Please take this with a grain of salt and make all health decisions for your pet with your veterinarian. This is just a little train of thought that I had earlier and thought my dog loving followers might be interested.

Doing some "light" reading on spaying and neutering and the health benefits of delaying it for your dog and it turns out there's been some new science on the issue.

The AKC has a handy little article going over the details, that's also where this quick reference chart is from:
https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/study-updates-spay-neuter-guidelines/

And another article: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00388/full

I find this interesting, both on how it relates to my experience as a volunteer in dog rescue, being a devoted dog mom, and to the guests that stay with us at Big Stretch.

From a rescue point of view, I whole heartedly believe in spaying and neutering pets to prevent adding to the overpopulation issue, the last thing we need is more puppies. As a pet owner, I can see how the health benefits of waiting are worth the risk of a whoopsie litter. As a pet care provider, altering your pet can reduce behavioral issues that are likely to occur in a group play scenario (like aggression, dominance behavior, marking). I usually have to supervise my unaltered guests more closely. As a general rule, if there's any issue between the dogs, the unaltered pet is the one who has to be removed from attendance. That being said, I do have a number of them who are completely fine, and I've since stopped considering being unaltered an immediate reason not to let a dog come to daycare or be boarded. That's why we always do a trial visit first, so I can assess how eveyone fits into the pack before we do a full day or overnight stay. It's only a little more work for me, and let's not pretend I don't enjoy meeting new dogs.

Anywho, it's one of those no right answer situations, I think, and that's the thought of the day from your local crazy dog lady 🤣

03/26/2025

Meanwhile our other romantic duo. Chance and his stick, it's an unending love story.

03/26/2025

A little Caramilk puppy love for your feed today. 6 and 7 months old, and keeping each other out of trouble (yes, I am exhausted) 🤣

03/14/2025

Happy Friday everyone! Please note, I'm unavailable Monday and Tuesday, I have a few appointments to take care of.

Also, with the warm weather, don't forget your flea and tick medications. The time is nigh! (Bittersweet, am I right?)

03/14/2025

Guess which one is the most chaos 🤣

03/09/2025

Duke from November to March. They grow so fast!