Boarding a Great Dane or Mastiff: What to Ask First

If you own a Great Dane, a Mastiff, a Bernese or a Newfoundland, you already know the drill: you call about boarding, there is a pause, and then a polite reason why it will not work. So you learn to research hard. Here are the questions worth asking any facility on Long Island before you leave a giant breed overnight — and, where we can answer them, what our answers are.

Space and bedding for a dog who doesn't fold up small

"We take large dogs" means very little. A 60 lb Lab and a 140 lb Mastiff are both large dogs and they need different amounts of floor. The useful question is dimensional: how many feet by how many feet is the kennel, and can my dog lie fully stretched out on his side without touching two walls? Giant breeds sleep flat and long. A dog who has to curl to fit will get up stiff.

Our boarding kennels come in two sizes, both private:

For a Great Dane or a Mastiff, book the premium. We would rather say that plainly than have you pay less and have your dog spend the night with his back against a wall. For a smaller giant — a leaner female Dane, a Bernese — tell us your dog's length and weight when you book and ask us which of the two we would put him in. That is a better conversation to have before the stay than on check-in day.

On bedding, ask before you pack. Some facilities supply everything and take nothing from home; some let you bring a bed; some will take a bed but not a duvet, because a dog who shreds bedding overnight is a real hazard. Ask us what we can accommodate for your dog, and be honest about whether he chews when he is unsettled.

Feeding a giant breed on your schedule, not ours

Giant breeds are usually on a fixed feeding routine, often two or three measured meals rather than one, and often with something added — a joint supplement, a topper to get medication down, a slow-feed bowl. That routine is not a preference. Changing it in a strange building for a week is how a dog comes home with a soft stomach.

Our standard feeding runs at 8am, 1pm and 6pm, and custom schedules are available for puppies, seniors and medical diets. If yours is a two-meal dog on a strict clock, say so at booking and we will write it down rather than improvise.

Meals and activity: ask the question, then tell us the answer

Plenty of giant-breed owners arrive with instructions from their own vet about how feeding and exercise should sit relative to each other. We are groomers and kennel staff, not vets. We do not hand out the medical version and we will not second-guess yours.

What we would say is this: ask any facility what happens in the hour after your dog eats. If the answer is vague, that is worth knowing before you book rather than after. In our building, feeding runs at 8am, 1pm and 6pm, every boarding stay includes a full day of daycare at no extra charge, and custom feeding schedules are available. So if your vet has asked for a gap either side of a meal, or a particular order to the day, give us the timing in writing at booking and we will put it on the card.

Joints, hard floors and getting up in the morning

A giant breed is the dog most affected by flooring, and it is the least-asked question in boarding. Sealed concrete and tile are hygienic, which is why kennels use them, but a heavy dog getting up off a hard floor on splayed nails will scrabble. Do that a few times a day for a week and a stiff dog goes home stiffer.

Three things actually help, and all three are worth asking about anywhere:

One honest limitation: medications that need to be given outside the hours of 7am to 10pm are not something we can promise. If your dog is on a middle-of-the-night dose, tell us before you book and we will tell you straight whether we can do it, rather than discovering it on check-in day.

Grooming a giant before pickup day

A week away is a good time to get the bath done, because bathing a 140 lb dog at home is a two-person job and a flooded bathroom. Our published grooming prices run by weight — bath and brush $35 to $120, full groom with a haircut $70 to $155 — and a giant breed sits at the top of the range. That is not a surcharge for being big; it is time, water, drying and two sets of hands.

Most giants are a bath, brush-out and nails rather than a haircut. Short-coated Danes and Mastiffs shed more than people expect, and a proper deshedding bath and blow-out sends a real volume of coat home with us instead of onto your couch.

Book the groom when you book the stay. Grooming runs 9 to 5, and boarding check-out is 7 to 11am, so the two have to be lined up in advance — not arranged on the morning you arrive. And so nobody wastes a trip: we do not do hand-stripping, show grooming or creative coloring, and we do not groom cats.

What we need on file before the first stay

This part is county law, not house policy, and it applies to every boarding kennel in Suffolk. Under Suffolk County Code § 302-13, a boarding facility may not accept a dog unless the owner provides a current health certificate from a licensed veterinarian covering these vaccinations:

Two things to take from that table. First, the one-year requirement has an exception written into the code: where the vaccine is an approved three-year vaccination and your veterinarian certifies it as such, that satisfies the requirement. Ask your vet to make that explicit on the certificate so nobody has to interpret it at the desk. Second, bordetella runs on a six-month clock while everything else runs on a year. That mismatch is the single most common reason a booking falls apart at the last minute.

Check the bordetella date today rather than the week you travel — it is a quick vet visit if you catch it early. One thing worth understanding while you are at it: bordetella does not fully prevent kennel cough. What we call kennel cough is properly canine infectious respiratory disease complex, with roughly eleven contributing pathogens according to the AVMA, and the vaccine covers one of them. It is required and it is worth having. It is not a force field.

Regulations change, so confirm the current list with your vet and with us before you travel rather than relying on an article. And it is worth knowing, because it surprises people: there is no statewide New York licensing or inspection regime for boarding kennels, daycare or grooming. A bill has been proposed but it is not law. Which means the questions in this article are not a formality — they are the inspection.

One more requirement, quoted as we publish it: your dog must be "non-aggressive, comfortable in a kennel, able to socialize, and free from bite history." Those are the eligibility criteria we publish, and none of them is about size — plenty of giant breeds sail through them and plenty of small dogs do not. If your dog has a bite history, tell us before you book. We would rather say no honestly at the start than have it go wrong later.

Questions people actually ask

Ask for the kennel dimensions in feet. The answer tells you more about a facility than the brochure does.