Almost Home Boarding & Training

I had the worst experience with this business that I think I’ve ever had anywhere. I made a reservation to board my dog three weeks ago due to a mandatory work trip. When I made the reservation, the woman told me that I had to bring proof of her rabies vaccination, her food, and bed (if I wanted to). A woman even called a few days ago to confirm the reservation. I went to drop her off today. I handed the woman my dog’s vaccination papers. She said she needed proof of other shots. I didn’t have proof of any other shots. They never told me that I needed that proof of other vaccinations, nor is it anywhere on their website. They refused to take her without proof. They refused to accommodate me in any way even though they were negligent in telling me about providing further paperwork. I asked about the vet they claim to have on staff. They rudely told me she was booked for the day. (How long would it have taken to give my dog a shot?!) I asked if they could isolate my dog. Again they refused. Needless to say, if they had they told me I needed additional paperwork, I would have provided it. I explained that this was a work trip. They refused to assist me in any way even though this was their negligence. I was late leaving town. Fortunately a good samaritan at my groomers took my dog. I would NEVER recommend this place to anyone. They were negligent, rude, and their customer service was deplorable. If this is how they run their business, I’m glad I didn’t leave my dog there.

This was the first time I’ve ever boarded my dogs with Almost Home. Two of my dogs have only ever been boarded once and the other one has never been boarded so needless to say, I was fairly nervous. Check-​in was smooth and quick, which I liked. My dogs who normally aren’t the greatest with strangers, went straight back with the associate that took them back. I left there feeling very at ease. The next day, they were nice enough to send me a text message with a picture which definitely earned them brownie points in my book. I thought it was so thoughtful and sweet! I came and picked them up and without asking first, they gave me a full update on how they did (which they did way better than I thought they would. Ha.) Check out was also very fast and easy. The associate that brought my dogs out helped me out to the car with them, which is also nice when you have 3 doggies running around excited to see their mom after 5 days! The only semi negative thing I found was they sent their bed home smelling of urine but honestly, it’s nothing my washer and dryer can’t handle so I’m not that concerned. Just something I happened to notice it as soon as we got in the car to leave. I kind of just wish they would have checked it and made sure it was clean since it came in clean. But oh well. Like I said, not really a deal breaker for me. All in all, I was extremely satisfied with Almost Home and I do plan on using them again if I need to board my dogs. They were able to handle my not so socialized dogs with patience and they got well taken care of while staying there. I am super pleased with the entire experience!!!

We have two dogs, one blind since birth and the other a rescue who wears a bell on her collar as to be the seeing eye dog. We are blessed to have found Almost Home. We do have a lot of particulars for our dogs given the circumstances and the staff never questions it one bit. They make us feel comfortable and at ease — the dogs love it there. Compared to other kennels, they aren’t scared when we drop them off and they are in great spirits when we pick them up. The staff is super professional. We have decided to switch to the vet there instead of the one we have gone to for 25 years bc we just love the place. Safe, secure building and a very well– trained staff make this our go to place. They don’t gauge with pricing and even have a Sunday evening pick up. We couldn’t be happier.

In the early spring of 2012 we brought home Gavin, a 10 month old bullmastiff, who had a really rough start to his life. Other professional trainers told me he was dog aggressive and threw up their hands and would only help me if I paid an exorbitant amount of money, the situation seemed hopeless. The first time I brought Gavin to Almost Home’s Dog Day Out, I explained what the other trainers had told me and they gave Gavin a lot of time and personal attention and very slowly and safely integrated him with the other dogs. Today, Gavin cannot wait to go see his friends at Dog Day Out. He is the class clown and dogs and people alike seem to laugh at his antics. In addition to Dog Day Out, Gavin and I attended many of the classes they offer. The agility class helped Gavin and I «listen» to each other in addition to wearing out his non stop energy. First grade helped me build the confidence to walk him around our neighborhood without worry. Gavin loves all of his friends at Almost Home, both four legged and two legged. I will always be grateful to Katie and Kathy and all of the others at Almost Home for all of their time and attention they gave us.

