Chile Forum

Hi all,
We live in Las Condes,Santiago and need to kennel our small Maltese (5lb) while we tour Patagonia during the Christmas holidays. We have kept his hair long and am concerned about finding a place that will not only keep him safe but also groomed to prevent matting. I'm seeking recommendations.

My neighbor uses a kennel in Pirque that she speaks highly of. I am not sure if they would do the grooming too, but if you are interested, I can get the contact info from her and you can ask them directly. Her husband works in a vet clinic, so he might have more suggestions as well. The place in Pirque has pick-up and delivery services so you don't have to make the trip.

My neighbor just got back to me. The place in Pirque is called Able Kennel, http://www.ablekennel.cl/ and their phone number is 8530425. Ask to speak Gabriela Hameau and tell her Xime, Fionita's "mom" recommended her. The site says they have dog grooming, so it sounds like they would be able to make sure your dog's coat gets the care it needs.

Another option she mentioned is Canycat in Ñuñoa http://www.canycat.cl. I actually used to take my animals there when I lived in that part of town and boarded my pets there a few times with no problems. That had slipped my mind since it has been awhile. The main vet there is Lorena and the receptionist is Anita. They employ a groomer, so grooming should not be a problem.

Hope this helps .

If you allow a groomer to touch your dog's coat, make sure you make it very exceedingly clear that they are not to cut any hair.

I have Papillons and the world is full of stories aboout pet owners who took their Papillon to be professionally groomed, only to find that the groomer had "tidied" up the dog by cutting off the long ear fringe

gringalais wrote:My neighbor just got back to me. The place in Pirque is called Able Kennel, http://www.ablekennel.cl/ and their phone number is 8530425. Ask to speak Gabriela Hameau and tell her Xime, Fionita's "mom" recommended her. The site says they have dog grooming, so it sounds like they would be able to make sure your dog's coat gets the care it needs.

Please, please, for your dog's sake, do NOT use Able Kennel. They are terrible. Awful. Perhaps even directly negligent.

I left my dog there with them for two weeks. Before I did so, I went and visited, and the facilities looked acceptable. However, for some reason the woman "never received" my emails (which turned out to be a repeating and very suspicious theme). If your email account is so full you can’t receive more emails, perhaps you should delete some to make room for communicating with your clients?

I communicated with her the kind of care that we were looking for, asked that if we typed up commands in English (with phonetic pronunciations) if they'd be willing to use them with my dog. If we left treats and toys, that the dog would get them. She said of course. I asked her to take a picture of him playing in their playarea and email it to us so as to reassure my wife that our dog was happy and safe. She said she would.

Lies, all of it.

We knew it would be a stressful experience for our dog so we did everything we could to make his experience more comfortable/less scary. We sent our dog with a nice dog bed, a couple of worn shirts with our scent on them, a bag of clementines (to be doled out slowly to him, because they perhaps his most favorite treat), rawhides ("bones") that he could chew on, a few toys, and a really nice sign that had a picture of him on it, his name, the commands in English, etc. So that any staff would be reassured that he was a nice friendly dog and hopefully pay attention to him without fear.
When we got him back, she explained that he had, unfortunately, eaten his bed. Not ideal, but he was probably stressed and that’s understandable. Wait, you saw him start to destroy it and you didn’t take it away? Why would you let him EAT it?
After she’d left, I opened up the bag we sent with our dog. It was untouched. The special clementines were there, the rawhides that he was to be able to chew on were there, the toys were clean and unmarked. We found sores on his lips, from where he’d been chewing on a fence because… wait for it…. He DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO CHEW.
We’d put his proof of vaccination in the bag as well, but that was still sealed in its envelope. Then we realized that, although the site says that she requires this information, she’d never once asked if he’d been vaccinated nor expressed an interest in seeing the forms.
A week later, we noticed a spot on his back was damp. He’d been bitten and gotten an infection. The vet that allegedly comes every week to inspect the dogs obviously missed this, and she’d failed to tell us. So we’ve had huge bills from the vet because we’re STILL fighting this infection that we didn’t even know was brewing in his system, which COULD have been dealt with much sooner at much less cost and stress if we’d only know about it.
If we were in the U.S. I’d report her to the Better Business Bureau and maybe even take legal action. But I’m only a visitor here, and am unaware of any real recourse that I have in terms of recovering the hundreds of dollars wasted because of this incompetent kennel who abused my dog.
I’m just glad I decided not to tip at first because I wanted to see how my dog was doing. I still feel guilty for what I did to him by trusting these people.

I´ve had no luck so far either. Seems like Chileans aren´t bothered about how their pets are looked after. Last year we left 2 of our dogs at what seemed like a nice dog hotel forming part of the local vets that we always go to, but when we came back, they were full of fleas, had kennel cough, smelt disgusting as they don´t seem to have been let out to urinate like they promised they would. On top of that they charged an absolute fortune and we even took our own food, which no doubt they didn´t give them either. It´s a major problem if we want to go away as even my wife´s family can´t be relied on to look after them for more than a weekend.

We just put our baby into a hotel for dogs today until he moves to his new home with his new family!!!!, i found this one though google,

http://www.costavet.cl/index.php?option ... &Itemid=88

he just got picked up now by the owner of the company who will take him out to the hotel in curacavi.... the owner is a vet.... none of this "vet" visiting, the vet picked him up!, gf is very happy with the choice so far, we will go visit int he weekend in curacavi to see how he is going, and ill report back

$6000 per night for a boxer crossed with setter

Our vet takes care of our pooch when we go away. She picks him up herself, drops him off at the doggy hotel, owned by another vet (who also looked after him when he was desexed while we were away). He stayed with them once for 5 weeks when we were travelling o/s and was in great condition when he was brought back home. He certainly had no fleas, was well fed, groomed and looked happy and stress free. They also pick him up and deliver him back for grooming and vaccinations.

ANIMAL WORLD
Maria Soledad Oyanedel
Av. Sta. Maria 6786 L 16
2422906