I don't see anything wrong with having to pay upfront for the E Vet, I always give a credit card and get an estimate before hand. The only advice I can think of is, you've entrusted your dogs to them before this, now if you don't feel you can trust them, get your money back and don't do business with them anymore.

 Quote: steve strom

I don't see anything wrong with having to pay upfront for the E Vet, I always give a credit card and get an estimate before hand.

The kennel should have just taken him! They were responsible for his safety!

Talked to the owner and the story has changed. At first the coonhound pushed out of his own kennel and attacked the pit that was walking with another staff member. NOW they say the pit was already locked into his own run, the coonhound dashed out of his own kennel and stuck his head into the pits kennel and they couldn't pull them apart. The owner said she can't figure out how a dog that size could fit his head through the chainlink fence but regardless, that is what must have happened.

If the kennels FACED each other I could see the dogs making eye contact and one dashing over to fence fight, but they are all in a row with brick walls, no eye contact possible. A dog would have to dash out of their own kennel and run down the rows of runs to FIND the dog they didn't like.

Oh and she also never heard that he threatened the kennel staff and they felt unsafe around him. They have a small staff, if the dog was a "dangerous threat to their staff" everyone would be aware of that.

They are lying through their teeth. I will post some bad reviews and may file a complaint with the BBB.

As I said, something is really odd here. I would be consulting with an attorney so that I at least had an idea of where I stood legally.

Some older male coonhounds can be seriously tough dogs. They have a high pain tolerance and when not directed at prey ( i.e. on a coonhunt) they can be plenty dog aggressive.
It seems to me that kennel staff had a moment when they just failed to "read" what was about to happen and things escalated. Likely they are now afraid to walk him, afraid to handle him because he is mighty strong and likely does not pay much attention to human direction or cues.
I can't imagine myself bringing this guy into a home with adult uncastrated male Anatolians. In your situation, I guess I'd 1) hope for another home for this guy 2) try to reach some agreement with the boarding kennel, seems to me they are at fault by being too loosey-goosey about how dogs are going to "get along" 3) if I was going to bring this guy into my pack he'd be neutered. In my experience with coonhounds, it WILL change his level of drive and aggression.

Elaine -- I agree, they messed up and are coming up with various stories to explain it. I can't use them again, if they can't handle a Coonhound what would happen if they had a problem with my Anatolian

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

I can't imagine myself bringing this guy into a home with adult uncastrated male Anatolians.

3) if I was going to bring this guy into my pack he'd be neutered. In my experience with coonhounds, it WILL change his level of drive and aggression.

Coonhound was neutered right after I found him (5 wks ago). Anatolian was also neutered at 1.5 years, not that it helped, he is more macho now than he was 2 years ago. I know he can never been around the Anatolian, I just hope he can fit in with my other softer dogs. I have a senior Aussie and he is super gentle with the other male dogs, very submissive play style, never alpha in anyway BUT he can get defensive over new males.

This dog is very very trusting, he was lost and scared but he came up to me immediately and stuck to me like glue. I have never had a hound before and yeah, they seem to have ADD, he does not know any basic commands. I don't think he has lived with other dogs before, he humped the other dogs at the kennel frantically for days before he started socializing normally. He would bark and pester other dogs for their attention. To me that sounds like a dog that was overly excited to be with other canines and hadn't developed social skills. He plays with the other dogs normally now (when not fighting!) and often focuses on treeing squirrels these days.

I suspect he was there for a while, he felt it was his place, he loved having females to play with and some other males, and then they would suddenly throw a cocky alpha male into "his" little group with very little or no introductions.

I am going to bring him here tomorrow, setting up a 700 size kennel in a spare bedroom and will have a chain link run. I can keep him separated from all the males for now and take my time with socializing.

http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/ac295/Sonya610/DSC_0870.jpg

Well, when I've boarded my dogs my agreement is I've got the vet bill covered, take them. Unless you have that set up ahead of time, I'm not so sure they would unless it was life threatening.

I still would say, if you don't trust them, don't do business with them and I hope you have better luck bringing him home to all the other dogs.

 Quote: steve strom

Well, when I've boarded my dogs my agreement is I've got the vet bill covered, take them. Unless you have that set up ahead of time, I'm not so sure they would unless it was life threatening.

If the dog is sick or gets hurt on their own, yes of course I would be responsible for the vet bills.

In this case it was NEGLIGENCE on their part! Just as if he had ran out an open gate and got hit by a car. They KNEW these dogs would fight! I was lucky the bill was less than $200, it could have easily been $2000 at an e-vet if surgery was required, and all due to their mistake!

I worked at a kennel and had a dog break loose from me and try to attack another dog through a kennel door. The attacking dog ended up being the injured one (though barely). The story doesn't sound absurd to me. The attacking dog wasn't aggressive either.

Normally we do have an amount on file we can spend (that you approve) and take the dog as we called you if it was an emergency. But if you had authorized $200 and the bill was $210 we'd still have to call you before treatment. So I get that.

If you knew the yards were set up that way and the walking/exercise procedures were that way, I don't know why you'd send your dog there in the first place.

I'm not a lawyer, so maybe Chris could help out with this, but I think negligence and a mistake could be two different things, especially in legal terms.

I understand why you'd want to believe it was negligence, but I can't see how you'd prove it.

What if you bring him home and he ends up in a fight with the Anatolian because there was an open door or gate? You'd call it a mistake and give multiple reasons why and how it happened.

Someone else may call it negligence because you've got too many dogs to safely manage in their opinion. Who's right?

 Quote: steve strom

What if you bring him home and he ends up in a fight with the Anatolian because there was an open door or gate? You'd call it a mistake and give multiple reasons why and how it happened.

Yeah, and if it happened to me I would be RESPONSIBLE and PAY the vet bill! I would say I screwed up! I left a door open, I forgot a dog, etc... and I messed up! The kennel was paid to keep them safe, they knew the danger, yet they said at least a dozen times "it was the dog's fault"! They told multiple stories and lied shamelessly.

I am not going to file a claim.

 Quote: Katie Finlay

If you knew the yards were set up that way and the walking/exercise procedures were that way, I don't know why you'd send your dog there in the first place.

I boarded my dogs there for 2 reasons, it was one of the ONLY kennel I could find in the area that had large indoor/outdoor runs (it is actually over an hour away, there is nothing around my area). Plus they would put the dogs into large areas (my dogs kept in their own large chain linked areas alone) for 6 hours a day. I also gave strict instructions that they had to use a leash when moving my Anatolian as he COULD fence fight.

As far as the plausibility of the story, the FIRST story was that the other dog was walking by and my dog pushed past the handler that was standing in the open kennel door. The SECOND story (told to the owner, as CYA) was that the pit WAS kenneled and my dog pushed past the handler in his own kennel, ran down the row of kennels and stuck his whole HEAD and NECK in the other dogs kennel, getting several bite wounds to the throat, while also biting the pit bull several times. Those are chain link kennel doors do not have huge gaps, even the owner said she can't see how the dog could have put his head into the other dogs run.