so I go to pick my dogs from boarding today.
 

Two of them where there for 6 days while we were traveling shooting. The oldest comes out his eye is swollen and all red. I take him right to the vet and he has a ulcer that is so deep,that we have to be very aggressive with treatment or he can lose the eye. I called pet smart who was boarding him and tell them he has this and someone should of noticed it and called me. They had this total I dont give a shit attitude. Im not a happy camper.

You should sue, you have a pretty good case and in court people would be very sympathetic for your case. Get a GOOD attorney and sue them for everything. Hopefully its a large place that has lots of money. The more money they have or appear to have, the more you can get from them. Good luck bro and sorry to hear about your dog.

This is why I never boarded my dog, he stressed out over half a day at the groomers, I think he would have stroke if i left him somewhere for a 5+ days.

You gotta wonder what they actually do for your pet other than just give him food and water

I am not surprised the boarder didnt give a shit. Most of those people dont give a fuck about animals.

Hope your dog is going to be ok Tony.

You must be American.

This is the second time we took them there and they were fine the first time. Your right you have no idea what happens if the extras you pay for actually happen. They are treating him with an antibotic and then his own blood serum. I have to keep it in the frig and put it in his eye four times a day. I read online it heals them well,so im hopefully.tomorrow i will call the store gm

YUP:thumbsup

took the words right out of my mouth

dog places dont really care its rare to find some that are really animal lovers most just do it for the money

It was Petsmart... not really at the top of list of places I would board my pets.

Find a dog sitter. Mine always came home sick or stressed from anywhere I've ever boarded them (including the fancy ones). With a dog sitter they're in their own home, with their own stuff. My dog sitter ends up here maybe a total of 1.5 months a year. She's a lifesaver! We did have to talk about over feeding when I swear they gained 5 pounds each one time when I was gone for 10 days straight. She swears they looked at her like they were starving ;)

Hope the pup gets better ASAP!!

Look for a vet that has boarding facilities.

i used to use the vet but moomoo would come back traumatized for days afterwards. So I figured I would try the pet hotel at pet smart it looked nice and its not cheap with extras its 30 bucks per day per dog. The first time went great,they seemed very nice and were really into dogs. Then this happened this time.I dont blame for them hurting his eye,he is a boston and it happens to them but they could of caught it sooner then me catching it.For christ's sake they have a vet on the other side of the building.

Im going to look into that,what does it wind up costing you the pet sitter?

Enjoy your fucked up legal system.

how old are you?

Oh, you don't want to know - it's that cheap :thumbsup

She charges by the visit - $10 per. She does it according to how far she lives from you and I think the highest is $15 or $20. Thankfully she lives in my subdivision. I have her come at least twice a day. Yep - that's $20 a day for 4 dogs AND a cat. I don't need it but she also offers to pick up your paper/mail, turn the lights on and off and water plants. I don't think you'll find anyone THAT inexpensive but with 3 dogs I bet it will be less than the boarder.

When Meg was sick once, I had her come three times a day. She is WONDERFUL. She's a member of some dog sitter group that checks out the sitters and is bonded. Heck, she's had a key to my house so long that when I locked myself out once, I called her!

I've been recuperating from minor surgery and she's been taking care of them while I've been home - it's weird to have her do that when I'm here, but I can't bend over or have them on my lap so it's been needed. She can NEVER RETIRE!!!

I'll find out what organization she's a member of and post it tomorrow. It really has been great.

Thanks your a sweet heart:)

I worked my last years in high school and first years in college shoveling dog shit in boarding kennels. Since my family raised golden retrievers, and I really like dogs it wasn't such a bad gig. Especially since the kennels I worked for were extremely professional and concerned with the animals in their care.

Lots of horror stories though from people that would end up bringing their dogs to us, and it was easy to see which animals were traumatized and abused before. My only suggestion is to be sure and tour the facilities unannounced. If they won't let you back in to the boarding areas, move on.

Sorry to hear about your dog, hope all works out for ya!

It was petsmart? AHH man you hit the jackpot! Call an attorney tomorrow morning, take pictures and sue the fuck out of them!

Ridiculous.

The dog has a medical condition that was most likely not CAUSED by the kennel. They simply failed to NOTICE it. Not exactly negligence, you k now.

What are you going to sue for?
What are the actual damages here?
A vet bill he'd have had to pay anyway?

