Dogs treated like royalty as posh kennels

THE guests who board at the Elmwood Exclusive Hotel for Dogs are treated like royalty.

It can cater for ten guests and each pet is given their own room, furnished with a television, sofa, carpets and even a fire to keep them warm in the winter months.

And rather than getting a bowl of water and tin of dog food, these pampered pooches get Marmite on toast for breakfast, milky tea in bed and fresh chicken for lunch.

The dogs belong to various celebrities and high-flyers, who book them in for their stay at the hotel for weeks, or even months at a time, while they jet off around the world.

Regular customers include model Sophie Dahl's hound, Iron Maiden's lead singer's mutt and George, Suede drummer Simon Gilbert's dog.

John Burton, 62, who runs the hotel in The Lee, near Chartridge, says some of the owners have some unusual requests for their dogs.

"One lady insists on giving fishfingers twice a week as breakfast for her dog, but they have to be a named brand. Other days he has to have sausage," he explained.

"Also owners insist on mineral waters, and some of them are quite expensive."

Some dogs have herbal medicines and Mr Burton is given a list of special dishes which must be served up for them.

Mr Burton added that the dogs love the highlife and treat it as a home from home. Some of them even sulk when they go back to their owners.

He said: "Who wants to go home to Kensington if they can have all this? The owners are not thinking of themselves, they are giving the dogs an opportunity to live in paradise.

"It is like the dogs are in their own gang. As the dogs come into Pooch Park (their own field) they say 'George is back again'."

Their day starts at 6am when they are taken out for their walk and they go back for breakfast in their rooms. They are then free to roam in the surrounding acres of land before lunch at 1pm.

It is back outside again for a walk before dinner and then it's back out again to the floodlit field for their last ablutions of the day.

He said: "Our policy is that we run a second home. It is no good just to look after them for a fortnight.

"Most of our clients will have maids and servants but we are their other owners and that is the way we build up our business."

The hotel was originaly set up as just a kennels but turned into an exclusive hotel by accident.

Mr Burton and wife Jenny started up the kennels to supplement their income after they bought a little wooden house set in fields in The Lee.

Mr Burton, a lorry driver, and his wife had started a family so they needed the extra money when they started to extend the property.

When they started the kennels 25 years ago, they said they wanted it to be different from anywhere else so they put armchairs and carpets in.

Mr Burton added: "We didn't realise that it would be such a good idea. We just thought they would like some comfort.

"Then a newspaper phoned us and said 'Do you have sofas for your dogs?'.

"Since then it has just escalated and we now have a waiting list with people waiting for other people's dogs to move away so they can get theirs in."

He added that a pop star had even offered them a lot of money to look after a guard dog but it would not have got on with the other dogs so they had to refuse it.

Mr Burton said he would never take on more than ten dogs.

"We could take more on but our philosophy is this: as long as the postman drops bills in our letter box and we have a cheque to pay them, that is all that matters," he added.

Mr Burton and his wife have never had a holiday since they started the business. Even though they have been offered trips abroad by various celebrities who were pleased with the service.

He added: "It is a seven days a week job. We have set the trend and some kennels have gone and fallen by the wayside.

'We don't take on other staff. If you run an establishment with kennel staff they see different people all the time. It is unsettling for them."