Did you know that all dog home boarding and doggy day care businesses are required to have a dog boarding licence?
This has been the case for many years but the conditions of said licence have varied between district councils causing confusion for businesses like ours.
Well effective October 1st 2018 DEFRA have introduced new legislation to standardise the dog boarding licence conditions across England and Wales.
All of our locations, with the exception of Northern Ireland which I will come back to, are of course licenced and insured. This extends to the homes of our carefully chosen Carers too!
Whilst the legislation is, as you would expect, detailed and indeed lengthy we thought it would be of value to you to share some of the key areas that are covered:
Record Keeping – this is to ensure that the boarding business keeps detailed records on the dogs that come to stay, vaccination history and of course how best to look after each individual dog.
Number of Dogs to be boarded – obviously this is very important to ensure that homes only have a suitable number of dogs to stay.
Staff Training – Staff should be adequately trained or have extensive dog care experience. At My Best Friend all business owners complete a comprehensive Dog Care Diploma prior to opening.
Protection from Pain Suffering and Disease – We think this speaks for itself!
We welcome this change as it ensures a level playing field and gives you, the client, the confidence that your best friend is in safe hands. The full legislation can be found here
Back to Northern Ireland… There is currently no legislation that covers home based doggy day care or home boarding but we operate our business in line with the UK legislation. What’s more Kieran Doyle who owns and operates My Best Friend Northern Ireland is lobbying hard to get this changed.
My Best Friend Dog Care Services
At My Best Friend we offer a range of dog care services including Dog Walking, Doggy Day Care, Home Boarding, Pet Sitting and Puppy Care. We work hard to provide a caring, convenient and professional service to your best friend and we take pride in treating your dog as if they were our own.