The Paw Pet Resort

I spent a good amount of time talking with staff about the high needs of my rescue dogs and what not to do with them, what stresses them and what motivates them. I was assured that the staff were trained to listen to dogs' social queues and they would not be unnecessarily approaching them if my dog was showing signs that she wanted space. Within 20 minutes, I got a phone call to pick up my dogs because a staff member almost immediately tried to pry her out of the kennel, before she had a chance to calm down, completely ignoring my dog's needs, all my instructions, and the day manager's warning to go slow and take care with her.

I feel misled, and I feel like my dogs were not given a fair opportunity or appropriate care. I also feel frustrated because as I left, several staff cheerfully wished us a happy vacation when we now were put in a position to find backup daycare nine hours before our flight.

We dropped my girlfriends dogs off for as we have a flight. We were getting ready to go and within 30 minutes we received a phone call saying they couldn't take the dogs anymore and to pick them up immediately. Our dogs are special needs and have high anxiety to stressful situations. My girlfriend gave explicit instructions on what to do in this situation.

I'm giving one star because I felt like our instructions were ignored and they were very quick to give them the boot, Leaving us with little to no options this soon before our trip. It was very frustrating and took every fibre of my being to not snap at them when they smiled at me and said to have a nice trip as we were walking out with them. Response to their reply: You say to do a day or overnight first, but within 25 minutes we were called to come take them out.

They are rescues and need the time to warm up to a new place and 25 minutes in a loud kennel was not enough. They were coming around as when we showed up they were both peacefully laying in their kennel. We were not given any alternatives and if your staff DID know we were going on an out of town trip and instead still decided to take on the responsibility of the dogs after the evaluations. That is completely unprofessional and would have preferred a no if you were THAT unsure at the time of the evaluation, not HOURS before we catch a flight.

Excellent care facility for both dogs and cats! We trusted The Paw with our dog for 9 years for boarding, daycare and grooming and he absolutely loved it. We have boarded our two kittens recently- we know they are getting the best care and they come home happy. The staff is always amazing! Highly recommend!

Levi is shy and not socially adjusted, I see a positive change after training class and more recently boarding/daycare. Staff is very nice and they really helped us to understand boarding and daycare options. We caught a glimpse of Levi playing with the other dogs and we were very happy to see how the staff was with him and the other dogs. Very happy with the experience. I recommend it for dogs who need socialization. Well worth the cost, and you will be helping your pet grow. Thanks

Our dog, Jesse, seems to enjoy going to The Paw. The staff is caring and friendly. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is because we never get back Jesse's uneaten food, even though I expressly ask for it. We know our dog well, and we know he wouldn't eat all the food we send along, especially being that he's separated from us. Other than that, it's a great place.

Clean facility with friendly and helpful staff. Heated pool is great. They have life jackets for the dogs and towels if needed. Highly recommend bringing water shoes. The floor is painful on bare feet.

The staff is so friendly and the facilities feel as if it's literally a resort. We booked a private swim so we could get in the pool with our old man and let him swim one last time. Forever grateful for this last memory, and we're very likely to come back with our other dogs this winter. We drove an hour and a half from the twin cities and it was 100% worth it.

Absolutely amazing. The staff knows my dog by name, they have been nothing short of amazing since we started. We've been bringing our pup since she was 6month old and they always go above and beyond with their customer service. They even take photos of the dogs weekly and post them on their Facebook page (some examples below). Couldn't be happier with The Paw, we fully trust them with our girl.

The staff are incredibly professional and friendly. Our youngest dog, Henry, comes here regularly for daycare, and we've boarded him and our two older dogs several times. It's a relief to know they're safe and cared for when we're away. We taught Henry to swim in Paw's pool, which is a skill he'll have for life, and he's learning basic obedience in the Paw's classes.

Staff is extremely helpful and friendly. My puppy is always happy when we pick him up but more excited when we drop him off. He loves playing with all the other puppies. We'll pick him up and he'll just sleep because of all the energy he's burned. He's a people lover and a dog lover. I couldn't be happier with the paw, especially if your busy, you know he's in good hands.

