Kennels and their treatment of your dog, do you REALLY know?
Discussion
Recently had to return to the UK for a friends wedding so put the dogs into kennels for a few days.
Spent weeks researching various within the area to ensure the dogs would have a nice place to stay as this was the first time they had ever been left.
Went to view a lovely place, their own kennel with small a garden each, lovely farm setting, dogs would be walked / played with, provide whatever food you wanted, etc.
Decided on this location, arrived, leaving the dogs, their bed / toys etc and the specifics of their dietary requirement (agreed on the initial visit).
Now we live in Germany and our German is not the best, so we specifically checked and rechecked (and confirmed in German and English) that all the requirements we had asked for / specified were noted and would be regarded ... Now I know this sounds pedantic, but our Blue Frenchie (I assume as a result of his breeding) can be quite sensitive to changes in food and seems to be allergic to certain types of grain which causes him to be come ill.
So we left on the Friday and returned on the Monday, no problems no calls from the kennel ...
Upon picking up the Dogs;
Dog 1;
Looked thin, like he had not been eating
3 cuts on his head, questioned and told to be as a result of 'playing' with our other dog. (Now, nothing like this had happened before). Upon further inspection, the 3 points resembled a dogs bite mark (front two and 1 bottom).
Dog 2;
Fat! I assume he had been eating dogs 1 food .... or they had been over feeding them.
Now, I gave the kennel the benefit of the doubt as I just wanted to leave and get home and obviously had no evidence to suggest anything contrary to what they had told me.
Driving home the Dog1 was sick, solid dry biscuits, now this was a direct contradiction to what we had specifically told them to feed the dogs, wet food only (chicken and rice), which on multiple occasions they told us this is no problem, OK, yes we can support, we cook the dogs specifically what you ask for etc. (confirmed in English and German).
We returned home and he was struggling to eat and to drink, so we decided to keep an eye on him, feed him small amounts of plan chicken / water / ice cube to try and keep his hydration up (Bulldogs overheat / dehydrate relatively quickly).
The next morning he started passing blood, and vomiting anything at all we fed him, even water, obviously at this point we took him to the vets who performed umber of tests but couldn't find anything wrong, he was given a anti-vomit injection and told to watch him / return in 24 hours ....
Anyway his condition continued to deteriorate appx 12 hours later (I assume after the injection wore off), he was literally s***ing blood and blood only ...
Rushed back to the vests for additional testing and X-Rays etc, as a result of the Kennel not following our instruction he had suffered a reaction to the food and his lower stomach had become massively inflamed and swollen and he was passing the lining (my German / English translation, at least this is what I understood!) ... It didn't look very good at all, so the vet prescribed a number of anti-inflammatory, anti-vomit and anti-biotic.
We took the day off to spend with Gizmo (just in case), but thankfully his situation started to improve and he eventually made a full recovery (although now he has something wrong with his paw ...)
The point of this post is the fact that surely a Kennel, should know that a fundamental rule is you never change a dogs food suddenly, you should always ask the owner of any allergies (!) before taking such a decision!!!
Anyway the whole saga cost us around 1,000 and we decided to go and see a lawyer about the Kennels actions being the cause of the dogs illness.
Long story short, we now have a no-contact order, threatened with further Legal action if we leave any review (we said we would leave bad reviews) and the saga continues.
The Kennel accused us of lying, injuring our own dog (we have our normal vet confirm the dogs health on the day of being dropped off at the kennel, due to having their boosters), inventing the story with respect to the vets (even after lists of treatments were provided), saying we did not tell them what to feed them (even though it was in the checking in sheet, which they conveniently lost) and to top it off the bag with their bed / blankets / toys / food bowls in hadn't even been opened ....
So long story short, be careful with whom and where you leave your dogs!
(Bearing in mind, the three days in Kennels cost around 300 euro), which the Kennel offered to refund originally ...
