Great Lakes Dog Training Company

I can't thank the Paper's and staff at Great Lakes Dog Training West Bloomfield enough! I recently enrolled my 2 to 3 year old Pit Bull/Boxer mix rescue in their 2 week Board and Train program. I was at my wits end with him. Taking him out on leash was an absolute nightmare. Not to mention his overly enthusiastic greeting of visitors in my home. I have had him back at home for 2 days now and he is a totally different dog. Leash walking is actually enjoyable now that my arms are not being yanked out their sockets and we can actually get somewhere. I think Phoenix actually enjoys it more too. We have made great strides with not jumping on visitors. He gets very excited when people come to visit, so it will be something that we will have to consistently work with, but he is doing sooo much better!! Thanks again everyone who worked with Phoenix during his stay with at GLDT!

I am finally writing this review after a year of dealing with one of my dogs with now chronic IBD/CLE after an extended stay at Great Lakes Dog Training. TL;DR: READ THE OTHER REVIEWS. DO NOT BOARD YOUR DOGS HERE! We used GLDT originally for training for our 3 dogs. The training program was decent, our pups learned a lot (even for older dogs) and we had no overall complaints. Then, they advertised a yearly package for boarding, training and daycare that we jumped on due to price and how well training seemed to go. The staff convinced us that all dogs got adequate exercise, attention, and training despite our reservations that they were essentially just locked in kennels for 18-20 hours a day (their owner's words, not mine). We used them off and on for a couple short boardings here and there and had some concerns. Our dogs never looked thrilled to be there when we showed up (big red flag for people who've been to quality daycare/boarding facilities), updates were rare at best and always seemed like canned answers, and our dogs were always absolutely dying of thirst every time we picked them up. One of our boys drank multiple full nalgene water bottles after one stay and just couldn't get enough water in him. We raised the concern with the owner who just said that was normal (it's not) and the dogs are given water periodically throughout the day (dogs should never NOT have access to fresh water). We also picked up the remaining tub of dog food once after a boarding trip and it had MAGGOTS in it (it was a small travel container and dog food is always properly stored at our house). Again, reassured by the owner this was a one off due to them moving facilities and the dogs did not eat it. Despite all that, we had an impromptu work trip pop up and needed to be gone for a few weeks and didn't have another option so we boarded our dogs at GLDT again. Again, few updates without us prompting, dogs never looked happy, etc. When we finally got home and picked them up, same story with the thirst and one of our poor dogs was incredibly sick. He would barely eat, had diarrhea, vomiting, was very lethargic and eventually collapsed after a couple days at home. We took him to the emergency vet and after several days of hospitalization and thousands and thousands of dollars, he was diagnosed with PLE likely caused by severe onset IBD. There are many factors that can cause this, but environmental and bacterial infections are some main drivers. The vet is confident he was days away from dying if we did not intervene when we did out of sheer coincidence. Our dog's PLE is now chronic and we've been fighting for a year just to keep him alive. It's a very difficult disease to manage and he likely won't make it another 6 months. Before boarding at GLDT, he was incredibly healthy and happy and had no medical concerns at all. We are 100% confident that the inadequate facilities at Great Lakes Dog Training caused this and we will prematurely lose our most loving, sweetest, smartest dog because of them. I would not wish their services on my worst enemy. Please, for the love of your pet, go ANYWHERE else.