Our pups stayed at the Paw over thanksgiving 2021. The staff loves the animals so much. Our puppy destroyed his dog bed and we were concerned about him eating the foam. The staff saw my message and took care of it right away. They gave our boy a peanut butter bowl to keep him occupied. They also snapped a couple cute pics and sent us a report card. We are so thankful for the care The Paw provides when we board our dogs.

We recently boarded our dog at Paws, and our experience was awful. Our overall feedback is bad, but the lowlight was a vicious bite that was inflicted on our dog. Paws was either negligent, incompetent or deceitful. They have cameras all over the facility, and never told us about the incident. When we confronted them about the bite they said no member of staff was aware of it.

Our dog was bit bad enough that she has a two by two area on her back where the skin is dieing and our vet believes she will be permanently scarred and left with a bald spot. We will never take another animal to this facility, and would suggest you find somewhere else for your pets.

Replying to Dawn, business owner: Thank you for the response. I understand the risks associated with taking my dog to a boarding facility where other dogs co-mingle. Using your example of daycare, yes, I would take up issue with the provider if my child came home with 4 different illnesses and pneumonia, especially if he went into it healthy. This case, as indicated by the vet, was appalling.

I didn't personally administer his shots but as far as River Hills Pet Hospital is concerned, he was up to date on his vaccinations. Don't you require an updated shot record for dogs to be able to stay there anyway? Regardless, we've been loyal customers since you opened and because this case resulted in such an extreme outcome costing your customer an additional $800 as well as Moss going through weeks of discomfort, I would have expected more from you.

You made your choice as a business owner not to make it right and I've made mine as a consumer to not frequent your business again and felt an ethical obligation to the public to warn them before bringing their pet to stay in your facility, which evidently doesn't take the necessary precautions to prevent these types of things from happening. It happened on your watch and you refuse to accept responsibility and this is the outcome.

I want to give 5 stars for the kind, detailed information given over the phone regarding how swimming might work for our dying dog's bucket list. As far as we know, he's never gone swimming. Tanya explained she only knows of one dog who'd ever gotten in the pool the first time on his own, so it would likely be traumatic, not joyful for our dog.

Add in the one hour drive (I'm sure he'd be imagining all sorts of terrible destinations on the way) and it's clear we need to go to Plan B. Tanya and I had emailed back and forth a little bit, but she asked me to call so she could explain it better - more personally - which I so appreciate. Thanks!

Not very impressed at all. Due to an error on their website, their calendar lists that the Puppy Camp runs starting on Tuesdays. Hmmmm. that makes sense I'm thinking. Lots of people camps only run 4 days, why wouldn't a puppy camp? So we call to start our puppy on Tuesday of this week after getting a recommendation from another person. We find out that we missed a day. Ok, no problem!

We would be happy to pay a slightly less rate for the remaining 4 days - after all, we only missed Monday due to the error on their website. Nope - no discount. Full price for the remaining days or nothing. Really? I mean REALLY? They asked us to show them the mistake, so we took the time out of our day to do some screen shots and take some pictures.

Guess my time doesn't count for anything - because when we called back after doing all that to find out about dropping our puppy off, we were still told full price or nothing. They did offer us a 1/2 day special price, but we are driving an hour to Mankato to drop our puppy off and timing it with my husband's job - 1/2 day is useless to us and if we have to pay for the other 1/2 of the day, we are right back to where we started - paying full price for their mistake.

Not sure what kind of customer service they believe this to be, but it seems overall silly to chase a potential boarding/grooming/daycare client away for 18 DOLLARS! Plus, my family who was waiting to see how this went for us - we all have dogs and we all travel. wow, for 18 DOLLARS! They did mention that we could take advantage of puppy camp next month. Unfortunately, we have military obligations during that same week next month.

In fact, we were planning on potentially boarding our dog there as well, but we were kind of seeing how the whole puppy camp thing went. There are 5 other doggie daycares in Mankato - I'm sure that one of them will be happy to have our puppy and our business.

