5.0

We're Matt and Sander. We live on ten acres on South Whidbey with our two teenagers, our dog Artie, two cats, and a small flock of sheep and chickens. We both work from home, which is the short version of why we're good at this: there is essentially always someone here. We boarded dogs through Rover for years while we ran a business in Seattle. What we can offer now is different, and better. Instead of a house in a neighborhood, your dog gets a farm - open ground, long walks on the property, four real seasons, and a lot of interesting smells. Instead of someone leaving for work at eight, your dog gets people around all day, working in the same rooms they're sleeping in. We take a maximum of two dogs at a time (for boarding), and often fewer. That's deliberate. We'd rather know your dog well than run a full house. The dog yard. We built a fenced yard this year — about a third of an acre, ringed in five-foot cedar and hog wire. It opens off the deck and the driveway, so dogs go straight out from the house, and we can see the whole of it from inside where we work. It's big enough that a dog can actually open up and run, which is a different thing from a suburban back yard. Small dogs can't slip through hog wire, and five feet of cedar is not a fence most dogs are interested in arguing with. We still don't leave guest dogs out there unattended when we're off the property, and nobody is left outside overnight. The fence is there to give dogs room, not to replace us watching them. How your dog spends the day. Morning walk on the property, yard time and time outside with us while we do farm chores, a midday rest, an afternoon walk, and evening indoors with the family. Dogs sleep in the house — on a bed, on the couch, or in your dog's own crate if that's what they're used to. Nobody sleeps in a barn or an outbuilding. About the livestock. We have sheep and chickens. The dog yard is completely separate from them — different fencing, no shared ground, and we don't do introductions. Walks on the wider property are on leash. A high prey drive isn't a dealbreaker here; it just means we manage the day around it. What we're good with. Seniors, anxious dogs, dogs on medication, dogs who need a slow introduction, big dogs, and dogs who just don't do well in a kennel environment. Artie is an easygoing host, but if your dog would rather not meet another dog, we can run the stay that way. What we can't take. Unaltered dogs, dogs with a bite history or human-directed aggression, and cats — we love ours, but with the flock here we're dogs only. We always do a meet-and-greet before the first stay. Come see the place, walk the property, and see whether your dog relaxes. That's usually the whole answer. SCHEDULE & LOGISTICS We offer boarding and daycare. Drop-off and pick-up are flexible — we're home. Weekdays generally work best between 8:00am and 6:00pm; weekends we can be flexible outside that. We also offer pick-up and drop-off if getting here doesn't fit your day. Included range covers Langley, Freeland, and Clinton; farther north on the island we charge by the mile. Ask and we'll quote it. A "night" is a 24-hour period from drop-off. If pick-up runs well past that, we may add a partial day — we'll always tell you before we charge it, not after.