Coronavirus policy – updated 6 Jan 2021

Happy Hounds & Cooler Cats Coronavirus Policy

21 Jan 2021 – updates

STAFF

Covid cases in London are at 1 in 30. This is likely to get worse.  In order to continue operating, on top of existing rules the following measures have been put in place

  • All contact with clients and colleagues should be silent. Any communication should happen over the phone or via the office.
  • All new client meetings will happen over video link
  • Do not enter the property unless owner is out. Always ring or knock or message in advance
  • Dogs in flats MUST be brought down to the walker.
  • All new client meetings will be carried out by video call

OWNERS

  • Do not verbally communicate with sitters.  All communication must be via phone or via the office.
  • Dogs in flats MUST be brought down to the walker.
  • Owners must wear a mask when engaging with walkers.
  • We have limited capacity for solo covid friendly walks.  Here are some tips for activities to do with your dog if you are self-isolating and are therefore house bound.
  • All new client meetings will be carried out by video call

18 March 2020

** Clients please inform us if you have symptoms and are self isolating rather than working from home: we will endeavour to provide a solo walk for your dog but they will not be able to come on group walks.  While dogs cannot contract covid19 as far as we’re aware, they can carry the infection, as can any object. So we want them to come into contact with as few things – cars, other dogs etc – as possible.  This is exactly what we would do for kennel cough – a walk from the door.  This time with gloves! This will be subject to availability.

Most walkers currently wish to continue but those who have underlying health conditions have stopped which is absolutely right**

6th March 2020

Happy Hounds will continue to operate as usual and our procedures will evolve as required. 

The procedures we will apply will be similar to those we use during a kennel cough outbreak, while also increasing the use of barrier protection for humans.

Compulsory actions for sitters to carry out

  • Wash hands thoroughly 5-10 times a day with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
  • Do not touch clients or other people as much as possible. Avoid shaking hands, hugging and other unnecessary forms of contact
  • Do not kiss or cuddle or be licked by animals.
  • Avoid touching your face
  • Use gloves when entering homes (get from HH)
  • Use hand sanitiser
  • Ensure vehicle is kept sanitised using Safe4 disinfectant (get refills from HH)
  • Spray yourself with diluted (1:50 safe 4 disinfectant) as you would after contact with a dog during a kennel cough outbreak (soles of shoes, spritz your clothes, spray down inside of vehicle)

Info for sitters

  • Please inform HH if you have been in a high-risk area and/or come into contact with someone who has been in a high-risk area.
  • If you are going to be in busy places, then please avoid those coughing or with signs of colds.
  • If you have been exposed to someone coughing wash hands immediately.
  • You may need to self-isolate – if you feel you have been exposed to/may have the symptoms of the virus, check with the NHS 111 online Coronavirus service or a medical professional ASAP. Please inform HH.

Info for clients

  • Please inform HH if you have been in a high-risk area and/or come into contact with someone who has been in a high-risk area**(see below)
  • Please inform HH immediately if you are having to self-isolate.
  • If a client needs to self-isolate, we will need to be cautious about providing animal care to them as currently it isn’t clear whether animals may contract or spread the virus.
  • Please note that our cancellation policy will continue to apply in order to try as be as fair as possible to all concerned.
  • SITTERS WILL NEED TO WASH HANDS AT CLIENTS’ HOMES

Extra precautions for specific services:

We ask you to please bear with us while we have to use these additional precautions – we hope you appreciate the need to minimise contact as much as possible in these circumstances.

For boarding and daycare we may minimise the items that we’ll take from you and use our own bedding, equipment, toys and so forth.

We may do handovers at the door rather than invite you in / coming in for a cuppa after you collect or we drop off a dog.

These policies may evolve and we’ll keep you up to date with any changes.

Additional information:

Symptoms are:

  • Fever
  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath

**High risk areas (as at 6/3/20)

  • China
  • Cambodia
  • Hong Kong
  • Iran
  • Singapore
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Laos
  • Macau
  • Malaysia
  • Myanmar
  • Taiwan
  • Tenerife (especially anyone who staying at the Adeje Costa Palace Hotel)
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam
  • South Korea

email to clients 18th March 2020

Dear All,

Hope you’re all keeping well and not getting too weirded out.  Furry friends certainly can help with our mental health in this very strange time.

Just a clarification on our policy:

As far as we know, while dogs – or other animals – don’t appear to be able to catch it, they can carry it as can any other surface or object,

So if a client has symptoms we will do our best to offer a solo walk but won’t be able to offer group walks. This will be subject to availability.

Please do inform us is if you are self isolating rather than working from home.

Currently we are continuing to offer group and solo walks.

Walkers mostly want to continue.  A few who do have underlying health conditions have stopped and that’s absolutely right.

