Nauset Kennels

As most of you know by now, Claude the Golden Retriever has been found. Missing since Oct. 10, Claude sightings stretched from Truro to Plymouth and back to Eastham. And on Friday, November 5, after 25 days in the elements, Claude was found in Truro. Amazing, isn’t it?

Yet the fact that Claude survived that long isn’t as amazing as the amount of support and care expressed by the people of the Lower Cape. People spent hours looking for this dog, giving up their personal time, their lunch hours, time with their own animals and families. People checked in with each other regularly, “Any word about that dog?” After awhile, there were a few people who thought that Claude might never be seen again. But people continued to search, continued to post updates and ask around, continued to hope. When word spread that he had been found, the elation buzzed through the air.

We may be hurting economically. We have longer lines at the food pantries and more people out of work than we’ve seen in years. But we came together for a dog. And most everyone kept the faith and didn’t give up hope. Welcome home Claude.

post by Leslee, our fabulous groomer

Opinions vary on shaving dogs, but I feel keeping a dog’s coat longer in the winter and shorter in the summer has no impact on whether it keeps them warmer or cooler.

In the summer months I look around and see the shaved Golden panting just as much as the thick coated Husky - when it’s hot, it’s hot regardless of what you’re wearing. However, one point to consider is this: taking your pet short in the warmer weather will help those pets that are prone to skin issues and can be helpful in locating fleas and ticks. Shorter cuts, while they may seem to be more work because you have to make regular visits to the groomer, actually make for much less work in the long run. No mats, less fur to catch things in, easier to wash and dry, the list goes on.

Winter is a different story. In the colder, snowy months your dog’s coat will keep your pet warm IF he has a coat designed for the cold weather, such as the double coated dogs. Double coated dogs, Malamutes, Collies, Pomeranians, and Newfoundlands are just some examples,where the nice soft fur is next to the body with the more wiry coat on the outside. Even then, I have to ask: How much time does your dog spend laying around outside in 20 degree temperatures or during a snow storm? There may be some dogs doing that, but my guess is most are hanging out in a nicely heated home, in front of the fireplace or woodstove.

So we let our thinner coated pets, such as Poodles and Yorkies, grow longer fur for the winter. It gets cold so you dress them up in doggie coats and sweaters to keep them warm. But didn’t you let their coat grow longer to keep them warm? If your pet does not sport a double coat that is naturally designed for the cold, then growing the fur long is not helping keep the dog warm. Instead, if you are growing but not maintaining grooming along the way, the fur will become matted, particularly with those doggie coats and sweaters.

As the winter months come upon us and you’re wondering what to do about your pet’s fur-style, ask yourself these questions:

Is my dog’s coat designed for cold weather? If you answered no, then consider regular grooming to keep your dog’s coat in tip-top shape and invest in a coat or two.

How much time is my pet actually spending outside during the winter? If you answered not much, then remember that your pet’s cut can still be short in the winter.

Does my pet still need a coat or sweater when it gets really cold? If your answer is yes and you can’t wait to break out the designer doggie clothing, then by all means, bring it on! However, remember that these cute sweaters and coats love to mat hair, so again, maintenance is key.

Do I have more time to spend brushing and combing all that extra fur to prevent uncomfortable mats? If your answer is a resounding ABSOLUTELY NOT, then think about the message here and make regular grooming appointments for your dog.

Then, keep your pet in much , more manageable shorter cut and remember that those adorable coats and sweater are mat magnets with longer hair. And always feel free to talk to your groomer about your pet’s style.

Wow! Who would have thought that constructing a new building would cause us to change almost every aspect of our business? Silly, naive, girls we were! We just thought we would have a little bit more elbow room. Instead, we’ve spent the last year examining our business. Our construction turned into a business exercise that I think all business owners should go through even without the new building!

So what’s new you ask? Let’s start first with the most noticeable things. After 38 years, our wonderful logo, originally designed by Kirsten’s mother, is now more reflective of who we are as a business and the lighthouses that are the Cape. The new logo moves from the dog and cat with their suitcases going on vacation concept (see below) to a lighthouse totem pole of pets (see above), a shining beacon in the pet care industry.

We are also in the process of changing our name from Nauset Kennels to Nauset Pet Services. Similar to our logo, we are no longer “just a kennel.” We’ve always offered many of these services, but on a much smaller scale. We have always offered day care, but no one thought of it in terms of advertising. Seventeen years ago, Brewster was our one day care dog, hanging out in the grooming room with Nancy.

New logo, new name, what else? Well, as Kirsten likes to remind herself, we really aren’t the little mom and pop kennel that we used to be. Like so many of our colleagues, our industry has changed dramatically. Look at your own attitude towards your pets - like so many others, I bet your pet is far from just the family dog or “that cat” anymore. We are constantly re-educating, learning new things, trying to make each animal’s experience with us the best it can be. Just today I realized that even the food we feed in the kennel is vastly different from the food we fed when I first started so long ago.

