Messages like this mean the world to our team! As passionate dog lovers, we pour our hearts into everything we do and cherish every pup that stays with us. Knowing how much families—and their dogs—appreciate our care truly means so much to us.

Read Jeff and Finn’s wonderful Testimonial about Dog Boarding at Dogs Country Club…

“I’m writing this review based on my experience with Dogs Country Club consistently over the last 3 months and includes initial communication, ongoing communication, customer service, management and country club staff. I’ve thought long and hard about my review wanting to leave an honest, open and unbiased opinion based on my experiences so I apologise if it goes on a bit but I hope that you find it helpful, informative and helps you decide what may be best for your canine companion.

I’ve had dogs all my life, trained my own gundogs, spent 28 years in the police service working around dogs and my daughter is an IMDT dog trainer and canine behaviourist so my dog experience is varied from family to professional. We have Finn now he’s a 21 month old Dakota Sporting Retriever or Golden Cocker (50/50 Golden Retriever & Cocker Spaniel) who we’ve had now since 8 weeks old from a litter of 10, 5 dogs and 5 bitches. He’s been very hard work if I’m honest (that’s me saying that) I’m retired now (60) so have all the time in the world to be with Finn puppy training, socialisation, basic training and early development. I’ve spent every day 7 days a week sometimes twice a day with him and my daughter once a week for an hour as a professional dog trainer.

He’s a good young dog but I’ve found it difficult to socialise him around other people and dogs due to his energetic enthusiasm and over excitement, jumping up at people, consistent attention to other dogs, pulling on lead to get to them (much better now) barking at certain male dogs and obsessive behaviour around females. On vets advice he was neutered at 18 months old and during the consultation he was weighed (39.4kg) advised slightly overweight (he looked it!) ideal weight 32-35kg he’s on a full raw food diet which I reduced and over 6 weeks got his weight down to 37kg.

So that’s the history and background about me and Finn which you’ll probably be thinking, ‘I didn’t need to know and what’s that got to do with DCC!?’

Well, I’ve never left Finn with anyone else other than my daughter (dog trainer) and he’s never left me! That can be sometimes a bad thing and a good thing but that’s how it is being retired and having all day with a puppy! He’s really well trained (basic ques, loose lead, recall at distance, search find & retrieve) BUT he sees me more than anyone and although doesn’t suffer separation anxiety or any resource guarding, he’s not had access to lots of other people/dogs other than in public or local parks which isn’t always a safe controlled environment.

I needed somewhere for two reasons 1. More socialisation meeting/greeting people/dogs and 2. The dreaded boarding because we had a family holiday coming up and my daughter was coming with us.

We had 3 months to find options for boarding and in the meantime I wanted to socialise Finn more to set him up for better success when boarding for 16 days! My daughter suggested DCC having heard about them and recommendations from her clients so I made contact with David the owner who spent 15 minutes on the phone talking about DCC and their ethos, facilities and daily activities. He suggested that we bring Finn to one of the weekend dogs meet and greet events and come early so that he could show my wife and I around the facilities and grounds.

That Saturday we arrived for the first ‘Spaniels play & splash’ and we met David who walked us round the whole site, paddocks, fields and kennels, nothing was ‘off limits’ or hidden and everything was transparent. David showed us were Finn would be boarded if we chose to and let us look around the ‘boarding house’ an amazing purpose build house with lounge, living room, kitchen and bedroom for crate trained dogs as there were crates in every room, perfect for Finn and we had a very good feeling after out visit.

David then came to the car to meet Finn and walked us to the field for the play & splash which was just fantastic to see around 20 Spaniels running around off lead playing and swimming in the lake, supervised by each dog parent but also a member of DCC staff which was lovely to see how well it was organised.

Before we made a decision on boarding we took Finn back every weekend for his play & splash which he loved seeing his pals and we also joined in the Labrador/Retrievers play morning which was also breed specific, Finn being 50/50 Spaniel/Retriever he’s a bigger spaniel but smaller retriever.

