Red Star Kennel

Great experience at Red Star Kennel. After a few phone conversations with Mark, our family decided to send our 1 year old boxer, Murphy to their 25 day boot camp in June of 2024. Drop off was simple and Mark and Irina took the time to ask us about Murphy, and any challenges we were facing with his behavior at home. Mark and Irina encouraged weekly check in calls and posted weekly picture updates which my family always appreciated seeing. Mark was very straightforward about Murphy's training, good and bad, and always called back promptly. At pickup Mark took a hour to tell us everything he had learned about Murphy and what he did well and what challenges we might face once returning home. We then spent over 2 hours training with Mark and Murphy and learning everything Mark had taught him. It was impressive how much different our dog was! Still the same goofball personality but much better behaved. Our dog understood the word "no", could loose leash walk, recall from freedom, and had none of the previous bad behaviors: jumping/nipping/etc. We left with the knowledge to know how to correct Murphy and how to keep the training going at home. Red Star encouraged me to follow up if any questions and even 10 days after the class I had a training question and Irina was very helpful with a solution and encouraged more follow up calls if needed. Red Star-Mark and Irina are dog-training professionals, worth the investment, and I highly recommend them!

We initially used Red Star Kennel’s for boarding our Golden Retriever when we were out of town. When we returned, Ruger was better than when we had brought him there. Fast forward a few years. Due to our experience with Red Star with Ruger, we decided to have our 2 Golden Doodles: Stella (18 months) and Sadie (6 months) trained at Red Star in their Boot Camp. This was a wonderful experience for both Stella and Sadie and our family. Irena and Mark answered any questions we had and eased our anxiety of being without our dogs. At the end, they (incredibly) met with my wife and I and 3 of our boys so we would all be on the same page regarding the “next steps”. Irena and Mark were extremely professional and up front with both positives and possible challenges in the future. We have been incredibly blessed by Irena and Mark’s skills and could not recommend Red Star Kennel enough for boarding and/or boot camp training. It was worth every penny. It is so nice to be able to have them off leash and not fear them running off or not listening. Their training has done wonders. HIGHLY RECOMMEND RED STAR KENNELS Jeff and Amy Anderson

While I was doing research on the best place to send our English Mastiff, I stumbled upon Red Star Kennels. My vet happened to have known a few other dogs that had gone through their program and had awesome results. Skeptical that I was doing the right thing, I called to inquire. Irina not only answered all of my questions on that first call, but she spent about 30 min with me giving me tips to help our situation at home until we could send our boy. Driving up to their place, I was so anxious, but the minute I pulled in and met Mark, Irina and their staff, I was instantly at ease and confident my boy and I were in the right place. Drop off went smoother than I ever expected. Cash has a lot of hesitancy meeting new people, but it was clear they were going to be able to handle him from the start. While in their care, Mark consistently updated me on his progress along the way and when he got an upset stomach and strained his leg at one point, he called me right away to get my approval on their treatment course. Holistic, exactly the way I would’ve treated him myself. He bounced back quickly and their training wasn’t affected. Now here comes the pick up review. Mark spent about 30 minutes with us before we even got to see him. He caught us up and told us all that he learned about him throughout the weeks. My husband and I were sitting there thinking he was selling us a pipe dream. When it came time for him to bring Cash out to us, our jaws dropped. The dog we dropped off was not the dog walking out to us. It was evident of the bond him and Mark formed and their mutual respect. When it was time to hand him over to us, Mark made sure that we didn’t leave there without the confidence to continue his training and handling at home. I truly cannot recommend them enough. I’m getting emotional writing this. Due to a few incidences prior to his training, there was a lot of stress with him in our house and I was starting to resent my dog a bit. It’s painful to admit that. However, I’ve fallen head over heels back in love with him. He’s such a more respectful, confident, calm, and obedient dog. That’s saying a lot considering he’s over 160 lbs. I know this review was long, but I wanted to make sure that I made the point of how incredible Mark and Irina are. They truly have a gift and love your dog as their own. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Red Star has improved our lives so much. Our four year old dog is a sweetheart, but it was impossible to get him to listen, to not pull on walks and not jump on guests. After 3 1/2 weeks at Boot Camp, he’s infinitely more well-behaved. Instead of dreading going on walks, we look forward to them. He comes when called and does not jump on people when they come over. After the Boot Camp was done, Mark did a great job of explaining/showing us how to keep the training going moving forward at home. This was the best investment into our pup we ever could have made. It improved our quality of life immensely, and I cannot recommend Red Star enough.

I can’t recommend Red Star Kennel enough! They have been amazing to work with from the very start. Our dog came back a well mannered gentleman and Mark has gone above and beyond to answer all questions and follow up after we brought our boy home. Their boot camp was fantastic for our 9 month old German Shepherd and they have always taken great care of both our dogs while they were boarded at their facility.