When you drop your dog off at Petmart, do you have to sign anything? Waiver of responsibility, or something, by any chance?

Ya I just read it better and I thought it was caused by petsmart. Darn, thought we had a good case goin. We'll get em' next time!

I've been very lucky with boarding my dog. There's a local kennel that's been in business for eons. The woman who runs in used to breed and show dalmations, sheepdogs and shih tzus. I have a shih tzu. She gets spoiled rotton. They get cooked for every day with whole foods (human quality that is). They are exercised, played with, etc. She gets excited when we pull in their driveway.

Petsmart I think has just begun ramping up some huge promotions of their new facilities and added extras. If nothing else it wouldn't hurt to write a letter or make some phone calls up their food chain.

If you're going to board again...do some shopping around. Ask breeders, friends with dogs, groomers, etc who they recommend. I was surprised when I was first looking how many responses I got of the kennel I ended up using. You'd of thought there wasn't any others.

PK

The local PetSmart's fish section is full of dead fish. I swear there are more dead ones than live in there! The high school students working the till and sweeping the floors didn't seem to care...

So no, I wouldn't really consider that a good place to board an animal. :( I hope your local one is better!

I drive 45 minutes out of the way to leave my dogs at a kennel run by someone who lived in my neighborhood growing up. I'd take them with me everywhere if I wasn't able to do this.

Fuck that, something like this dosen't need a GOOD attorney... just file a small claims case and be done with it.

Yeah if you do incure out of pocket costs or losses small claims would be the proper route. In our legal system animals are just property and thus actual damages are typically the most you can get. Though ongoing treatment as well as on occassion money lost due to inability to breed is possible.
However I am not one to jump into a suit. Rather just ask someone to please pay for the out of pocket expenses and make it right.

I have someone come sit my cats twice a day when I leave. They are pretty cool and my cats stays in their environment so they do not get traumatized at all.

Hope your dog heals well Tony. Best of luck ;-)

What DO they do for your pet besides feed him/her?

My thoughts when I read his post :1orglaugh

I've never put my dog into boarding before, when I go on vacation my younger brother looks after him. He lives in my house with me anyway so he's useful for something at least :)

http://www.petsit.com

(I just read that she charges more for excessive number of pets - she should charge me more ;) )

Mine used to charge me about $12 a visit.

2 visits per day, so a 1 week trip would cost you $168 bucks.

Like Peachy said it's well worth it because your dog gets to stay in his own home where he has everything familiar to him. My dog sitter used to walk him, clean up his poo, make sure he was fed, and he brought in the mail and made sure everthing was okay with the house. The service I hired was bonded as were all their employees. They always sent me the same guy every time so my dog got to be familiar with him.

My dog was never put in a kennel, not even once. I highly recommend the dog sitter service.

Wise advice... hope the dog's eye can be saved.

I'm sorry. Yeah, same issue with my puppy. She was boarded for a week while I was away on vacay and came back to find half her leg was gone, apparently a flesh eating bacteria. Other doctors said this was a case of getting hit by a car. Sued their asses off. More people came forward and eventually, had the Co. shut down. Breathed a sigh of relief that day. Assholes hurt my baby and others.

Yup. A big company like that would give a large settlement to settle out of court and keep it quiet from other customers hearing about it.

Thats what family is for. Make them watch over your dog while youre out of town. Fuck boarding places, just like the pound, dogs don't come out of there healthy very often.

Ask your vet - usually the vet techs (the younger kids) in the vet's office do pet sitting to make some extra money.
The cost varies where you live (here in the land of everything being more expensive, it's more like $20 a visit) but it works out great because they not only care, they already know your pet because they're from your vet's office, and if something like your dog's eye thing happens, they know enough to bring him in to be treated.
They also are able to give meds if your pet needs them.
I did it for years and it worked out great, until my cat needed multiple meds and other care three times a day - at that point I had no choice but to medically board him at the vet's office...and (I'm lucky, I know) having a good, long-term relationship with my vet who adores my cat, she visited him and checked on him herself a few times a day.

The other thing you can check is privately-run pet hotels that take in a limited number of pets - I never used them, but I found a few in my area where they treat the pets really well, take them out and play with them a few times a day, etc.

But without question if you can figure out the pet setting thing, the least traumatic way for your pet is to leave him at home where he's comfortable and happy, and have someone come to your house.

Awww how sad well i hope they get better!!!:)