Tips for Boarding your Pet over the Holidays

Many of us find ourselves traveling to visit family and friends during the holiday season, but are troubled to find that we have to leave a loved one behind…the family pet. Your local Better Business Bureau along with Camp Bow Wow, A BBB Accredited Business, have some tips to ensure that when you have to board your pet it has a safe and enjoyable holiday too.

 It is important to visit nearby facilities to tour locations, compare services, and experience the way staff interacts with the animals before selecting a place to board your pet. Also check out the kennel’s Reliability Report with the Better Business Bureau before making a final decision.

While it is easy to do research online, the BBB recommends actually taking a physical tour of where you are considering boarding your pet before you commit to placing your pet there. This allows you as a consumer to have a first-hand look at the facilities layout, cleanliness, and attentiveness of the staff. Some questions to ask pet boarding facilities include:

• What is the staff to dog ratio? (One staff member for every 10 – 15 dogs is considered an optimum level);
• What type of training do staff members get? Are there any training requirements on how well behaved your pet needs to be?
• What does the kennel do if there is a medical emergency? Do they have in-house medical staff, will they take the animal to your personal veterinarian, or do they have a relationship with a third-party veterinarian that provides care for their facility?
• Do they mandate that all dogs they care for be current on vaccinations?
• How often do they clean cages and exercise the animals?
• Are the dogs merely supervised or does the staff interact with them?
• When are they fed? Can you request specific food or provide your own?
• Can you make special arrangements for your pet’s individualized care or are the facilities’ services standardized for all the animals boarded there?
• Are there various price structures for services and length of stay? Are there minimum and maximum lengths of stay for pets?

When visiting a boarding location, also consider the following points as you tour the facility:

• Does the kennel seem overcrowded, smell, or not look clean?
• Is there an outdoor play area? If so, does it have a security fence around it? If not, does the staff take the animals for walks on a leash outside?
• Do the pets seem well cared for? Does the staff seem knowledgeable and caring?

After you’ve decided to board your pet somewhere, it is also important to be adequately prepared for dropping them off for their stay. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Do a trial stay: Take a trail run with the kennel by having your pet stay for a short overnight stay prior to having them stay for a long period of time while you are out of town.

Protect them from parasites: Make sure your pet is up to date on their parasite control treatments for fleas, ticks, and heartworms. You don’t want them to come home with new unwanted companions.

Don’t indulge your pet: Before you drop them off at the kennel, don’t overcompensate with a few days of extra attention and treats to make up for your absence. The extra attention will make your loss more impactful on your pet when you are gone.

Don’t take favorites to the kennel: You might think that taking your pet’s favorite toy or blanket might make their stay easier, but things can get lost during playtime or when cages are being cleaned. So don’t leave anything that’s loss would create behavioral problems when you drop off your pet for its stay.

Stay calm: Don’t get emotional when you drop off your pet for their stay. Pets can sense emotions and act out based upon them. If you have family members who may not be able to control their emotions in saying goodbye, leave them at home to pack for your vacation.

For more holiday consumer tips from your Better Business Bureau, visit www.facebook.com/myBBB.

NAUGHTY OR NICE?

Before you select someone to do business with, do you check to see if they’ve been naughty or nice with their past customers? Contact your local Better Business Bureau @ 248-223-9400 or www.bbb.org for a reliability report on more than 4 million businesses from across the United States & Canada.

Beware Identity Thieves During the Holidays

  Identity theft claimed 10 million victims in 2008, a 22 percent increase over 2007, according to a report from Javelin Strategy and Research. Your local Better Business Bureau (BBB) warns that the holiday season provides many new opportunities for identity thieves to ply their trade and offers the following advice on how to keep your identity safe and secure both online and off.

“It doesn’t matter if you are shopping on Main Street or online through eBay, people need to be aware of all the ways identity thieves target holiday shoppers,” said Tim Burns, Public Affairs Director for the Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Michigan. “Whether it’s a low-tech theft like having your credit card numbers stolen or a high-tech scam that involves your computer being maliciously hacked, becoming a victim of identity theft will put a damper on anyone’s holiday cheer.”

BBB recommends taking the following steps to fight identity theft this holiday season:

Online Shopping Tips

Forty-four percent of holiday shoppers make purchases online and every year scammers devise online schemes to trick them into divulging personal information such as credit card numbers. BBB recommends that online shoppers:

• Confirm the legitimacy of all “trust marks.” You can confirm that certification from organizations such as BBB, Versign or TRUSTe is legitimate by clicking on the seal. A legitimate seal will direct you to the certifying organization’s Web site.
• Make online purchases with a credit card. If the credit card number lands in the hands of ID thieves, remember your Fair Credit Billing Act protection which allows you to dispute the charges with your credit card company.
• Only pay on a secured site. Always look in the address box for the “s” in https:// and in the lower-right corner for the “lock” symbol before paying. If there are any doubts about a site when using Internet Explorer, BBB recommends right-clicking anywhere on the page to select “Properties.” This will let you see the real URL (Web site address) and the dialog box will reveal if the site is not encrypted. If using Firefox, click on Tools in the menu bar, then Page Info.

In-Store Shopping Tips

Increased traffic at malls and retailers means more opportunity for ID thieves. When fighting the crowds, BBB offers the following advice for shoppers:

• Prevent pick pocketing. Keep your purse tucked securely under your arm and your wallet in a front pocket or other safer place than a back pocket. And don’t bog yourself down by too many shopping bags.
• Keep receipts in your wallet. Retailers are required to maintain the privacy of all but the last four digits of the credit or debit card used to make a purchase but it is still a good idea to keep all your receipts together in safe place rather than in your bag.
• Review your credit card statement regularly. Check your credit card activity weekly during the holiday season—rather than waiting for the statement at the end of the month—in order to catch suspicious charges as quickly as possible and immediately report any irregularities to your credit card company.

Fight E-mail Phishing Attempts

Many holiday scams can be found in your email in-box. BBB recommends the following steps to protect your computer from hackers:

• Purchase anti-virus software from a business you trust. Make sure you update your computer’s operating system, browser program, and antivirus software and install all security patches.
• Be wary of emails from retailers, banks or shipping businesses. If you receive an e-mail from your bank, retailer or a shipping company claiming that there is a problem with your account or delivery, do not click on any links in the email or reply with any information. Instead contact the business directly to confirm the issue.
• Be extremely cautious when viewing e-cards. In the past, scammers have created fake e-mail notices that claim generically that a “friend” or “family member” has sent them a card. In some cases, victims have clicked on a link that has installed a virus on their computer or their computer caught the virus when the victims installed supposed software needed to view the e-card.

For more advice on being a safe and smart shopper during the holiday season, visit www.facebook.com/myBBB.