Cleanliness, it’s a common concern of most pet owners when allowing their best friend to stay with us. I am hoping that I will be able to ease that concern through this post. Cleanliness is one of the many things we place as a top priority for our guests. We strive to ensure that our facility maintains a clean and safe environment at all times. When going to a kennel there should be a variety of questions that you should ask. I would like to take some time over the next couple weeks to discuss and educate you on the questions you should ask and what Sunset Dog Retreat has to offer your pets.
The first question that you should ask is; what is your cleaning regime and how do you maintain a clean environment?
This is a great question because although the dogs may seem happy it is important to make sure that there is no risk to health or at least as little risk as possible. Here at Sunset Dog Retreat we use a combination of many different cleaners and detergents to eliminate as many viruses, bacteria, fungus and anything that could potentially hurt your animal during their stay with us. We use a combination of bleach, pine sol (to override the smell of bleach), and Virkon. Virkon is a veterinary level bacteriostatic cleaner that is used commonly in a hospital setting. We rotate our cleaners as well, to make sure that no bacteria or harmful creatures can become immune or create ‘superbugs’. These cleaners are mopped every day and power washed every other day. This ensures that all edges of the dog stalls are clean and tidy for every new or old guest that enters.
Secondly, Bordatella is an air borne spread disease, how do you prevent or control the air flow throughout your facility?
We have a top of the line air filtration system to prevent air borne diseases from moving into the dog area or main office. This negative feedback systems draws bad air in, filters it and then sends it back out into the kennel to allow the dogs to have clean fresh air while in our care. So far, (knock on wood), we have never had a case of Bordatella in our facility and are working hard to keep it this way. Our guest are also outside during the majority of the day. This means they are often exposed to the clean air of country living and seem to be enjoying it when we play with them outside. We strive to always make sure that our animals have clean and fresh air to breath and in return we get a low disease transmission risk. This is important for dogs in kennels because there are multiple dogs in close quarters and this can pose a higher risk of disease transmission. Air ventilation is good for biosecurity as well as the overall comfort of your pet.
Finally, is the fecal matter outside often removed from play yards?
This is another biosecurity issue that happens frequently in kennels. Viruses and parasites can be transmitted via a route called fecal to oral. This means that a dogs that sniffs another dog’s fecal matter and then licks their nose, they can ingest oocytes (eggs), swallow them and ultimately become infected by such parasite. We ensure that we pick up poop daily to reduce the risk of these transmissions. This means that we have an employee walk all four of our runs and collects the feces and disposes of them in sealed container until they can be disposed of off the property. With each walk through the yards we can also ensure there are no risks to the dogs physically including holes in the ground or fence. This is our safety measure to ensure no dogs can injure themselves physically on the outside and inside of their bodies. Cleanliness is our top priority as we feel it can maintain a healthy and low stress environment for our guests to stay in.
In conclusion, at Sunset Dog Retreat we strive to have the highest level of cleanliness for our companions that stay with us. We believe that these questions should always be asked as they are necessary for your dog to stay safe while you’re away. A dog’s immune system is lowered when stressed so although we cannot eliminate all the stress because their families are away, we can eliminate as much risk as possible. This means having proper air filtration systems, proper fences and maintained yards, and finally, a strong cleaning regime to ensure the bugs that are outside this facility stay out of our facility. We love when our clients ask us questions about the standard of care that is provided from our staff because we love to inform and educate about the standard of care that should be given and how we strive to achieve our goals in pet care at every level. Please join our blog next week to learn more about how we strive to reduce anxiety in the kennel and how that provides and overall better experience for our clients and their furry friends.
