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Can't travel with your pet? Three factors to consider before you board Fido

A consumer watchdog group shares a story of pet boarding, gone wrong.

PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Before you board your pet for the long weekend, the Better Business Bureau says you need to be on alert for abusive or neglectful kennels.

"A lot of people find a [boarding] business online," says Paula Fleming, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer

Better Business Bureau serving New England. "They don't go until the day of drop off and then they find themselves out of luck because they have nowhere else to leave their pet."

Over the years, Fleming says the BBB has seen an increase in the number of boarding business complaints. She describes a recent example regarding a business out of state, that left a pet owner "feeling guilty":

"They did not bring the pet outside to go to the bathroom and unfortunately the pet ended up having to hold going to the bathroom for two days. And when the owner picked up the pet it was very sick."

"Excessive barking, panting....dogs will yawn when they're stressed," says Frank Billings, the owner of Portland's Happy Tails and Tiny Tails. The dog daycare and boarding facilities have an A+ rating according to the BBB.

Billings says there are three factors to consider when figuring out what to do with Fido. The first, is knowing where your pet feels most comfortable. Maybe an at-home sitter is best. You can arrange for someone to come by your home every few hours to feed and walk your pet.

Or maybe an overnight boarding facility works. Billings says there are two types: cage boarding where dogs sleep in a kennel, and cage free dogs where can sleep wherever they decide inside the facility.

"I think dogs need their own space," he says.

Next, when researching a boarding facility, Billings suggests finding out the staff ratio to dogs at the facility.

"You want a certain amount of humans interacting with a certain amount of dogs," says Billings. "You don’t want 50 dogs to every one human because what you’ll find is a lot of places will just pack dogs in.”

Finally, he says a kennel should never say no to an impromptu tour, before you decide to board your pet there.

"Because if a facility is doing a good job you can walk through the door, take a look around, they can show you every place the dog is going to be."

So while you're at the pool, your dog could be too, because there is one just for dogs at Happy Tails. It's meant for older dogs or pets recovering from surgery, that could use some aquatic exercise.

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