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I am trying my best to leave my emotions out of this review and just state the facts.
Linda charges $12/day for day care. Drop off times are from 7:30 to 8:30 AM and pickup is from 2 to 5:15. Most of the dogs being watched are all together in the same kennel. One is outside and it looked like she had another one inside in case of rain.
We made a reservation with Linda 3 weeks before arriving in Estes Park and found the only openings for the week we were there were for Monday, Wednesday and Friday so we booked those days.
On day 1 we dropped our 10 month old Yellow Lab off at 7:45 along with her immunization records, including her recent bordatella shot for kennel cough (more on this later in the post) watched as she was placed in the dog run with about a dozen of more dogs and headed into the Park where we had no cell phone service.
We had an enjoyable time hiking to Bierstadt Lake with the family and headed back to the shuttle stop to give us a ride back to our truck when it started to rain heavily.
At4:30 we arrived back in town and being back in cel range noticed we had a voicemail. It was Linda asking if we could come pick up Abby early because Linda had been bitten by another dog and needed to go get it checked. So we hurried down to get her and were met at the door by a gal who told us Linda wasn't back yet and she was watching the place for her until she got back. We asked her if she might have any openings for Tuesday and Thursday by chance. She stated that she didn't know anything about the schedule because she was just watching the place until Linda got back but she would leave her a note.
She then brought Abby out to us and much to our surprise she was SOAKING WET from head to toe and still dripping. We took her back to the camper and dried her off and Linda called later and gushed about what a wonderful dog she was and that she did have an opening for the other two days. We were glad to here because it meant we could spend more time in the Park.
On day two we dropped her off and went off to hike to Sundance Mt. When we came back to get hert this time Abby was dry this time and Linda again gushed about what a sweet friendly dog Abby was and wished we lived here so she could watch her every day. She then went on to say that she had a client bring in a 10 month old German Shepherd that was skittish around other dogs because it had been attacked so she decided to put it and Abby together in the same pen alone for the day. She said they got along great and played together for the whole day which led us to believe that our dog was confined inside all day being used as a therapy dog to the GS.
On day 3 we dropped her off with a bit of skepticism and went off to Emerald Lake. This time when we arrived to pick her up the kids wanted to come in with me to get her. Linda met us outside and in no uncertain terms told us she wasn't going to let our dog out until the kids were back in the truck. I told my kids to just wait outside the gate and she promptly pointed at each of my kids and said tersley "you! and you!, back in the truck!" That didn't sit to well with me but I thought, oh well, its her place and her rules so into the truck they went. Then she proceeded to tell me that we should keep Abby out of day care the next day because she had come down with a bad case of DIARRHEA! Then she showed me the kennel she had put her in and told me as a matter a fact she just had an accident in the kennell and pointted to a portable kennell that had at least 3 piles of poop. in it. Which led us to believe that Abby had been confined to a crate all day and was forced to sit in her own feces all day. She said if it went away in 24 hours she could come back on Friday. And not to woory because it was probably only "travel stress". Little did she know that we had already been in the mountains for 8 days and she had shown no signs of stress.
So we took her back to the camper where she had the runs every 4 hours for the next 12 hours.
Needless to say we never took her back for the last day we had paid for. And we decided to leave for home a couple days early in case she was seriously ill. Luckily she got better after about 24 hours and we had nice trip home.
Earlier in the post I mentioned that I had her immunized with a bordatella shot to prevent kennell cough. Guess what? Abby has kennell cough now.
I certainly wouldn' reccomend this place for anyone who loves their dogs.
Sorry for ranting but I thought I better warn others who might need day care for their dogs.
Jim
Edited by Jim K, 12 August 2010 - 04:45 PM.
