Mantayo Kennels & Dog Training

There are boarding kennels much closer to where we live but we choose to drive here to board our dogs. I can’t speak to the unfortunate experience that Michelle S. had but we’ve never had such a problem, personally. Our dogs have always come back happy and well fed, and as clean as they were when we left them (cleaner if we arrange for grooming while they’re there).
The people we’ve worked with at Mantayo clearly love our dogs almost as much as we do. They’re reliable, and reasonably priced.
I can’t speak to their training facilities as we’ve not used them but the boarding side, in our experience, is fantastic.

I am reviewing Mantayo for their Conformation class only.
Conformation dog training here is pretty good. $ 8 per drop in Conformation lesson is not a bad price, but you need to have some knowledge of conformation before going to a lesson. The only reason they get a 4* versus 5 is that this isn’t a traditional «handling lesson» but rather a lesson to practice.
With that being said, the good thing is there is plenty of space to work on stacking, go bys, and down and backs. Plus, the place has a ton of mats and mirrors to look at what you are doing. These lessons have helped my Aussie get used to being «in the ring» and provides great socialization as well.

Mantayo might be great for training. And I really wanted to think they would be great for boarding. I now people who have taken their dogs here and it’s been fine. However I was not too happy when I picked up my dogs the last time. I boarded them in the same kennel so they would have a «friend». One of them had a Big D accident – which isn’t unusual beacuse of nerves, different food, etc. But what really made me upset was that it was all over one side of my dog, crusted on her, AND on the other dog, too! Both dogs were literally covered in Sh*%! But when we picked them up the guy said, «Oh I guess I didn’t see it.» That made me pretty suspicious of how well anuyone was taking care of them because if you couldn’t see this, then you must not have looked at them. And it wasn’t like it was recent, it was OLD. Yuck.

I haven’t taken classes here, but I’ve met Ana Melara, the trainer, on many occasions and been quite impressed with her knowledge, work ethic, and personal approach to dog training. She offers group classes, private lessons, and even in home consultations for both basic to advanced obedience and competitive dog agility.
Ana believes in positive reinforcement and has been known, according to her students, to pull correctional collars off dogs and throw them at owners who dare show up to class with those nasty things on their pooches. She’ll teach you how to get a Really Reliable Recall from your dog, or how to send that formerly unruly Border Collie flying around a course of hurdles and other obstacles, and her own dogs assist her in curing dog aggression in clients’ dogs.
If you have a dog who needs training (translation: If you are an owner who needs help stopping your dog from training you) give Ana a call. She’ll fix you up, for VERY reasonable prices given the quality of service.
Congrats, Ana, on qualifying for Agility Nationals!