Holiday Dog Boarding in Ronkonkoma: Book Early
Lillian Ruff Pet Spa
Booking a holiday boarding stay is really two bookings. One is the dates with us. The other is a visit to your vet, and that one runs on a clock nobody at this salon wrote and nobody here can waive.
Most people do them in the wrong order. They settle the dates, relax, and then find out four days before they travel that the bordetella vaccine lapsed back in the summer. This post is the order we would do it in, and the one deadline that is genuinely fixed.
Two deadlines, not one: our calendar and your vet's
We are not going to tell you that some percentage of our kennels are already gone, because we are not going to publish a number we cannot stand behind. Our calendar fills the way any calendar fills, and the honest advice is simply that a stay you have already confirmed is one less thing on your December list.
The deadline we can be precise about is the paperwork one, because it is county law rather than house policy. Suffolk County Code § 302-13 says no dog may be accepted at a boarding kennel unless the owner provides the facility with a current health certificate from a licensed veterinarian, confirming vaccination against a specific list of diseases within a specific window.
Bordetella runs on a six-month clock. Everything else on the list runs on a year. If your dog last boarded in spring, the bordetella is the one that has quietly expired.
| Vaccination | Suffolk County window | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Rabies | Within the previous year, unless it is an approved three-year vaccine certified by your vet | New York already requires a dog to be licensed and rabies-vaccinated from four months of age, so this one is usually in order |
| Distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvovirus, coronavirus | Within the previous year, with the same approved three-year exception | Usually covered by a combination shot. Ask your vet to write out exactly what was given and when |
| Bordetella | Within the previous six months | The one to check first. If it needs redoing, that is a vet appointment you have to get on the books now, not in December |
Requirements change, and your dog's history is between you and your vet. Confirm the current list with both your vet's office and with us before you travel rather than taking a blog post's word for it.
It does not fully prevent kennel cough. What people call kennel cough is properly canine infectious respiratory disease complex, and the AVMA counts roughly eleven pathogens that contribute to it. The vaccine is required and worth having. It is not a force field, and any boarding facility that tells you otherwise is overselling.
Thanksgiving, Christmas and the week between that nobody plans for
Thanksgiving and Christmas are easy to plan because the dates are printed on the calendar. The stretch between Christmas and New Year is the one people leave loose, because the trip to see family gets extended by two days, or the return flight moves, or somebody decides on the 27th to drive upstate after all.
Our advice there is unglamorous: request the wider block and trim it, rather than booking tight and trying to add nights later. Shortening a stay is a phone call. Extending one depends on what is next to your dog's kennel.
Count your nights properly before you request, too. Boarding is priced per night, and drop-off and pickup have their own windows.
Every boarding night includes a full day of daycare at no extra charge, so your dog is not sitting in a kennel from check-in to check-out. Meals run at 8am, 1pm and 6pm, and custom schedules are available for puppies, seniors and medical diets.
Boarding and daycare are at 835 Portion Rd, Ronkonkoma, which is open seven days a week. Our East Northport salon at 16 Laurel Rd is grooming only, Tuesday through Saturday, so a Huntington-area holiday stay means the Ronkonkoma building. Worth knowing if you are flying: Long Island MacArthur Airport is also in Ronkonkoma.
What to sort out before you request dates
Pin down the nights
Write down the drop-off date and the pickup date, then count the nights between them. That number, not the number of days you are away, is what you are booking.
Call your vet before you call us
Ask specifically when the bordetella was given and when the core combination was given, and ask for a current health certificate. If a booster is needed, you want that appointment before the holiday rush on their calendar, not after.
Book the meet and greet if this is a first stay
First-visit evaluations run about 30 minutes. Do this well before the travel dates so that if boarding is not the right fit for your dog, you still have time to arrange something else.
Decide about food
Bring your own, portioned and labeled, or we can provide food at $5 per day per dog. Holidays are a bad week to switch a dog's diet, so if you are bringing your own, bring more than you think you need.
