Pets in Manotick — vets, groomers, boarding and where dogs can run

Manotick is a dog village — the river pathways, the estate lots, the Saturday market with a water bowl outside every shop — and it has the services to match: two veterinary hospitals in the postal code, two groomers, a pet store with a self-serve wash, a kennel ten minutes down the road and a 35-acre park with an off-leash area. What it does not have is an overnight emergency vet, which is the one number on this page to save before you need it. Everything below is phone-first and checked against each business's own published details; nothing here is paid for.

Vets in the village

Two veterinary hospitals have premises in Manotick, which for a village this size is a good bench. Manotick Veterinary Hospital is on Rideau Valley Drive north of the core; Village of Manotick Animal Hospital is on Scharfield Road off River Road. Both are general practices — vaccines, wellness, dentistry, routine surgery — and both refer out for after-hours emergencies, so save the emergency numbers below now rather than at two in the morning. Call ahead about new-patient intake; capacity across Ottawa clinics has been tight since 2021, and being registered somewhere before you need it is the whole game.

Emergency and after-hours

Neither village clinic is open overnight. The nearest 24-hour emergency and specialty hospital is Alta Vista Specialty & Emergency Veterinary Centre at 2220 Walkley Road — roughly 25 minutes up Prince of Wales or Bank Street — open every hour of every day, 613-731-9911. Call while you drive so they are ready. For suspected poisoning, the clinic will usually have you phone a poison line first; keep the product packaging with you. For wildlife encounters — porcupine quills and skunk are the two this postal code produces — quills are an emergency-vet job under sedation, not a pliers job in the garage.

Grooming

Two options in the village and one worth the drive. Pucci Parlour at 1134 Mill Street is the independent salon, with published prices — a full groom from about $85 for a small dog to $150–$175 for the giants — and online booking. Groomingdale's operates inside the Pet Valu at 1160 Beaverwood Road and books online through the store. Both fill up before Christmas and before the May long weekend; book the spring de-shed in April, not in the week it is needed.

Food, supplies and the self-serve wash

Pet Valu in the Beaverwood plaza (1160 Beaverwood Road, 613-692-1769, open evenings on weekdays) is the village pet store: food, supplies, a self-serve dog wash and the grooming counter. It is the practical answer to a muddy dog on a March afternoon. For prescription diets, both vets dispense. Manotick Home Hardware on Beaverwood Road carries the rural essentials — livestock feed, bird seed by the sack, heated water bowls for the barn cat — and the Saturday farmers' market usually has a local treat baker.

For raw feeders, Everything Raw Doggie Café at 990 River Road (613-692-7770) is the village's raw pet-food shop, with a dog-friendly café counter attached.

Boarding, daycare and walkers

The nearest purpose-built kennel is Kennel Club Boarding on Fourth Line Road in North Gower, about ten minutes south — owner-run since 2019, with a private indoor enclosure and a covered outdoor run for every dog, daycare from about $35 a day and boarding from about $55 a night, and a vaccination list (rabies, DAPP, Bordetella) it enforces. Book Christmas and March Break by October. Dog walkers and in-home sitters in K4M work mostly by word of mouth and through the Rover and Pawshake apps; the village Facebook groups are where recommendations actually live, and a walker who already covers Rideau Forest or Manotick Estates will say so.

Where dogs can run

The village off-leash area is in David Bartlett Park on McLean Crescent at the north end of Long Island — 35 acres with river access; dogs must be leashed south of the fence on the pathway and may be off leash in the rest of the park. Further out, Baxter Conservation Area in Kars (7498 Carter Road) has five kilometres of trails and a separate dog swimming area, with a day-use fee. The Rideau River pathways through the village are leash-only, as is every City park not posted otherwise. Ticks are established along the river and in the long grass at Baxter from April to November; both village vets carry the preventives, and a Lyme conversation at the spring visit is worth having.

The rules that apply here

The City of Ottawa requires every cat and dog to be registered, with fees that depend on whether the animal is spayed or neutered and microchipped; current fees and the online form are on ottawa.ca. The Animal Care and Control By-law sets the leash rule, a limit on the number of dogs and cats per household, and the stoop-and-scoop requirement, and it is enforced by by-law officers reached through 311 — see who to call. Rural exemptions matter on estate lots: livestock, poultry and beekeeping are governed by zoning rather than the pet by-law, and a K4M address in an agricultural or rural zone can keep chickens where a village-core one cannot. Coyotes are present along the river corridor year-round; small dogs go out on a leash after dark, and that is the entire strategy.

Wildlife, ticks and the other residents

Porcupines, skunks and raccoons are routine; a dog that finds one is a vet visit, a bath, or an attic problem respectively, and the pest control page covers the last. Bats in the house are a public-health call because of rabies — do not release a bat that has been in a room with a sleeping person or a pet; call Ottawa Public Health. Deer ticks are the one that changes a routine: check the dog after every river walk, and ask the vet about the preventive that suits the dog rather than the one on sale.

Common questions