Here’s a re-cap of my 2018 December experience with The Barkley Pet Hotel & Spa. I would implore readers to draw their own conclusions on whether they would want to have The Barkley experience:
• Signed up my Chocolate Lab, Jack, for 4 weeks (Dec 1 through Dec 29) residency training at The Barkley ($3,995 upfront non-refundable)
• Picked up Jack (at the time just under 3 months old) on 11/30/18 at LAX; took him straight to VCA (Vet hospital next door to the Barkley) for initial check up and board overnight for transfer to Barkley the next morning (Dec 1)
• Dec 8 around 7:30am, got a call from a senior Barkley staff announcing in a very grave tone that Jack had an accident (of course my heart dropped down to my belly) – he was given the heart medication of another dog instead of his cold medicine.
• Barkley trainers would not let me visit with my puppy for the first 2 weeks, but kept pushing me to sign the day camp release form (disclaiming their liability if Jack got hurt at day camp); I kept telling the trainers that Jack was there for residency training. If they wanted to use day camp for socialization purposes, the trainers should be present and Jack would not get hurt. Finally I said to them if they let me visit with my puppy, seeing his development I might feel comfortable to sign the day camp release form which I did, probably on 12/15/18.
• Communicated to Barkley trainers, Dee and Sally that the training needed to focus on (1) potty and house training, (2) walking stairs (I have stairs at home and at work; I’m 60 year old with a bad back and wouldn’t be able to carry a 30 or 40 lb wriggling puppy up and down the stairs both at home and at work), (3) socialization (not only with dogs, also humans of various age, size, shape, color, ..., machineries including traveling inside a crate in the back passenger seat, (4) walking and pottying on leash
• Just shy of 3 weeks in, Trainer Dee set up a time in the afternoon for me to attend parent training; Jack was non-responsive to even the trainer. Dee said that afternoon was not a good time and set up another session at 10am a few days later. At the end of that session, Dee concluded that Jack needed to be put on a gentle leader and she would be training him on that.
• Dec 29 3pm went to pick up Jack and Dee told me Jack didn’t like the gentle leader, so she didn’t push it with him.
• The next week was a trip to hell – Jack wouldn’t walk down any stairs, barking and howling whenever he was in the car crate, either pulling so hard ahead of me or refusing to walk at all (that both of my hands were swollen and red), jumping on anybody who made eye contact with him, had to chase him down twice running onto the driveway directly into traffic (no safe word was given by the trainer to stop or slow him down for me to catch up) …
• Trainer Dee came to my office on Jan 5 to “help”. Again, she said Jack needed to be on a gentle leader. I already bought one when she first mentioned it. She showed me how to put it on and then she was training Jack in the Function Room while I set up the car crate that Dee said Jack would like better than the soft crate I had been using. When I got back in, Dee’s hand was bleeding; she never told me what happened.
• On that same day, Dee was only able to get Jack down a few steps before she gave up and told me that Jack might have coordination problem and if he were his dog she would have him checked out by a Vet. Of course, I told her, “That’s what we’ll do.” She made the appointment with the Vet for Jan 7 and briefed the Vet on the suspected issue with Jack. The Vet did all the tests and examinations on Jan 7 and concluded that everything was fine and Jack had no coordination problem.
• Jan 9, Jack’s new trainer came to my office to meet Jack and I the first time. He used less than 3 minutes to build the rapport with Jack … and without any treats in hand, the new trainer just bounced down the stairs and Jack just followed like he had done it a 100 times!!
These were the facts … and what conclusion to draw is up to the viewers!!