Dog day care business licence

[Denk15]

Hello

Me and my partner are trying to set up a dog day care. We know we need a license because it falls under the animal boarding act 1963

However our local council only has an application for traditional overnight boarding kennels and nothing specific for a day care business model.

So I called them up and the lady basically just said no on the phone stating the fact that they don't like the idea of having dogs socialised together. When I asked why she said "we are against dogs being thrown into a room together"

Now obviously we are not just throwing dogs in together, there will be strict assessment of the dogs to make sure they are compatible and segregation of dogs by size and age.

Now I have read the animal boarding act, it doesn't say anywhere that dogs can't be kept together and we will fulfil all the requirements set out in the act. The act also has this line regarding granting a licence "without prejudice to their discretion to withhold a licence on other grounds"

Now my question is, can they just turn it down because they simply don't like the idea (even though we fulfil all the criteria), other councils have day care specific requirements which we would also fulfil and day cares run all over the country very successfully.

It is even proven that their are benefits to dogs who are socialised often compared to those who don't. For me they haven't come up with a good enough excuse as to legitimately turn us down. How can they say no to a licence for a business model that they don't have a specific licence for?

 

[saddlers]

You will tend to find at the Local Authority that it is often easier for someone to just say no rather than try and deal with a situation that is unfamiliar. Try a more formal approach via written correspondence and see what response you get.

 

[Denk15]

Thank you for the reply

Yes I am writing up a proposal as we speak to send to them, the phone call was just to ask them how I would go about applying and what they need etc. I was just taken aback when she said no without actually hearing anything about the business

 

[BustersDogs]

Every local authority is different, some won't even give licences to dog daycare centres because they feel that boarding = eating and or overnights, which dog daycare does not usually provide. My local authority didn't give out home boarding licences until I made a big fuss and I ended up with a kennels licence, while the daycare centres where don't have to have one. You will find on a kennels licence that it states dogs from different families are not to be kept together, so that is probably what they are using to say no to you. My kennels licence eventually allowed me to have dogs from more families together, but only because I am a dog walker and I only board dogs who we walk - so they already know each other already.

A friend in the same town is allowed as many dogs as she has downstairs rooms to put them in, as she is supposed to keep them separate, but the vet who checks her does understand when she is supervising they will be kept together.

Have a look locally and see if any other daycares are operating within your local authority area, because if you can show precedent that should help your case. Referring to other authorities usually gets a very frosty reception sadly.

When writing your proposal also include your qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience in assessing dogs as well as dog communication and behaviour, your proposed terms and conditions, and I would also download the new Animal Care and Welfare National Occupational Standards, because if you will be following these then that again should help your case. If all else fails, contact the business reporter at your local paper in case they can help you get support for your cause!

Sadly badly run daycares do cause a lot of problems for the dogs, usually not when they are in the daycares! So I can understand any local authority not wanting to create problems for themselves. A dog broke its leg at a daycare 'field' near me, and the girl who was in the field with the dogs (rumour has it there were 20 at the time) had no way of getting it to the vet, and the company van was 10 miles away.

 

[Denk15]

Thank you for sharing your experiences! And thanks for the advice, very helpful.

I will see if I can find the animal care and welfare national occupational standards, like you said following that can only help my cause!

We are taking this very seriously and have assessment and procedures to follow to ensure the safety of the animals.
If I can't quote what other authorities are doing, I guess I can still use their guidelines to help me put forward my proposal.

There aren't any daycares in the district (part of the reason why setting up in the area would be good) but there are boarding kennels who offer a daycare service (with dogs socialising like we plan to do) and people offering daycare from their homes

If after the proposal the council says no, is that it? Or is there any kind of appeals route?

 

[BustersDogs]

Have you looked into the demographics? There might be no daycares because there is no demand. If people are doing it from their homes then that is precendent if they have their own dogs because that's mixing dogs. If they don't give out licences then they either have to let you go ahead without a licence (which would not be my personal preference), or stop all those people doing it from home from doing it. And the kennels, that is also precendent in the area if the dogs are mixing.

I don't know enough about councils to know if there is an appeals route for this, but I know from my years as a taxi driver we used to appeal all sorts of decisions. You might just find you spoke to someone who has no idea - I've advised other people about dog related issues to do with the local council and the council have disagreed with me (how very dare they!). I've pushed the person to try again, and they've got someone else in the office who has told them the first person they spoke to was wrong, so it's worth trying again.

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

At our council in North Lincolnshire, you need a kennels licence but it takes into account if you are providing a home dog boarding service (whether just day, or including sleepovers) so you fill in the same form, and they will inspect and approve accordingly.

Maximum number dogs permitted for home boarding is 5 or 6, can't recall what the form said now. However there was no mention of not mixing dogs from different families, but this would make sense, as most families have only one maybe two dogs, not 5 or 6 so you'd never run a home dog boarding service for just 1 or 2 dogs as it probably wouldn't be worth doing as a business.

We take our dog into the office every day so we are lucky. She's our lucky mascot!

 

[Denk15]

Thanks for the replies

I'm not worried about demand, we already have a waiting list of clients without advertising (my partner works in a pet shop in the area and gets people coming in all the time asking for a local daycare) plus all of the home and kennel day cares are at maximum capacity. It's a well to do area full of high earning families who spoil their dogs.

But yes the kennels deffo mix dogs because I send my dog there now and then and they tell me how much he enjoys playing with the other dogs. But knowing my luck if I use them as a precedent the council will stop them mixing dogs rather than give me a licence

I'm going to send the lady I spoke to my proposal, if she still refuses it she said I can go in front of a committee but she hinted that my chances there aren't great either,
If that fails the animal boarding act says that if I'm unhappy with the decision I can go to the magistrates court, I don't really wanna do that because I don't have the time to wait or the money to be honest?

Has anyone had to go in front of a committee or the magistrates?

I just want to look after people's dogs and give them a happier life. The way the council is going on you'd think I was trying to open a crack den