After some bad experiences with DogMode, which has won awards and is usually touted as the best daycare/boarding facility in the city, my wife looked in the yellow pages and we toured the other places relatively near us. On our first visit, Desert Dog stood out: clean, neat, well organized, with indoor and outdoor spaces (including inflatable pools in the summer), visible on web-cams. But above all, Desert Dog exuded competence. The first year it practically paid for itself because we never had any issues like respiratory infections or eaten rocks or plastic requiring expensive vet visits. Desert Dog's owners and staff are mature, serious, knowledgeable dog people, not (as is unfortunately the case at most other places) just college kid slackers or snowboarders looking for an easy job. They not only care for the dogs expertly, they enjoy them and play with them. Our black lab lives to play but is also particular about people--he adores the entire Desert Dog staff and treats them as family. After two years of daycare at least three times a week and occasional boarding on weekends, he's never had a single problem and we've never had a single doubt. I should also say that another strength of Desert Dog is the other customers: nice, friendly folks who know dogs and understand how lucky they are to have this caring second home for their pets.
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