Shelmar Kennels

Choosing shelmar kennels was the absolute best thing we could've done for our pup Apollo! Before we put him through their three week training program, I had reached my limit on trying to leash train him and my fiance was having trouble getting him to listen to commands without bribing him with a treat. After completing three weeks of training at shelmar, we went to pick him up and they gave us an incredible hands on lesson to show us how to continue his training and how to properly handle him! They were absolute incredible and Apollo has done a full 180! You can tell that both Shelly and mark really have a passion for what they do and they treat the dogs they train like members of the family! Our experience was absolutely wonderful and I would recommend them to everyone trying to get a handle on training their pups!!

We had our dog Tig trained by Shelmar in 2018. We chose Shelmar because, living close by, we knew they had been in business for decades. We had a comprehensive list of what we wanted to achieve with the training. When we picked him up we were very pleased with what Shelly had accomplished. We understand that any dog training is only as good as the owner’s comittment to reinforce it. When we travel, we board Tig at Shelmar, he loves going there and thinks he’s on vacation when he does. We and many of our friends think we have the most well behaved pet in the world! We referred some of our friends from Bellville to Shelmar and they are as happy with their results as we are! We recommend them and their services to anyone looking for the perfect pet.

I think the facility is nice and Shelley was very accomodating, I did the 4-week board and train for my pup who was 1 year old at the time. Here are my experiences: Status updates were not given unless expressly asked for, I made it a point to email Shelley for the updates, they were short and generally positive that my dog was responding well to training. At the end of the training session, Shelley did work with us for the proper way to walk the dog on the leash, but the results were mixed. Basic things were not met such as sit, or recall. Let me explain a little further on the recall off leash, while my dog did recall first, it was never immediate or at the pleasure of the dog. Shelley did demonstrate the recall command when we went to pick up my dog and I noticed on two occasions she had to resort to using the whistle to bring her back. At the time I didn't really think much of it but it became a bigger and bigger problem over the next couple of months. My dog didn't have basic commands mastered like sit or stay, I had to work on those on my own after the 4-weeks. I have since taken my dog to a second trainer and experienced significant improvement in behavior and command obedience with half the time invested. Shelley is a nice person, the facility was well kept, but i just think she didnt work with my dog as much as expected and I assume I just boarded her for 4-weeks with training as an afterthought. My experiences are my own and I do not assume this will be the same for everyone.