Integrity K9 Academy

I was granted a special exception to pick my 2 dogs up on Sunday when they are closed. The person who was “on duty” was a contracted groomer who didn’t seem to know much about the facility. She couldn’t find either of my dogs so she had me walk to the back of the facility to identify and find them. When I was brought to the back and into the room that had the “Luxury Cabins” that we booked for our dogs they were nowhere to be found. The “luxury” rooms are far from luxurious. They’re in a dark loud room where dogs whine and bark constantly. They are not sound proof in the slightest. They aren’t cabins. There are large wire kennels with 1 inch thick particle board surrounding about half of the kennel that doesn’t sound proof anything. When I finally found my dogs, they were in tiny crates that they could not stand up in and in completely separate rooms. They could not turn around or so much as sneeze in the small plastic crates. They did not have access to water and both drank 2 FULL bowls of water each when they got home. The facility sends pictures 1-2 times per day likely because the dogs spend the whole day in their crates dehydrated, anxious and traumatized. Seeing the stacked plastic crates scattered around the multiple dark and loud rooms, ZERO access to water, and the lousy excuse for “luxury” cabins was a horrifying experience. I feel so sad that my dogs ever spent a single minute in that facility. County humane shelters have a SIGNIFICANTLY higher standard of care.

This review is for their “socialization” training only. Our golden retriever needs some help with socialization because we want him to be able to play better with other dogs. Integrity K9 markets a “socialization training” program on their website. I inquired and they set me up with a phone call.. first strike .. they miss the phone call appointment. I have to email them to ask if they were still planning on calling us. During the phone call, we went over our dogs previous training/obedience. He has good basic obedience so we said we wanted to focus on socialization which the trainer said would be no problem. She went over what the socialization would entail- being around other dogs at the facility as well as her own dog. We said we would do one day school training to try it out. Day of training, we drop Kobe off- definitely an awkward atmosphere. Felt like we were the ones that had to make conversation with the workers but I won’t judge them on that. We drop Kobe off at 11 and pick him up at 5:30 pm. When we arrive, we see Kobe through the front window getting “trained”. When we enter, they are working on basic obedience (which Kobe already has). And mind you, his basic obedience with the trainer at Integrity K9 is not as good as his basic obedience with us. They say that he was not distracted by other dogs walking by him during his training … so is that what we paid $200 for? For him to be taught what he already knows with dogs walking in and out the door? When we train him, even for 30 mins, he is mentally exhausted. He was there for 6 ish hours and he came home so hyper. Makes me think he was in his kennel the whole day and they brought him out to “train” him at the very end of the day when we would be walking by the window to see him. Seems like a good place to bring your dog if they need day camp or boarding but I would not bring my dog or future dog here for training.

We have a 2 year old golden retriever named Larry! Larry participated in a two weeks training program and did great! All the trainers there are fantastic. Larry also frequently goes there for day care and overnight boarding when we are out of town and usually comes home exhausted from all the pets and play. They send me updates all the time which I love! They also send him home or upload on the website his report card for the day or his stay, and it’s so cute to see the sweet messages. When they have other dogs available, Larry gets to run around and play with other dogs which I love, because I refuse to take him to a dog park. They also bath him upon request and he always smells sooo good. He got a good bath and groom for 4th of July and they gave him a bandana that he just loves, he doesn’t want to take it off. The staff there are amazing, they are really knowledgeable, and they truly get to know your fur babies. They love Larry just like he was their own dog. Needless to say, this place is amazing. Our Lar Bear loves it here. ❤️