Early cancellation- advice please

Dogged

Hi, I recently set up a small dog boarding company and have terms and conditions in place, but they don’t cover the recent event I have encountered.

A dog came to stay in my home and was an incessant barker, to the point he was barking before 5am, if other dogs played he barked, any slight noise like a car door closing he barked, it was constant, loud & excessive.

He also had other antisocial behaviour like humping all the other dogs despite them telling him off, urinating/marking constantly including in the house. Growling at other dogs if they came near wherever he decided to lie down and growling at me if I tried to move him off somewhere he shouldn’t be.

The owner had disclosed his grumpiness but not the barking even though it is a specific question on the booking form, it asks:

Is your dog likely to bark/whine? And they replied ‘don’t know’

Long story short I contacted the owner about the barking 2 weeks into a month stay to say it was an issue and do they know what might help or what triggers him as I have tried everything I can think of.

The owner said to get him a bark collar which I did, it didn’t work. They also said to get him sedated but I didn’t want to unnecessarily medicate a dog. They admitted they had had to use one before when he had been away and barked for 2/3 when he came home.

I spoke to the vet and tried their recommendations to no avail but they suggested a herbal calming remedy so I contacted the owner for consent and their mood changed They were very ‘off’ with me but I remained professional.

They gave consent for the herbal option but within half an hour said he was being collected the next day by their mother, 12 days early. They have since demanded a refund for the 12 days.

My thoughts are, it was not myself or my business at fault.

They had booked a month at peak time, I had turned away 7 other requests for those dates and it was too short notice now to resell to recoup and losses.
They chose to end the stay early.

They had paid already for the duration, but had extended it by one day initially, which I had let them have for free.

Since Then the owner has become very accusational saying I has the collar on too tight it was harming the dog. I should have been able to manage his behaviour because I foster troubled dogs. That I disturbed their holiday and caused them distress. (They had already contacted me to see how it was going).

They failed to disclose the history of barking issues even though the booking specified it and the vet confirmed their notes stated he had behavioural issues.

I will be massively out of pocket if I refund for those 12 days which I couldn’t then resell.

Any thoughts/ advice?

Except adding curtailment and cancellation specifics to the terms and conditions which I have now done.

lincroft1710

How much money are we talking about?

Dogged

Around £200

lincroft1710

My opinion is that they entered into a contract and decided to break that contract for no good reason, therefore they are not entitled to a refund. But I am not a legal expert. You could refuse and see if they take you to Small Claims, where you would offer a defence and they may or may not win.

If the dog has been kennelled before is there any chance of checking with other kennels about its behaviour.

Finally are they the sort of people who would bad mouth your business sufficiently to lose you future business?

Savvy_Sue

TBH if it wasn't in your terms and conditions, you might be able to hardball this, but take note of what lincroft says.

Also it may be worth you advertising whatever days are left, you might be able to get a late booking. You're always expected to try to mitigate your losses.

Have you had your t&c checked over by a solicitor? I can't help feeling that if you'd done this previously, they'd have suggested covering this - and there may be other things you've not thought of.

And just for example, what if YOU had decided this dog's behaviour was too problematic to keep them for the full period?

I'm also not sure I'd accept 'don't know' as an answer to a behavioural question. Would a better question be "in the past, has your dog ... barked / shown aggression / marked ... when in a changed, strange or new situation?"

Do you insist on a pre-boarding visit, and what happens in those?

lindens

You could try speaking to your local trading standards for advice?

Weave

Your T and C's should evolve over time as you come across new issues or areas of uncertainty in your dealings with clients. Learn from this one and add clauses about anti social behaviour and disruptive behaviour. You don't necessarily need to get a solicitor to draft these, just write in plain English so its nice and clear. Outline that dogs can be affected by their environment which can lead to behavioural issues and in this event outline how you will contact the client to agree a way forward.

Make it very clear cancellation by the client during a stay (and within a given period prior to the booking) will still require payment for the full period booked.

Stand your ground on the current issue. If they are pulling a fast one then they know the dog is anti social. If there were no cancellation rights detailed anywhere in your agreement then they could go to small claims court. This is the point you should reconsider your position if you have no proof they were not entitled to a partial refund.