# Kennel services dedicated to LE community?



## Cameron County K9 (Mar 29, 2016)

Morning, I have 17 years with the DHS and recently relocated to South Texas. We ran into issues finding a good kennel for our male DDR. Wife and I are in the process of starting our own kennel. We have our LLC, bought a couple acres next to our home and we will start boarding in the near future to the general public. We recently toured the local kennel that houses (contract), the local Feds K9s. We almost lost our lunch after viewing the facility. Our end game is to provide a service to the Local State, County and possibly Federal LE community that we have not seen. We want to strictly board working K9s. After that wake up call, my wife and I decided that we can do much better and plan to offer this service. My question is, do you Officers have trouble finding a trusted professional kenneling service? I understand that lots of K9s live with the handlers, but some do not and some agencies contract out. Everyone goes on vacation, training, has in house kennel issues etc. I'm about 6 miles from the Mexican border and every PD in my area, Sherriffs Dept, and CBP, BP has a ton of K9s. We would also like to provide an area for Handlers to conduct nose work and bite work. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm located in Cameron County, outside of Harlingen TX.

Tks Billy


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## RZZNSTR (Jan 24, 2015)

Greetings!
I am no longer a working Handler but when I had my patrol dog it was always an issue with where to kennel him when we were away. We ended up bringing someone into the house that I trusted with him. Additionally, when I was a Handler for the Feds we kenneled our dogs in a private kennel that the agency contracted with. So with him I never had an issue with that. 

I think you may be on to a niche market here. If you keep it to only current LEO working dogs you may have a very narrow window of clientele, which could be good and bad.

If you could get the contract with CBP along with providing boarding of for LEO K9s it could keep you in the black, providing you want that much work!

If there was someone in my area that provided an LEO "based" kennel I'd probably use them for my GSD.

Good luck with the new business!


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## Slamdunc (Dec 6, 2007)

I don't see why you would limit your business to LE K-9's. If I was in your shoes, I'd open the business up to the general public, the bulk of the boarding market. I would also have some kennels set aside for LE dogs that need to be boarded. Unless, you feel the demand will be so large that you wouldn't be able to house or accommodate a pet clientele. 

My PD has a separate area in our animal control facility for kenneling our K-9's when we go away on vacation. The city spent about $8 million on this facility a year or two ago, it is large and pretty state of the art. When I go away, my dogs go to a local Kennel that I trust and I pay myself to keep my dogs there. I feel better knowing my dogs are with the folks at a local Kennel operation. It's expensive, but I have peace of mind. Now, my newest dog will be housed strictly at our Animal Control facility. Boru, is not to be handled by anyone else but me. I would worry for the kennel staff if they tried to walk him, I know he would nail anyone else who put a leash on him. He has demonstrated this very recently.


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## Cameron County K9 (Mar 29, 2016)

I appreciate the posts. We will be open to the general public but eventually we would like to offer our services strictly to the LE community. We appreciate the public service that you guys provide and in return we would like to Taylor our business to helping out the handlers and working dogs in our area. Cleanliness and security will be our biggest factors here. Hope to see some more posts. Thanks guys


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