Posted on 6th October 2015 Shocking home boarding experience escapes justice
When my wife was rushed unexpectedly into A & E at the Norfolk & Norwich lunchtime on Thursday 30 April I naturally wanted to be free to attend the hospital at a moment’s notice without being anxious about our Belgian Shepherd being left in the back of the car. Sometime previously my wife and I had considered where we would place Khia if we were to go away on holiday. Based on their cleverly worded web site we had identified Wag-It Dog Home Boarding in North Norfolk as a suitable establishment to entrust the care of our dog. So I called them and after explaining the urgency of the situation managed to book the dog in later that afternoon.
First thing the next morning, on the Friday, I purposely phoned Wag-It to make sure Khia had settled in and to give the owner assurance that if there were any problems then I would want to come and collect the dog. I was told everything was fine.
Happily, my wife was discharged from the N & N later in the day but we decided to leave our dog at Wag-It as it would give us welcome breathing space.
I emailed Wag-It on Sunday morning to ask if we could pick Khia up but did not get a response until mid-day on Monday, 4 May, the Early Spring Bank Holiday.
Later that same day at around 4.45 p.m., as it later turned out some four hours after the event, we were informed by the Wag-It owner that our dog had escaped from the security of their compound. Unbelievably, the Wag-It owner proposed we would need to do nothing, as she would let us know when Khia had been found.
Ignoring this bizarre advice my wife immediately used her cellphone to mobilise friends and family to form a search and rescue party while missing dog information was also uploaded onto Facebook. Interestingly, Wag-It only contacted neighbouring landowners, namely friends, about our dog having gone missing, but had not informed the police, local authority/dog warden or local vets contrary to what they had told us.
Just after 7 o’clock in the evening, by which time Khia had been at liberty for almost 7 hours, she was at last sighted by one of my wife’s friends in the search party. Quarter-of-an-hour later she was secure in the back of our car, although virtually covered in mud and clearly traumatised by her experience. It was only when my wife was re-united with Khia it was realized beneath the thick fur around her neck she was wearing a tightly fitting electronic shock collar.
On Friday, 8 May, I visited the Wag-It Dog Home Boarding premises to discuss the situation with the business owner and see where Khia had escaped. I was hopeful too of getting some sort of explanation, an apology and in the circumstances a refund.
The owner immediately went on the defensive, making out that despite the wire fencing around the enclosure being only 4 feet in height no dog had escaped before. Furthermore, having stated “Khia had been barking for three days!” she claimed all twelve of the remote-controlled training collar’s shock functions –‘stimulations’ as the manufacturers prefer to call them - had been ‘disabled’ and only the bleep noise distraction button had been used on Khia. When challenged as to the reason why she had not chosen to call me so I could have collected Khia she replied “ Because you had been blubbing like a child ” a reference to my tearful, emotional state when I had initially taken Khia in, “And I thought you needed more time”. Even though I had made her aware my wife had been discharged from hospital and was recovering.
When I raised the issue of having a refund she replied “ You need to read our terms and conditions which are on our web site!” Upon re-reading them, to be fair, it is clear there are no circumstances where the owner will consider making a refund.
Wag–It Dog Home Boarding is situated in North Norfolk to the north of Coltishall, is flanked to the south by the Bure Valley Railway line, and lies immediately south-west of a large residential estate in addition to a handful of other properties south of the railway track including a Bed and Breakfast. Therefore, the owner will have a vested interest in keeping dogs quiet because if dogs in her custody were to disturb neighbours, creating a noise nuisance, she could potentially run the risk of losing the right to operate her business. The Wag-It business was started back in 2013 with the financial backing of Broadland District Council whose Environmental Health department is responsible for Animal Welfare, and in this case, issuing the licence to operate.
The manufacturers instruction manual for the Canicom 300 remote-controlled training collar used makes it clear the collar should simply be worn, but not operated for the first few days. In the first place to allow the dog to get used to wearing it but also in case there are issues with the collar irritating the dog’s neck. It also states that the collar needs to be fitted very tightly in order that the probes will effectively penetrate the skin and deliver the requisite shock. As Khia’s collar had been fitted extremely tightly this would appear to contradict the idea the collar was only applied to enable a noise distraction function to be effective. The relatively long probes used would also support this theory.
Both the RSPCA and the Kennel Club are in favour of the electronic collar being made illegal in England; the use of electronic collars is already outlawed in Wales.
A formal complaint has been lodged with Broadland DC in relation to the issues raised here but their report does not accept that either the height of the fence or the use of a shock collar treatment are issues. Moreover, Broadland District Council’s Communications and Marketing manager was instrumental in obstructing this story from being published in the local newspaper.
The Wag-It fencing height was increased to 6’ two days after the escape, but according to Broadland District Council this had nothing to do with Khia escaping but was done to ‘deter thieves’. They also accepted the Wag-It owner’s version of events in that the shock element of the collar had been de-activated when used on Khia.
