Pros and cons of working in a dog boarding kennel

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Pros and cons of working in a dog boarding kennel

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I used to do a series of posts called “dogs from my work” and that was because I used to work in a dog boarding kennels. I don’t work there anymore because I unfortunately had issues with transport but I thought it would be fun to share the pros and cons that I personally found while working there since it’s not just playing with cute dogs all day. Just to be clear this is for a dog boarding kennels which is where people bring their dogs to stay when they are at work or go on holiday. Not a dog rescue shelter.

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PROS

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You get to cuddle and play with dogs

Most of the dogs being boarded need human attention so this usually involves just sitting in the dogs kennel and petting them or just sitting with them. Not all of the dogs want to play but some of them will have toys provided by their owner so that we can play with the dog for a bit.

Puppies

It doesn’t happen that often but some people bring in their puppies to stay and puppies are always fun to play with and obviously super adorable. The people at my particular one also had Dobermann puppies which needed to be played with, bathed and trained.

Dog walking

I personally really enjoyed walking the dogs. They had a big field for the dogs to run around in that was securely fenced so a lot of the time they could run around or play with a ball. It was also nice to get experience with walking a whole range of different breeds.

Rewarding

It’s quite rewarding when sometimes dogs come in really scared or not interested in you but after time they start to trust you and start showing their true colours. I vividly a spaniel named Roo who would let me pet her but would just sit in the corner of her kennel looking miserable and didn’t show any sort of emotion when I was with her. I kept trying and eventually she became super excited every time I came up to her kennel gate and would leap into my lap with her tail wagging. It’s just a nice feeling when a dog that was scared of you or very shy starts to trust you.

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Cons

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A LOT of cleaning

The main part of this job is cleaning. Every morning I was required to clean every dogs kennel, even if there was no mess in it. I had to do this for both the single dog sized kennels and the ones that were built to hold more than one dog so they were more than double the size. I also had to clean two sets of corridors every day, remove any dog hairs from drains and clean all of the outdoor runs after every dog. I also had to change bedding, clean food and water bowls and empty out the buckets of dog poop which isn’t fun. The entire morning up until lunch time would be spent doing all of this as well as feeding and switching up all the dogs outdoor time.

Aggressive dogs

Some dogs might just be aggressive but most of them often show this behaviour out of fear since it’s a new environment with strange new people. I had a shih tzu try attacking me and did manage to bite me on the back of my leg. Fortunately this was my only incident and it wasn’t very serious but there’s many larger dogs that will be very aggressive when you walk past them but as soon as you actually go into the kennel they will run away in fear and bark at you. It’s sad to see but if the owner is happy for them to be kept in the kennels then there’s nothing that can be done about it.

Noise

The particular kennel I worked at had the capacity to hold 60 dogs. I had never been there on a totally full day but I had been there on very busy days. You can probably imagine the constant barking that goes on all day. As soon as one dog starts they all start.

Low pay, weather conditions and holidays

Being a kennel assistant is usually a minimum wage job. You’re constantly on your feet doing things so it doesn’t pay that well for the work you’re required to do.

As well as low pay you will have to work outside in all weather conditions and usually around the holiday seasons. Holidays such as Christmas are when boarding kennels will make the most money as people will go away to visit their family and often can’t take their dog. Most kennels will stay open all year round which means you will be required to work around these times.

Owners not coming back for their dogs

This isn’t a problem that happens all the time but when I was working there someone did phone up and say that they didn’t want their dog back. They didn’t pay the kennels for the extra time keeping the dog in and left it up to us to find a home for the dog. Apparently that wasn’t the first time this had happened. I just felt really bad for the dog :pensive:

Luckily the German shepherd rescue was able to find her a home.

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These are just the pros and cons from the particular kennel I worked at. The pros and cons might be slightly different at other places. I have done work experience at one kennel and an actual paid job at another and the one I did work experience at was basically all cons as it wasn’t a nice place. Make sure to ask lots of questions and get a good look around when choosing a boarding kennel if you go down that route.

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~•Thank you for reading•~

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