Paula's Canine Academy

I have known Paula for 23 years! She is by far the best. She is where I have my own roots of dog and horse experience from. She was a show breeder and handler long ago with her shelties, and when I was a young girl she taught me how to train my own dog during obedience school. She has the biggest heart and truely loves animals. I trust no other individual but Paula to watch my own dogs and I highly recommend her for my own petsitting clients! I have always loved her training philosophy, her knowledge, her handling, and both her facilities once in Hickory Creek and now Denton. She has the best ideal set up for boarding our furkids!

I've been driving over 30 miles to take my pups to Paula's for over 4 years now. What I love is that the dogs have each other for companions and we aren't nickeked and dimed for each petting session, etc. She has these large corrals where the "kiddos" (aka dogs) are sorted by their temperament and size. They have swimming pools when it's hot. And warm cozy areas when it's not. Once they eat in the morning they are allowed to play all day with each other in their corral. They have so much fun and relax to just doing what dogs do. My "kiddos" are always so excited to go to Paula's and they are worn out from playing when I pick them up! That makes it so easy for me when just returning home from a trip. Additionally, Paula's offers first class obedience training. Her two week Boot Camp will render a well behaved dog out of even the most challenging canine. Be aware they stay with her for that entire time period and it's not cheap but so worth it. However, Paula's pricing is far better than anything else in the area both for training and boarding. Both of my dogs have been through her course. Training greatly increased the confidence of my anxiety prone rescue and now he's the best behaved dog. Amazing what confidence can do for them. Her nightly boarding rate is only $20 per pet! Where can you get pricing like that with so much fun for your dog in the entire metroplex?

Long story short: Our dog was attacked in Summer 2013 while at Paula's Canine Academy and DIED from her injuries the day I picked her up. I was NEVER notified that anything had happened until I came to pick my dog up. Paula made the executive decision to "treat" our dog's injuries herself with no veterinary care whatsoever and without notifying me. She had our phone number, and we were in town -- just getting renovations done on our home -- so we would have immediately come to get our dog. The emergency vet we took her to that night said she died because the injuries were not properly treated sooner. She otherwise would have lived. This is our full story ... In 2013, Lucy was staying at Paula's Canine Academy while we had work done on our home. Around the 2nd or 3rd day of her stay, she was attacked by another dog in the presence of the facility owner. I was not notified, and she was not taken to a vet. Her wounds became infected, and many days later when the facility owner noticed this, she again did not call me or take Lucy to a vet, but instead took it upon herself to administer antibiotics to Lucy. Paula is not a physician or a veterinarian and had no idea what Lucy needed for her injuries. She cannot legally administer medicine without a license, but that didn't stop her. When I picked Lucy up 9 days later, I was only then told what had happened. Lucy was acting strangely and started wailing and drooling when we got her home. We rushed her to the Denton Animal ER right away, as she was becoming limp in my arms. She had become septic, her blood sugar was too low to even read, she had lost a tremendous amount of weight, and she was severely dehydrated – all according to her medical records from the ER. They worked for 6 hours to save her life, including intubating her, putting her on a ventilator and reviving her after she went into cardiac arrest 3 times. In the end, she succumbed to the infection, which had swollen her brain and was shutting her kidneys down. She had no pre-existing conditions, and was a perfectly healthy, normal dog. Both the ER vet and our regular vet are completely appalled at the behavior of the boarding facility and encouraged me to pursue this case so that this never happens again. This boarding facility’s negligence occurred over and over again during my dogs’ stay – and Lucy paid the ultimate price. I was not told one time during her stay what was happening, and Lucy was never taken to a vet. The ER doctor told us that, if we had picked up Lucy a day later, she would have already been dead. Not only did this facility's gross negligence result in our dog being taken from our family, but they took away our opportunity to even make the decision for Lucy to see a vet, by the fact that they never called once to let us know what was happening. BEWARE of Paula’s Canine Academy and any place like it where your dog is allowed to interact with other dogs. It is more "fun and outdoorsy," but they are just not safe. What makes matters worse is that our other dog, Stella, was also attacked and had multiple puncture wounds all over her face and body, but the boarding facility never even noticed and had no idea about her injuries when they gave her back to me. Thankfully, Stella is going to be OK because her wounds did not become infected and she has now received proper veterinary care. If her wounds had also become infected, I would now have 2 dead dogs because I was never notified of Stella’s injuries and she was never given any medical care. It is my hope that this will never happen to anyone else. The pain of losing a dog in this way is unimaginable. It is truly a dog owner’s worst nightmare when they board their pet, and it could have easily been prevented.