Irving Animal Care Campus

Seriously amazing place! I had just had a horrible experience at VCA (see my review). And just when I had given up hope on ever getting my dog back, Ashley and Corey call me to tell me that they had my dog. VCA finally had given her to them, and if I wanted her back, I could come get her at no charge. They were just happy to reunite a dog with her owner. I’m beyond thrilled. To top it off, they said they will be filing a formal complaint with VCA’s corporate office, and I greatly appreciate that.

I’ve finally stopped crying and calmed down enough to write a review. Please do not take a dog to any shelter unless it is a NO KILL shelter. I had been watching a dog for the past few weeks on the PAWS Facebook page. They listed him as urgent and had him tagged for his last day to be Wednesday April 1^st. I have 3 dogs of my own, one of which is dog aggressive so I know I cannot keep this dog but I don’t want him to be killed so I am planning on rescuing him until I can find him a home.
I went to the shelter at 4pm 4÷1÷15 and played with Bruno, #1 to make sure he’s not dog aggressive so my dogs will be safe around him and #2 to make sure he’s an adoptable dog. He came to me from the back of his kennel when he was called, licked my hands through the fence and wagged his sad tail at me. I took him to the play area and he was such a sweet dog. All he wanted to do was run and play tug of war with a rope. There was a dog visiting a family in the pen next to us and THAT dog was trying to get aggressive with Bruno through the fence but all Bruno wanted to do was play with that dog. When I went to the front, the lady EMMIE told me Bruno actually had til Saturday 4÷4÷15 before he would be euthanized. I told her I would take him home right then if his time was up but she assured me he had til Saturday. I agreed to leave Bruno so he would have a chance to be adopted but let them know I would be back Saturday if he had not been adopted. This morning, Thursday 4÷2÷15, I notice Bruno was no longer on the website. I got excited because I thought he must have been adopted! I called the shelter to check and they told me he had been EUTHANIZED!!! I explained the lady had just told me the day before he had til Saturday and all ASHLEY could say was sorry.
I could not believe this and really hoped there was some mistake. I called back and whoever answered the phone confirmed he was put to sleep this morning. She tried to tell me he was aggressive with kennel workers that morning and they couldn’t have that. When I let her know I had just been there and played with him the day before and he was NOT AGGRESSIVE all she could say was «oh». I’m pretty positive the kennel workers are just guys serving community service time, because when I was there the day before it was all community service guys in the kennels. And I’m going to ASSUME these ppl aren’t the nicest to dogs all the time.
I’m just sick to my stomach about this. I feel like I failed Bruno because I believed what EMMIE told me. If I had just taken him home with me yesterday he would still be alive. PLEASE DONT EVER DROP YOUR DOG OFF AT THIS SHELTER, IF YOU HAVE TO TAKE THEM TO A NO KILL SHELTER!!!

