Various Policies For Home From Home Boarding
Please see below for our Policies, including the T&C, our Lost Dog Policy, the Reallocation Policy, the Cancellation Policy, the Booking Fee Policy , and the Additional Policies and the Council Licences we hold.
Welcome to our Terms & Conditions
Terms and Conditions for Home From Home Boarding
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You will present the dog for boarding in a clean and groomed condition and with up-to-date vaccinations, de-flea and anti-worming treatments as is required by the council.
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You will keep your home boarding portal up to date with all the information the council requires for us to have a licence to board dogs from home or we may have to implement the Reallocation Policy.
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You will ensure all your email addresses, telephone numbers and addresses on your portal are current and accessible should we need them.
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You will need to supply the necessary dog food, medication and treats for the duration of the stay. If additional food or treats are required during their stay, you agree, upon presentation of a receipt, to refund your home carer.
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You will need to supply the necessary leads, harnesses and collars for the duration of the stay. If any additional leads, harnesses or collars are required during their stay, you agree, upon presentation of a receipt, to refund your home carer.
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You agree that if you instruct TLC Dog Walking to exercise your dog off the lead you accept full liability for any loss or damage caused because of your dog being off the lead. If your dog attacks a person or a dog or if they are involved in a fight with another dog/person causing any damage or injury you agree to be responsible for any losses incurred including payment of veterinary fees or any medical treatment required.
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We are unable to accept bookings for a dog subject to the terms of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 or any other dogs with aggression problems towards other dogs and/or people.
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Reasonable efforts will be made to contact you in the event of an emergency. However, TLC Dog Walking reserves the right to make decisions regarding your dog's health provided it is always acting in the best interests of the dog and on the advice of a veterinary surgeon. If your dog becomes unwell, has an accident, or injures himself/herself or seems to be in any type of pain, we might need to take him/her to a veterinary surgeon, and you agree to be responsible for payment of all the veterinary fees incurred.
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You undertake to make full disclosure of any quality or characteristic which might make your dog not suitable for home boarding, including, but not limited to behavioural or health problems, anti-social behaviour including aggression, incontinence/lack of house-training or excessive loud barking/whining. Failure on your part to disclose any matter which might render the dog unsuitable for home boarding will be deemed a material omission amounting to a fundamental breach of this agreement. You will also be liable for additional costs if TLC Dog Walking experiences difficulties due to failure to disclose in the booking form any matter that would be accepted as reasonably unsuitable for home boarding.
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All booking fees are due at the time of booking. Your booking can only be confirmed when both the booking fee and the portal information required is complete. TLC Dog Walking is not able to keep bookings open for more than 7 days so bookings will be released.
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You understand that the booking fee to TLC Dog Walking is non-refundable. Please see our Cancellation Policy.
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You agree that in the unlikely event of your dog’s carer being no longer available due to exceptional personal circumstances, you will be contacted by TLC Dog Walking and where possible an alternative suitable carer will be offered. TLC Dog Walking shall do the utmost to assist the owner in finding alternative carers but shall not be liable for any consequential losses arising out of the owner not being able to secure an alternative. Please see our Reallocation Policy.
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You agree that all repeat bookings or otherwise are channelled and booked through TLC Dog Walking. As a client of TLC Dog Walking booking service, you accept that your dog’s independent carer whom you were introduced to by TLC Dog Walking must not be approached by yourself to accept a direct booking from you without also going through TLC Dog Walking. You also agree that you will not accept any offer of a stay from any of our carers without having booked through TLC Dog Walking. Termination and exclusion from using our booking service without re-fund may result and an introductory fee being made due payable to TLC Dog Walking by the carer.
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The TLC Dog Walking site and services are intended solely for persons who are 18 or older. Any access to or use of our site or services by anyone under 18 is expressly prohibited. By accessing or using the Site you represent and warrant that you are 18 or older.
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Any damages caused by your dog to your independent carer’s home or possessions other than reasonable wear and tear will be paid for by you directly to your dog’s carer on your return.
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You must inform your boarder of an issues your dog may have with other animals, such as other dogs, cats, birds etc as most of our boarders have other animals in their house. Any issues due to your carer not being informed of this may be under the reallocation policy.
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We will walk your dog for a minimum of 2 hours per day unless they are not capable of this/old enough for this.
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Your dog will be boarded in a home environment.
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We use our Private Facebook Page for photo updates and will phone you with any major issues.
