Kennels In France

[Anyone for Cricket?]

I was unfortunate enough to have to return to England at very short notice and as a result I had to find a dog kennels for my two dogs and the cat.  I went to the nearest kennels as my cat does not travel well, all seemed fine, I was shown to a kennel to deposit my dogs, one fairly elderly the other middle aged and my cat, paid my money and that was that.  I was concentrating on the trip and so did not take as much notice of the surroundings as I should have done but was relatively happy with what I saw.  I returned a week later, unannounced as I was keen to see the dogs.  The owner was reluctant to let me in and asked me to wait in the office whilst they fetched the dogs, I feigned miscomprehension and followed her out, she went to a small outside kennel, not the boxes I was shown on my first visit and there were my dogs, my elderly dog was led shivering on the concrete floor, there was no heating and she was clearly not happy, I grabbed the dogs and asked for the cat, she too was in an outside area, there were only three sides to the building, the fourth was a make shift wire fronted affair which would work in July but this was April and it was cold.  I left distraught and vowed to look into a better place for next time.  MY middle aged dog returned with a thankfully mild case of kennel cough, my older dog only lived a few months more, not of course directly attributable to the kennel but I still fell guilty for not making sure it was adequate for her.

 

So, after this horrible experience I started to look in to the whole standards area for French kennels.  It seems that there are standards and that all new kennels must follow these they include things like 5 metre squared inside boxes, tiled floors for easy cleaning etc.    You should always be given a contract whereby you tell them your normal vet and certify that the animals are up to date with vaccines etc., only rabies is mandatory but a kennel that asks for more is a better kennel in my opinion. I then visited some in my area and found to my joy that they are some that do follow the law and even go further.  I now leave my dogs in kennels that are 5 metre squared have there own private terrace, the other dogs can’t see them and so they are all calmer, the cat too has her own terrace, glass between each cat and joy of joys a webcam so that I can keep an eye on my pets whilst away!  Both dogs and cats also have heating in winter and aircon in summer.  They have an exercise area and are walked every day, if you go to a kennels with only 1 or 2 members of staff it is obvious the dogs are not walked, work it out 15 minutes times 20 dogs!

 

You will shocked to know that this new kennel came at just 1 Euro per night more than the last place. I have been told that is it standard practice in older kennels to keep a nicer kennel for arrivals only to move the dogs to anywhere that holds a dogs, I have even heard some put them in garages overnight, all hearsay of course. 

 

So in short be warned, check what you are getting and if you can go for a new kennel which follows all the standards, you can then go away guilt free.

 

If I am allowed to name my new place which comes highly recommended, it is La Ferme de Dienne, in Dienne near Lussac Les Chateaux, it is French owned and run.

[Deimos]

I have always asked my dog club for recommendations when needing a kennel (plus checked the kennel). I guess one can only go on recommendations as even if you check, you will be shown the good bits and have to trust what happens once you leave your pets.

I always take my dogs own food for them when they are in kennels (not a massive issue as they are not sensitive to anything - but I think it is one less aspect for them to get stressed over). When I lived in the UK I was sure that they did NOT feed my dog the food I had taken as, one time I returned to collect him to see the bags I had measured for each meal still sitting on a shelf. My experience of French kennels is that I am confidant they do feed the meals I measure out as I always include an extra meal or two (in case I get delayed) and they always have the correct meals left when I collect my dogs and return the unused meals - which to me means they are taking a bit of care.

Also, when I collected my dog once (from the UK kennels) they had just "bathed him". Giving a Border Collie a bath is normally challenging. Giving my Border Collie a bath is neigh on impossible and then a blow dry - they must have been well motivated. I cannot help bus ask why they did this. Maybe just to make a good impression or maybe I'm cynical is wondering if he needed it for some reason (he never normally gets baths as they are too messy and impossible).

So I guess it is not just French kennels you have to "be careful" with.

One question though. Is there some sort of certificate or approval or anything that shows the kennel confirms to the standard and is checked/verified. French are quite into "norms" and certification things and it would be helpful if one could ask "have you got ..... ?"

Ian

[Catalpa]

[quote user="Deimos"]Also, when I collected my dog once (from the UK kennels) they had just "bathed him". Giving a Border Collie a bath is normally challenging. Giving my Border Collie a bath is neigh on impossible and then a blow dry - they must have been well motivated. [/quote]

Or the owners were not motivated to clean his kennel / run out regularly, resulting in a very dirty coat which they have to wash before you collect him. One kennel we took dogs to in Wiltshire clearly didn't clean out the runs or exercise the dogs very often because ours came out stinking. We decided they'd actually been lying in urine and excrement. They also came out hoarse as if they'd spent the time barking. Dreadful kennels.

[Alexis]

Well, Lulu goes to a very nice place not far from Dinan.

The only other kennel I know was run by a friend in the UK and she took very, very good care of her guests.

I'm afraid that if one of my family went into a kennels and I arrived and found them in a pitifull state, fists would fly.  Rather like my brother when he turned up to collect his dogs one time...

Anger management.  That is my next project[;-)]

[vickybear]

I can recommend Animal Cottage at Jauldes, just outside La Rochefoucauld, Charente. French owned and run, absolutely lovely place. The owner has a grooming salon on site so you can kill 2 birds with one stone if you wish and get your dog trimmed at the same time. Lovely kennels for cats too.

One of my dogs was very upset with the thunder on her first visit and ended up spending the stay in the owners house! Mext time I took them the owner had made full notes of what had happened on the last visit and had arranged a special kennel where she was in sight of the staff all the time so they could keep a better eye on her. Really good service.

[Pierre]

Hi

Sorry to trouble you but I read with interest your post and was very interested in the kennels. I have used two different ones and have been totally happy but they are just two far away to keep taking regularly.

We live near Montmorillon so Lussac is perfect for us.  I wondered if you could send me the telephone number I have tried yellow pages but just cant seem to get a number.

I just have one question if you wouldnt mind ...what exercise policy do they have or do they have an exercise area.

Many  thanks in advance for your help

Regards

Beverly

[Christine Animal]

I had a look when that place was mentioned above and found they have a site :

http://www.ferme-de-dienne.fr/Sports-nature/Randonnees.html