Ames Pet Resort — Local services in Ames

IF YOU TRULY LOVE YOUR DOG AND CARE FOR HIS/HER SAFETY PLEASE READ THIS!!!!!!!

I had boarded my dog at Ames Pet Resort two times prior to this last third boarding which ended this last week. The two previous boardings were a false sense of security. For both of those boardings, I had formulated an easy to follow daily diet plan, to which, they said they would strictly follow. The daily amount of food was more than my dog's usual daily diet in the event my dog would be less interested in eating due to being boarded. After picking my dog up, he always lost about 3 lbs. For a healthy 20 lb dog, 3 lbs is alot for 1.5 weeks ( that is like a 150 lb person losing 22.5 lbs in 1.5 weeks). To my mistake, I thought that was due to extra exercise, but that was not the case.

For the third boarding, I had made a record of the amount of food there was the first day, and how much there should have been left upon pickup. The amount that I picked up was 20% more than what I expected indicating underfeeding!

That was a miniscule issue compared to what had happened while I was gone. On the last day of my dog's boarding, Tova at the front desk called me at 12 noon telling me that my dog was continuously vomiting and had extremely bloody diarrhea, and I needed to pick him up. As I had informed them upon arrival, I was flying back to IA from PA and could not be there, so I found someone else to rush my dog to the Iowa Veterinary Specialties 24Hr pet hospital in Des Moines. While my dog was being transported, I contacted the Ames Pet Resort to get a detailed decription of what symptoms they observed and at what time they were observed.

When I called the Ames Pet Resort, the front desk person said I needed to talk to Tova for that information, but Tova was leading a girl scout tour at the Ames Pet Resort, and the front desk person asked if Tova could call me back.

Let me say that my dog was diagnosed with Gastroenteritis (inflammation in GI track causing vomiting and diarrhea) and Colitis (inflammation of large intestine or colon) at the Iowa Veterinary Specialties. This was causing extreme dehydration. I was appalled that they asked if Tova could call me back given the severity of the situation. Persuasively, I got Tova on the phone, and found out that the my dog had started this bloody diarrhea and vomiting at 9AM. I couldn't believe what I heard. They observed this at 9AM and didn't call me until 12 Noon. For 3 hours, my dog was vomiting and bleedy profusely, and I was never notified.

The veterinary specialist informed me that my dog was very very lucky. Just a couple more hours of the continues extremely bloody diarrhea and vomitting, and he would have not recovered from the extreme dehydration.

To add more to the mix, I found out after picking up my dog's toys, food dish, etc at the Ames Pet Resort that Tova wasn't even employed there and that they have two employees that are mentally disabled. I have no issue with the mentally disabled, but it is not safe for owners' pets being cared for by a mentally disabled employee. I was very reluctant to say that, because I have a very good friend Doug who is mentally disabled and loves my dog, but we have to be realistic.

I was fooled by the first two boardings there with their claims that they would feed my dog the diet I provided, and that I would be notified of any issues that may occur at the time they occur, but I will absolutely never use there boarding facitilty ever again. They just nearly killed my best friend with there lies and...

If you want your furry four legged friend to be in daycare all day you might want to find a diffrent doggie day care provider, they spmlend half the day in a kennel . They don't wash the boarding dogs water bowls every day if even 1x a week. Grooming department finds it more important to get a dog in and out in an hour since they may 40% commission it's more benificial to the groomer money wise, regardless the health of the dogs well being elderly or a pupppy.. Mr. Randy Duncan also deducted child support out if my pay check for 3 months straight however, waited 4 months to turn money in to child support recovery unit making it look as though I am not being financially responsible. .I confronted him about this and he stated" it was not convienant for him to do" I should of paid it my self.. Also wanted to add Was once a dog bather, that was originally hired to be a dog bather, and if schedule of bathing was not full there was always the kennel, I could work in. How ever during being a bather I realized that

1.) I was expected to have a dog bathed and and dried in no more than 30 min, (regardless if my appointment was handicapped, elderly, a puppy that just needed slow movement to become comfortable ) A. I felt like different circumstances depending on what my (4 or even 3 legged) fur baby needed everyone deserved to be treated at the pace they either deserved, or what pace worked best for them.

1.) This caused issues between both other groomers due to only having 2 bathing tubs as well as kennel drying space). And I was repeatedly talked to about being slow and keeping them behind . I attempted to come in early to be done before groomers were scheduled appointments. That was not allowed.

B. If I had a Husky, or lab that required to be blown out prior to being wet or being bathed I felt it was important to do so. To blow all lose undercoating, as well as elderly dogs on medication tend to have an oily dry skin build up.

1.) I had a groomer specifically ask me not to do that anymore because it was, gross and got filth everywhere. ..

C. Since I realized I was bathing for the benifit of making money for employer, rather than the benifit of the dog.. 1.) My hours went from 5 days a week to maybe 3xs a week, however they only scheduled appointments for groomers or other bather.

The owner is not at all about the animals care or he would care to have employees, that lasted longer than 8 months instead of finding petty ways of getting rid of higher paid employees, and higher younger in unexperienced employees that have no intention on staying longer than a year. His employee turn over rate is extremely high . Also I would like to add that he does not properly train new highers with little to no experience and throws them in Daycare. ..not even knowing how to read play body reactions or warning signs. ..of possible fights...or how to properly break them up if it happened.

I as a fur baby lover wanted to share with anyone willing to read this to let anyone know the truths behind the scenes since no one else has said anything about the things you as a customer don't see...

I boarded my cat at this establishment.

If you live or have lived in Ames, you should understand how busy/frustrating/hectic it gets around the last week of July and first week of August. This is due to the fact that there are many students moving in and out of apartments.

My SO and I stopped in about the the second week of July to see if we could board our very loving cat, Ringo, for a couple of nights while we moved out and moved into a new apartment. Many friends and family were unavailable to watch Ringo due to allergies or conflict of schedule. This was our only option, unfortunately.

When we stopped in, the people at the front desk informed us that they were pretty much booked for those days but they would talk to the owner (since he was there). The owner approved Ringo to be boarded but they informed us that he would not get a cat condo but would have a crate of some sort but they would allow him extra time to roam around in the cat room. We agreed with that and that seemed like a reasonable solution.

So, we come to bring Ringo in about a week later and had the worst experience.

When checking in, it seemed as if our reservation was not put into their system (due to overbooking) but there was no notification to the employees otherwise. The young lady at the desk was polite but when it came to discussing this issue with I assume the manager, he was extremely rude and disrespectful.

"The manager" had obviously not been informed about Ringo and took his frustration out on us by being rude and condescending about the quality of life for Ringo for the next few nights. He was short with explaining checkout procedures and was not welcoming, thus increasing my anxiety about boarding Ringo. Any questions we had, his answers were short and unclear. There was an extreme lack of communication and he only became more frustrated by us asking questions.

I was not happy about boarding my cat as it is extremely stressful for not only us, the owners, but also on the cat. Cats are also really receptive to the people/behavior around them.

When I picked Ringo up, a different girl informed me that Ringo had bad behavior, was hissing at the employees and wouldn't come down from a very high place. This indicates that my cat felt threatened and scared. Ringo never hisses or acts like that. He is the friendliest cat who loves to cuddle.

I talked to the employee about the situation that occurred with the check in of Ringo and she explained to me that the owner went over the managers head and didn't inform the manager about Ringo. I understand that, that can be frustrating to have no communication in your work place but that is not your customers fault.

I would suggest a major upgrade in the communication system within this establishment and crash course on customer service.

I won't be using this...