The Dog Chicks

And this is why it’s always so much fun to meet Doggers!

I was just talking with my friend Jamie who’s family has been taken over by a 6 pound Maltese named Lucky-Dog. They’ve had him for about 2 years now and his impact on all the humans in *his* home has been tremendous. My favorite story is about how Lucky-Dog loves to sit on her fathers shoulder as he watches tv and her poor Dad tells L-D that ‘he has no food’ and Jamie always shoots back that *He loves you Dad!*. Jamie’s Dad isn’t the hugest Dogger on the planet but he does love his Lucky-Dog.

Watching families drop off their Dog or Dogs at the kennel was always an experience and most often in a good way. I love watching the way that business men and women are so in love with their Dogs that they become all mushy and human when they have to leave them. I love that they send them with special toys and t-shirts that smell like their parents. And it’s interesting to watch the Dogs that are so happy and stable that they have no idea how difficult it is for their people to leave them. On the flip side, it always makes me a little bit sad when I have to take Dogs into the kennel when they are clearly going to miss both their people and their home…..but the reunion is always fantastic.

Thinking about this reminds me of one of the most poignant reunions I ever had the gift of witnessing. An older Shepherd/Yellow-Lab cross was in kennel 25 when I got to work after a day off. I had no idea who his Person was but I loved this Dog. His name was Lucky. Lucky had the air of a senior Dog who had hardly had a bad day in his entire life and who was very serious. He seemed a little bit concerned about being where he was but we all took extra time to care for him and to give him the attention that he needed. Sunday, when Lucky was going home he got the basic kennel bath which included no extra brushing but myself and Jonathan, a young kennel worker with an enormous heart, gave this dog the bath and grooming of his life. Lucky was shedding like a machine at the time and we combed and brushed him like he was a million dollar show dog. About 10 minutes before the kennel closed an older man walked into the lobby using a cane. While I looked up his invoice he had to sit down because standing was difficult for him. I didn’t even connect that this was the Lucky’s person until I went to get the Dog.

I can’t even tell you how this man’s face lit up when he saw his baby looking all clean and beautiful….there is something poetic about watching people who love their Dogs reunite with them. Lucky had come to the kennel a *big hairy monster* and he got to go home a beautiful prince. I don’t know anything about this man or his Lucky except that they love each other and that they are both nearing the end of their lives. Knowing that is all I needed to know and being able to make that Dog look so pretty that his Dad’s eyes lit up was enough to make my day and my week and it still makes me smile.

The best part about working in a kennel is the wonderful relationships you get to become a small part of when you’re caring for the member of the family who can’t go on the cruise or to Disney World.

My friend read all the Dog boarding information I put up and what she took away from it was that she would be unhappy if she sent high quality cookies to a kennel and then found out that her Dogs were getting treats of a lessor quality.?? Having spent a great deal of time in Dog kennels I can say with authority that any treat your Dog gets is the best thing in the world to them.? This doesn’t mean that they are being deprived but that having someone give them a snack is the best thing *ever* to them and that is what you want to have happen with them while you are away.

This is why most kennel workers love to see boxes of treats come in with the Dogs.? Kennels won’t spend the money for erroneous Dog snacks but almost all of them love to hand out cookies to the boarders.?? I love to walk the kennel every night before I leave and give every Dog a biscuit to remind them that they are special.?? And believe me, they all get that message before they go to bed for the night.

So send your Dog or Dogs off with treats to share.? This is one of those rare situations where it’s not about the quality but about the quantity.

I have never boarded my dog Bae and my parent?s dog, Thurber, has never even set foot in a Kennel. In fact, Thurber is coming to stay with me for a week while my parents go on vacation. But Thurber has terminal cancer so he needs special care right now. But this doesn’t mean that I’m against ‘kenneling’, because I’m not. I’ve sometimes been jealous of people who could leave their dogs. My parents kenneled their first two dogs but when Badger was about 5 they left him at a kennel and found out that he’d been crated in the back of the “facility’ the entire time. Badger was not in good shape and my father, who taught me all about how to be a maniac about your pets, has never used a Kennel again and feels guilty about that event 18 years after it happened.

My Dad would have boarded Thurber at any facility I managed but Thurber really is too sensitive for that experience. He lives the life of a hot house flower and it’s been my observation that dogs who are the center of their parents lives kennel less well than other dogs. Poor Thurber has always been a very conservative boy to the point where moving a chair in the living room makes him unhappy. He spends every night on the couch, between my parents, snoozing and being randomly petted. My mother and father are the center of his existence and he loves all members of my family to distraction. There is a certain honor in being able to protect his world.

Now with Bae, she is a maniac. She doesn’t care about other dogs at all and when I put her in a kennel run for 3 minutes she completely fell apart. Just so you know, I thought her extreme display of emotion was undignified and totally over the top. The barking and twirling made it seem like she was being prepared for slaughter, but it worked pretty well for her because I never did it again. I know from working at Kennels that Border Collies don’t do very well in the kennel environment. They tend to bark reflexively and spend a lot of time twirling.

Labs, Springers and Goldens tend to do really well in the Kennel but again, the hot house flowers have a more difficult time of it. Older dogs tend to look very sad unless and I think that’s because most of them are only kenneled about once a year and they appear to miss their people pretty desperately. If the kennel you use has the option of daycare and you can afford it I would suggest taking that option even if it’s only every other day. Day care breaks up the boarding experience very constructively. My favorite dog in the universe from my first Kennel was a Springer named Annie, or ‘Annie Banannie’. She loved everyone she ever met, human or canine or feline and I’m thinking she loved most bugs as well. Annie was so much fun that she could bring rocks to life If I had a dog like her I’d feel guilty if I didn’t kennel her. Her mother is very blessed to have a dog with so much sunshine.