Has anyone else had an bad experiences? I now this will be the minority, but I was really shocked at the treatment and attitude towards caring for the dogs, I assumed people in this business would also have a care about the animals they looked after .... Or is everything really only about money these days!
What an essay ....
Spent weeks researching various within the area to ensure the dogs would have a nice place to stay as this was the first time they had ever been left.
Went to view a lovely place, their own kennel with small a garden each, lovely farm setting, dogs would be walked / played with, provide whatever food you wanted, etc.
Decided on this location, arrived, leaving the dogs, their bed / toys etc and the specifics of their dietary requirement (agreed on the initial visit).
Now we live in Germany and our German is not the best, so we specifically checked and rechecked (and confirmed in German and English) that all the requirements we had asked for / specified were noted and would be regarded ... Now I know this sounds pedantic, but our Blue Frenchie (I assume as a result of his breeding) can be quite sensitive to changes in food and seems to be allergic to certain types of grain which causes him to be come ill.
So we left on the Friday and returned on the Monday, no problems no calls from the kennel ...
Upon picking up the Dogs;
Dog 1;
Looked thin, like he had not been eating
3 cuts on his head, questioned and told to be as a result of 'playing' with our other dog. (Now, nothing like this had happened before). Upon further inspection, the 3 points resembled a dogs bite mark (front two and 1 bottom).
Dog 2;
Fat! I assume he had been eating dogs 1 food .... or they had been over feeding them.
Now, I gave the kennel the benefit of the doubt as I just wanted to leave and get home and obviously had no evidence to suggest anything contrary to what they had told me.
Driving home the Dog1 was sick, solid dry biscuits, now this was a direct contradiction to what we had specifically told them to feed the dogs, wet food only (chicken and rice), which on multiple occasions they told us this is no problem, OK, yes we can support, we cook the dogs specifically what you ask for etc. (confirmed in English and German).
We returned home and he was struggling to eat and to drink, so we decided to keep an eye on him, feed him small amounts of plan chicken / water / ice cube to try and keep his hydration up (Bulldogs overheat / dehydrate relatively quickly).
The next morning he started passing blood, and vomiting anything at all we fed him, even water, obviously at this point we took him to the vets who performed umber of tests but couldn't find anything wrong, he was given a anti-vomit injection and told to watch him / return in 24 hours ....
Anyway his condition continued to deteriorate appx 12 hours later (I assume after the injection wore off), he was literally s***ing blood and blood only ...
Rushed back to the vests for additional testing and X-Rays etc, as a result of the Kennel not following our instruction he had suffered a reaction to the food and his lower stomach had become massively inflamed and swollen and he was passing the lining (my German / English translation, at least this is what I understood!) ... It didn't look very good at all, so the vet prescribed a number of anti-inflammatory, anti-vomit and anti-biotic.
We took the day off to spend with Gizmo (just in case), but thankfully his situation started to improve and he eventually made a full recovery (although now he has something wrong with his paw ...)
The point of this post is the fact that surely a Kennel, should know that a fundamental rule is you never change a dogs food suddenly, you should always ask the owner of any allergies (!) before taking such a decision!!!
Anyway the whole saga cost us around 1,000 and we decided to go and see a lawyer about the Kennels actions being the cause of the dogs illness.
Long story short, we now have a no-contact order, threatened with further Legal action if we leave any review (we said we would leave bad reviews) and the saga continues.
The Kennel accused us of lying, injuring our own dog (we have our normal vet confirm the dogs health on the day of being dropped off at the kennel, due to having their boosters), inventing the story with respect to the vets (even after lists of treatments were provided), saying we did not tell them what to feed them (even though it was in the checking in sheet, which they conveniently lost) and to top it off the bag with their bed / blankets / toys / food bowls in hadn't even been opened ....
So long story short, be careful with whom and where you leave your dogs!
(Bearing in mind, the three days in Kennels cost around 300 euro), which the Kennel offered to refund originally ...
