Kennels.

Watch videos from Paw Nation Ben Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the Dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. After Anna and I woke up the other morning we let Pippi out of my office, where she sleeps at night. She ran over to greet us as she does every morning, her tail wagging enthusiastically. After a few moments of this, however, we noticed streaks of blood across the walls, the door, our legs, and even Pippi herself -- everything that had come into contact with her tail. We saw that the end of her tail was a bloody mess, and promptly corralled her in the bathroom, where Anna put some Neosporin on the ...

Anna Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the Dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. Many readers expressed concern about our post from a couple weeks ago, in which we noted that, despite Pippi's traumatizing experience at the kennel earlier this year -- she got frighteningly sick and lost a bunch of weight -- we decided to bring her there again during a recent vacation. "Please reconsider," pleaded one Doggie Diaries reader. "I don't understand why you would put Pippi back in the same situation that made her so miserable before," said another. Trust us, we would prefer to board her with a friend or have someone come ...

Ben Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the Dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. We recently took Pippi back to the vet for the first time since her traumatic experience boarding there a month back. The poor dog got sick during her stay there -- either owing to missing us, fear of the noisy dog run or a bad reaction to a Lyme disease vaccination (nobody really knows). But upon our return, the workers there told us something we didn't know -- that Pippi refused to eat for much of the time. They had to feed her by hand! Perhaps this is arrogant of us, but we suspect the reason she wouldn't eat is because she missed us. ...

Anna Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife, Anna, adopted as a puppy in late 2009. We wrote last year about the trouble we had with Pippi's first vet. She seemed to make quick, unfounded diagnoses, and attempt to prescribe everything under the sun. Our new veterinarian is much improved, but we still had an upsetting experience recently when we boarded her there. Anna and I were vacationing in Florida for six days. In fact, we were sitting on a beach about to go kayaking when I got the call -- Pippi had become extremely anxious, someone from the vet's office said, and was vomiting and had bloody diarrhea. Her ...

Anna Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife Anna adopted as a puppy in late 2009, and the first dog Ben's ever had. Anna and I recently flew to Kansas City to visit my sister Julia, her husband Jay, and their newborn daughter Olivia for a weekend. Taking this trip meant we had to board Pippi, something that's always emotionally difficult for us. Even more upsetting was that after we were back home with Pippi, we received an e-mail saying that there had been an outbreak of kennel cough while she was boarding. As a precaution, it continued, daycare dogs exhibiting the symptoms were sent home. Sick boarders were being ...

Flickr/dhfloyd Anna and I adopted Pippi just before going out of town for several days over Christmas, so we didn't have a lot of time to weigh options for her care while we were away, and thus had to board her. Knowing that some dogs react badly to the stress of kenneling we were a bit worried, not to mention concerned about finding a clean, safe facility on short notice. Anna's coworker referred us to Club Barks in West Paterson, New Jersey, and fortunately they were quick and responsive in verifying Pippi's vaccine schedule. (They also gave us a freebie day of doggie daycare to assess her before full boarding began.) It's not a luxury canine "spa," but the dogs get to run around outside ...