We continue to take ALL the safety precautions we have already outlined. You can read our policy which evolves as new information becomes available and our communications here.

https://www.happyhounds.co.uk/coronavirus-policy-6-march-2020/

9th March https://www.happyhounds.co.uk/covid-19-email-to-clients-9th-march-2020/

16th March here.  https://www.happyhounds.co.uk/covid-19-email-to-clients-16th-march-2020/

Thank you again for all your lovely wonderful kind messages and continued support. It means the absolute world to us especially in such difficult times. It’s incredibly busy in the office and we’re also working from home for the obvious reasons so apologies if responses haven’t been as quick as usual, we will get back to you asap.

And apologies if you get this twice – we want to make sure everyone has received it so you may get double bubble!

Lots of love the HH team x

 

 

 

 

Covid 19 – email to clients 9th March 2020

We’ve put the following on our website about the procedures we’ll need to implement while the Coronavirus outbreak continues,but thought we would also send it out in an email.

We’re trying to find a balance between taking safe and sensible precautions and continuing to provide all of our services as usual.

https://www.happyhounds.co.uk/coronavirus-policy-6-march-2020/

We are obviously hopeful that Coronavirus has as little impact on everyone as possible, but we hope you’ll appreciate that we have to be mindful of the fact that a reduced need for our services will affect sitters’ jobs, so we are trying to be as fair to them and yourselves as possible.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this tricky time, and though it’s only very few clients so far, we’d especially like to thank everyone who has continued to use our services after being required to work at home as a precautionary measure.

Happy Hounds & Cooler Cats Coronavirus Policy

Happy Hounds will continue to operate as usual and our procedures will evolve as required.

The procedures we will apply will be similar to those we use during a kennel cough outbreak, while also increasing the use of barrier protection for humans.

Compulsory actions for sitters to carry out

  • Wash hands thoroughly 5-10 times a day with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
  • Do not touch clients or other people as much as possible. Avoid shaking hands, hugging and other unnecessary forms of contact
  • Do not kiss or cuddle or be licked by animals.
  • Avoid touching your face
  • Use gloves when entering homes (get from HH)
  • Use hand sanitiser
  • Ensure vehicle is kept sanitised using Safe4 disinfectant (get refills from HH)
  • Spray yourself with diluted (1:50 safe 4 disinfectant) as you would after contact with a dog during a kennel cough outbreak (soles of shoes, spritz your clothes, spray down inside of vehicle)

Info for sitters

  • Please inform HH if you have been in a high-risk area and/or come into contact with someone who has been in a high-risk area.
  • If you are going to be in busy places, then please avoid those coughing or with signs of colds.
  • If you have been exposed to someone coughing wash hands immediately.
  • You may need to self-isolate – if you feel you have been exposed to/may have the symptoms of the virus, check with the NHS 111 online Coronavirus service or a medical professional ASAP. Please inform HH.

Info for clients

  • Please inform HH if you have been in a high-risk area and/or come into contact with someone who has been in a high-risk area**(see below)
  • Please inform HH immediately if you are having to self-isolate.
  • If you do need to self-isolate (not the same as working at home), we will need to be cautious about providing animal care to you as currently it isn’t clear whether animals may contract or spread the virus.
  • Please note that our cancellation policy will continue to apply in order to try as be as fair as possible to all concerned.
  • In order to maintain hygiene and safety, sitters will need to wash hands at client’s homes.

Extra precautions for specific services:

We ask you to please bear with us while we have to use these additional precautions – we hope you appreciate the need to minimise contact as much as possible in these circumstances.

For boarding and daycare we may minimise the items that we’ll take from you and use our own bedding, equipment, toys and so forth.

We may do handovers at the door rather than invite you in / coming in for a cuppa after you collect or we drop off a dog.

These policies may evolve and we’ll keep you up to date with any changes.

Additional information:

Symptoms are:

  • Fever
  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath

**High risk areas (as at 6/3/20)

  • China
  • Cambodia
  • Hong Kong
  • Iran
  • Singapore
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Laos
  • Macau
  • Malaysia
  • Myanmar
  • Taiwan
  • Tenerife (especially anyone who staying at the Adeje Costa Palace Hotel)
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam

●     South Korea

Covid 19 – email to clients 16th March 2020

We hope you are all keeping well and are coping with the ever-changing world that this little bugger of a virus has forced upon us.

Hopefully you had chance to read our last email containing our Coronavirus policy and details of the changes we were having to make. We just wanted to follow this up with a little more information.

https://www.happyhounds.co.uk/coronavirus-policy-6-march-2020/

We totally understand what a stressful and worrying time this is for everyone so let us take some of that worry off your hands/paws and reassure you that we are doing everything possible to be sensible and safe in this situation.

Unless absolutely necessary, our services will not change, and we will do everything we can to continue to provide them for you. We will stay in touch and provide regular updates.

We have issued a set of rules to each of our pet carers and had thorough discussions with them about health and safety to reduce the risk of contracting and/or spreading Coronavirus.

Our best practice rules include:

  • Washing hands thoroughly before and after each pet care service (this does mean our carers will need access to your hand washing facilities please)
  • Using Safe4 disinfectant to clean hands, all surfaces (this included steering wheels, leads and keys) and your pets. Safe4 is antiviral and is completely safe for use on and around pets. It is non-toxic, non-irritant and non-corrosive. This is the same product we use as part of our Kennel cough prevention procedure.
  • We will also use gloves when appropriate.
  • Avoiding contact with clients, which includes not hand shaking, high fives or hugs – sorry!

