Amherst Boarding Kennel

"I wish I had a better review to write, but my pup and I's experience at Amherst Boarding Kennel was not great. I am not one to complain or make a big deal of nothing, but I want to share my experience with others in case it can help anyone else. We recently fostered and ended up adopting a 6 year old Pitbull terrier mix. We had some out of town weekends already planned before we rescued her, so we decided to use Amherst boarding kennel as we had heard nothing but good things, my parents use them and love them. The first couple weekends we needed, they didn't have availability, but the next couple they did, so we booked them for the weekends they had. We went in for a tour and loved the facilities and the staff seemed nice and knowledgeable. We booked a couple consecutive weekends for her to stay with them. The first weekend after we picked her up, we noticed she smelled like pee. Not just a little bit, but she reeked of it. Her nails were also very frayed as if she was digging or that someone gave her a nail cut (but did it poorly). She had been to another kennel twice and this didn't happen, so it was troublesome. We gave her a bath and called the next day after we picked her up to see if they had noticed anything because no one mentioned anything when we picked her up. They weren't sure what might have happened but said the weather was poor that weekend and it might have impacted her and others. They also couldn't tell us if someone cut her nails or not. Knowing it was her first time there, we thought it might have been a fluke and decided to allow her to go again the next weekend. The next weekend after we picked her up, she smelled like pee again and her nails looked frayed again. All of our friends and family we talked to that use other daycares/boarding said that they have never had that happened before and that they wouldn't use the facility again. And again, it didn't happen to the first kennel we used, so it seemed off. We decided to call and try to share our experience and let them know we were going to cancel all future bookings for now. When we called to say we had taken her twice and somethings happened that we wanted to share and that it was bad enough to us to want to cancel future bookings, they asked for the dates and after cancelling them, basically went to end the conversation and to hang up the phone and didn't act like they wanted to hear about what happened even though we said we had some things to share. Wouldn't you as a business want to know what happened and why we were upset? Could it have been something explainable or fixable where you would want to do so and keep our business? After telling them well no, we are not done and we wanted to share with someone higher up or anyone really to pass along to management, they listened to what we had to say. But again, no real answers. Couldn't tell us about why she may have reeked of pee, why her nails were frayed, and why they didn't try to integrate her with the other dogs even though both times they told us they would give it a try. To us, this is just our perception, but it seemed like they didn't feel comfortable with her breed and were intimidated by her even though she is the sweetest dog to humans and to other dogs, she is just very high energy/playful, but never aggressive. The way their set up is, the outdoor portion of the kennels back right up to the play area, so we know that this would have excited her but also stressed her to be so close to a bunch of pups playing, but not be allowed to play herself. They claimed she was a little reactive even though she is not. No manager follow up or apology given. All in all, we left very disappointed with our experience. I know this is the exact opposite of what most peoples experience has been reading the reviews, but it was our experience nonetheless. We have taken her to other facilities 10+ times since and she has never had the pee situation happen again. I would have loved for it to been a positive experience for her because the location was perfect for us, but her health is more important."

"Our dog loves it here! We visit ABK for daycare and boarding. The staff is caring and helpful and they continue to reinforce our training techniques while he is there so he doesn't slip up in his manners."

"It was my 2 dogs first time . Very very pleasant experience boarding them for a a long weekend. Staff is friendly and caring."

"There are not enough stars to show how much I love this place! After dropping off my dogs before our vacation, the staff noticed that I had not left enough medication for my dogs stay. They offered to have me call my vet to refill the prescription and they would pick it up so my dog had enough meds for the week! It definitely put my mind at ease knowing my dogs were in such excellent care! Thank you guys so much for making it easy to go on vacation with little to no worries about my pups."

"I picked up two very happy pups after a 5 day stay. Staff is very responsive and helpful. Hours for drop off and pickup are limited so scheduling may not be ideal for everyone. Worked out great for us...my boys will be returning!"