We board pets differently.  We take our boarders’ needs and feelings into account first in everything we do.  Our kennel is located on 14 acres.  The entire boarder of our property is fenced and we have an automatically closing front gate for safety.  Our boarders and daycare dogs play in big, grassy, fenced in yards and they love it.

We have all indoor kennels.  That’s on purpose.  We want our boarders outside interacting with our team and the other boarders at our kennel.  Our boarders spend their days doing the things they love most.  They play with their friends in big grassy fields full of enrichment experiences like playground equipment, pools, sprinklers, toys and games.  We match dog friendly dogs with other dogs of the same size and temperament.  For safety, we do not mix large and small dogs.  We have two trainers on site who are experts in behavior and temperament evaluation.  We evaluate each dog to ensure he or she is dog friendly before we introduce them to play groups.  We use our own very dog friendly dogs to evaluate the temperament of our new guests.  Our team is always with our play groups to ensure fun and safety.

We constantly monitor our boarders and daycare dogs when they are in their runs.  We look for signs of discomfort and stress.  When a pet is stressed, we address it using various forms of positive reinforcement to help the pet feel better.  We live onsite and we check on our boarders regularly at night for signs of stress.  We spend extra time cuddling and de-stressing pets whenever necessary.  We make sure that all of the pets we care for are stress free during their stays.  It is one of the reasons our clients tell us their dogs arrive at our kennel excited and ready to meet, greet and play.  Our boarders are up and out early, they play all day and, by the end of the day, they are happy and tired…everyone sleeps well at Dogwood. 

Our team interacts with our cat boarders throughout the day.  We make sure that our boarders have plenty of interaction and enrichment.  We practice the same fear free, positive reinforcement techniques with our cats as we do our dogs.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have about boarding for your furry family members.  Please feel free to contact us to learn more about our boarding services.  We look forward to meeting you and your pet family members.

Our promise to you:

We will work very hard every day to take care of your pets with the same exceptional care we offer our own pets.

We will never charge you extra to love and take care of your pet.  We don’t charge extra for snuggle time, walks outside, group playtime, individual playtime, medicating your pets or spending extra time with them because they are scared or worried. Our fees are all inclusive.  Dogs and cats need attention from people to be happy and healthy.   We will take care of all your pets’ needs, every day, while they stay with us.

We will properly evaluate your pet’s and every other pet’s behavior and temperament to ensure that all pets are safe in play groups.  We will properly monitor you pet while he or she is outside playing in our play yards.

We recommend that you bring your pet’s own food and treats when your pets stay with us.  We are happy to provide food, treats and medications on the schedule you provide at no extra charge.

If you would like to bring your pet’s bed, blankets, crate or toys for his or her stay, we are happy to provide them to your pet during his or her stay.  Sometimes pets chew more in a kennel setting, so we let owners know in advance that it is possible for bedding and blankets to be damaged during your pet’s stay.

We inspect and observe each pet closely every day.  It doesn’t happen often, but if your pet becomes ill or injured, we will contact you and let you know our recommended plan of action.  We take pets to their own veterinarian whenever that is possible.  A pet’s own veterinarian knows his or her medical history and can provide better care.  If a pet’s own veterinarian is not available, we take our boarders to our supervising veterinarian, Veterinary Specialties at the Lake.  If it is after hours, we use Denver Animal Emergency Veterinary or Veterinary Referral of Hickory for emergency care.  We will keep in touch with you throughout any veterinary care to help ensure peace of mind.

Some things we don’t like and will never do:

We’ve never liked indoor/outdoor runs.  Dogs who board in indoor/outdoor runs are more stressed and less happy.  They never get the chance to interact with the other dogs in the kennel.  Dogs get the knowledge they need about each other by smelling and reading body language.  When they don’t interact, they are stressed because they’ve never gotten the information about the other dogs they need to be comfortable.  They see the other dogs but can’t get to them so they spend the bulk of their time trying to communicate and stressing.  Almost all dogs need to interact with people to be happy.  The care takers in kennels that use indoor/outdoor runs have limited interaction with their boarders which increases the dogs’ stress.

We don’t like Astroturf.  It heats up in the summer and causes discomfort and sometimes injuries to dogs’ paws.  As it gets hotter, it has the potential to cause even more injury.  We believe dogs belong in big, grassy fields.

We do not use negative reinforcement or harsh tones of voice to get the pets we care for to do the things we need them to do.  We do not force the pets in our care to do things.  Using negative reinforcement introduces fear into a dog’s life.  When you introduce fear into a dog’s life, you are potentially causing a whole host of behavioral issues.  We use only positive reinforcement techniques.  We have many clients who have dogs and cats that had behavior problems at other kennels and with other groomers.  Those dogs don’t have the same behavior issues with us because of our positive reinforcement techniques.

We don’t like people who work with dogs and cats and don’t like your dog or cat because your dog or cat is not dog, cat or people friendly or is reactive.  We love every dog and cat no matter how they behave or how much fear they have.  Because we don’t blame them for their behavior issues, we are able to work with them to help extinguish the unwanted behaviors.  This helps lower the pet’s stress level and helps us work with them effectively.