Flag medications early
Tell us the drug, the dose and the exact times. Medications that have to be given outside 7am to 10pm are a real limitation for us, and you need to know that before you book a flight, not on check-in day.
On fit, our own eligibility is written plainly and we would rather say it up front than at the door: "Pet must be non-aggressive, comfortable in a kennel, able to socialize, and free from bite history." If that describes your dog, holiday boarding is straightforward. If it does not, tell us on the phone and we will be honest about whether we are the right place. Some dogs genuinely do better with a sitter at home, and that is a fine answer.
Booking the pickup-day bath at the same time
A dog who has been away for six nights comes home smelling like a dog who has been away for six nights. The neat move is a bath on the way out, so the dog you collect is the dog you would want on the couch that evening.
Ask for it when you request your dates, not on pickup morning. Grooming runs 9am to 5pm and boarding check-out runs 7am to 11am, so the two need to be lined up deliberately, and that lining up is much easier three weeks out.
Worth adding
- A bath and brush before a long car ride home
- Nails, if they were already getting long before you left
- A full haircut if the dog was overdue anyway and you are back to visitors and photos
Probably skip
- A full groom the same morning you need to be somewhere by ten
- A big style change on a dog who has just had a week out of routine
- Anything you are only doing because it was offered. If the coat is fine, the coat is fine
Bath and brush runs $35 to $120 and a full groom with haircut runs $70 to $155, both by dog weight. We do not do creative coloring, show grooming or hand-stripping, and we do not groom cats.
If your plans change: how and when to tell us
Plans change. Flights move, someone gets sick, the drive gets called off. The only thing we ask is that you tell us as soon as you know rather than the night before, because an early call is what lets the space go to somebody else who needs it.
Shortening a stay, moving it a day, or cancelling outright are all normal. Call the salon and we will sort it out. And if the trip falls through entirely, the vet visit was not wasted: the vaccinations are good for the rest of their window, which usually means the next stay is a much shorter conversation.
The stay you can move is the stay you actually booked. The one you were meaning to book is the one that becomes a problem.
Questions people actually ask
How far ahead should I really book for Thanksgiving or Christmas?
Far enough ahead that the vaccination side has room to move, which in practice means a few weeks rather than a few days. If the bordetella has lapsed, you need a vet appointment plus your vet's own turnaround on paperwork before we can accept the dog. That is the part that runs out of road, not the booking form.
My dog's shots are current with my vet. Is that enough?
We need a current health certificate from a licensed veterinarian in our hands, covering rabies, distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvovirus and coronavirus within the previous year, plus bordetella within the previous six months. A three-year vaccine counts if your vet certifies it as such. Ask your vet's office to send or print it; they do this constantly and it is a routine request.
Does my dog just sit in a kennel all day?
No. Every boarding night includes a full day of daycare at no extra charge, and daycare at Ronkonkoma runs 7am to 7pm, seven days a week.
Can I board at East Northport instead? It is closer to me.
East Northport is a grooming salon only, Tuesday through Saturday. Daycare and overnight boarding are at Ronkonkoma. If East Northport is your regular grooming salon, you can still do the holiday stay at Ronkonkoma and simply add the bath there on your way out.
What if my dog needs medication overnight?
Tell us the exact schedule before you book. Doses that fall outside 7am to 10pm are a limitation on our side, and it is far better to hear that from us in October than to discover it at check-in.
Is there a discount for a longer stay?
Boarding is priced per night, at $60 for a regular 4x4 private kennel and $75 for the larger 4x6 premium kennel. The multi-day passes we publish are daycare passes rather than boarding, and those have no expiration date but are non-refundable, with 8.75% sales tax applying.
Sort the dates now, then call your vet.
Tell us your nights and whether you want a bath on the way out, and we will confirm what paperwork to bring.
See pricing & book ›835 Portion Rd, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779 · Open 7 days, 9–5
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