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Based on the many glowing reviews, I decided to use this facility during my recent vacation to Mexico, even though it was a considerable drive from my home, and there were many other closer kennels. I liked the fact that the website made it seem as though there were so many activities for the dogs, and that pictures were posted to Facebook, which was nice. I made my reservation online about a month or so in advance. As the reservation got closer and closer, I was surprised that no one from Circle Star ever contacted me to confirm my reservation or to ask me to forward my dogs' vaccination records, which are completely current, by the way. I've boarded my dogs at other facilities in the past, and have always been required to provide the vaccination records to the kennel up front before my animals would even be allowed on the property. I began to worry that perhaps I didn't even have the reservation I thought I had, so I called to verify. Everything was good; my reservation was in place. I was not asked for the vaccination records. 
I arrived on a Tuesday afternoon, around 1:30 pm. It is a very nice facility. Every employee that I came in contact with seemed very friendly and professional. During check-in, I was asked if I would like to have my dogs bathed by the on-staff groomer for an additional charge prior to my picking them back up. I said that yes, I would. Once my check-in had already been completed, I took the vaccination records out of my purse and offered them to the girl behind the desk. She said, "Oh, okay", and attached them to the back of my other paperwork. I was never asked for them. Had I not offered them up voluntarily, I don't believe anyone would have noticed. If they didn't ask me, I have to question if they are asking anyone for the records.
Since I had never been to this kennel before and because the pictures made it look so nice, "like doggy day camp" I believe the website said (can't verify that because their website seems to be down at the moment), I asked for a tour of the place. The manager agreed to take me on a quick tour. Now, keep in mind, this was an impromptu request. No areas were cleared out in order for me to take a tour. The areas that I looked at were just like in the  pictures. Everything looked very nice and clean (so clean that I didn't even see any dog poo anywhere), like a place that a dog would love to visit. Except for the fact that I did not see one single dog in any of the areas. They all seemed to be in their kennels during the time that I was there. I saw a number of workers wandering around the office area and hallways, and no one appeared to be eating lunch, so I'm not sure why at least some of the dogs weren't being engaged in some type of activity.  
I left my dogs there and went on my way. I returned for them early on the following Monday morning. I was anxious to see them, so I got there around 8:15 am to pick them up. As soon as they were brought up, the first thing I noticed was that my older dog looked exhausted. The only other time I have ever seen her look like that was once when I had picked her up from the vet and she had just been woken up from the anesthesia that had been used during a procedure she'd had done. I immediately wondered if the dogs were given something to keep them quiet at night. I didn't bother asking, because I didn't feel like it would have been admitted, even if that were the case. As I found out later, she probably looked this way because she was sick. As I was checking out, I asked if the dogs had been bathed, because they didn't look any different than they did when I dropped them off. The younger dog, a Yorkie, came to the place with some pretty serious tears stains coming from one eye, and it looked the same when I picked him up. The manager asked the younger girl who had brought my dogs up; she said the groomer hadn't been there on Sunday, so she had given my dogs a quick washing. If the dogs were bathed, they weren't bathed well. I wish I had just been told that the groomer wasn't going to be there that day. I paid for an experienced professional to bathe the dogs. That's not what I got. 
I finished checking out, got the dogs into my truck, and headed home. Less than 5 minutes after leaving the facility, one of the dogs threw up in my truck. I didn't think much of it at the moment; I just figured it was due to him being super excited to see me. There were no food or drink items, or anything in my truck that would have made the dog sick. As soon as we walked in the front door of the house, the other dog threw up in the floor. Then the one that had thrown up in the truck had diarrhea on the floor. I hurried them out to the back yard, where they both immediately began eating grass. I'm assuming at this point that the change in their diet must not have agreed with them, as they ate the "high quality kibble" (Circle Star's words) that was provided by the kennel. However, they have stayed at other kennels in the past and eaten the dog food that was provided there, and have had no problems. Plus, I had switched them over to a different food about a month earlier, and they had no problems whatsoever. And they eat their fair share of table food tidbits, so their stomachs are used to variety. I filled their bowls with food, but neither dog showed any interest in food. The puking/diarrhea/not eating behavior continued for the rest of the day and into the evening. I had to get up twice overnight to change my sheets, as each dog threw up on my bed at different times. I was scheduled to go back to work after my vacation on Tuesday, but since I woke up to more vomit and diarrhea on the floor, I decided to stay home another day to keep my eye on them. Tuesday was more of the same. Vomit, diarrhea, and not eating. I was  pretty angry at this point, so I called Circle Star and asked to speak to the owner. I was told the owner wasn't available, and was given the manager instead. I asked how long my dogs had been sick while they were at the kennel. She insisted to me that my dogs had shown no signs of being ill while they were there, and that if they had been sick, it would have been the "den mother's" responsibility to have reported it directly to her, and that no one had mentioned anything about my dogs being ill, and that no other dogs had been reported to be sick. She insisted that she would have contacted me immediately if either of the dogs had been ill. She suggested that perhaps the hot dog bites they use to reward the dogs with might have disagreed with them. (If this were the case, wouldn't it have made the dogs sick while they were there, and not after I picked them up?) I told her I doubted that, since my dogs eat a small piece of bacon most mornings. She did offer to send their pet taxi to my house once it returned from the run it was currently on to take my dogs to the vet (she didn't mention which of us would be handling the vet bill, I didn't ask). I told her that since I was already having to miss a day of work because of this, that I'd just take them if they needed to go. She asked me to let her know if I took them to the vet and found out that they had an illness; as she would need to know that information. I never received a follow up call from anyone at Circle Star to check on my dogs, so I guess it wasn't a big concern. I called the vet's office instead of taking them in; they said their first guess would be the food from the kennel, and to just keep an eye on them and bring them in if they didn't improve shortly. Seems to me if the food made them sick, then they would have been sick from day one, and a "den mother" would have surely noticed. By late Tuesday evening, the vomiting and diarrhea were beginning to subside. By Wednesday morning, there was no more vomiting or diarrhea, though they both had very loose stools for two more days. They finally ate a small amount of food on Wednesday. The only thing that remained was that my older dog was still making a snorting/hacking sound. I figured her throat was irritated from all the vomiting, but