You shouldn't refuse service due to a certain breed. If you've had issues with a certain dog, ask the owners not to bring it back. Plain and simple. Your ignorant refusal spreads the fear of certain breeds which is inaccurate to say the least. Shame!

When people entrust you with their dogs, they should feel comfortable knowing that they will be picking them up in the same condition in which they were received. Several weeks ago a friend dropped off a dog for a short stay at The Paw expecting to return from their vacation to the same bright, cheerful dog they left. This was not the case. Instead, they came home to a dog that couldn't stand and could barely breathe.

Despite emergency vet visits and constant care, they had to put him to sleep a few days later. Someone made a tremendous mistake and a simple apology doesn't suffice. They lost a member of their family due to your negligence.

I was the one who decided where Buddy was going to stay while we went on vacation. I had reservations at other places before I landed on The Paw. I trusted them to take care of him. I trusted them to follow my instructions on his care. I even paid for the Executive Suite. I dropped off one happy boy, so excited for his stay and came home to a dog that was too weak to even stand up. I've done day care there before.

This was my 1st time boarding. I had told them if Buddy got wet his collar would need to come off because he easily gets hot spots. (Common golden thing) I had told the manager on duty this and the receptionist. They asked again for any special care info and I told them again about removing his collar so he could dry off. Well this never happened and he ended up with the largest Hotspot any of my dogs have had.

Well when the Hotspot goes untreated it becomes a staph infection. And by Saturday when we got home he had a fever of 106 and the staph infection got to his lungs and they were filling with fluid. I have tried a number of times to reach out to the owner and no success. Sadly we were unable to stop the fluid. Buddy went to heaven 4 days later. It took the owner over a week to get back to me.

Our 1st conversation was about 10 minutes of excuses. They refused to refund my stay and I was also charged incorrectly. After talking to other people this is common. I will NEVER recommend the Paw to anyone who cares about animals.

I was completely unimpressed with The Paw. I don't believe that the business is designed to serve people and dogs but rather to make money. The sales rep on the phone oversold The tiny kennel my dog would Be in, and then gave incorrect information about the availability of extra outside playtime. Then when I picked up the dog, The staff told me that he had worms. After weeks of monitoring stools, it was obvious that they had the wrong dog. I will look for other providers in the future.

I am from MN and currently live in AZ with my mini Doxie. He travels with me all over the U.S. And hands down The Paw is the best! LOVE the outdoor play area, indoor area tons of space to run, great staff. Pool for swimming We will be back again soon!

Very disappointed in our first experience here. Boarded our Golden Retriever for 13 days while we were on vacation. Not only did we have to PREPAY (do they think we won't be picking up our dog again after vacation?) but we requested that our dog be groomed the day we picked him up (January 4th). When we went to pick him up today, we find out that when he was dropped off they had not gotten our name in the system and we were told that the groomer must have forgotten to put our dog in the schedule when he was checked in. Very disappointed in our first experience and will be looking to other places to take our business.

Best place to take your dog. My Kiowa LOVES it here. They know her by name and when I call they know who I am. I feel safe knowing my dog is well taken care of. I love the staff and love the owner

We traveled to MN from NJ to visit family and friends and decided to check out The Paw for daycare. We first took our newly rescued dog with us on a tour and were very impressed. We hadn't made an appointment and yet the staff dropped everything to greet us and our dog and give us the tour. We then used the daycare and loved it. Our dog, Buford, had a great time.

He came home exhausted, but not at all stressed. We found the people cheerful and kind and have already recommended The Paw to numerous people. It was a great experience for us. Also, we love the cameras. We love that we could check in at any time and see pictures on FAcebook the next day.

Please do not take your dog here. Our dog lost 15 pounds while staying at the Paw and NOBODY BOTHERED TO CALL US. Not a single person thought it was a good idea to pick up the phone and call us while our dog wasted away into nothing. We ended up taking her to the vets office where she was treated for malnourishment and dehydration. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and check out the filtered reviews- they are nearly all 1 star for similar reasons.

