MissStephenie

When a pet owner entrusts their pets to a kennel, they do not expect to have to pick their pet from a line-up. They expect their dog to be care for, and returned to them. I don't know of any pet owner who wonders if they will be given the right dog when… Read More

When a pet owner entrusts their pets to a kennel, they do not expect to have to pick their pet from a line-up. They expect their dog to be care for, and returned to them. I don't know of any pet owner who wonders if they will be given the right dog when they come back from a trip.


It is the kennel's responsibility to ensure such mixups don't happen. The kennel owner was aware that there were two dogs that looked a great deal alike being boarded at the same time. Knowing that, the kennel owner and her employees should have put safeguards in place. One option would have been to give each dog a different color bandana. Alternately, they should have been allowed to keep their collars on. Play between animals needs to be supervised. A regular cloth collar is not a risk as long as the dog isn't left unsupervised for long periods at a time.

Putting the blame on the owner is bad business practice and does little to improve a kennel's public reputation. It would have been better for the kennel owner to apologize and affirm that no future mixups would occur. If you are a business owner, remember that clients are willing to forgive mistakes and will continue to support your business if you make sure those mistakes don't happen again. If you try to absolve yourself by blaming the client, you are likely to not only lose that client, you are also likely to lose other clients who learn about the situation. In the end by being "right" you damage your business perhaps permanently.


The pet owner should definitely get his dog microchipped as soon as possible...And find a new kennel for when he next goes on a trip.
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