When my wife was unexpectedly rushed into A & E lunchtime on Thursday 30 April I felt the need to…read moreattend the hospital without being anxious about our Belgian Shepherd being left in the back of the car. Based on their web site information, I rang Wag-It Dog Home Boarding and managed to book her in later that afternoon.
Early the next morning I purposely phoned Wag-It to make sure our dog had settled in and to give assurance that if, for any reason, there were any problems then I would want to come and collect her. But I was told everything was fine.
Happily my wife was discharged from hospital later that same day - Friday - but we decided to leave our dog at Wag-It as it would give us breathing space not having to worry about our dog.
I emailed Wag-It on Sunday morning to ask if we could pick our dog up but did not get a response until mid-day on Monday, 4 May, Early Spring Bank Holiday.
Later that day, around 16.45 hrs. ,in fact 4 hours after the event , we were informed by Wag-It that our dog had escaped from their compound.
The business owner proposed we did not need to do anything as she would let us know when the dog had been found. Naturally we chose to ignore this directive.
My wife used her mobile to organise friends and family to form a search and rescue party. One of her sisters uploaded images on Facebook. It later transpired Wag-It had only contacted neighbouring landowners, namely their friends, about our dog having gone missing, but had not informed the police, local authority/dog warden or local vets contrary to what we had been told.
Just after 19.00 hrs. our dog was sighted by one of my wife's friends, so minutes later our dog was secure in the back of our car, although entirely covered in mud and clearly traumatised by her experience at being at large for 7 hours. The dog had travelled some 5 miles in total, and had negotiated her escape across mainly agricultural land and a dis-used airfield but also a busy road where the average speed has been officially recorded by the police at 65 mph.
It was only when my wife was re-united with our dog that it was realized the dog was wearing a tightly fitting anti-bark shock collar around her neck.
On Friday, 8 May, I attended the Wag-It Dog Home Boarding premises in order to see where our dog had escaped and obviously to discuss the situation expecting an explanation, hopefully an apology, and perhaps even a refund.
The fencing around the enclosure was only 4 feet in height but the owner said that no dog had ever escaped before. The owner claimed the remote-controlled training collar's shock function was 'disabled' and only the bleep noise distraction button had been used on our dog, but this was inconsistent with the collar having been fitted so tightly.
In essence, there has been no acknowledgement of the failure to keep our dog safe, no apology for using a shock collar, nor has there been any offer of a refund.
Wag-It Dog Home Boarding are situated between two dense residential areas and therefore they have a vested interest in keeping dogs under their care, custody and control quiet. The owner has been operating the business with a license from Broadland District Council since 2013.
A formal complaint has been lodged with Broadland DC 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 DC were instrumental in obstructing this story from being published in the local newspaper.
Note:
a) The Wag-It fencing height was increased to 6' two days after the escape.
b) In the only two similar cases found on the internet, where a dog or dogs have escaped from commercially licensed premises in the UK, the first case ended with two collies being shot dead by a local farmer; in the other the outcome was the escapee dog was killed by a passing car within minutes of their finding freedom.