I had no plans for an upcoming weekend, so I went online to volunteer here. Ever since I moved to Las Colinas, I’d thought about doing some volunteering for this place. This is a nice facility in Irving near the airport that takes in stray and abandoned dogs and cats (maybe the occasional rabbit!). They let you adopt them too, as well as help you with getting pets spayed or neutered or cleaned, etc.
It’s a little confusing online, but this place, while called the «Irving Animal Care Campus» is a shared space with the DFW Humane Society. So, in order to volunteer here, you need to sign up online via the DFW Humane Society. I’ll update this review with links, if I can find them again! Anyhow, before you can volunteer here, you have to sign up for a volunteer orientation class. They have one once a month on a Saturday. I saw this on a Friday and thought I would have missed the class, but as it turns out, there was a class the very next day, and some people had dropped out. So I was able to get in! You bring these two disclaimer /​waiver forms with you, and you have to pay $ 25 online. That was a little confusing too — luckily I have paypal because it looks like you could only use that to pay online. You get confirmation emails about the class, with instructions to also bring $ 10. All of this money is considered a «donation», and really it’s nothing; it’s worth it if you ask me.
The facility is gorgeous– I’ll say this for Texas, their public buildings and community-​service places like this are just amazing. It’s a beautiful place, really well-​designed.
When you walk in, the counter on the left is the Irving Animal Care people, on the right is the DFW Humane Society people. The animals kept here are on either side of the building as well. It’s confusing to me, too, but I think it breaks down like this: DFW gets animals — people call in strays or abandon their animals here. DFW holds onto them, for a time. When their time is up, they move to the «Irving» side, which has no time limit. At least that’s how I understand it. If you live in Irving, your taxes help to run this place.
The class was good enough — some rudimentary facts about how to handle animals, what to do as volunteer. You also get some hands-​on experience. We got to see where the cats are kept, how to handle them, etc. Then we saw the dogs — we took one dog out, went over what to do, where to go, etc. It was great.
When class was over, you could stay for the rest of the day, if you wanted, which I did. As a volunteer, all you have to do is wear your volunteer T-​shirt (you get one for signing up for the class) and you can come and go during normal public hours. I can’t make it during the week (they are open tues-​fri and saturday). But I often have nothing to do on Saturdays — so this is now my regular thing!
I mostly hang out with big dogs. I can mange their size no problem and some people are a little scared of handling them. Which I can see– they are energetic and excited. But lots of fun. I take one dog at a time out to one of the fenced in dog runs they have. You let them run around, play with them, scratch them. Give them treats. That’s it. Pretty basic and a good substitute for someone who loves dogs but can’t have one because they are always out playing golf (ie: ME).
As a member of the public, you can come during normal business hours and talk to people working here or volunteers — they’ll help you look around and will let you visit with a dog or cat alone if you’d like. Or you can just browse on your own. It’s pretty cool.
As a volunteer, you can show up during normal hours and just help out; assist people with handling the pets, clean, or just take a dog outside and play with them. They also have a lot of volunteer opportunites online that you can sign up for in advance. For example, you can sign up to clean out the cages before the place opens to the public. You can sign up to help out with remote functions — like helping show off the cats at the local PetSmart for the day, etc. It’s great because if you happen to have no plans, you can just show up and help. Or, you can plan ahead and book some time on specific projects.
Check this place out — I highly recommend it!!!

I took my 5 month old daschund puppy to the puppy park today and it was awesome! There are 2 parks one for over 25 pounds & the other for under. The parks have shaded areas with benches for owners & water fountains. Plenty of space for dogs to run and play and green grass!

The people that work here have big hearts. They put 100% into their efforts for very little in return. And to top it off, Irving Animal Care Campus has a beautiful dog park open to the public. I think way too many people take this location for granted. They have always been super kind to me.
8÷26÷2014 edit: I wanted to update. I really do love this animal shelter. I have now gone to all of the animal shelters in the DFW area and this is still my favorite. Irving is a ghetto city yet this animal shelter is exceptional.
Very clean, well run, large, and most of all — the employees/​volunteers do have big hearts. I have never met such sweet people since moving to texas.
I adopted a dog recently and had to return him due to my roommate. I litterally BAWLED MY EYES OUT in front of everyone. I was so sad about having to return the puppy. I was so embarassed, too.
The staff was really, really, really kind to me about it. They tried to make me feel better.
These people really do want whats best for the animals. You do NOT find that everyday. Irving Animal Care Campus will always hold a special place in my heart.

Great dog park close to home! It can get a little muddy a few days after rain, but that’s typical. They have water fountains on both of the large dog areas (can’t speak for the small dog areas) and usually have a kiddie pool to dogs to play in or drink out of. Great shades areas for people. Love seeing the shelter staff bring the shelter dogs out to play also.

I’m so glad to have a dog park just a few miles from my place. I have a large puppy (75 lbs and still growing) and I need all the space and four-​legged friends I can find to run that energy out of him on a regular basis. The park isn’t as large as some others (Northbark, Toyota of Lewisville Railroad Park) but it has a decent amount of space for the dogs. There were at least a dozen large dogs for mine to play with last night so I was glad to see so many out on a July evening. One person brought a plastic kids’ pool and filled it up right next to the fountain. What a great idea! Several of the dogs, though not mine, really enjoyed it. There are rocks surrounding the covered seating area so that is no longer muddy from water fountain use. Everyone was very nice and friendly and the dogs for the most part were all well-​behaved. Some were very loud vocal players but there was no real aggression. The parents of the vocal dogs were also diligent about checking their dog’s behavior which I don’t always see happening at other parks.
My only issue is later on in the evening a couple brought their 3 – 4 month old heeler puppy into the large dog area: 1) it’s dangerous for a puppy that young to be out like that as it is not as well vaccinated, 2) it was much too small to be on the large dog side. Thankfully everyone else at the park was accommodating and friendly but you could tell we all knew it was not wise. Some chose to leave the park just because the puppy’s presence was causing too much excitement. Within 20 minutes or so it was close to sunset (closing time for the park) but I wish people would educate themselves about dogs before adopting and then bringing them to a leash-​free area. I adopted mine 3 weeks ago from Irving Animal Care Campus so he is still learning manners but it’s still unfortunate I had to cut my dog’s time short because I didn’t want to risk him trampling that puppy.
I wouldn’t bring my 75+ lb dog into the small dog side for courtesy and safety concerns so it is appreciated if those with small dogs don’t bring theirs into the side with mine. We will be back because it’s so convenient and overall a good experience; but, it would be nice if people observed age and weight limitations so it’s a safe and fun place for everyone and every dog.