After several weeks of the meetings we could see a massive difference already in Finn so it was an easy choice to book him in for boarding and we were very confident that we had found the right place and people who would take very good care of our lad

Everything was so straight forward creating an account online for us and Finn with all his details and medical history, diet, training history etc it was very thorough. The time came to board Finn on 27th February 2025 and we arrived at 11:00 met by Ian the kennel manager who ran through everything, completed the handover paperwork and took all Finn frozen raw food for his 16 day stay! I was a complete mess, so apprehensive because like I say I’d never been apart from him…ever

Ian could see this and so calmly talked me through everything and asked if there were and special requirements for Finn, feeding, medications and weighed him in explaining that he would be so active during the day that they usually increase their food slightly and keep an eye on weight. Time came to hand Finn over and he was so excited because he was familiar with the environment from previous visits which for me was such a good feeling and big relief, he walked off with Ian (kennel man) straight to the paddock for a play with friends and never once looked back at me 

It was great to see as most kennels put the dogs straight into their kennel after you leave but Finn was outside playing with pals and socialising, plus getting tired which would in turn mean that he settled easier. Ian messaged me via WhatsApp that evening with an update knowing that we were flying out the next morning to Thailand and sent me a video of Finn playing and meeting his house mates.

The following morning David sent me a video of Finn asleep in his room from the cctv and wished me a good holiday, it was so reassuring and a lovely touch that made me feel better.

After 24 hrs travelling we arrived in Thailand and I received another video update of Finn and pals playing plus a weight update. Thereafter every day or two days or when I needed it Ian and David would send update messages and videos of Finn including new boarding friends, best friends he was specially attached to and weight updates. He was clearly losing weight in a controlled manner which was great to see and on my vets recommendation, even though Finn was on an increased food intake he was obviously so much more active.

This continued until our return home on 16th March and my eagerly awaited pick up and we were met by a member of staff who retuned all Finn’s unused frozen food and completed a health check on Finn in my presence which was also a very professional thing to do so that we were both satisfied that he was in good health and condition.

Finn was clearly very happy to see us but it was very noticeable how he was with staff who had spent so much time looking after him and that went both ways with staff giving Finn big hugs and saying he will be missed, I think the feelings were mutual

Following Finn’s boarding I received a lovely thank you message from Catherine at DCC to see if everything was ok and Finn was settling in at home well which I thought was a nice thing to do.

Conclusion – I’m writing this review on Thursday 27th March 10 days after Finns boarding, firstly having thought long and hard about what to write, to show that I haven’t just put something together quickly without consideration and more importantly to see how Finn has settled back home after his 16 day holiday and for any health/medical issues to show.

I can say that Finn is fit, healthy and happy, he has lost 2kg at DCC weighing in on check out at 35kg and looking a lot better for it and advised by my vet! The most noticeable thing with Finn is that he is a lot more settled around the house, self settling more which he never used to do and he is far more socialised around other dogs and people which is incredible and attributed to the amount of quality time he has spent around lots of other dogs, breeds and people whilst at Dogs Country Club.

Will I be using Dogs Country Club again? Absolutely yes

In fact we will be continuing his play & splash meetings and planning frequent ’sleep overs’ to help develop Finns personality, socialisation and maintain contact with staff for future longer boarding stays.

I cannot rate Dogs Country Club highly enough they are by far the best dog boarding facility I have ever used and will have complete confidence that Finn will be in very safe hands in future

Thank you DCC you have helped me probably more than Finn!”
Jeff.M

Thank you so much to Jeff for taking the time to send us this wonderful Testimonial and for choosing us to care for beautiful Finn!

If you would like to know more about our Dog Boarding Services please check out our Dog Boarding Page here where you will find all the information you need, videos of our Boarding House and Kennels, how to book, and you can also book a Boarding Viewing!