The Kansas Pet Animal Advisory Board held preliminary discussions on regulating pet boarding facilities to keep animals staying at them safer.
“We have seen an increase in licensees and we’ve seen an increase in complaints in that category,” said Heather Lansdowne, director of communications for the Kansas Department of Agriculture. “It involves a lot of nonrelated dogs comingling together and can be potentially problematic.”
Most stays at dog boarding facilities go off without a hitch, but there have been injuries and deaths of dogs reported in Kansas facilities. Last year, an Olathe family lost both of their dogs while boarding them at a facility called Lucky Paws.
“Dogs in general are inherently dangerous because they have teeth and claws, so in any boarding or kennel-type situation the staff is at risk of being bitten,” said Julie Castaneda, a member of the Kansas Pet Animal Advisory Board who runs a boarding facility.
The discussions centered around the more expansive laws governing other states’ dog day cares, namely Iowa and Colorado. Iowa mandates certain sizes for communal play areas, temperament screenings before admitting a dog into group activities, obtaining medical history and a limit of 30 dogs to a single playgroup.
Kansas has less stringent requirements for its dog boarding facilities, and its regulations are more tied to safe facilities rather than the specific practices of facilities. The biggest safety concerns, though, are often in how staff manage dogs in their care.
“The biggest issue is that a lot of people don’t know enough about dogs to be caring for them,” Castaneda said.
It’s early in the process, but at the board meeting, panelists mostly wanted to stay away from such stricter regulations as staff-to-animal ratios and square footage of facilities.
“If you’re a well-run day care, there’s just so much that you’re managing and you’re very aware of body language and behavior and how much that plays a part, which is why I said from the beginning that education, training and managing staff are what keep dogs safe,” Castaneda said.
There are hard rules that will be considered, like requiring supervision during off-leash play.
The number and nature of pet boarding facilities has dramatically changed over the past 30 years, and modern kennels can include luxuries like one-on-one play time, grooming, special dog treats and supervised group play. The old school kennels are more spartan and may just include a place for the dog to stay.
The rise of more amenity rich doggy day cares coincides with more being spent on dogs in general. In 2020 Americans spent almost $100 billion on pet-related goods and services. And the American Pet Products Association estimates that number could reach $275 billion by 2030.
“We as a society have evolved in terms of making our animals our family, and people want to provide for them as a family member and take into account their social needs and their emotional needs and their physical needs,” Castaneda said.
The Pet Advisory Board’s discussion is just the first step in potentially regulating dog boarding facilities, and it is expecting to speak about it again at its next meeting before creating a more concrete list of policy recommendations. From that point, the board will solicit feedback before making final recommendations.
As reported in the Topeka Capital Journal