The worse experience ever. I would never use this place again. Very poor service. Due to a family trip during the holidays, we boarded our German Shepherd Molly at The Paw. The dog had a mild renal dysfunction otherwise healthy, active and eating two meals a day. A week after we left, my wife had called the place to check how Molly was doing. She was told that Molly was "playful and doing well".

To our surprise, when we pick her up on 01/06/13 the dog was very skinny and so debilitated that she could not climb into our car. When we took the dog to her vet the next day, we found out that she had lost 15 Ib ( Yes, you are reading right: 15 pounds in two weeks!). Our vet found that she had a urinary infection, exacerbation of her renal problems and a remarkable weight loss!.

We had called back the Paw and asked what happened. Unfortunately we only had as an answer skepticism, lack of empathy and meaningless excuses. Since the Paw's employee talking to us was even doubtful and dismissive of our accounts, few days later we faxed to them a copy of our veterinarian report. Also, we authorize our vet to answer any question that they could have.

Up to today we do not know why anyone at the Paw did not see Molly going downhill so quickly, neither why no one had the courtesy of calling us ( even when they did have all our contact info) and making us aware of what was going on. Now Molly is recovering well at home, eating and gaining weight. Hector P. 01/15/13

The Paw is not accessible to people with disabilities. They are quite a new establishment so this was shocking. The lady there stated they would obtain a certified interpreter for a dog training class (as required by the American with Disabilities Act - ADA). 5 days before class, we received a call from their attorney that they will not provide one due to it costing too much.

The class had already been paid for. My dog took 12 sessions of training at Petco and they did not hesitate to provide an interpreter. If Petco had advanced levels of training, I would go back in a heartbeat.

We went a wedding and decided to board our dogs instead of trying to get friends to watch them for us. While dropping off the dogs we were told that the facility would have 90 dogs for the night. After viewing the kennel area I was unpleasantly surprised to see just how small the kennels are, and that they could pack 90 dogs into such a small area.

When checking in we were assured 5 exercise/bathroom visits per day. We asked if our dogs could use the pool for the visit and they said it would be an additional charge since the pool usage is free for daycare but not for boarding. When picking up our dogs we found them to be shaking and they did not eat any of their food. We asked when was the last time they had been out, the lady told us that they went out at 8AM and it was almost 2 PM.

She didn't see anything wrong with that. I am glad we didn't wait until 5 to pick them up. We immediately let the dogs out and they went to the bathroom as soon as they got outside. Also they all had running noses and watering eyes. In my opinion the facility is substantially understaffed which is one of the contributing factors that our dogs were neglected.

Definitely do not get what you pay for. We boarded our Great Dane for her first time at The Paw. We upgraded her to the most expensive room, thinking that the added space and the added attention of 3hr/day daycare would ease her stay. We were able to watch her on webcams, which was great, but we noticed she did not seem to be her normal self, and would not play at all during daycare.

We were told we would be called if anything serious occurred, and we should feel free to call at any time to see how she was doing. She stayed for 4 nights. Midway through her stay, we called to see if she was eating. My husband spoke with the CEO, who said she was not eating all of her food but was eating. We came home to find out our Dane who eats 7-8 cups of food a day had eaten less than 1 cup of food the entire time.

When we picked her up from her 4 night stay, she had lost 6 pounds, had a temperature of 106.2, was crying and shaking endlessly, requiring an emergency vet visit. We sent a letter to the management voicing our concerns, and received a rude letter in return stating that our Dane must have "deteriorated in the time between morning day care" and when we picked her up 3 hours later (because apparently she had been "fine" at daycare that morning).

She had bronchitis and took 2.5 weeks to return to her normal self. We do not blame the kennel for her illness, but the fact that no one noticed how ill she was was alarming. Don't expect to get better or attentive care for paying more. We have since sought out less expensive kennels in the area with much better reviews. We did enjoy The Paw's facilities prior to this stay.

We took our dog to the "Surf and Turf" nights, to let her swim in the pool, play outside, and use the pet wash at the end of her fun. The Paw has wonderful facilities to use if you will be there to monitor your dog, or perhaps if your dog only stays for daycare. It is not worth the risk to allow for a longer stay.