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My 6 year old Anatolian Shepherd had two bad habits that I wanted to work on.  She is a large dog (100#) and would pull on her lease when I walked her and she was very protective of me.  The mirror method training is an 8 week course, 2 days a week for 1 1/2 hours each.  After one session my dog no longer pulled when I walked her,  I was able to switch from a harness to a loose leash.   NO MORE PULLING!  As for her protectiveness I was given the tools to help her relax around me and understand that I was the boss.  She learned that she  did not have to be on guard every moment we were around strangers.  Just those 2 things would have been worth the money, but we were taught so much more.  I know they also do training where you board your dog but the mirror method was a better fit for us.  The problems I was having had more to do with me than her. Trust me Anatolians are very hard headed they do what they want to do .   Mirror method has given me the ability to be more confident when we go out alone.

Sherri is amazing. She has groomed my large dog often and always does a great job. It is hard to find a groomer that can handle a large dog. Sherri never disappoints, great price and you can tell she truly loves the animals she grooms.

Now for the details: My 100 pound Anatolian shepherd has severe seasonal allergies. We are having her skin tested but before the testing she has to wait a month. During the month she has to have a medicated shampoo and rinse every other day. Anatolians have a massive amount of fur making it impossible to get the shampoo and rinse down to the skin. Sherri was able to trim her down to her under coat and make it look natural. I can't phantom the amount of hair she had to remove. If you had never met my dog you would think the new hair cut was her natural style.

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Gracie has been fearful and aggressive (a lump of coal) but we want her to be friendly and confident (a diamond). A group of trainers and their dogs spent several 1+ hour sessions with us walking on leash and then training off leash in a large training barn. While Gracie had some bad dog manners and was reactive, she was also reward motivated and able to quickly learn better behavior. In fact, through their instruction, Gracie has greatly improved after a few sessions. We've now enrolled Gracie in a month of training and boarding with Circle Star Pet Resort. Vicki and her team are really nice people, great communicators, knowledgeable dog trainers, and they have a "doggie Disneyland" facility. If you have a dog, this is the best place we've seen for training and / or boarding. If you don't have a dog but want one, you should visit their dog rescue center where you can adopt a dog that's already evaluated and trained.

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Many people bring their dog there because they have such a great program and they offer many services. I went out to the luxury level for my dog which is 35$, it has a cancer and they are giving it chemo and diarrhea medications. It also covers all the activities that they do with the animals for at least 6 activities in each day. They go out and play with the other dogs for like 20 minutes, they do agility type training and pet massage. They also take pictures for our dogs and post them on Facebook so that we will be able to see what our pets are doing while we are not with them. I also had an emergency situation, where I had to aboard my pet at 1:00 AM unexpectedly, I called them, they said that they will find a place to make a room and they will be taking care of my dog without any hesitation. I guess you need a category for awesomeness and it's an A plus for me.

Perfectly.

A very good experience for us and our dog. Will use them again.

They are fabulous. They are out of this world. They are very good to the pets. Our pets would rather stay there than come home because it is so nice. I have never had dogs trained so perfectly. The facility is always immaculate. The people who work there really love animals. We have used them for about 4 years now. The cost is very reasonable as well. I would highly recommend them and I have recommended them. Everyone I have recommended them to have been more than pleased.

They are very caring and our dog just loves it there. They have an excellent facility and are the best in our area. We go there fairly often and our dog has had short and long term stays as well.

The service turned out excellent. The people that work there are just fantastic. The owner is very dog and people oriented. She is just wonderful to work with.

I love their service. They have an excellent training problem for dogs. We had our dog trained when we were in Europe in the past. Their staff really love the animals and our dog is very happy to go there. The facility is spotlessly clean. I would recommend them highly.

The experience was horrible. I was clear in every conversation with them and all the paperwork they had me fill out, that all I wanted was to have my dog kennel trained. They ignored that and focused their training on obedience training, even though they said that they could and would kennel train him. They won't honor thier guarantee, even though they acknowledged he wasn't kennel trained. They have been rude and unprofessional in handling my complaint. I would never recommend them to anyone.

They discovered that my dog is essentially blind (I thought he was just a hardhead) and returned him versed in basic obediance commands, as well as spending a few hours showing me what needed to be done to continue training on my end.