The hardest part of running a boarding kennel isn't the animals. Animals are consistent — they tell you exactly what they need, they don't gossip, and they don't call in sick without notice. The hardest part is the people: finding staff who genuinely care about animal welfare, training them to meet your standards, and retaining them long enough to build a team with real depth.
A good kennel culture starts with hiring. Bad hires in pet care don't just fail to perform — they create welfare risks and the client complaints that follow. Here's how to do it properly.
What you're actually hiring for
It's tempting to focus on experience. "Do you have dog handling experience?" is usually the first question. It's not the most important one. Experience is trainable. What's much harder to teach is the quality of attention someone brings to animal welfare — whether they notice that a dog has gone off its food, whether they notice subtle signs of distress before they escalate, whether they act on those observations without being told to.
The best kennel staff have several things in common: they're patient (dogs don't respond well to frustrated handlers), they're observant (welfare issues are caught early by people who look carefully), they're physically capable of the work (heavy dogs, outdoor conditions, long shifts), and they're reliable (animal care can't be done half-heartedly). "Loves dogs" is necessary but far from sufficient.
In interview, ask scenario questions rather than experience questions. "A dog has been refusing food for two meals and seems lethargic — what do you do?" or "You notice a dog limping slightly in the morning run — walk me through your thought process." The answers reveal how someone actually thinks about animal welfare, not how they describe their experience.
The trial shift
Most hiring decisions for kennel staff should include a paid trial shift before a formal offer. CV and interview can't tell you how someone handles a reactive dog, whether they're confident but careful in a run with multiple dogs, or how they interact with clients during check-in. A trial shift tells you all of these things within an hour.
Be specific about what you're assessing during the trial. Watch how they enter a run — do they check the dog's body language before moving? Do they make confident, calm movements or tentative, anxious ones? Do they ask questions, or do they assume they know? A candidate who demonstrates good instincts on a trial shift, even with limited experience, is more valuable than an experienced handler who moves through the facility on autopilot.
Pay for trial shifts. This is both legally appropriate and practically important — candidates who take a trial shift seriously are the candidates worth hiring.
Building a real induction
Most kennel inductions are insufficient. A new staff member is shown around, shadowed for a morning, and then left to get on with it. The problems this creates don't show up immediately — they show up when the new person encounters something they weren't shown how to handle, and makes a judgment call they weren't prepared for.
A proper induction covers: your welfare protocols (what does distress look like in the dogs you board? what triggers do you see regularly and how do you manage them?), your emergency procedures (medical emergency, escape, fire), your communication protocols (when to escalate to the owner vs. handling internally, how to report observations about individual dogs), your admin systems (how to use the booking software, how to record notes against bookings), and your client interaction standards (how you speak to clients, what you share and don't share, how to handle a complaint).
Write this down. A physical induction manual or a documented digital handbook means every new hire gets the same information, and you can update it when your protocols change rather than relying on whoever is available to train the newest person.
"We lost a good staff member in the first month because we threw her in at the deep end and she didn't feel supported. Since we built a proper induction with a two-week buddy period, our retention in the first three months has improved dramatically."
— Boarding kennel owner, Worcestershire
The practical reality of kennel wages
Pet care work is skilled, physically demanding and often done in poor weather, on weekends, over Christmas. The wages most kennels pay don't reflect this, and the result is high turnover, thin staffing and operational fragility. A business that relies on minimum wage staff with high turnover spends a disproportionate amount of its energy on recruitment and induction rather than on the quality of care it delivers.
Paying above the market rate for good staff is usually better value than paying market rate and replacing people constantly. The cost of advertising a role, reviewing applications, interviewing candidates, running trial shifts and providing an induction is significant. A staff member who stays three years instead of one is worth the extra cost of retaining them.
Beyond pay, what keeps good kennel staff is being treated as a professional rather than a warm body. Regular feedback, progression opportunities (deputy manager, head groomer, training lead), and genuine acknowledgement that they're the reason the business's reputation exists — these things cost very little and make a meaningful difference to retention.
First aid training
Every kennel should have at least one member of staff trained in canine first aid on site at all times. This isn't optional — it's a basic welfare standard that should be considered a prerequisite, not a nice-to-have. Courses run by providers like Canine First Aid UK typically take a day and provide a certificate valid for three years.
Beyond formal first aid, all staff should know the basics: how to recognise signs of heat stroke, bloat, breathing distress and shock in dogs, when to call a vet immediately versus monitoring, and how to transport an injured dog safely. These situations are rare, but when they happen, the time it takes an untrained staff member to make a decision is time that matters.
Ongoing development
Kennel work has more depth than most people assume. Staff who are learning — about animal behaviour, about breed-specific characteristics, about training and enrichment — are more engaged and more effective than those who feel they've reached the limit of what the job offers.
Invest in continuing development. Fund a staff member to take a dog handling course. Send your lead groomer to a trade show. Bring in a trainer to run an enrichment workshop. The cost is modest. The effect on staff morale, retention and the quality of care you deliver is meaningful — and it becomes part of what differentiates your kennel from the one down the road that's just going through the motions.