What you can do to help:

  • If you are at home, it would be very helpful if you could bring your dog to the door when the walker arrives and collect them at the door when they are returned.
  • If this isn’t possible, or you’re not at home during the day, we will absolutely minimise the amount of time spent in your home.
  • If you have any other suggestions as to how you’d like us to proceed then please do let us know.

A massive THANK YOU:

We want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone that has continued to book on with us. We understand that working from home means you get to spend much more time with your furry friends, but also that you still may not have the time to meet their needs during the day – that’s where we come in! We appreciate your needs may change slightly and we will cater to those where we can. Just let us know what you need and we will do our best to meet this!

Cancellations:

We have received a lot of cancellations, due to holidays and trips being postponed or cancelled. Whilst we understand this is beyond your control, our pet carers invest a lot of time and effort into our house-sitting, boarding and daily pet care services and so we ask that you give us as much notice as possible when making cancellations. Our cancellation policy can be found on our general terms and conditions.

https://www.happyhounds.co.uk/general-terms-and-conditions/

It’s still 24 hours cut off for cancellation of daily services, BUT if you could give us more notice that would be great. And if you still want us while you’re working from home we will be SOOOOOO happy to oblige! Cancelling house-sits and board bookings will also come with a cost and we’re happy to discuss that with you individually.

PLEASE BEAR WITH US!

Please bear with us – our aims are to keep providing our services to you, keep you, your pets and our lovely sitters safe, protect people’s jobs…and hopefully still be here when this crisis is over!

We hope you have a lovely week. At least the sun is out and even if you can only look at it out the window – we hope it brightens your day!

Take care and wash hands x

Coronavirus policy – March 2020

Happy Hounds & Cooler Cats Coronavirus Policy

18 March 2020

** Clients please inform us if you have symptoms and are self isolating rather than working from home: we will endeavour to provide a solo walk for your dog but they will not be able to come on group walks.  While dogs cannot contract covid19 as far as we’re aware, they can carry the infection, as can any object. So we want them to come into contact with as few things – cars, other dogs etc – as possible.  This is exactly what we would do for kennel cough – a walk from the door.  This time with gloves! This will be subject to availability.

Most walkers currently wish to continue but those who have underlying health conditions have stopped which is absolutely right**

6th March 2020

Happy Hounds will continue to operate as usual and our procedures will evolve as required. 

The procedures we will apply will be similar to those we use during a kennel cough outbreak, while also increasing the use of barrier protection for humans.

Compulsory actions for sitters to carry out

  • Wash hands thoroughly 5-10 times a day with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
  • Do not touch clients or other people as much as possible. Avoid shaking hands, hugging and other unnecessary forms of contact
  • Do not kiss or cuddle or be licked by animals.
  • Avoid touching your face
  • Use gloves when entering homes (get from HH)
  • Use hand sanitiser
  • Ensure vehicle is kept sanitised using Safe4 disinfectant (get refills from HH)
  • Spray yourself with diluted (1:50 safe 4 disinfectant) as you would after contact with a dog during a kennel cough outbreak (soles of shoes, spritz your clothes, spray down inside of vehicle)

Info for sitters

  • Please inform HH if you have been in a high-risk area and/or come into contact with someone who has been in a high-risk area.
  • If you are going to be in busy places, then please avoid those coughing or with signs of colds.
  • If you have been exposed to someone coughing wash hands immediately.
  • You may need to self-isolate – if you feel you have been exposed to/may have the symptoms of the virus, check with the NHS 111 online Coronavirus service or a medical professional ASAP. Please inform HH.

Info for clients

  • Please inform HH if you have been in a high-risk area and/or come into contact with someone who has been in a high-risk area**(see below)
  • Please inform HH immediately if you are having to self-isolate.
  • If a client needs to self-isolate, we will need to be cautious about providing animal care to them as currently it isn’t clear whether animals may contract or spread the virus.
  • Please note that our cancellation policy will continue to apply in order to try as be as fair as possible to all concerned.
  • SITTERS WILL NEED TO WASH HANDS AT CLIENTS’ HOMES

Extra precautions for specific services:

We ask you to please bear with us while we have to use these additional precautions – we hope you appreciate the need to minimise contact as much as possible in these circumstances.

For boarding and daycare we may minimise the items that we’ll take from you and use our own bedding, equipment, toys and so forth.

We may do handovers at the door rather than invite you in / coming in for a cuppa after you collect or we drop off a dog.

These policies may evolve and we’ll keep you up to date with any changes.

Additional information:

Symptoms are:

  • Fever
  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath

**High risk areas (as at 6/3/20)

  • China
  • Cambodia
  • Hong Kong
  • Iran
  • Singapore
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Laos
  • Macau
  • Malaysia
  • Myanmar
  • Taiwan
  • Tenerife (especially anyone who staying at the Adeje Costa Palace Hotel)
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam
  • South Korea
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