05/10/2023
Good morning!
I just wanted to address something I saw this morning on another kennel page (in England). A woman arrived unannounced at their premises and asked to be let in to see the kennels. She was told this wasn’t possible just then and was asked to phone and make an appointment.
And she was outraged. And has proceeded to post all over the internet that the business must have something to hide and advising people to never make a booking at a boarding premises unless they arrive unannounced and do a “spot check”.
This is really bad advice. For several reasons.
1. Animal Welfare - not all dogs like us to have visitors. Indeed, for some, having strangers coming in can be very upsetting. Therefore, all appointments at Riverside are tailored to our current cohort.
There will most certainly be times when we don’t do visits at all on certain days. And this will be because it is not in certain dogs’ best interests to have visitors and will cause undue stress.
Having visitors also disturbs our daily routine and therefore we do our visits at a time which best suits the dogs. At Riverside this is 10:00 and 10:20am.
Schools and nurseries don’t allow people to randomly enter their premises. It is simply too disruptive. And as far as we are concerned the animals in our care should be afforded that same courtesy.
2. Security. At Riverside we much prefer people to have come to see the kennels and meet us before they bring their dog for the first time. A kennel visit is important- you can ask any questions you have and we can find out the information we need about your dog.
When you phone to make that appointment we will always ask a few simple questions which serve to reassure us that the enquiry is genuine. If there is ever any doubt about that an appointment is not given.
I have lost count of the number of times people have arrived on our doorstep, kids in the car, asking to “just pop in and see the doggies”. We are not a petting farm. Or, people have stopped by to see the kennels “just in case they decide to go away sometime “. Under no circumstances will we grant people access to the dogs in these scenarios.
Children are not allowed onto the premises. Can you imagine the horror if they put their fingers into a dog and are bitten?!
3. Environmental Health. The vast majority of the time the dogs are settled and quiet. There is no need for them to bark. Our visitors are often impressed that when they arrive in the car park they don’t hear any barking.
That does, however, change when we take people inside. You are coming into their safe space. And they will bark. If we let people arrive randomly we would cause an noise issue.
More importantly though that also causes an animal welfare issue.
To summarise - if you are planning to use kennels for the first time do take the time to visit. But phone first. Make an appointment that is at a suitable time for the animals. And if you do decide to arrive unannounced and aren’t allowed in don’t jump to the conclusion that the business is trying to hide something - that is very unlikely. They are just running their business in the way they know it needs to be run.
At Riverside it’s dogs first, people second. And that’s just how it needs to be.
