Tuesday, 9 June 2015

What to look for when choosing kennelling and catteries for your pets


In South Africa a friend used to house and pet sit when we went away for any length of time and if out for the day a neighbour would pop round for the feeding. We acquired the cat after 2 years of living in SA and the dog the following year. By that time we'd established ourselves in the community and had friends we could rely on for animal and child care and vice versa. We've only been in Dubai 6 months and it does take quite a while to establish friendships and set up networks in which one can say 'please look after my cat and dog for 2 weeks.'




There are plenty of home services, where someone comes to your house twice a day to feed the animals and walk the dog, but after a few messages with a guy who runs a service like this I was very much put off. I'll not go into details but I didn't like his manner when I asked what checks were done on people and he replied 'oh we only employ western expats, not those from 3rd world countries' so many issues raised here.

I visited a couple of local vets where they offer boarding and was dismayed to see the size of the cages for both the cat and dog, although I'm sure they're regulation sizes, I was not happy with the thought of them being caged up all day and Bob only being let out twice a day for walking.

Boarding costs for your pets in Dubai are very expensive and as a result many expats abandon their pets before returning to their home countries to escape the summer here. The rescue centres are over run already with unwanted pets and many have had to close their doors, it's heartbreaking that people can do this to their animals. I've yet to see any stray dogs on the streets but we do have a large number of stray cats, this one in particular pays regular visits for food and water, but shhhhh don't tell hubby.




I've visited 3 places having joined groups on face book and asking questions.

I've opted to use DKC, they were the company who we used to bring our pets from South Africa in December 2014. I felt like I was choosing a pre school facility, I had loads of questions about walks, food, toilet needs and play and of course would they contact me if there were any issues?

The kennels and catteries are air conditioned, each pet has their own room with access indoors and out. 

If you have more than 1 dog they can share and offer you a 20% discount on subsequent dogs.

During the day they take it it turns to let the cats, one at a time, wander freely around the cattery.


The dogs are taken on 2 walks a day and have access to one of several yards where they socialise.

I was really impressed with the facilities and the information given to me as to how they monitor food intake and toileting. I'm sure Bob will have a whale of a time and Pushkins will probably be a little stunned, but she's survived an international flight and relocation, she'll get over it.

It cost AED 135 per day for Bob and AED 110 per day for Pushkins and they'll be boarding for 11 days at a total cost of AED 2695/£478 which includes all their food. It's expensive and I'm sure hubby will have near heart failure when I tell him how much, but I can justify it by the fact that we are now 1 child down when it comes to air fares now, but it is this 1 child that we are going back to the UK to visit as he passes out of the British Army in September.

Over the next few weeks for Animal Tales, HDYGG and Time Traveller I will be using old posts for linking up while I'm on holiday. I'm hoping for an encounter with a bear or a moose while I'm in Canada for Animal Tales, I'll be blogging about Catherine's garden who you can find on twitter as @alwaysaredhead where I'll be staying for my holiday and of course thtere will be numerous posts for Time Traveller.

16 comments:

  1. I'm amazed by the cost, but we are very lucky that my parents do our catsitting (and we theirs). Have a lovely time in Canada - say hi to Catherine for me - I follow her on twitter and instagram.

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    1. looking forward to meeting Catherine, I have loads of messages to pass on. People are easily misled about Dubai, yes salaries are tax free but then they know you have the money so the price of everything goes up. for example its costs twice as much to rent a house here than it does in the uk

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  2. It is not easy choosing the right place for your pets. I like the idea of someone coming to your house - but not without security checks! We have a lovely place locally where we take our cat if we are away for a long period of time but if we are only away 2 nights then we keep her in the house and leave out enough food and water. this sounds like a good place. #AnimalTales

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    1. we'd have so many more options if we didn't have the cat, there are few places that board both cat and dog. we used to keep chickens and if away for a weekend they'd live in the shed, any longer and a neighbour would come round to feed them. hopefully by next year I'll have made some good friends who i can ask

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  3. Some sound advice. We've only ever used a kennels once and I don't think I'd do it again, our dog was unhappy there. We try and find a sitter instead now.

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    1. I'm hoping by the next trip we will have built up a better network and can take it in turns to look after other peoples pets

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  4. It's great that you put a lot of thought into where to home your animals, it's absurd that people would just abandon their's instead of paying for them to have a safe place to stay. Popping in from Animal Tales.

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    1. sadly people all the shelters are full, I'm leaving water out for the stray cats now as well as the birds,

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  5. our cats go to a cat hotel now after the last place they went to on a farm saw them not moving from their basket

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    1. neither animal has been boarded before other than their experience of flying here, which they both recovered from well

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  6. We're going to be faced with this one for the first time with our new cat in the next couple of months. I think we should start researching now! Happy holidays

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    1. it's worth remembering that esp in Dubai, people book the boarding at the same time as they book their flights as it fills up really quick over christmas and summer

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  7. Gosh that is expensive! As all our dogs have come from rescue centres we have always said we will never put the into kennels and have always been lucky enough to have friends look after them ... or we dimply so not all go away at the same time what with all the other animals we have here.
    Many thanks for adding your kennelling tales to #AnimalTales and I hope both you and your animals have a great holiday.

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    1. both the dog and cat coped very well with their relocation from South Africa and having visited the kennels I'm happy that they will be ok

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  8. Wow it can be so costly, we are lucky as my neighbour always looks after our cats when we go away. It is hard though when choosing care as no one really looks after your pets as you would- our neighbour is fab as she is a real animal person herself with cats, dogs and guinea pigs herself so I know she treats ours just as her own :)

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    1. we used to have a neighbour in the UK who would look after our chickens, and a house sitter in SA, but don't know anyone well enough here yet to ask

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