House of Dog Training Boarding & Behavior Center

Hello! We are very sorry, your dog came down with Kennel Cough while boarding with us. All our protocols for disinfecting are up to standards and we have even installed a puryfier on our HVAC system. The truth is that all dogs, especially dogs that have never been boarded at a kennel before, are very susceptible. Kennel Cough is like a doggie cold or flu. It is transmittable through the air and even vaccines don't necessarily work if it was a different strand of virus. As soon as you put a lot of dogs together in a building it is bound to happen at some point. I was the one you spoke to and it is absolutely true that we have not had any kennel cough event in about a year. The Department of Agriculture that we are licensed through, requires us to notify all clients if there is any disease outbreak at our facility. As soon as we got the diagnosis for your dog, you may have noticed an email going out. It is absolutely possible that there was a dog here that was still asymptomatic, as kennel cough has an incubation period of 7 days. But really your pup could have picked it up anywhere. As far as your question why would we take your dog back? - No, we didn't really want to, for sure. But with you being out of town we didn't know if you had any other options, and we won't leave you stranded. We didn't know your son's situation. For all we know he was living in a place where he couldn't have a dog. That being said, our protocols for keeping a potential outbreak at bay, seem to have worked. We have gotten only one report of a sick dog since your pup left. He was in a playgroup with her the very first day and came down with his first symptoms exactly 7 days after exposure. None of the dogs boarding have so far come down with it, and we have had no further calls. If we don't get any other reports by Sunday, we will call the all clear. I understand you had additional cost that you were not expecting, which is very frustrating, and 5% is not really a big discount. But if you see it from our perspective - we still provided the service to you that you had booked with us. And if anything, we had additional work, to take care of your pup. She had to go out separately, the yard she went to was disinfected several times, as well as the areas surrounding her kennel and her way in and out - all to prevent the Kennel Cough from spreading. Our Kennel Techs deserve to be compensated fairly, and there is nothing we did really wrong that we need to "make up" for. Thank you for understanding. We hope your pup is recovering well and if you don't come to us in the future, we wish you all the Best and hope you find the place that you can trust more. Astrid