Dog Retreat Center

I sincerely don’t know where to start with my appreciation and compliments for Dog Retreat Center, they are simply the best. We adopted Peggy (a bulldog mix) in May 2020 & immediately knew she (and we) were going to need some training. She was very aggressive toward other dogs & territorial (to say the least). Her profile from the Idaho Humane Society even said that she probably needed to be the ‘queen of the house’ (which she is =D) and an only dog, but we didn’t know how true that was going to be. FIRST TRAINER: Came to our house in August & told us she just may never learn to play with other dogs. Our hearts sank. SECOND TRAINER: We took her for a short lesson & evaluation. She briefly walked alongside another dog on leash (across the street and as close as three feet without reacting). We considered this huge progress BUT he also said ‘she may never have dog friends’. Our hearts hit the floor. We weren’t going to give up & neither was Peggy. We continued our search for training…. DOG RETREAT CENTER: We signed Peggy up for a social evaluation day & prepared ourselves to hear the same thing we have had heard twice before THEN we met d’Andra. We dropped Peggy off in the morning & when we picked her up, our hearts were in our throat. ‘Peggy met four dogs today & did great!’ WHAT?! d’Andra began telling us about Peggy’s day & she taught us more in that half hour meeting (and on her evaluation paper) than we could have learned in our constant searching all year. The very next week we took Peggy with us on a short trip & she immediately made her first dog friend with a family member’s border collie. I know it’s because of those introductions that they took the time & care to give her on her evaluation day. We signed Peggy up for the ten day training package at the Dog Retreat Center as fast as we could. The care they showed her, the photo updates we received & the outline of what her behaviors mean after completing the program have been so incredibly helpful. And the two trainings that we got to take with Peggy from Zen? I really can’t say enough about how amazing she is; Zen made everything make sense, was fun to learn from & gave us all the tools we need to work with Peggy at home. What more can I say? The Dog Retreat Center is aces. Everyone on the crew is so sweet & caring, the facility is bright & clean, and it feels like home - which if she is not with us, is exactly how I want her to feel. We continue to drop her off for day stay & get photo updates while she is playing with all her dog friends. Each one we get makes our heart explode. We love our Peggy, she loves Dog Retreat Center & so do we.

5 stars isn't enough for the great expertise and personal care that we experienced from d'Andra and Kelsey and the whole crew at the Dog Retreat Center. After 6 months of hundreds of YouTube videos, special harnesses and getting nowhere on our own with our rescue havanese Harper, we reached out for help. Thanks to the reviews on Yelp, we called the Dog Retreat Center. It took a few weeks to get in but it was SO WORTH IT!! They worked a miracle. We couldn't take Harper for a walk (which we love to do) because she would lose her mind when we saw another dog. It was embarrassing and stressed both Harper and us out. In 3 short weeks of training, they did it. They cracked the code, we now walk every day with Harper and she does amazing. Thank you Kelsey, d'Andra and anyone else at the Dog Retreat Center who worked with our little Harper girl.