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If you want email updates, please tick this in your client portal.
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We are insured for any injury that your dog may receive due to being with us.
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Please contact your home carer the day before you go away to ensure everything is sorted for the stay.
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We have a Council Licence stating that we can board dogs and can leave them alone for up to 3 hours while we walk other dogs/ do other things.
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We will collect your dog between 8am and 10.30am so we can get them well exercised and settled ready for the first night.
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We will return your dog between 4pm and 7pm after their daily exercise.
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If you prefer to drop them off and collect them, this will need to be in hours suitable for your home carer.
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We will never use kennels.
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We will care for your dog like it is our own.
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Our Lost Dog Policy
What is the Lost Dog Policy For?​
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Our Lost Dog Policy is for the unfortunate time a a dog may go missing so all our team and families are aware of what will happen.
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How can you ensure your dog is safely returned?
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Please ensure your dog has a current tag on both its collar and harness to ensure that anyone who may get hold of your little terror can contact you immediately. It is also your responsibility to ensure the microchip is be up to date so that if a vet scans the dog they know exactly who it belongs to.
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What will happen?
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Please note, if ever any of our dogs goes missing for a few minutes, we try our best to disrupt you or upset you as little as possible, as they generally come trotting back a few minutes later having chased a squirrel up a tree, oblivious to the horror we have been through.
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Our first port of call if we have a dog goes missing for more than is usual for that general dog is to send an URGENT email out to all our dog walkers stating that the dog has gone missing, the area it was last seen and when. This ensures that any of our team in that area will head over to help look for the missing pooch.
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We will then get the dog reported as missing on Facebook, as this is an amazing way of ensuring that anyone that may be in the area can grab the dog and contact us asap to ensure they do not get too far away.
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If we still have no luck with sighting your dog, we will the contact you.
We walk over 100 dogs a day. We loose around one dog a month more less than10 minutes. Since I began dog walking in 2007, the company has only had one dog taken to a vets to scan its microchip and possibly once a year we have a dog go missing for more than an hour. We do have some frequent offenders, but their owners are well aware of their potential and they are usually the squirrel chasers in the woods who are trying to climb a tree for 10 minutes! The dogs that are most likely to go missing are generally when they are new to us or have not been walked by us for a long while. We have never had a dog missing for more than a few hours, and one of these was my own spaniel who had got his coat stuck in a tree and was sat patiently waiting for me to find him!
The Reallocation Policy
Please find below our full Reallocation Policy, if you do need any other information or would like to ask any questions please contact us.
What is this Reallocation Policy for?
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This reallocation policy is for dogs that are home from home boarding with TLC Dog Walking and for some reason they can not be boarded with their allocated home care provider
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Why may it be needed?
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In the case of an extreme emergency, such as the home care provider is too ill to care for the dogs, their house sets on fire, the dog is having a major issue of some sort that we can not accommodate, the dog is not suitable for home from home boarding amongst other things.
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What will happen
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When we have to reallocate a dog, the first port of call will be one of our own council approved home boarders, however, if they are full or the dog is not suitable for the spaces available, we will have to contact the emergency contact
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The second place will be the Emergency Contact, who must be available while you are away to collect the dog and take them if necessary.
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If the emergency contact is not available, the next place will be a council approved kennels, and you must agree to pay the full cost of the kennel immediately upon your return.
If your home boarder was ill, you may receive some of your boarding fee back, however, if your dogs was unsuitable for whatever reason, we reserve the right to keep the any fees charged and you will need to pay the kennel fee.
Our Home Boarding Cancellation Policy
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Our Home From Home Boarding Cancellation Policy
Cancellations must be notified by email to care@tlcdogwalking.co.uk
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Deposits are non-refundable unless we can not provide your dog a place.
Individual carers are not guaranteed, if your carer can not take your dog, we will provide an alternative carer that your dog already knows.
If you need to cancel, your deposit will be retained. Should you cancel within 28 days of the start of your dogs board then our cancellation policy is as follows: 28 days - 15 days notice 25% of the remaining balance is payable to the home boarder, 14 days - 8 days notice 50% of the remaining balance is payable to the home boarder, 7 days - 1 days notice 75% of the remaining balance is payable to the home boarder, 0 days notice 100% payable to the home boarder as this is their income, and if they do not have dogs they planned to board, they have no income. If we can find a replacement boarder, the money they pay will be taken off the boarding fee you owe. However, the booking fee is still payable as the work has been done plus further work to sort out the cancellation.
