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Founder, Gaynor Fletcher has been a life-long animal lover and dedicated animal advocate. She has extensive experience in the pet care industry as a pet owner, a former employee, a businesswoman and a volunteer.


Earlier in her career, Gaynor utilized her skills and experience as an award-winning reporter and photographer to investigate self-generated leads around animal cruelty and adoption promotion. The majority of her work focused around providing a voice for animals, and exposing and publicizing the people and systems that failed them.


In more recent years, Gaynor has served on the Board of Directors for the local Humane Society and works hard to fight for improved laws and procedures with respect to animal care and animal welfare. She also continues to play a direct role in lobbying for more humane euthanasia and animal welfare laws in Canada.

 

Hounds On Holiday… The Unique Alternative To Kennels was established in Guelph, Ontario, in 2009 by Gaynor Fletcher. The business was created out of the founder’s reluctance to use kennel facilities for her own dogs. 

 

Like many other pet owners considering pet care for their beloved companions, she found it too difficult to leave her pets at kennels; peering out from behind the bars of their runs or metal cages. Aside from the terrifying smell of antiseptics or tick dip, the constant noise of barking dogs all around can be intimidating to some dog personalities; as is the thought of being abandoned into such a strange and bewildering environment by the people they most love and trust.

 

Gaynor felt that alternatives to boarding kennels were very limited, and although many pet owners were looking for a kenneling alternative, they didn't like the thought of strangers coming into their homes to feed and walk their pets while they were away. Furthermore, there was the realization that the dogs would be alone in the house for most of the day anyway.

 

Similarly, she found that many owners also couldn’t rely on group boarding-house facilities since there was a risk of their dog being traumatized by other animals in joint play areas, as well as the possibility of being exposed to communicable diseases and parasites. She also found that most owners felt awkward about imposing on family and friends.

 

Driven by necessity as much as desire, and recognizing a definite niche in the marketplace, she set about implementing a caring, professional and reliable pet care service. After researching tremendously successful business models in the UK and the US, there was a realization that the benefits of establishing a new kind of pet-sitting service went far beyond serving the needs of serving the pets’ best interest, in that the host families' lives were truly enriched by the companionship of the visiting pets.

 

Furthermore, she discovered that the host families became like extended family members - trusted and appreciated animal lovers who open their arms and homes to our beloved canine companions. Finally, Canadian pet owners can also now consider guilt-free vacations and worry-free business trips!

 

As the new kind of pet-sitting service, the primary goal is to make Hounds On Holiday services the pre-eminent pet care choice for discriminating pet lovers across the nation! To learn more about using this unique home-from-home pet care service as an alternative to kennels, or to find out about becoming one of our host families offering dog holidays, please explore the pages of this website.

 

Gaynor Fletcher has spent many years rescuing and rehoming animals in need, and was more recently covered by Global News when she tracked down a little dog that had been stolen from a car in the US, and helped reunite Dixie with her Canadian family. Please click the link below for the video story!

http://globalnews.ca/video/1778175/guelph-woman-helps-reunite-edmonton-couple-with-their-dog-snatched-in-u-s