In the only two other cases I have been able to find on the Internet, where dogs have liberated themselves from commercially-run kennels in the UK, in the first instance two Collies were shot dead by a local farmer; in the other case, the dog was run over by a car within minutes of making his escape.
First thing the next morning, on the Friday, I purposely phoned Wag-It to make sure Khia had settled in and to give the owner assurance that if there were any problems then I would want to come and collect the dog. I was told everything was fine.
Happily, my wife was discharged from the N & N later in the day but we decided to leave our dog at Wag-It as it would give us welcome breathing space.
I emailed Wag-It on Sunday morning to ask if we could pick Khia up but did not get a response until mid-day on Monday, 4 May, the Early Spring Bank Holiday.
Later that same day at around 4.45 p.m., as it later turned out some four hours after the event, we were informed by the Wag-It owner that our dog had escaped from the security of their compound. Unbelievably, the Wag-It owner proposed we would need to do nothing, as she would let us know when Khia had been found.
Ignoring this bizarre advice my wife immediately used her cellphone to mobilise friends and family to form a search and rescue party while missing dog information was also uploaded onto Facebook. Interestingly, Wag-It only contacted neighbouring landowners, namely friends, about our dog having gone missing, but had not informed the police, local authority/dog warden or local vets contrary to what they had told us.
Just after 7 o’clock in the evening, by which time Khia had been at liberty for almost 7 hours, she was at last sighted by one of my wife’s friends in the search party. Quarter-of-an-hour later she was secure in the back of our car, although virtually covered in mud and clearly traumatised by her experience. It was only when my wife was re-united with Khia it was realized beneath the thick fur around her neck she was wearing a tightly fitting electronic shock collar.
On Friday, 8 May, I visited the Wag-It Dog Home Boarding premises to discuss the situation with the business owner and see where Khia had escaped. I was hopeful too of getting some sort of explanation, an apology and in the circumstances a refund.
The owner immediately went on the defensive, making out that despite the wire fencing around the enclosure being only 4 feet in height no dog had escaped before. Furthermore, having stated “Khia had been barking for three days!” she claimed all twelve of the remote-controlled training collar’s shock functions –‘stimulations’ as the manufacturers prefer to call them - had been ‘disabled’ and only the bleep noise distraction button had been used on Khia. When challenged as to the reason why she had not chosen to call me so I could have collected Khia she replied “ Because you had been blubbing like a child ” a reference to my tearful, emotional state when I had initially taken Khia in, “And I thought you needed more time”. Even though I had made her aware my wife had been discharged from hospital and was recovering.
When I raised the issue of having a refund she replied “ You need to read our terms and conditions which are on our web site!” Upon re-reading them, to be fair, it is clear there are no circumstances where the owner will consider making a refund.
Wag–It Dog Home Boarding is situated in North Norfolk to the north of Coltishall, is flanked to the south by the Bure Valley Railway line, and lies immediately south-west of a large residential estate in addition to a handful of other properties south of the railway track including a Bed and Breakfast. Therefore, the owner will have a vested interest in keeping dogs quiet because if dogs in her custody were to disturb neighbours, creating a noise nuisance, she could potentially run the risk of losing the right to operate her business. The Wag-It business was started back in 2013 with the financial backing of Broadland District Council whose Environmental Health department is responsible for Animal Welfare, and in this case, issuing the licence to operate.
The manufacturers instruction manual for the Canicom 300 remote-controlled training collar used makes it clear the collar should simply be worn, but not operated for the first few days. In the first place to allow the dog to get used to wearing it but also in case there are issues with the collar irritating the dog’s neck. It also states that the collar needs to be fitted very tightly in order that the probes will effectively penetrate the skin and deliver the requisite shock. As Khia’s collar had been fitted extremely tightly this would appear to contradict the idea the collar was only applied to enable a noise distraction function to be effective. The relatively long probes used would also support this theory.
Both the RSPCA and the Kennel Club are in favour of the electronic collar being made illegal in England; the use of electronic collars is already outlawed in Wales.
A formal complaint has been lodged with Broadland DC in relation to the issues raised here but their report does not accept that either the height of the fence or the use of a shock collar treatment are issues. Moreover, Broadland District Council’s Communications and Marketing manager was instrumental in obstructing this story from being published in the local newspaper.
The Wag-It fencing height was increased to 6’ two days after the escape, but according to Broadland District Council this had nothing to do with Khia escaping but was done to ‘deter thieves’. They also accepted the Wag-It owner’s version of events in that the shock element of the collar had been de-activated when used on Khia.
In the only two other cases I have been able to find on the Internet, where dogs have liberated themselves from commercially-run kennels in the UK, in the first instance two Collies were shot dead by a local farmer; in the other case, the dog was run over by a car within minutes of making his escape.
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