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Prior to 28 days Booking Fee Payable
28 days - 15 days notice 25% of the remaining balance is payable
14 days - 8 days notice 50% of the remaining balance is payable
7 days - 1 days notice 75% of the remaining balance is payable
0 days notice 100% payable
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If we can find a replacement boarder, the money they pay will be taken off the boarding fee you owe. However, the booking fee is still payable as the work has been done plus further work to sort out the cancellation.
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The cancellation of your booking for any reason (including Covid related) does not entitle you to a refund if we are able to provide our service. We recommend ensuring you have taken out suitable insurance to cover this.
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If your home boarder was ill and we have to cancel, you may receive some of your boarding fee back for the period not boarded, however, if your dogs was unsuitable for whatever reason, we reserve the right to keep the any fees charged and you will need to pay the kennel fee. Please see our Reallocation Policy.
Our Booking Fee
What is the Booking Fee for?
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The booking fee is paid when you first book your dog to board with a carer. The booking fee covers paying for any administration costs, company and boarder insurance, any hardware and software that are required and the council boarding licence that is law and required to ensure all the correct things are collected as per the council licence and to secure the space for your dog so that it is there when you need it. As our home boarders get the whole boarding fee and we charge no registration fee unlike many other home boarding companies, this is the only income the company receive.
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Why may it be needed?
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To secure your space. As spaces are very limited, we can not guarantee a place without a booking fee being paid.
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Is it refundable?
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No, the booking fee is not refundable as work has been done to get the space provided and we may not fill the space again as it was held for you and all the expenses still need to be paid by us even if you cancel.
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Do I need to pay it?
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To secure a place, the booking fee will need to be paid. The space will be reserved for 7 days after the quote is sent to you. After this period, the space will not longer be held and may not be available if you pay the booking fee after this time. Please note, we get many enquiries for spaces that never go ahead, so we do not inform you if the space is filled, we just assume you changed your mind.
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What do I need to pay?
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Your dog’s boarding fee is made up of two parts –
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1. The booking fee (part of the daily rate and not in addition to it).
2. The independent carer expenses – due when you deliver your dog to your carer and is paid directly to the carer by yourself – cash preferred (negotiable with individual carer).
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What does the booking fee cover?
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There are many expenses that the booking fee covers, these include:-
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The compulsory council boarding licence
The Insurance for the home boarder and your dog
The Telephones
The Website
The admin team to sort our your account, find you a home boarding slot and ensure that all the council laws and TLC Standards are abided by
An accountant
The Client Portal
The HR company that TLC use
The Wellness Program that TLC use for their team members
Hardware and software updates that are necessary due to the council regulation
Any extra expenses that may occur
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Additional Policies
Walks and entertainment
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All the dogs that stay with us should be social and used to going out on dog walks with other dogs. Walks will most likely be done in groups with suitable dogs. We do have toys to play with in the house and various chews.
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Sleeping and resting
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The dogs may be housed with other dogs at some point. All dogs must be suitable to play, relax and sleep with other dogs. We may leave the dogs alone while we go out walking other dogs or doing additional jobs for up to 3 hours a day. All dogs that home board with us must be capable of being left for this time.
In the event of illness
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If your pet becomes ill while you are away, we will first contact your alternate contact to help decide what to do. However, in an emergency, a vet will be contacted immediately. If your alternate contact is not available, we will only contact you if it is deemed an emergency. For minor illnesses, we will not contact you and just get the vet check. The vet used will be at our discretion.
The full charge for the vet will need reimbursing immediately on your return.
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In the event of death​
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In the unfortunate event of a death of a pet in our care, unless you have provided further information on the additional field in the client portal, we will not contact you while you are away and if you are due back within one day, we will wait for your return, any longer and we will have the pet cremated with Halifax Pet Cremation Services.
The full charge for the Cremation will need reimbursing immediately on your return.
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In the event of illness
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If your pet becomes ill while you are away, we will first contact your alternate contact to help decide what to do. However, in an emergency, a vet will be contacted immediately. If your alternate contact is not available, we will only contact you if it is deemed an emergency. For minor illnesses, we will not contact you and just get the vet check. The vet used will be at our discretion.
The full charge for the vet will need reimbursing immediately on your return.
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Home From Home Boarding Council Licence
TLC Dog Walking Calderdale Council Home Boarding Licence Number
HBO 0050