The East Concord Canine Retreat

We have been going to East Concord Canine Retreat (owned by Steve Flemming) for about 5 – 6 years and we highly recommend Steve to people all the time. Many of the people we have referred have used East Concord and to the best of our knowledge every person (and dog) has been VERY happy.
My husband and I have been rescuing and fostering dogs for several years. So we have our own dogs and rescue dogs that need to be watched when we go on vacation. Prior to sending our dogs to East Concord, we had to rely on hiring friends/​people we knew to stay with our dogs, or ask friends to keep a dog or two at their home. This was challenging for many reasons (worrying about imposing on others, hassle of having someone living at our house) but we had heard bad things about kennels in general and were scared to use one.
Several years ago we were working with a rescue dog (Max) who had significant behaviors and we knew he had the potential to bite people or other dogs. We felt stuck and decided to consider using a kennel for the first time. I called around and got referred to East Concord. The price was the most reasonable AND after interviewing Steve, I felt the most comfortable with him. For the sake of the dog and our own liability, we could only send Max somewhere we could trust. Max was boarded at East Concord for two weeks and we were very impressed with the care that Max received. I could see right away that Steve clearly knew how to work with dogs and since then we began to take all of our dogs to Steve.
During the time we have been using East Concord Retreat, two of our own dogs were seniors. Sammy, one of the senior dogs sometimes didn’t want to eat all of his meals. When I picked up the dogs I naturally asked how the dogs had been and then happened to ask a bit more about Sammy. It turns out Steve had hand fed Sammy a number of times. I was incredibly impressed that Steve hadn’t brought it up in a way to get credit or charge me more he only mentioned it to me because I had brought it up and he was letting me know how Sammy did.
Steve has years of experience and came to WNY specifically to purchase this kennel. His business is mainly by word of mouth. He has a small sized kennel (I don’t recall how many runs). I really like the fact that we only deal with Steve and that there aren’t a lot of unknown employees working with our dogs. Steve’s home is on the premises so he is always there. The facility is VERY clean and the setting is lovely! There is a HUGE fenced in area that the dogs can run in.
I encourage you to check out East Concord Canine Retreat. We have boarded all types of dogs with Steve; rescue dogs who are aggressive, shy dogs who were neglected/​abused, elderly dogs, puppies and average dogs — they have stayed for up to two weeks and we have always picked up dogs that were clearly happy and well taken care of. We referred someone who boarded her dog for a month and was thrilled with the care her dog got. The prices are less expensive than almost any other kennel and he is only 20 minutes outside of Buffalo.
I hope you found this review helpful!
Zoe K.