In that effort to create the best experience for each animal, we started offering pet sitting knowing that not every animal is comfortable in a kennel environment. This idea, which used to seem contrary to the concept of the kennel, now compliments our services quite well. We love going to Jake and Cali’s house, feeding them, making sure they have been out, and sitting on the front stoop snuggling with them in the sun.

We now offer pick-up and delivery to more than just Provincetown and for more than just grooming. Katie used to climb in the Subaru wagon twice a week. We now have three vehicles of all different sizes going two different directions!

Perhaps some of the more difficult but important changes are in our policies. We require deposits on holiday and summer reservations. We won’t waiver on your vaccinations and have implemented more stringent requirements. Your pet’s paperwork needs to be in to us before your first visit.

What hasn’t changed though is our commitment to your pets. Yes, we are “bigger” now. Yes, we have a new name to reflect what we truly offer. And yes, we’ve added staff and changed some of our more relaxed policies to stricter policies. But all of these changes were made and implemented with you and your pet in mind. Our deposit requirement is to ensure that people don’t just make reservations on the off-chance that they might be going away for Thanksgiving and then decide not to show up (which happened with enough regularity that it became a nightmare having to turn away so many clients every summer weekend or holiday).

Along the way we’ve been having a ball. Not every change is easy to implement and not every customer gets it or agrees with it. Change is hard. But we are loving the challenge of continuing to provide the absolute best care that we can for your pet.

Kirsten and I are on a much needed, much anticipated trip to Ireland. Kirsten has been working like crazy trying to get all her ducks in a row. My parents are staying home with the kids, and for anyone who either knows my folks or has read this blog before, you know where our animals will be while we are away - the kennel!

Hoot, Scout and Pecan are all booked into camp for the next two weeks, and while our kids are beside themselves, my parents are doing little dances around the house, happy that they don’t have those extra chores associated with the animals. As I was cleaning out the litter box, my dad looked on with disgust and said, very firmly, “Thank you. Thank you so much for not making me do that.”

It’s nice for us to know that we can go away and our kids are in good hands. It’s even better knowing that our business is in good hands. And it’s a trifecta knowing that our kids, our business, and our animals are all taken good care of while we are gone.

And for those of you who wonder, yes, our pets are treated just like everyone else’s. And in many ways, they even act like your pets. Hoot is cautious by nature, and will take a few days acclimating to the cat room. She might peek her head out. What will probably really draw her out will be when one of the girls goes into the cat room and sits patiently on the floor waiting for her to come out of hiding.

Pecan, well, Pecan is in dog heaven. He is on the dog equivalent of speed from his excitement. Give him friends to wrestle with (he really likes Ruby) and he is good to go. He’ll probably lose weight from being so amped up all the time, even though the girls will be super attentive to his eating habits, noting when he eats, how much or how little he eats, and all that.

And then there’s our special needs girl, Scout. She makes it well known how little she enjoys the kennel. Funny isn’t it? The kennel owners’ dog doesn’t like the kennel. She usually ends up making herself sick in some way. It’s as if she does it out of spite, saying to us, “Okay Mommy. If you’re not going to be here with me, then you will pay.” And by pay, Scout does mean literally and figuratively! The girls will work very hard to try to make her happy, but since Scout won’t be happy at the kennel, they will also work hard to ensure she stays healthy.

They will all have different experiences, just like your animals do. The best part is, when we get home, they will be so happy to see us! Well, Hoot and Scout will be. Pecan will be counting down the hours until he gets to go play again.

The sun came out yesterday and we were all just thrilled! I can’t speak for the dogs, but I could swear their tails were wagging just a little bit more. Some of them might have even been smiling; I know I was!

The parents of our day care crew love the pictures and I love taking them (the dogs are hams!). They don’t always sit as still as I would like, but you get the idea even if it’s a bit blurry from the motion!

It is so much fun to watch them all at play. They wrestle, dig, race around the yard, and do a lot of sniffing! Some are more laid back than others and just sit back and watch. Ozzy Pug is our referee, running around herding everyone where he wants them to go and doing the equivalent of blowing his whistle by barking at them. Some go just wild when one of us is out there, vying for our affection, while others only want to be with the dogs.

I am off to get dirty with the pups. Enjoy the sun! We are!

Customers are always saying that they would love to watch their dogs playing at day care, particularly when we share news from the day: Shayna and Summer are best buddies; Scout and Cue shared a blanket; Hannah played well with everyone; Danzig played with two of his girls today, Stella and Lucy. The conversation then turns to the idea of webcams. Webcams are a great concept, and I will cover them in another blog. This blog is my attempt to share some videos from day care. I haven’t edited them, so you might want to keep the volume down since my voice is pretty loud coming through the mic! I hope this is just the start of sharing some of what we get to see during the course of the day. If you keep tuning in, I’ll keep working on my videographer skills!