When I was referred to visit IACC for a little hairy addition to my family I was a bit reluctant to make the drive.
This is a very nice place to shelter pets. The staff was so professional and friendly.
As I made my way through the viewing areas with Sarah to see Tater, Tootsie and Tucker (dont know why they all had T names there were so many great dogs.
When I finally made a decision on the T that I wanted we went out and played, «oh my» was he a cutie. Tucker was the perfect puppy. I was so delighted to get him.
After the paperwork and counseling he and I left the IACC with a new found name (Blue). If you are looking for a pet to adopt or give up this is a great choice.
They don’t put any animals to sleep unless their needing to be for health or medical reasons.
I truly admire the compassion that the staff have here for the pets and all the work they do. They even provide training and have a big park area for the pets to play.
Special «Lick-​a-​De– Lick» To: Sarah, Tray, Vinnie and the Hairy Love Volunteers…:()

I really want to give this something better but I can’t based on the following unresolved issue.
The large dog side mud pit.
When the park first opened, it was wonderful and our Aussie loved to run and play and have a blast. While we can nitpick about the lack of shade, overall I would say this is a 4 star kinda place.
Then a small muddy hole on the large dog side started. People called the city to see if they could fill it in since everyone’s dogs would get muddy and messy. That was August. September it began to grow and now was roughly 5 feet in diameter.
October it stayed the same size but now was very deep because some people let there dogs dig in it. We now have a 5 foot round 3 foot deep mud hole.
Calls, emails and complaints were circulated.
November comes and the hole starts to expand. And now in December the hole is more a mud trench, wrapping slowly around roughly 25% of the shade/​water area that all the dogs naturally rest.
I personally have called, emailed and even in person tried to get them to come out and fill the hole in. Lowes says about 20 bags of pea gravel could fix this instantly. I asked if I could do it on my own, and the city specifically said that I actually could get a ticket for altering city property!
I know dogs get messy at dog parks and I am SOOO not a fru-​fru oh my dog can’t get messy kind of guy, but this is really ridiculous, especially when so many people have said something.
Thus, 2 stars.
So city of Irving, for less than 100 bucks we could fix this and make things way better, but no. Easier to ignore it and let something mildly good turn to crap.

This dog park is impressively large with lots of grass for chasing and playing. The area inside the fence isn’t entirely flat and has a few small trees for added points of interest.
There’s actually 4 fenced areas although on the occasions we’ve visited, only the 2 nearest the parking area appear used with any regularity — 1 for small (under 25lbs) dogs and one for large (over 25lbs) dogs. We visit the large dog area, so this review doesn’t really cover the small dog area, although it looks pretty similar to the large dog area.
My only «complaint» is that there’s not a lot of shade available in any of the fenced areas, so on a hot, sunny day, it’ll get pretty toasty unless you want to get up close and personal with other owners to share the single double-​sided bench under the shade structure. There’s another bench and some large rocks available for sitting, but neither are shaded.
Also, beware of the mud pit that seems to develop near the water fountain in the large dog area even during dry weather — after a good rain, it’s particularly nasty.

Finally after two years, the dog park is complete. I think its kinda strange there is never more than five people out. I usually go around 6pm when the temp is teetering down. (Hopefully!!) Both Hunter & Evan love it but there’s not much to do other than run around. Luckily both my boys are couch potatoes so I don’t have to worry too much. I do want to mention they actually have bags & they are kinda clever.

Finally, a great dog park in Irving. I’ve taken my Dalmatian up there a few times. Of course, he doesn’t want to leave my side, so he doesn’t do much, but they did a great job with the setup.
There are two main sections with each section broken up into big dog and small dog areas. There are rocks throughout the areas, plus a covered section for all the humans that get hot. Plus water fountains for adults, kids, and dogs. There are also benches out in the middle of the fields.
There have always been quite a few great people and their dogs out when I’ve been.
No large trees yet, but several have been planted.
Check it out!