Meet the team!

It occured to me that if I wanted to take my dog to a kennels, one of the most important things that I would like to know is 'who will be looking after my dog?'. After all you wouldn't leave your child with a person you didn't know anything about.

So, I thought I'd write a little about the Woodland View Kennel team so you can get to know us a little better!

Lee

 Lee used to work as a Chemistry teacher before taking on Woodland View Kennels. The plan when he and Zoe moved to the kennels was for Lee to continue teaching whilst Zoe ran the kennels, however, he decided to get out of his stressful teaching career and that they would both run the kennels as a husband and wife team.
Although it is Zoe who has the qualifications, Lee has a natural talent for working with dogs and can often bring the best out of any dogs with behavioural issues (nervousness etc).

Zoe

Zoe is the Manager here at Woodland View Kennel. She has a BSc in Animal Behaviour and Welfare, and has worked with animals all her life, including horses, working as a veterinary nurse, and running her own dog walking and pet sitting business. 

Having never run a kennels before, Zoe and Lee run the kennels from a dog owner's point of view, by thinking 'what would we want from a kennels?', hense the luxury accomodation, friendly and personal sevice, and by most of all, making sure the dogs are not only clean and well fed, but that they have had plenty of exercise, mental stimulation and affection. 

Pete

Pete joined our team earlier this year in order to supervise the daycare for us. He is very experienced with dogs and is a keen Gundog Trainer, and trains and competes his dogs in trials. His experience in dog handling means he is a fab additon to the team and very capable when it comes to supervising the group play and assessing temperaments when dogs start the Doggie daycare. 

Work Experience Students

We also have regular Work Experience students come and help us out at the kennels. This is nice because it is helping young people in our local community, and also it is an extra person to play with the dogs and give them attention. We always monitor work experience students very closely to ensure that they and the dogs they work with are safe. 

 

 

Doggie Daycare Opening 10th September!

Well the day is nearly upon us. As usual the building took much longer than planned to build, but at last we have an opening day - 10th September!

Here are some pictures for you:

All shiny and new...

  

  

The 'chillaxing' area...

Fun and games!...

  Some Information for you  (may be subject to change)

• Charges - £15.00 per day (discounts available for full weeks and additional dogs coming together).

• Opening hours -  7.30am - 6.30pm

• Male dogs must be neutered, and we'd prefer female dogs to be spayed (they must stay at home during their seasons).

• The daycare will be supervised at all times to ensure that dogs are safe and enjoying themselves.

• All dogs must undergo a 'temperament assessment' which will take place on their first day with us. This is to ensure that they are of a suitable temperament for daycare (share toys nicely, able to get on with a variety of breeds and characters etc). 

• We're fully insured for your peace of mind.

• All dogs must be fully vaccinated and also have their kennel cough vaccine (please be aware that this is separate from their yearly boosters, please check with your vet). 

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below! 

Woodland View Kennels is building a Doggie Daycare!

This is an exciting week for Woodland View Kennels, as finally our Doggie Daycare builing is being built! We have spent the last few weeks demolishing the old cattery and laying new concrete in preperation and tomorrow is the big day when the building is actually being erected. We are also having a nice new reception too!

Doggie Daycare is perfect for busy owners who work long hours want to make sure that their precious pooch isn't left alone for too long during the day. Dog's can come here and spend the day with us and some canine friends, leaving owners to get on with their busy day guilt free.

The building will be insulated and have heating in the colder months, and suitable flooring so that the dogs can play and rough and tumble without getting injured. We will also have a chill out area, and of course lots of toys to play with! It will be supervised at all times by experienced staff and all dogs will undergo a thorough temperament assessment to ensure that they have no aggressive tendencies.

Our Doggie Daycare will be quite exclusive. We only have avalilability for 10 -15 dogs. This means they will recieve much more attention than some of the bigger daycares around, and it also means that young puppies, elderly dogs, and your shy, retiring types (which perhaps would be overwhelmed surrounded by lots of dogs) will feel much more comfortable.

So if you think you might be interested - contact us asap and book your dog in for a free temperament assessment day, as I think spaces will fill up fast once we're open.

Watch this space for pictures and updates!

Puppies and Children ..... Just the same, right?

Apologies for not writing in a while, but those of you who visited recently may have noticed me looking a little 'rotund' (think beach ball stuck up the jumper and you're half way there), and on the 19th Feburary 2012, our first child, George Saunders was born. He's keeping me quite busy as babies do.

Our newest recruit, Baby George.

Before his arrival me and Lee would often joke about how little we knew about babies, and how George would be brought up in the only way we know how - like a puppy! 

Of course I'm joking! (you can get away with alot more with a puppy!) - but it has given us a laugh to think about the similarities...

1.) Sleeping through:

Both puppies and babies will cry at night. Your cot/basket is a very lonely and scary place when you're so small and helpless. Apparently both babies and puppies are comforted by bedding which smells of their mum/owner. George was in special care for a few weeks before we brought him home and after reading this I did actually spend most days with a blanket stuck up my jumper so that when we visited him in the evening I could wrap him up in the hope that it would be some comfort when I wasn't there. In both cases with patience sleeping through will eventually happen - and you need to stick to your guns - you're just making life harder in the long run if you let puppy/baby into your bed on a regular basis!

Getting puppies and babies to sleep through the night is no easy task!

2.) Teething:

 You give the puppy a rubber bone, or a pigs ear, and you give the baby a teething ring. The only difference is, that a baby won't chew up your favourite shoes if you neglect to give them a suitable teether!

3.) Potty training:

The day your puppy/baby becomes toilet trained is a happy one indeed. No more nappies or accidents on the kitchen floor, and the end result of lots of hard work and patience in both cases!

4.) wrecking the place:

George is only 8 weeks old at the moment, so I still have the toddler phase to look forward to (lets just say Im enjoying him while he stays where I put him!). But I have seen the havoc that toddlers bring and it's just as bad as having a puppy. Chewed carpet (puppy), scribbles on walls (toddler), bins emptied all over the floor (both!). Lets just say that until they are adults, your house will never be tidy again!

5.) Sick and Poo!

Puppies and babies both have less mature immune systems than adults. Couple this with a tendency to put every new object they find in their mouths (and in both cases - sometimes swallow them!) and the result is they are going to get sick quite often! When I used to be a dog walker I walked a Spaniel pup called Jasper and every day I would enter the house to be greeted by a new object he had sicked up. Socks, paper, plastic bags, he even poo'd a whole wristwatch once!

6.) Manners

As a responsible parent/owner, it is up to you to turn this tiny and adorable thug into a well rounded and polite individual.  You need to nip in the bud any nervousness, over excitedness, and aggression in order that they can grow up and fit into society.

Joking aside, I don't think puppies and children are really that dissimilar. They are both hard work and oh so cute - the only thing is that if I'd owned a pup for 8 weeks I'd probably have it half trained by now!