Welcome to Petlodge
Through the following pages we aim to provide as much information as possible about our Boarding Kennels, Hydrotherapy Referral Centre and Agility Training. However, if there is anything additional you would like to know that is not covered please do give us a call.
A bit about us and our background
Our names are Adrian and Linda Croxford and we have a son (now 20) called Daniel. We have owned dogs for the past 30+ years (currently own 15 dogs between us) and over that time have regularly competed, trained and judged in Dog Agility (well Linda does the judging!). Our love of Dog Agility and the successes we have achieved continues – but now through our son Daniel (age gets to us all !)
We bought Daniel his own dog (Sheltie) for his 5th birthday present and has since then done all his own dog care and training.
He has had the most fantastic career in agility. Winning at Crufts in 2008 & 2009 where he competed against adults to be crowned the Kennel Club Small Starters Dog of the Year – which isn’t bad for a young lad who was only 9 years of age at the time! In 2011 Daniel achieved another prestigious win – he won the Small Dog Novice Agility Dog of the Year Final at Crufts – against many of the countries top adult handlers – and all at the tender age of 12 !!! We were all very proud of him when at the age of 15 he was chosen to represent the England adult team at the European Open event in Hungary and he has since competed in Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, and was selected as part of the first ever England Junior Team competing in the Junior European Open championships in Slovenia 2016. Daniel is now in his 20’s and currently competing with two border collies – Briar & Blitz.
Linda continues to teach agility (and have done for the past 30 years) and on the odd days at the weekend one of us is able to get away we now chauffer Daniel to agility shows. We were going to open a cattery unit but Linda got smitten with Hydrotherapy and so during early 2007 Linda commenced all the courses and training to become a qualified hydrotherapist and we opened our hydrotherapy referral centre in September 07.
With the boarding kennels, hydrotherapy centre and agility we don’t have much time for any other hobbies!.
Linda has been UK Team Leader for the International & Mixed Breed Championship Team and the Par Agility World Championship Team. In 2018 the UK hosted the Championships in Huntingdon where 13 countries took part and Linda won the title of 2018 Group 5 Par Agility World Champion. Linda competed with a previous club members dog called Maggie and is hoping to compete with her own sheltie Boozie in 2019 to defend their tittle in Spain.
Although all our time is spent with the dogs, Linda’s first competition animals was horses and her love of horses continues with our current two (Murphy & Lady).
Boarding Kennels
In 2002 we decided to realise our dream of owning and running a quality boarding kennels so set about the task of looking at every kennel in Kent that was up for sale at the time. Our only criteria was that it should be “a business where we would be happy to place our own dogs”.
After two years of looking and not finding anything suitable, we came across Bogshole Farm in Whitstable. The property is ideally located with no close neighbours to upset if dogs bark and with 6.5 acres there is plenty of land to exercise the dogs.
After falling in love with the place, we made the decision to purchase the property and to design and build our own kennels from scratch. The building works commenced in the June of 2005 and we opened to our first guests in January 2006. Since opening we have built up a client base of 3400+ customers owning between them in excess of 5,050 dogs.
Working with us in the kennels there is 1 full time and 3 part time members of staff with additional staffing in the peak holiday periods which ensures all dogs have a walk at least twice a day. We have a fantastic team of long term staff and we all pride ourselves on the outstanding reputation we have gained.