Your Dog and the Kennel

One of the biggest reasons that people do not buy a new puppy is because they do not know what to do when they are out of town or on vacation. Nowadays millions of business professional can be away from home for days on end. And when they are not hard at work, these people may be on vacation. Though it may be hard to believe, most people do like to spend some time apart from their little bundle of puppy joy. In order for this to happen, an owner needs to be able to leave their dog at the kennel. This seems like a pretty easy task, but it does not always work out like that. Some dogs are just down right uncooperative when it comes to taking orders from people other than their owners. A couple of tips that you may want to follow are listed below. These tips can surely help to make your dogs stay at the kennel a little bit easier, and also make your vacation a little more enjoyable.

1. First off, take your new puppy out for a “trial run” of sorts. In other words, if you are expecting to go out of town for a week, about a month in advance leave your dog with a friend or neighbor. This way they can report back to you on how everything went. This will give you a good idea as to what you need to fix before you leave. If you know which problems to address you may be able to fix them before they get to out of control. This trial run is not a necessity, but can surely be helpful in making your dogs stay at the kennel as least stressful as possible.

2. One big problem that new puppy owners make is during the drop off at the kennel. You may have seen this scene before. An owner drops their dog off and causes a huge scene by telling Fido how much you are going to miss him, and how everything will not be the same without him around. These people may not think that this has an effect on the dog, but it most definitely does. This gives the dog the impression that something is going wrong. Your dog will immediately think that if its owner is so upset that their must be something wrong. Remember, dogs can sense your feelings so do not get caught up in these emotions.

3. Playing off number two above, an owner should take their puppy to the kennel with a very positive, happy go luck sort of attitude. Make sure to tell Fido that he is going to have a great time while you are gone, and that the kennel owners are so much fun to be around. Tell him that he is going to make new friends, etc. After showing these positive emotions be sure to give the dog to the kennel owner and walk away. Do not resort back to the problems that we discussed above. If you follow this rule, and keep a positive attitude, you will leave your dog on a good note.

4. Take the appropriate amount of food for your puppy to eat during his stay. It is much easier for your puppy to stay adapted if it is following its usual day to day routine. And this means allowing your puppy to follow its daily diet. Be sure to go over this with the kennel attendants in advance to avoid any unwanted confusion.

5. Take some of your puppy’s favorite toys. This will also help for your puppy to adapt to its surroundings and make its stay as enjoyable as possible. The more your puppy can stick to its routine, the better chance you have for an enjoyable stay.

6. Put an old T-shirt of yours in your puppy’s kennel cage. This will allow your puppy to smell your scent and feel more at home. Though this does not sound like a lot, it can go a long way in ensuring that your new puppy does not get homesick.

Following these six steps can help to ensure that your puppy has a good time at the kennel. Even though there are a lot of bad stories out there about dogs who do cause a ruckus at the kennel, it does not always have to be like that. The above steps will go a long way if you follow them the first time you leave your dog at the kennel.

Keep in mind that after the first time, it gets easier every time after that. If your dog gets used to a particular kennel, and becomes friends with the owners, they will be glad to spend a couple of days or a week away from home.