Positive Pooches — Local services in Algona

*Post updated after receiving reply from owner:

Dear Positive Pooches Owner, Thank you for reading my review. I did appreciate that within a couple hours of writing this post I received a voicemail from Deva, who apologized for not having called me back sooner.

I see that you also wrote that you were disappointed I did not return your call in regards to starting a group classes. However, prior to my first day of doggy day care with your facility, I did inform one of your staff members that while I was waiting for one of your classes to open up, I was able to get my dog signed up for classes at another training facility. Therefore, we were no longer in need of your class.

I am glad to hear no other dogs caught kennel cough at your facility. Before I selected your facility for my dog's first trial of doggy day care, I had researched about 5 in the area. Based on your reply, I have mistakenly confused your facility for another facility that posted they were recently closed due to kennel cough. I apologize for this mistake. With that, I have updated my post to reflect that important correction.

I did not return Deva's call as we did find another day care facility that has been a much more positive experience for us.

Original Post:

Will not be bringing my dog back, which is unfortunate as they are very conveniently located and their hours of doggy day care are great.

Some positive feedback is this place offers free seminars. My mom attended an hour long clicker training which was helpful for us while we waited for another beginner obedience class to open. My mom had mentioned that the facility smells quite bad- very strongly of dog urine- after she attended the seminar, and when I arrived to drop him off his first day of doggy day care I also noticed this.

I asked for a tour of the facility and even asked if I could come by when other dogs aren’t there to not disturb the dogs but I was declined.

The day before I dropped him off I was able to speak on the phone with an employee about my puppy and she was very friendly.

When I picked him up they did not seem understanding of the fact that this was his first socialization experience, they were very concerned that he humped other dogs, was skittish at times and his name recall is not great yet, even though he was only about 6 months old. I was declined an opportunity to sign up for a package of doggy day cares and told he would be given 1-3 more trial days and if his name recall wasn’t improved he wouldn’t be able to continue.

I was most disappointed that recently my dog began coughing and when I called and left a voicemail to ask if there was an outbreak of kennel cough at their facility, no one returned my call for a week (until I...

This place is not too accepting of new clients. I had to keep following up with them on the status to get my toy poodle scheduled for eval. They were not quick to return my calls and they never responded to any of my emails. Finally got my dog scheduled for an evaluation after going thru all the hoops. Dropped him off and then called after a couple hours to check in. Sudee said he was doing great. Then when I picked him up, Diva explained he was misbehaving, so they kenneled him for the remainder of the day. No opportunity to train him to get reevaluated. In my opinion, they already have enough of a base clientele that keeps them super busy, too busy to take time for new clients. My first thought when they weren’t returning my calls was they aren’t too eager to get my business. It would be better for them to just be upfront and say they’re not accepting new clients rather than making us go thru their rigamarole of requirements and...

We always feel so safe leaving our dog here and we know he does too based on his reaction when we pull into the lot! I appreciate that they prioritize the safety and wellbeing of all the dogs in their care and use a positive reinforcement-only approach. They honestly seem to love each individual dog and it shows. Also, they take the best photos possible of your dog. We still laugh at his bday photos on a...