First Time Boarding
If this is the first time you are boarding a dog with us, we are eager to welcome you to the Animal Magic family! However, there are a few things we should go over first, for both ease of mind and safety. If you have any further questions, please review our FAQ page or contact our team!
Mostly everything you need to know
If your dog is older than one year old and has not been spayed or neutered, we do require an extra $5 fee for boarding these dogs. We have eased our ban on unaltered dogs over a year old, as many larger breeds are now recommended not to be spayed/neutered until they’ve grown out a bit more. However, boarding these dogs does come with additional concerns. These dogs are more prone to escape attempts, marking, and causing disruptions with other dogs. We are unable to accommodate females who are in heat or pregnant.
If you are planning on leaving your dog for a longer period of time (i.e. anything over one week), and they have never been in a kennel setting, we STRONGLY encourage you to bring them for at least two “test runs” before the big booking. This also applies if a dog used to board with us or elsewhere, and has not been to a boarding facility in over a year. Suddenly depositing a dog in a new and unfamiliar environment often causes a great deal of stress to them, and can result in acting out in detrimental ways such as: causing fights, destructive behaviour, marking, and excessive barking. Easing them into the experience will make their future visits much more relaxed and enjoyable, as well as giving us time to know them and pinpoint any concerns before they become exacerbated by a sudden long stay.
If you are booking your dog for a stay longer than a week, we encourage bringing items to help keep their minds stimulated, especially if they are young and active. As much as we try, we can’t keep every dog entertained at all times! Having some new toys or treats to experience during the downtime in their kennel is a great way to keep their minds active and stave off boredom, which leads to anxiety. We suggest things like Kongs, puzzle feeders, chewing toys, or good solid natural chews like antlers.
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone based on poor behavior, from you or your dog. We will not tolerate abuse towards our staff in any format, nor will we put our staff in harms way if your dog’s behaviour is unacceptable or dangerous. Should your dog begin showing signs of dangerous behaviour, we will contact you immediately to arrange a pick-up for your dog.
We require all clients to have an emergency contact on file that can make medical or emergency decisions about the dog. We strongly suggest that this be someone outside of any immediate family you would likely be on vacation with - listing your spouse as an emergency contact does us no good if you’re both in Boca Raton, after all! In case of an emergency, we will use every method available to contact you, but should you be unable to respond to us we will need a secondary person to contact who will be able to make decisions on behalf of the dog. If you have absolutely no one else, we will default to your veterinarian. Be forewarned, if it is a behavioural issue that is putting staff in danger and you or your emergency contact are unable to come pick the dog up, we may be forced to bring animal control into the situation, as we cannot allow a dangerous animal to stay on property.