Day Care Video 1

Day Care Video 2

Day Care Video 3

Kirsten said that when she drove past me the other day I had a grin ear to ear. She’s right. How could I not? Our new bus makes me smile, and even better, it makes other people smile. I get to drive a bus with cute dogs on the windows and cute dogs inside in their crates. People drive by and point and smile. And I get a lot of waves from friends and customers. It’s fun! Our kids love being driven to school in the bus (Yeah, I know. They are only in preschool right now and don’t mind being seen with their parents). The first time we dropped them off in the bus, their schoolmates came over asking, “Do you have real dogs on this bus?” They were fascinated and a bit disappointed that we didn’t have any dogs yet since we hadn’t started our route!

The next time you see us, give a honk or a wave. Better yet, smile. It’s nice being part of something that is contagious in a positive way!

We’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about pet insurance. To be honest, it’s something we should have done 9k dollars ago, before Scout drained our savings. Although we were thrilled with her care at CARE (Cape Animal Referral and Emergency), we were less than thrilled with our bills. Of course, CARE isn’t our problem and didn’t create the bills. Scout is her own biggest nemesis, and really should have a zipper put in her stomach. (Bull Terriers should actually be bred with zippers so the vets can easily pull out all that they ingest).

Realistically, I know that pet insurance makes sense, at least in our house. We probably won’t choose the policy that includes routine care for no other reason than I can’t fathom spending so much in insurance for two dogs. The sticker shock is unsettling. I know, you’re wondering how I can possibly have sticker shock after forking over $9,000 for Scout’s last treatment, but that was spread out over the course of a week or so and how could I say no at that particular time? Admit it, they totally had me! (I remember moments of panic thinking, “What will I do when the credit card is declined?”).

Instead, we are thinking about the emergency only policy. Our local vet is actually very reasonable for routine vaccinations and for everything else it seems like we go to CARE anyway.

A friend of mine just emailed that his labrador is actually going to have more knee surgery. I believe this is the third time for this particular dog. My friend thinks we are crazy not to have pet insurance. I think if I had a dog like his I would be a believer too. Oh wait, I do have a dog like his, don’t I? He says that the policy more than pays for itself and he wouldn’t have a dog without the insurance.

I would bet the farm, or the kennel in our case, that once this policy is in place nothing will happen to our dogs, not like I want them to use it! Maybe I shouldn’t tell the dogs though: Scout might throw caution to the wind and attempt to eat some new items she’s been eyeballing.

Although rain poured out of the sky the other day, we had about fifteen of our day care dogs looking for some fun. As we watched, each dog’s personality and actions reminded me of children on a school playground.

Some of the bolder dogs raced right through huge puddles, not caring about getting paws wet (obviously not my dogs!!!). A few stepped daintily around the puddles; you could almost hear them fussing about the mud and the wet clumping their hair.

On days when the weather is more cooperative and we have twenty or more running around the yards, it is even more fun to watch. My own dog is the one who wants to play, play, play and will run with anyone, not caring about size, breed, etc. To him, there is no such concept as too much playground time! My other dog is the kid on the playground who kind of wants to play with the others, but really doesn’t know how. She ends up annoying everyone and then sits at the gate looking sad that no one wants to be her friend. And yes, we even have the popular crowd comprised mostly of the “regulars.” They seem to be in charge on the playground, not by bullying but through that often envied, “I know what’s going on around here” mentality. Like real playgrounds, there is lots of yelling: “Hey! I want you to play with me! Yes, you! Can’t you see me over here with the stick?” The school yard bully is here too, playing just a bit too rough and almost daring us to put him or her in a time out. There are even the playground ouchies, sometimes equivalent to a skinned knee, sometimes more so. Heck, I remember as a kid throwing a rock directly at a neighbor boy (sorry Chip!). I wasn’t trying to be mean, but a total lack of common sense took over and the poor kid almost lost an eye. Dogs, and kids, sometimes have those moments, don’t they? The nice thing about a playground is that more often than not, it will very quickly return to normal.

Watching the dogs play is fun. It reminds me of my own days spent on a play ground, with mostly good days and the occasional bad day. I usually always left with a smile on my face. It seems like most of our day care dogs do too! “Great day, mom, but ready to have some dinner and rest my head!”

Happy New Year!

Once again, time has gotten away from me and I am remiss in getting all of my personal Christmas cards sent, ordering and sending the kennel holiday cards, staying on top of our blog, and any other sundry holiday to do’s. It is a tremendously busy time at the kennel and I did manage to squeeze in a last minute trip to my parents’ house in Minnesota (brrr!!!).

This is such a wonderful time to be in the kennel because we are full in all aspects of the word! Our customers are so giving; two weeks ago we were bursting at the seams with chocolates, homemade cookies and breads, coffees, and even a Yo-Yo Ma cd that a customer gave us (how did you know?!!!). Two weeks later, our pants are bursting at the seams! However, so are our smiles. Our customers are so thoughtful and generous, and it goes beyond just gifts. The wall in the office is covered with cards, some with great photos of the animals, some homemade, and some from people and pets we see once a year, and some from clients of long ago who no longer have pets, but still think of us. Almost every one is personalized with a little note to us; most of my cards at home don’t include anything personal! That’s what makes it all worth it, the connections we make with our clients, new and old.

Thank you from all of us to you.