Teddy's kennel stay

we went to canada for 10 days and Teddy stayed in a kennel here. He has stayed at this kennel before but only for a two day stretch. Well we picked him up today and when we got him home i noticed that he is COVERED in cuts and scratches. He has them everywhere and some of them are bad enough that they were bleeding and encrusted with blood. When we picked him up the kennel never said anything about it. I know they allow the dogs to play for periods of time and we haven't had any problems with that before until now. He is covered in scratches and such don't you think they would have noticed things getting a little out of hand. They are all over his belly, his legs, everywhere. I am going to call them tomorrow and talk to them about this.

That sounds like a good idea.

I personally would not want my dogs to be playing with other dogs without my being there. You just never know the temperment of the other dogs and a dog fight can be very serious and have long lasting effects on a "non aggressor". I have seen it, and you really never know when/if it will happen.

On the other hand it could have been from something else. Is the kennel in a rural area? Maybe Teddy got loose and ran thru briars or the like???

I hope when you talk to them maybe they can explain what happened, which they should have known about what & how it happened, and mentioned it to you in the first place.

This would probably throw up a red flag for this boarding kennel for me, unless they have a very good explanation.

Good Luck, & Let us know the outcome.

Julie.

That just doesn't sound good at all. Hope Teddy's none the worse for wear, physically or emotionally.

Do let us know what you find out.

Yes, please do sparks. I hope for the best and that it was only an accident.

That would be awful. It would be like picking your kid up from daycare all bruised up with no explaination. I hope his wounds are all on the outside dogs seem to deal pretty well with those.

I question why they didn't explain when you picked up !!!

Where I used to keep my dogs, they didn't tell me about the group playtimes where they pretty much emptied the kennel out to clean up, and put the dogs in a fenced area and just let them do what they wanted to do. My dog Gus was roughed up by a very big Dobe, one of the biggest I have ever seen during the first session, and they brought them in before anything happened much. (I was told this by one of the many teen girls working there).

The second day, they did the same thing, and it got nasty. The Dobe bit Gus on his ears a couple of times and then on the back of the neck, and finally pushed him into Pit Bull mode and he retaliated. The Dobe came out the worst for it, but it was obvious when I came to pick him up the next day that he had been in some kind of fight. Even the bath and bubble gum scent couldn't hide the 6 or 7 punch holes in his ears, and the bruises on his neck were pretty bad.

They told me about the "play time" thing, and I wasn't happy about it. I really wasn't too concerned with Gus getting hurt, one dog, at least one dog under 125 pounds wasn't going to do a whole lot to him without paying the price and probably getting his butt kicked. That's what happened to the Dobe, he got chewed up pretty badly, and his owners raised hell about it when they came to get him while I was there complaining about it. I didn't take him back until the ownership had changed back to the original owners, who took out pairs of them at a time, and watched them closely.

My present dog King went to "doggy day care" and loved it. Sadly, his playmates didn't enjoy his roughness, and so they asked me not to bring him back, as there was a lot of tension that day, and they were afraid that King would hurt, unintentionally, the dogs in the smaller group, or get hurt by some of the bruisers in the larger one, as he was by far the smallest dog in it.He was the only dog in the 50-70 pound range that day. He took over both, and made enemies out of several of the dogs who were previosly bosses of the groups.

I work at a kennel and we never let the dogs be together unless we are POSITIVE they will get along, and even then its with supervision. Sometimes though, dogs can injure themselves in their runs (kennels) at night, ie. pawing at the fence and such, but the injuries you describe doesn't sound like that. Yes, you are right to demand some answers from them. Let us know!

I would call the humane society on them... Such places should be closed.

I hope your doggy is ok.

well he doesn't h ave any puncture wounds thank goodness. They are all just scratches but they are everywhere. I know the wound on his lips is from him trying to get out of his crate at the kennel cause its not a cut its just raw from trying to bite his way out but the rest.

I just called the kennel and I spoke to the woman that owns it and she told me that they were caused by playing especially with the younger pups like himself and that he would jump and pounce on them and then he would roll over on his belly and they would do it back to him and then he would start all over again. She said she didn't notice the ones on his belly but I told her that she wouldn't notice unless she rolled him over and checked because thats how i noticed it. She was also saying that the lip thing happened before he figured out how to open the cage door. Which doesn't surprise me at all cause he can figure out how to open anything he's so smart. He also started letting other dogs out of their cages lol.

She said that eventually she locked up the other cages but gave teddy his own room to stay in rather than a cage because he didn't like it. hence his lip.

The thing that made me feel most comfortable with her explanation was that she did not get defensive at all. She was calm and polite and wasn't treating me like i was bothering her with my petty problems. she was more than happy to explain the whole stay. she apologized for her staff not mentioning it to me (she wasn't there yesterday when we picked him up) she said they are supposed to go over the whole stay with us even if nothing happened but just to say how it went and how the dog interacted with the people and dogs.

Teddy doesn't seem to be bothered by it. I have touched a bunch of his scratches and he doesn't seem to notice i have even put a little pressure on them and he doesn't flinch. He still enjoys his belly rubs even over all the scratches. She said that she would be more than happy to give him a medicated bath and clean up the scratches for us if we wanted to. He doesn't seem any different. He is still interested in playing with dogs and people and I heard that if your dog has been attacked by another that he will show aggression towards other dogs but he doesn't seem to have that problem. Looking at the scratches now after he had a swim they don't look as bad as they did when I first noticed them so maybe I over reacted a bit but now that she took the time to explain his entire stay to me i feel much better. I doubt I will be leaving him in a kennel anymore though unless it is my own lol.

P.S- she said that he woudln't sleep there hardly at all which explains why he is being super lazy at home now lol