Signed my 3 year old dog Bear up for 2 weeks of board and train that turned into 4 weeks at the advice of the owner. My dog arrived with basic training completed, including Canine Good Citizen, but had developed some food aggression and dominance issues and needed some work on advanced off leash training and I provided a fully written out summary off what he knew, what he needed for training and his likes/dislikes, basically everything they'd need to know about him.
There were multiple issues but I'll try and sum it up as best as I can.
The first huge issue was lack of communication. In the 31 days my dog was at the facility, it took 8 days simply to get an update on my dog, despite constant promises of pictures and videos. Day 21 was the first true update, 3 super short videos ranging from 11 - 30 seconds of basic behaviors he knew before going to Olympia.
The owner did not have more than a 2 minute conversation with me until I started to email how unhappy I was with the lack of communication and then finally on day 28, the day my dog was due to be picked up, he finally talked with me for 16 minutes!! Yes, you read that right, I wasn't even contacted to be told when or how to pick up my dog and then he suggested I pick him up 3 days later!!
On day 14 (by phone), 18 (email) and 27 (email) I asked if my dog needed food and was told someone would get back to me (day 14 by phone) or entirely ignored (the emails). When I picked up Bear on day 31, they had indeed ran out of food and he returned home with diarrhea caused by the food change which took over a week to settle.
Bear sees a groomer every 5 weeks and was groomed a few days before and a few days after his return. His groomer noticed when bathing him that he had two distinctive newly healed injuries on the front of his neck, likely caused by an e-collar, and that his neck fur had been shaved and brought this to my attention. She also stated that Bear had become aggressive when she went to use clippers on his neck, something in 18 months with her he'd never done before, baring his teeth and growling. I immediately took Bear to the vet to get this confirmed by our veterinarian of 12 years.
When I contacted the owner of Olympia, he flatly denied the injury, stating it was caused by Bear's Soresto collar. When I pointed out that this collar is something he'd been using since he was 16 weeks old, he changed it to Bear just had normal wear from a training collar being used for a month and that my groomer and vet and I quote "they love to find minor things and try to make a big deal over it so they can take your money." This was absurd as obviously my groomer nor my vet recieved any compensation, yet Olympia kennels profited to the tune of $4400!
Every issue I have raised with Olympia has been met with gaslighting and blame being put elsewhere.
Bear coming home with diarrhea, wasn't due to them changing his diet without permission, as confirmed by my vet, but by a change in water.
His neck injuries, weren't caused by their overuse of an e-collar, rather it was the fantasies of a groomer and vet, or Soresto, or normal wear from training that caused scabs and scarring.
Lack of communication, something his own website says is important to them, is due to short staffing, or a member of staff not following through.
And to add insult to injury, the sent Bear home with a borrowed e-collar with no charger that stopped working after 36 hours, because the new one they were supposed to provide for him to go home with wasn't there. Have they mailed that out to me since? No of course not. Just more dishonesty.
In the owners last email response, he accused me of being negative and just trying to find fault, then goes on to admonish me for not complimenting his staff/trainers. Every issue is always the fault of someone or something else and the lack of accountability is appalling.
To address the training, because that is important, Bear did return more socialized due to the enviroment of being around so many dogs in outside kennels. I saw no evidence of socialization training other than with one trained german shephard for 30 seconds in a very controlled environment, so I cannot comment on what interaction there was in general because again, I was never given any updates.
Bear also came home with a much improved heel when walking, the one thing I asked for them to work on that was followed through with.
However, Bear came home with a fear/aggression at the groomers due to the injury on his neck. His food aggression, my number one concern and reason for his board and train was not dealt with and is just as bad as before and there was no off leash work done.
Bear has been home almost a month, and I have held off posting this review until now because I felt that I needed to have the time to assess Bear and also allow the owner to as he put it in his own words, "work things out".
I would not recommend this facility, their focus is money and very little else. read more