Blue Dog Ranch

I reviewed many doggy day care sites on Unilocal before I chose this one. The pictures and most of the comments were quite positive. I was on a tight schedule when I dropped off my puppy and called ahead, only to be asked to come in a little later. Before I got there I accidentally put the wrong address in my GPS and ended up at another doggy day care which I was instantly impressed with. I should have asked that day care if I could have left my dog with them but decided to go with this place, as I already made a reservation and they already had the shot records from my vet.
As soon as I arrived at the place I found it extremely difficult to get in. You have to wait at the gate until they have time to buzz you in. I’m not sure of the purpose of this secured entrance as you still have to walk thru 2 more gates plus the front door to gain access. As soon as I entered I immediately smelled pet urine and the place was not clean. The staff was also not too friendly, like the other place I just left. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to go back to the other place because I was already running late for work.
They took my dog/​child to the back where I ASSUMED he would be instantly in day care and playing with other puppies. Before I left I asked to see a tour of the facility. They reluctantly opened one door and let me look in there, and that was it. All I saw were caged dog runs/​kennels and smaller kennels (where you would potty train a puppy). I didn’t see my dog in there but saw many others, mostly barking, and seemed scared.
The lady, Jenny, explained to me that they rotate the dogs every couple hours into the play areas with other dogs and will send video to me. When I picked up my dog he couldn’t wait to leave. He still had so much energy, like he was stuck in a kennel all day. It turns out that he was. I told Jenny when I picked him up that I never received a video like she said. She told me it takes a few days before they will introduce new dogs to other dogs and let them play in the play areas/aka…doggy day care. I was not a happy camper. When I dropped him off in the morning she bragged of the dog to staff ratio and how low it is. I’m not sure how important that is if the dogs are going to be in a kennel all day. I felt terrible for leaving my child there for one second, let alone 5 hours. I was in Burbank for 3 weeks, traveling for work, and really needed peace of mind while leaving my baby in the hands of others. Had I known Rukkus (my baby) was going to be in a kennel ALL day I would have left him in my hotel room. At least he would have had a soft bed and sofa to lay on and not be stressed out by constant barking of other dogs, and without any play. When I looked at the ONE room they let me look in to, I felt like I was back at the county pound, which is where he was adopted.
I’m so grateful I accidentally found the other doggy day care, Pet Rush Inn, one block away. The facility was incredibly clean, I got a FULL tour of their facility, and the owner, Rene, was incredible! Rukkus always couldn’t wait to go there and was so excited to get out of the car and greet Rene. If I were you, and loved your dog (as I imagine most people do who spend the time and money on doggy day care), I would NOT take your dog to Jenny and her facility, but would go one block over and take him/​her to Rene at Pet Rush Inn.

Amazing facility. Animal-​loving staff (not to mention the incredible David Roe, who trains dogs kindly and peacefully). Will definitely board animals and train with him in the future. Truly good people.

Review for Daycare only!
You need to bring your pup in for an evaluation and to view the property before your fur-​baby can go to daycare. I was a little sketched out by the process when I arrived because I didn’t get to view the whole property. It would be more comforting to have a proper tour of the place my pup will be spending some of his days. But I gave it a go any way and Rambo (my dog) seems to enjoy it. Most days when I pick him up he sleeps as soon as we get home, so I know he played hard.
Every now and then I get emailed pictures of him playing with his buds, they aren’t the best quality but they are nice to receive! The price isn’t bad either!

Wow. Shockingly bad boarding & BS over priced «training» facility. We paid for a large kennel for our dog and found out he was being kept inside a dirty plastic crate that he could barely turn around in. The owner and «master» trainer is an arrogant, obnoxious know it all who wastes your time telling you how great he is. He also billed us for training hours that did not happen. Overpriced and inflated owner & services. With all the really great choices, trainers and people out there for doggie day care, training and boarding, don’t chose this one. Former employees have posted what an awful place this is. Heed their in-​the-​know warning. Make sure your loved family members are getting what they deserve. Loving, honest, caring, clean, reliable care. You won’t get any of that here.

I can not recommend Blue Dog Ranch and David Roe highly enough. I was so frustrated with my dog, he was a rescue and had severe aggression and behaviorial problems. I had tried a trainer and got zero results. David Roe came highly reccommended by my neighbors who brought their rescue Pit Bull for the three week training and they have the best trained dog EVER. I was a bit hesitant because of the expense of the three week training and I had already spent money on a trainer with no results. I was and still am blown away by David Roe and Blue Dog Ranch. After getting my dog back after the 21 day period, my dog was calm, happy, leash trained, learned sit/​stay, down/​stay — he learned to come when called. David also worked with me, so that I could continue to work with my dog. The videos he provides are invaluable, David gave me constant feedback during the training period, he truly cares. He was incredible about returning my calls immediately, answering any questions I had with patience and care. The staff could not be more professional and warm. I honestly can say that I would pay more for the training my dog received. Do not look any further, I can not imagine there is a better trainer than David Roe.

My post is based on the service my friend received here. She was out of town and called about picking up her dog Sunday night. The owner directly told her, «sure come by Sunday night because we will be closed Monday for the holiday; the workers will be in the back with the dogs just ring the buzzer a few times.» I went with her and we stood outside for about 10 minutes ringing the buzzer, calling the office, knocking on the wooden fence, even honked a couple times to no avail. How awful that it appears there was no one there. And closed Monday? So who will feed the dogs on Monday because they’re closed? I would probably never bring my dog here. Why the hell pay for someone to care for him while I’m away if no one’s even going to be there?

