How to choose where your dog stays.

Go in person

Go at a normal time of day and watch the dogs before you listen to the pitch. Relaxed bodies, and people who use each dog’s name, will tell you more than any brochure.

Ask where your dog will sleep

Then ask to see it. Ask how many dogs share that room and who is there overnight. “Someone is on call” and “someone is in the building” are different answers.

Ask how dogs are grouped

Not every dog wants a party. Ask how a new dog is introduced, who decides which dogs play together and what happens to the one who would rather sit it out.

Ask what happens when something goes wrong

Which vet do they use? How quickly will they call you? What is the plan if your dog stops eating, gets into a scrap or slips out of a door? These things happen in every place that keeps dogs, so a good place will have the answer ready.

Notice what they ask you

A careful place will want the vaccination record and will want to know what your dog eats, fears and loves. If nobody asks, that tells you something. You can write it all down on the handover note and take it with you.

Try one short stay first

A single day tells you more than a long tour. Then watch how your dog walks in the second time.

These questions are for us too

Pawgrins Care and Retreat are opening soon. When they do, hold us to every line on this page.

Five things to ask to see

• Where your dog will sleep
• Where your dog will spend the afternoon
• Who is there overnight
• The plan for a vet emergency
• The vaccination record they ask of every dog

Your ticks stay on this page and go when you leave it.