The New York Times travel section featured a piece on a new pet boarding facility affiliated with Disney World. Best Friends Pet Care at Walt Disney World is part of a national chain of pet boarding facilities. They are consolidating operations of the five boarding facilities which it operates for WDW guests into one large facility with capacity for 270 dogs and 30 cats which will open in August, 2010. The luxury suite description fully recognizes owners’ propensity to humanize their pets, including such niceties as turn down service and ice cream treats. What might in another facility be called indoor-outdoor runs are called suites with relief patios.
An interesting option that I’ve seen featured at other luxury kennels are suites that do not have an outdoor option at all, but instead confine dogs indoors all the time but include several daily walks. Drawing on my experience working in boarding kennels, I will say that some dogs don’t understand the run concept and this option may work just as well for them even though they may not have as many opportunities for potty breaks as dogs in a more traditional kennel setup.