Has anyone else had an bad experiences? I now this will be the minority, but I was really shocked at the treatment and attitude towards caring for the dogs, I assumed people in this business would also have a care about the animals they looked after .... Or is everything really only about money these days!
What an essay ....
Disastrous said:
Absolutely appalling for your poor dog.
Very intrigued which area of Germany you are in. My fiancée is Bavarian and I'm routinely staggered at how insanely aggressive companies there are when they are at fault.
It seems that they all keep the lawyers on speed dial and make no attempt ever, to reconcile with the customer, preferring to lose in court than admit a mistake.
I would add that this seems to be a symptom of the 'rank and file', where some bossy old sow on the front desk utterly refuses to acknowledge any error and a swift phone call to the business owner can often rectify things but I've had experiences where I've gone over someone's head and the boss has made them issue a refund or whatever and they have done so silently, refusing to acknowledge me, because they are in such a huff at being overruled.
Insane quirk of nature but weirdly common there.
North West, rather than trying to resolve between us the lawyer was involved in less than 5 days.Very intrigued which area of Germany you are in. My fiancée is Bavarian and I'm routinely staggered at how insanely aggressive companies there are when they are at fault.
It seems that they all keep the lawyers on speed dial and make no attempt ever, to reconcile with the customer, preferring to lose in court than admit a mistake.
I would add that this seems to be a symptom of the 'rank and file', where some bossy old sow on the front desk utterly refuses to acknowledge any error and a swift phone call to the business owner can often rectify things but I've had experiences where I've gone over someone's head and the boss has made them issue a refund or whatever and they have done so silently, refusing to acknowledge me, because they are in such a huff at being overruled.
Insane quirk of nature but weirdly common there.
Seems to be the norm with the older Germans (50+), I find the younger ones much more pleasant and European to deal with.
xjay1337 said:
Surely you all have friends who like your dogs who would look after them for a short time period? EG a week or two weeks.
Stuff the Fridge full of food and leave them £200 for their inconvenience and most people would have mates who know their dogs fairly well and would look after them far better than any of these kennels?
I would want our dogs (or any dog I care about!) in Kennels. I appreciate this is not always possible with short notice or if you live in a random place or whatever but surely home-care with a trusted friend is much better?
We do not know that many people here, my boss is the only colleague with a dog (most are young / apartment / city living), he agreed to look after our two dogs for our summer holiday so I didn't want to push my luck and ask for the wedding, plus our dogs are, quite honestly, spoilt and his is an actual dog!Stuff the Fridge full of food and leave them £200 for their inconvenience and most people would have mates who know their dogs fairly well and would look after them far better than any of these kennels?
I would want our dogs (or any dog I care about!) in Kennels. I appreciate this is not always possible with short notice or if you live in a random place or whatever but surely home-care with a trusted friend is much better?
As R E S said earlier, I would happily pay whatever the cost for them to ensure they are safe, comfortable, well fed, walked and looked after, it is not exactly difficult; we hardly have two Great Danes, they spend 60% of the day napping!
Trexthedinosaur said:
So, my lawyer has stated we have reached a point where we let it go or go to court.
Now whilst I am right in Principal, I need to prove WHY the dogs need to be fed Chicken and Rice ..... It seems having a contractual agreement means nothing here in Germany.
Tried this, have a letter from the Vet but no justification as to why.Now whilst I am right in Principal, I need to prove WHY the dogs need to be fed Chicken and Rice ..... It seems having a contractual agreement means nothing here in Germany.
We also have all of the medical bills from after the vent that show the inflamed / swollen stomach ... but this does not seem to matter.
Friday - Healthly
Monday - Sick
What changed, their food ....
Anyway, over it now!!! Dogs are healthy 😁
And as a note we paid around €120 per day for them both, so not what you would expect ... Probably the most expensive / nicest kennel we could find in the area, cost does not equal quality it seems.
Just returned from a weekend in the mountains, dog friendly hotel ... Much easier!
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