Will Falconer, DVM Moderator
Hi Cherie,
Yes, it's you folks who are in the toughest position. Best you can do is some screening. Ask each boarding applicant if their dogs have been social with any respiratory sick animals in the past week. Have they had any respiratory symptoms themselves?
For those who don't know, and even for all boarders until this dies down, you could ask them to sign a waiver of responsibility before you take their dogs. Word it to the effect that you've in an area seeing cases of the illness (if that's true), dogs may be asymptomatic but still incubating the disease when they enter the facility, and we, the owner, will understand and keep you free of blame should their dog get flu while in your care.
Best I can think of, besides great management: lots of airflow, outdoor time, segregation of anyone who starts sneezing or coughing, that sort of thing. It's like a cold going through a preschool -- nobody's likely to die, but it's a bother for a while. If you spell out the possibility and people sign off aware of that, you've done your due diligence.
Keep me posted if you have any cases. I've been wanting to get a nosode made from a sick dog, which could then protect others or hasten recovery in the affected.
That goes for anybody reading this: if you have known flu in your dogs, contact me via my Contact page and I'll see if I can't help shorten this epidemic somewhat.