Overnight Dog Boarding for Holbrook, Holtsville & Bohemia

If you live in Holbrook, Holtsville or Bohemia and you need somewhere for your dog to sleep for a few nights, the thing that goes wrong is almost never the booking. It is the paperwork — and usually one specific vaccine that runs on a shorter clock than all the others.

So let's put that first, before anything about kennels or feeding schedules. If you read one section of this page, read the next one.

What Suffolk County requires before your dog can stay

Suffolk County Code § 302-13 covers animal shelters and kennels. It says no dog may be accepted at a boarding kennel unless the owner gives the facility a current health certificate from a licensed veterinarian, stating the dog has been vaccinated against a specific list of diseases within specific windows.

This is county law, and it applies to every boarding kennel in Suffolk — us, and everyone else. It is not a house rule, and it is not negotiable at the door.

The county also requires boarding facilities to keep records on each dog and cat for twelve months from the last day of use. So the obligation runs both ways: the owner provides the certificate, the facility holds the paperwork afterward. In practice that means bring the document itself rather than the dates from memory, and keep a photo of it on your phone for next time.

Requirements change, and your vet knows your dog's history better than any web page does. Confirm the current list with your vet and with us before you travel.

The bordetella window that catches people out

The problem is arithmetic, not carelessness. Most dogs see the vet once a year, in roughly the same month each year, and come home fully up to date. Everything on a one-year clock stays current right up to the next visit. Bordetella does not. Six months after that appointment it is out of date, and there is nothing on the calendar between then and the following year to remind you.

Which means a certificate can look completely current at a glance — rabies fine, distemper fine, parvo fine — while the one line that matters for boarding has already run out. If your trip falls in the back half of your vet year, assume the bordetella needs looking at.

One honest note while we are on the subject: bordetella does not fully prevent kennel cough. What people call kennel cough is properly canine infectious respiratory disease complex, and the AVMA describes roughly eleven pathogens that can contribute to it. The vaccine is required, it is worth having, and it is not a force field. If your dog develops a cough after any stay anywhere — with us, at a dog park, after a grooming appointment — that is a conversation for your vet, not for a groomer.

Check-in, check-out and seven-day collection

Boarding runs out of our Ronkonkoma location at 835 Portion Road, which is open seven days a week. That matters when you are planning the return leg: whatever day your flight lands, Saturday or Sunday included, there is a collection window that morning. You do not have to build the trip around which day the kennel reopens.

The two rates are about space, not about service. Sixty dollars a night is a 4x4 private kennel. Seventy-five is a 4x6 — a larger private kennel, which is the sensible choice for a big dog, a dog who sprawls, or a stay long enough that the extra room earns its keep. Every stay, either way, includes a full day of daycare at no extra charge, so your dog is not sitting in a kennel between meals.

Plan around both windows rather than either one. Check-in is 2:00 to 7:00pm, so an afternoon arrival gives your dog the back half of a normal day to look around and settle before lights out. Check-out is 7:00 to 11:00am, which is earlier than most people expect — if you are landing late morning, driving in from the airport and collecting the same day may not work, and the last night is worth booking rather than cutting it fine. If the morning window is genuinely impossible, say so when you book so we can talk through the timing.

Bring your own food — why we ask

We would rather you packed your dog's own food, portioned per meal if you can manage it. Not because we are being difficult, but because a boarding stay is already a change of bed, a change of noise and a change of routine. Changing the food on top of that is the one variable you can easily hold steady, and an upset stomach on night two helps nobody.

If bringing food is genuinely inconvenient, we can provide it at $5 per day, per dog. It is a real option, not a penalty.

First-timers: how the first night usually goes

If your dog has never boarded, the first stay should not be the week you fly to Florida. Start with a meet and greet.

Boarding is not right for every dog, and we would rather say so early. The requirement, in our own words on our booking pages, is that a pet must be non-aggressive, comfortable in a kennel, able to socialize, and free from bite history.

Adding a groom for pickup day

A lot of people like collecting a clean dog. It is a fair instinct after a week away, and grooming runs seven days a week at Ronkonkoma, 9am to 5pm, in the same building.

Two practical notes. First, ask for it when you book the stay, not on the morning you land — a groom needs its own appointment slot and we cannot promise one at short notice. Second, a groom means you collect later in the day rather than inside the 7–11am check-out window, so plan the drive accordingly.

Published grooming prices go by weight: a bath and brush runs $35 to $120, and a full groom with a haircut runs $70 to $155. You can see where your dog lands and book on the grooming page.

Check the bordetella date today. Everything else about a boarding stay can be sorted out in a phone call.

Questions people actually ask