Look no further for a place to board a feline friend while you’re out of town. Whether it’s a work obligation or a vacation that has you away, «Almost Home» will be a vacation for your cat that s/​he will be sure to love.
When I needed to be out of town for a week this month, I needed a place to leave my cat since I couldn’t find a sitter. I was a «first time mom» as far as boarding my cat; in more than 5 years I had always had a reliable sitter and was nervous about leaving him in a cattery for a week.
I found «Almost Home» thanks to a fellow Unilocaler and could not be more happy with the experience of boarding my cat there. Securing a place was easy, and when I dropped him off, I was able to go back and see the cattery. Each cat has a 2-​level cat condo, and mine had a view on the garden (the better to observe all the birds flying by!).
Throughout the week the staff updated me with text pictures of my cat. He was also allowed out of his condo several times during the day to play in the cattery. When I picked him up at the end of the week, he was a pretty happy guy, and I got the feeling it was as much to see me again as it was to have spent a week at «Almost Home.» The next time I need to board my cat when I’m out of town, «Almost Home» will be the first place I will call!

I have been working with Almost Home Boarding and Training for over 18 months and I love them! My cat boards occasionally and is happy in the cattery. She gets love and attention just like at home.
My dog goes weekly for doggie daycare, has attended numerous training classes, and boards each time I leave town. He is high energy and had some behavioral problems when I first started taking him there. Now after much love and attention from Katie and Kathy, he and I have a strong bond and I trust him with my 6 year old niece!
The staff is friendly and warm. The facility is clean and cozy. And the training classes are a ton of fun — both for me and my pup.

Would not recommend. I was visiting friends in town and had to board my 2 dogs and 2 cats (as my friends were allergic and we stopped to see them on our way to visit my family for the holidays). At check in they hardly asked any questions about my animals, just wanted to know if they had their vaccines and what they ate. No questions about temperament or if they had any allergies. Then when I gave them the animals they wanted me to leave my 1 cat in the lobby and walk away. I wasn’t comfortable doing so, but they’d wanted me to leave b/​c my 1 dog wasn’t wanting to go with them. So I walked outside for a minute and then walked back in. When I walked back in they looked at me funny and told me to leave, but I told them I didn’t want the cat to be alone but they assured me everything was fine, so I left. When we picked them up the next day I got NO information about their stay. It was like pulling teeth to get any info. I was told the cats were «fine». I asked about their food and she made stuff up! She told me they ate their can food, but not the dry, which is Very unlike them, usually when they are nervous the cats will only eat the dry food and not touch the can. When they brought out the cats they seemed ok so I loaded them in the car and came back for my dogs. It took then 30 minutes to get my dogs, the whole time they kept stating that they were in the far back corner, whatever that means… also, it should be noted that they were not super busy, in fact I was the only person picking up at that time… when they dogs finally showed up I realized what was taking so long. The person walking my older dog had NO idea how to walk him. She was practically choking him and making him stop every step. When he saw me, all he wanted to do was come and see me but the lady wouldn’t let him. She told me to go outside to my car and that she would walk him out b/​c she didn’t want any other dogs to come inside while he was there. My dog is NOT dog aggressive, in fact, he loves other dogs, so I don’t know why she would think like that. All my dog wanted to do was say hello to me, but she wouldn’t let him, and she wouldn’t let me touch my own dog! So we get all the critters in the car and start our drive to my parents, only to discover that the cats, who did «fine» had urinated on themselves and smelled, which caused our entire car to smell, and us to smell… needless to say we will NOT be going back, nor will we recommend it to anyone we know.
Oh yeah, and I packed them the exact amount of food in baggies for easy feeding and they gave me back ½ of it… so basically my animals weren’t fed while they were there.

My boyfriend has often accused me of liking my two cats more than I like him, or anyone else, so you can imagine my distress when the idea came up of boarding them over Memorial Day weekend so the two of us could go on a getaway trip to Washington D.C. However, I wanted to go on vacation so I scoured the internet for highly rated boarders and finally found Almost Home Boarding & Training on the Better Business Bureau’s website. I called and talked with Kathy who explained their boarding protocols and asked that I send them a copy of the cats’ current vaccines (or bring them on the day of boarding). Each of the two times that I spoke with Kathy prior to bringing the cats in I experienced excellent customer service. I brought the cats in to be boarded on the Friday before Memorial Day and even though it was a Friday afternoon Kathy greeted me warmly and took the time to walk me to the back and show me the area in which the cats would be staying. Since I was nervous about leaving them she gave me a detailed explaination of how their cat condo worked, and explained all of their emergency protocols. After seeing the clean comfortable facility I felt at ease leaving my cats there. On Saturday while I was touring D.C. I was quite pleased to receive a text message from Kathy with photos of the cats playing with toys and a message explaining that they were adapting well. When I picked the cats up on Tuesday evening they were clearly well cared for, though pleased to see me. From start to finish this was an above average experience and I am happy to know that I now have a safe place to leave the cats when I travel.