Midcoast Boarding Kennels & Cattery

We boarded our dog here over Christmas 2012.
The kennel requires you to fill in a form when you make a booking. It offers owners the option of allowing their dogs to mix with other dogs while boarding. It is made clear that this option is at your risk. We opted for yes as we have never had any problems in the past with any of the four dogs we have owned to date who have stayed in kennels. I thought it is better for dogs to be allowed to mix as it makes their stay more enjoyable.

The kennel is about a 20 minute drive off the Pacific Highway; we dropped off our dog on the way up to a break on the North Coast.

At the kennel the dogs who are alowed to mix are kept in a caged outdoor area next to the kennel building for extended periods during the daytime. There is plenty of space and it is clean and tidy.

Everything appeared clean and tidy when we dropped off and picked up.

Unfortunately our dog was bitten by another dog whilst staying at the kennel. These things can after all happen when dogs mix. The kennel spotted this and notified us as one morning they noticed our normally lively dog was not his usual self. They took our dog to the vet and kept an eye on him afterwards. The vet bill to clean him out and stich up the wound and vet's incisions was over $820.

I believe the bite happened because the dogs are left outside and not watched for extended periods. It is alot of work to let dogs out to use the exercise area individually, which is what some kennels do.

I think if dogs are left out unsupervised, dogs will be bitten from time to time. I think that is why alot of kennels only let dogs exercise one by one, or only allow them to mix when supervised.

When we went to collect our dog the owner/manager was away and her (adult) granddaughter was at the property with her kids. There was no-ine at the kennel supervising the dogs when we arrived but after a few minutes the lady came out of the nearby house followed by two kids. My husband was in the office for a while discussing the bill as there was some confusion with the charges (it later turned out there was a clerical error in the total, which was subsequently refunded, and there was an extra daily charge over Christmas that I had not realised). We were also given a reduced rate (Small instead of medium) as a discount and were not charged for the two nights our dog spent in the vets. Anyway while my husband was talking the lady shouted at the dogs in the kennel to shut up which kind of surprised me as I could hear it outside. I was outside waiting and looking at the other dogs in the play area. The two children were kicking at the fence right where dogs were on the other side of the fence, shouting at the dogs to shut up.

A few days after we got home the owner followed up the misunderstanding about the bill. She also asked about how our dog was doing. We wrote back explaining that we felt the lack of supervision was in part what caused the situation with the bite to go uncheck. We asked the owner to call me to discuss this further. That was over a week ago and we havent heard back yet. To me the basic requirement of a kennel is that dogs are safe. The NSW regulations say dogs in boarding kennels should be kept safe from harm. The buildings are nice and thats fine but if your dog is not safe you are going to feel disappointed, especially if you have to foot the bill.

I think your dog should be fine here if you dont allow it to mix with other dogs, but I would definitely not recommend allowing it to mix. In terms of the facilities they were clean and dry and light and airy.

Some kennels shampoo your dogs and clip the nails before you pick them up; that is not included here.