“Having been a professional dog trainer for 20 years, I'm pretty hard to impress, but I can't say enough about Camp Bow Wow! The process of "interviewing" a new camper (my new 11-month old puppy, Koda, in this case) involved first meeting with Koda and myself and 3 employees, one of whom was a supervisor. After hanging out for a few minutes and asking a few basic questions, they took Koda back to introduce her to some of the dogs, while I (the camper's parent) could watch the whole process on live cameras in the lobby.
Watching how the staff chose one dog, then two, etc. to introduce to Koda (who has very little experience with other dogs), and also introduced them on leash, then with leash on, but dropped, then off-leash.... I just can't explain how reassured I was. The staff obviously knew each dog personally (behavior, triggers, energy level, etc), so much so that I was never worried about Koda's well-being, physically or mentally.
These employees (at least the ones that I worked with) are not just minimum-wage "need a job" kind of women.., they very obviously not only love dogs, but also UNDERSTAND them, which is just as important, possibly more so.
Even though I've been training dogs longer than I feel like most of these girls have been alive, I am so impressed by their wisdom and compassion, for the dogs AND their owners (because we all know that the business of dogs also has everything to do with the owners!).
So not only did I sign Koda up for the 2 day boarding stay that I had originally taken her to the Camp for... I bought several sessions of daycare so that she can learn more "dog language".
Thank you, ladies, for making this process easy, comfortable, and incredibly interesting for a veteran trainer. ??”
