As a member of the pet care industry, your dog daycare or boarding facility is likely aware of the need for quality pet care. Owners want to give their dogs the best quality of life possible to keep them safe, happy, and healthy—even when they might be at work or on vacation.
That’s where your business comes into play. Owners entrust you with their furry friends, hoping that you’ll be able to care for them as if they were your own. Prioritizing proper kennel management is the best way to make sure you deliver top-tier pet care, keep staff members safe, and demonstrate that your business is worthy of its customers’ trust.
To help you do so, we’ll walk through our top tips for successful kennel management. Before jumping into what you need for your facility, let’s start by brushing up on the basics.
Kennel management is the practice of systematically organizing and overseeing a facility that cares for animals, typically dogs, cats, and other pets. Kennel management is a necessary skill used by pet daycares, sitters, veterinary clinics, groomers, and more.
The goal of kennel management is to ensure that animals within the facility remain safe and receive proper care like regular feedings, access to clean water, necessary medical care, and clean areas to relax in. Additionally, proper kennel management ensures that staff know how to care for the animals, ways to keep themselves and others safe, and what to do in case of incidents and emergencies.
There are so many moving parts you have to consider as a business owner, whether you’ve just started a dog daycare or have been operating for years. For example, you’d never overlook processes like vetting staff before hiring, properly managing your finances, and promoting your business to your target audience. Kennel management should fall in line with these important practices as one of your top priorities.
Here are the key reasons why your organization must properly manage the animals in its care:
Having a clear set of established rules and procedures also improves staff efficiency. Your employees will know exactly what to do in most situations, taking guesswork out of it. As a result, your animals will receive more consistent, quality care.
This is the most important thing you need to run a successful daycare or boarding business. Whether you’re in the process of choosing a facility or want to improve your current one, there are a few important things to consider.
First, your facility should include three areas that are separated by doors or gates:
Make sure you have enough indoor kennels or cages to secure all of the dogs in your care in case of situations like severe weather or other emergencies. Additionally, outside spaces should always be secured by escape-proof, well-maintained fences.
When caring for animals, you are responsible for a living, breathing creature with physical and emotional needs. This is why it's so crucial to find employees that are the right fit for your facility. Finding staff who are willing and able to provide care that goes above and beyond will check all of your kennel management boxes and satisfy pet parents.
When hiring staff for your daycare or boarding facility, you can set future kennel management practices up for success by looking for:
Note that you may need to hire one or two more qualified or skilled employees depending on the services you offer. For example, you may need someone with experience with exotic animals if you plan to care for pets other than dogs and cats, such as hamsters, bunnies, chinchillas, ferrets, birds, or reptiles. Or, you might hire a trained groomer if you want to start offering grooming services.
Even qualified staff members need guidance to be excellent kennel managers. Plan out a detailed onboarding process where you’ll teach new staff how your facility operates, walk through everything they’ll need to do for their role, and give them firsthand experience and feedback.
Some of the topics and activities you’ll need to include in onboarding are:
Staff will likely have questions throughout this process, so make sure whoever is leading onboarding is equipped to answer them. Additionally, you can use the onboarding period to feel out how the new employee meshes with the rest of your team and gauge their animal handling skills.
You’ll need quite a bit of supplies to effectively manage the animals in your care. While you can always encourage owners to bring their pets’ food, blankets, beds, and toys to make them feel at home, you’ll still need to be prepared to provide everything pets need.
To ensure you can deliver the best care possible, always keep these items in stock:
These items should help you provide quality care to most animals, but you may need more specialized equipment, medications, and enclosures for certain pets. For example, diabetic or asthmatic cats and dogs typically need to receive daily injections or treatments to manage symptoms. During intake, make sure to ask clients to relay any special conditions like illnesses, allergies, or disabilities and provide the supplies needed to care for their pet.
You’ve taken the time to carefully screen any new hires, but what about your fluffy, feathered, or scaly clients? Screening potential boarders can help you rule out or make special accommodations for pets with behavioral or health issues. This can greatly reduce the risk of injury and spread of diseases.
When screening potential pets, consider:
It can be difficult and awkward to turn a dog away, but this decision is usually in the best interest of your business and other boarders’ safety. To minimize the negative impact of rejecting an animal, try to communicate with the potential client as early as possible, be honest about why you can’t accept their pet, and offer alternative solutions. For example, you could refer them to a trusted home sitter if their dog becomes reactive in group settings.
In addition to providing food, water, and shelter for your animals, you’ll need to offer them fun and enriching activities! Ideally, these activities should keep animals from getting bored, encourage them to socialize and exercise, and even teach them something new. Our list of dog daycare ideas covers some of the top options—check it out to find the ones that work for your business and the animals you care for.
Remember that safety should always come first with these activities. Prepare for them well in advance and never attempt an activity without the proper equipment and enough staff members to supervise. It’s also best to communicate with owners ahead of time about what activities you have planned. This not only gives them a chance to approve things like snacks but also encourages them to get involved in their dog’s care, even when they’re away for work, school, or vacation.
It’s obvious that there are many components to thorough, organized kennel management. So, how do you juggle it all while managing other business needs?
The answer is high-quality software that’s designed specifically for pet businesses. At Gingr, we offer targeted solutions for dog boarding facilities to make kennel management, reservation management, and staff scheduling a breeze. With Gingr, enjoy features like:
Want to see how these tools could benefit your business and streamline everyday tasks? Book a demo with our team today to see what Gingr can do!
Successful kennel management doesn’t just keep your animals safe and your business organized—it will help you build a reputation as a competent, trustworthy steward of four-legged friends. Choosing software like Gingr takes the burden of bookings, capacity management, and pricing off your plate while streamlining tasks like vaccination reminders and client communications. To learn more, book a demo to see our software in action.
If you’re looking for more resources for your pet business, check out some of the other resources from our blog: