- How will Membership help me?
- Is Membership relevant for other countries?
- Will your site help me with planning and suppliers in
my area & putting everything together?
I came upon your website because I want to build
a boarding kennel/day care for dogs - mostly large breeds. I am
a top Breeder and know a lot about large
breeds and that there is no place to board them.
I have 5 acres in Florida which we are going to build a home and kennel
on.
I don't believe I will have zoning problems, but really don't know where
to begin. Professionally, I am in construction so I can do a lot of the
building at a fraction of the cost of a "normal" person.
I want my keenel to be special, dogs will not be locked up all the time,
there will be socialization, obedience traiing and/or conformation training
if desired.
I am at a point in my life where I want to do something I love and what
I love is being with dogs. How can being a member with you help me?
It is great that you already have property/ land to build on and that
you don't believe you'll have problems with zoning.
Membership:
Our Membership is there to provide support, advice
& encouragement at any stage , whether people are trying to
make up their minds about the business or want to start building/upgrading.
As you are someone who has already made the decision to go ahead,
Membership can provide lots
of articles, information & ideas, plus
documents such as our Business Plan /Is it for me which help
people think about the type of business & image they
want to set up and what will make it so
special that their customers will treat it like gold dust.
It might sound simple: 'I want to run boarding kennels' but there are
a lot of decisions to be made & a steep learning
curve , especially if you have not run a business or kennels
before.
You can read a full list of what
is available to Members here -
but I believe our Members most value the chance
to ask David indepth questions about running/building
a secure, safe, welcoming and quality kennels at any stage.
The other things you will need to consider are:-
-
TO-SCALE PLAN:
You will need a to-scale plan of your site. This is so that you/your
architect/surveyor/builder (or David) can look at the best place to
situate your kennels & apply for zoning.
- KENNEL MANAGEMENT/BUSINESS SET UP BOOK:
It sounds like you've already made your decision that you will board
animals. Your next step is to think about HOW to run & setup the
business.
Obviously you have experience of dogs which is a huge benefit - but
you will now need to focus on the business side of things.
There are 2 books I would recommend for this - "Running
your own Boarding Kennels" and "Building, Buying & Operating
a Boarding Kennel".
The first book is UK based & helps
through all sizes of facility. The second book is USA based & helps
through much larger sizes of facility. Both books offer great advice
& different perspectives on setting up & running a kennels
business.
The books' country of origin really doesn't
matter, because they only have very scant legislation information. All you need
to know about legislation is that any kennels must conform
to their local authority guidelines.
We stock the first book ourselves as we believe it is the most useful & easy
to read for people starting up a business that is quality, caring & smaller
scale (less than 50 dogs) as quality means financial investment - AND - quality/caring
is the
strong market demands and trends these days,
and what pet owners are looking for.)
There are other books out there though, (although if you read
the comments on websites like Amazon you will see people aren't too
impressed with some of them!) and these are not books we recommend,
but you can also find them by clicking the above books link.
- KENNEL DESIGNS - DECIDING WHAT YOU WANT:
To help you decide how many kennels to build, income, flexibility, issues/strategies
for people building kennels today etc please see our Kits.
We produce a book called "Kennel
Design" which takes you through all the different
options & styles of building, materials & finishes-
setting out the advantages & disadvantagesof each.
This helps you decide what you want
to build, to what standards & materials& helps you understand
some of the problemsyou can come across (particulary in respect of animal safety & maintenance
longevity). You can read about this on the website, and some excerpts.
- BLUEPRINTS:
We provide Kennel Blueprints to
shortcut the design/ architect stage, which obviously makes things
a lot faster. Plus you have the reassurance of knowing that someone
with great experience of dogs, dog welfare & kennel
buildings has provided strong designs that work in practice.
If you decide to get someone
else to design kennels for you, it is even more of a must-read to get
a better idea of what you're about to undertake!
- CONSTRUCTION EXPERIENCE:
Getting builder quotations
from your contractor and being able to give building guidance to them will be
crucial in helping you get comparative quotations, and getting your
kennels built without the usual (expensive!) errors that builders
make with them.
If you already have construction or project management experience
this is a great help, especially as you can save a great deal
of money this way. However, as with any specialist type of building,
it is the detail in the last 10% that makes or breaks a kennels project!!!
Builders & tradesmen cannot be expected to
know how to put a kennel building together & all the issues,
especially dog welfare and safety, that need to be covered.
This is where our Building
Specification & Quotations comes in - we actually find that
it is the architects & self-builders
who purchase this first, as they understand the importance!
Believe it or not, the Blueprints are 'not' the most important thing
- it is getting the build right & not make costly mistakes!
The fine detail has to be correct (for example the floor is one of
the biggest headaches & can be the most costly to correct). We should hopefully
be creating a new case study of a self-builder
who has built the 12 Kennels Blueprints using our Building Specification
Manual in Spring 2004.
- DOING IT WELL, LOVING THE LIFESTYLE:
The growing trend
is for people like you, who want to do this properly, have great
experience behind them & want to build something special .
Doing
it because you want to do something you love is
the best reason, after all.
It is a complete change
of lifestyle & freedom, not merely a change of job!
I am thinking of starting
a kennels in Spain from scratch. If I became a Member, would your site
be able to advise me on the laws and regulations in Spain and would a lot of
your articles be relevant?
(we've had this query from a number of different countries, and the following
answer is relevant to all)
Answer:
People usually have exactly the same queries about
running/building kennels, wherever they are based , so yes, the information contained
within the Membership section is relevant to everyone setting up kennels.
Finding
out about legislation is usually the quickest part of the journey, as
all you need to do is contact
your local authority. Country-based queries
are usually about temperature extremes - and we are always happy to help with
those.
With every country, things
always differ greatly between regions, nothing
is ever applied 'country-wide'.
Even when there are actual 'country' guidelines
(such as in the UK), some authorities stick to them by the letter, and
some haven't even adopted them.
The UK has one of the most (if not the most) comprehensive Guidelines to running
boarding kennels & catteries we've come across. Some countries have none!
However, our Blueprints exceed & Kennel
Design book suggest
exceeding even these.
Not run or worked in kennels before?
If you are
thinking about starting a kennels from scratch & have not run or owned kennels
before, I would firstly suggest you get a copy of the following book/s: "Running
your own Boarding Kennels" (available from our website) which will talk you through
the business side of things.
Decided to go ahead & want to think about building/
maintenance?
If you decide to go ahead & build kennels,
then "Kennel Design" would be a good investment
as it talks you through the many options & decisions to make on layout & finishes.
Our Blueprints Section will also make extremely interesting reading for you!
Articles:
The 'kennel design' articles
on building are mostly summaries of what is in Essential Kennel Design - so I
would always suggest getting the full detail from the book. They are a
useful start if you just want an overview before buying the book.
However
there are a few articles which aren't covered in the book, including the Project
Managing, Financing and Setting up tips.
The main
reason Members join is to be able to contact
us for advice...
... plus the useful guides such as Business Plans, Is
this for me?, Developing your Requirements, Property Audit.
The other
areas of interest are the Photo Library, Case Studies and Questions & Answers.
I am hoping to open a boarding kennels in the near future will your site help
me with planning and suppliers in my area. If so i will be more than glad to
become a full member.I have been running a equestrain centre in UK for 20 yrs.
But i do need help putting this together.
We don't currently have any Spanish suppliers listed at the moment,
but by reading Kennel Design, the website or the Building
Specification you will understand the quality & types of materials/products that
will be required for kennels and ask your builder to find such products or source
them yourself.
Yes, we do help Members with any stage of their development, including planning.
It probably seems all a bit daunting at the moment, but the first thing you need
to do is to contact your local authority to find out their views on the kennels.
This is something you can do at an early stage & is essential for finding
out how easy/difficult they are going to make it for you.
Our Members' Legislation section
of the site explains in more detail about planning, but the crux of it is to
speak to the authority first.
Membership will help you with things like support & encouragement, Guides & Articles to
see you through the various stages of your development and to help you with any
specific queries you may have over & above what the books or website
provides.
Please read through all the Membership
Benefits & the Recommendation & Comments so
you can decide whether to join now, or to wait until you have spoken to the authority
to see if the kennels are feasible first.
Membership is usually most appreciated when people are floundering & wondering
where on earth to start!
Our Blueprints will be invaluable at the stage
when you need to apply for planning with the local authority.
Having 20 years experience of running an equestrian business is a great start,
but now you will need to focus on the specifics of the kennels business.
However, one of the first things you must do is to get hold of a copy
of a book on running/ setting up a kennels business and this is something I
strongly recommend you do to start your journey.
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