Patty

Hi, 

My name is Patricia and together with my partner Lars and our daugher we take care of dogs in the absence of their owners. 

We do like to build a long term relationship with our clients, if that is what you are looking for, read further, if you want a one time sitter, better look for someone else.

About us: 

I have grown up with german shepherds, actively participating in their education, training, feeding etc. My partner always wanted to have a dog but he did not have the time and place to have them.....till he met me, there he got the full pack : a partner and the dog she had. Now we share two dogs. We also have a small child in the house. She is already very used to have guest dogs at home. She is never unattended with them, and she is being educated to respect the space of dogs.

Our dogs:

Kiva and Shake are both born in 2015, and they are German Shepherd mixes. Kiva came to us with serious behavioural issues. She was not reliable around other dogs, children or humans. With her we did learn how to handle reactive dogs and nervous dogs in general. Some years later, and many hours of training, she needs proper introduction to new dogs but after that, she is happy with any dog we have in the house. Shake is a very easy straight forward dog, he is good with humans and dogs. He is sometimes not very happy with puppies, but with a bit of help from us he accepts them and even plays.

Our home

We live in a quiet neighborhood (Houten), big house with big garden and a "dog room" with a doggy door that gives access to a fenced part of our garden, so when we are not at home, dogs can safely choose to be indoors or outdoors (or both). A truly professional setting in a home environment!! 

We have a couple of off-leash areas nearby and a fenced dog park 5 min walking distance. Also, 10-15 min biking we have the forest. Weekends we take the dogs for a short walk in the morning, at midday we organize a packwalk in Utrecht (or near), that is a couple of hours walk and play with a group of dogs, and in the evening we do another short walk. If your dog is more active than that, we can bike or give extra walks. We also have brain games at home and well, Kiva is pretty good at exhausting any dog :p :p :p If your dog is older and doesn't need a lot of exercise, we can also adapt to that: our dogs are non stop outdoors, but indoors they are very chill and they respect the space and wishes of the guest dog 

Our day to day

Both Lars and I work 4 days a week, 2 days from home and 2 days from our home office. Most of the times one of us is home, but not always. When we are working from home dogs are in the dog room + dog garden and we are upstairs, so your dog needs to be able to be without the human glued to him/her. This is why we cannot have dogs with separation anxiety.

What do we offer

We have experience with shy dogs, nervous dogs, dog to dog reactivity, resource guarding, food aggression, etc, etc. If your dog is good with our dogs (and child), we are ok if he doesn't like other dogs on walks. 

We have a quite structured routine, walks, feeding etc happens more or less at the same time. We have rules such us waiting politely for food, waiting politely to be leashed, etc. Our experience is that when our two dogs follow those routines, the guest dog ends up copying it . Routine also makes the guest dog adapt faster, he knows what to expect and when.

Our dogs use benches to go to when they want peace, and we always place one for guests to use it if they want to. With us benches are safe places, not places to "store" a dog. We make sure that all dogs have positive associations with it (for example, we feed the dogs in or next to the crates, and we give them snacks in there too). Normally benches stay always open, because the dog room in itself is already dog-proof.

We do not let any new dog off leash, we use long leashes (10m) instead. This is because your dog might be very good at listening to you, but he might not listen to 2 complete strangers, especially if the dog is fearful. While in long leash, we do re-call training, and when we are confident that the dog will listen to us, we are happy to walk off-leash. Of course, if you prefer the dog to always be leashed, not a problem for us. 

You will receive dairy updates via whatsapp

We are flexible with dropping and picking up of dogs, we will adapt to your schedule whenever possible. However, Dog boarding bookings are per 24 hours. Means that if you bring your dog in the morning, the day you collect him/her, you should do it in the morning. If you want to collect him/her in the evening, you will need to book that day as doggy day care.

What do we NOT offer

- We cannot take care of dogs that have separation anxiety (that would bark, cry when humans are not around)

- We cannot take care of dogs that are known to be incompatible with children, because we have one at home. This includes also dogs that are very very nervous and need peace and quiet. As much as we would love to help, a house with a baby is by definition a noisy house. Clumpsiness we do not consider as incompatible. 

- We cannot take care of (unknown) pittbulls, Amstaffs etc . We believe that, although those breeds are great, they require a deep understanding in the specific breed, and we do not have it (yet)

Do you want to book us? Before that we would like to meet you and your dog. We prefer to meet you during our packwalk (even if you still do not have short term plans to travel). This way we can see how is your dog, and how does he/she interacts with others. 

For new dogs, we require a weekend test before accepting your dog for longer periods. 

We do reserve very popular holiday weeks for long-term clients. However, for last minute requests, if we have not been booked by lt clients we are open for new dogs.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Regards

Patty&Lars