I couldn’t possibly say enough good things about Blue Dog Ranch and David Roe.
Impeccable training with heart. This man and his employees genuinely care about you and your animals. I wish I were a millionare so I could fund his company for the rest of my days.
Let me point out that his method of training has NO negative aspects to it. What I mean is there’s no saying «no,» «stay,» or «leave it.» When you «correct» your dog it’s such a simple and ingenious way that not only works, but also builds the bond between you and your best friend. He not only educated my dog, but educated my wife and me, and it was information I truly treasure. Stop reading articles on the internet written by laymen and call this man. I recommend him to anyone that will listen.
I promise you he will provide a quality service with kindness and generosity.

On training: I am so relieved to have found David and Blue Dog Ranch! My ten year old pit bull has a lot of anxiety, and has started to show aggression towards people and dogs in the past few years. I had tried a different trainer with her in Austin, TX, when she first started to show signs of severe anxiety, but the techniques I learned seemed to make the problems worse to the point where I’VE become anxious with the idea of taking her around people and dogs. She had started to get get snippy with strangers, and even lunged at our vet.
David uses positive reinforcement, structure, and distraction to build confidence and calm anxiety. I have always had an issue with the concept of matching aggression with aggression (such as flipping dogs). David’s technique is essentially pleasant persistence – and it is so effective. My dog has just completed the three week training with David, and I can now take her on walks without having any tension on her leash, and she even passed the squirrel test this morning and looked to me for a treat instead of attempting to pull both of us up a tree to get said squirrel!
On daycare: One of the great things they do at Blue Dog is have small groups with Doggie Daycare as to not overwhelm dogs. They match your dog up with 2 – 3 other dogs that suit each other’s personalities. This is fantastic since I know my pit bull can get impatient and snippy with other anxious dogs. They are also so easy to work with on pick-​up and drop-​off times.

If Unilocal had 10 stars, I would use them! I was DESPERATE with my pit/​lab male who had a pretty extensive bite history, and had displayed dog aggression (with other dogs). On paper, everything pointed to the fact that he should be «dealt with», but my experience with this dog for 5 years supported the idea that he was/​is a loving, obedient, friendly part of our family. I did EXTENSIVE research to find a dog trainer to help me keep my dog alive! I was surprised to find that the «big time» dog trainers (on TV) used physical force and severe punishment and isolation techniques to train their animals. This didn’t sit well with me. Then, I found numerous law suits being settled out of court for more than a few of the well known trainers where the dogs actually died during training! This made me anxious and terrified. Luckily, our vet (who also agreed that our dog was not a candidate for being euthanized) referred us to Pacific Coast Dog Rescue/​Blue Dog Ranch Boarding & Training, and we found David Roe. I was so impressed with his knowledge, but more so his compassion. He uses positive reinforcement to get a desired result from his animals. For our dog, who has never been hit or punished with physical force, this was a much better solution. David treats the dogs with respect and knows his stuff! I LOVE the videos that we received after the training was over. I find them to be crucial for us to continue the work that was done while our dog was away to guarantee long-​term success. David always returned my calls timely, and took time to talk to me and reassure me that our dog was fine. I never felt rushed, or that I was inconveniencing him. It was hard for me to be away from our dog for so long, so my regular check-​ins were important to me. The facility is spacious and clean, and I found the staff to be friendly and professional. I HIGHLY recommend this place to anyone who is dealing with a difficult, aggressive dog, boarding, or to find a new pet. David is one-​of-​a-​kind. We are so grateful we found him and our family remains intact!

Hmm. Where do I start? Thank you David for giving me my sanity back. My 110 pound German Shepherd, Max, had leash agression for the past year. Every day was stressful taking him for a walk as he would lunge and bark at anything and everything. The last straw was when he tried to attack my kid’s principal. I called Blue Dog ranch from a referral the next day and off max went to doggie boot dog training with David and his dog loving training team.
Max has been back for two weeks, and he is a new dog. Healthy and happy, but he no longer takes me for a stressful walk. I take him for a walk with new tools and confidence that I can handle him in any situation. Also all the videos of his training are on YouTube for my review when needed.
David was and is very patient with my many many redundant questions and is always a phone call away. He is great at explaining the training and shows by example.
Most importantly he trained me and I know that I need to keep up the training that he started or max will regress to his old behavior, and I never want to live that stressful way with my buddy Max again.
Thank you Blue Dog Ranch!

I don’t know where we would be with our boy Murphy if it wasn’t for David and his wonderful and amazing staff!
Our rescue suffered abuse and had extreme aggression issues w anyone or any dog. Our life of rescuing and fostering was put on hold while we worked extremely hard to help Murphy. Every dog training center told us to put him down to get rid of the problem. We were shocked by the cold hearted responses we got. On top of that these places wanted a arm, leg and first born if we decided to go w their «doggie boot camp» so to speak. They were heartless and all about money and nothing about compassion or sympathy.
Until we met David ! He has changed our quality of life in a big way while being affordable and willing to work with us given the circumstances. David and Bobby Sue have been very understanding to our work schedule as well. Being in the film business makes it difficult for pickup and drop off during business hours. However we do our best to not make that a habit b/​c we really appreciate EVERYTHING they do for us and our family.
Our Murphy couldn’t be any happier! Our 2 other dogs get excited going to Gma/​Gpa house for dinner, Murphy gets excited going to who we call «uncle David». The min we get off the freeway he gets super excited and can control himself. He knows where he’s going and couldn’t be happier.
We will continue to recommended Blue Dog Ranch for the rest of our lives. They gave us hope while helping us have our life back w/​o taking the easy and cheap way out, putting him down.
We will be forever grateful to David and Bobby Sue!

I have had many dogs go to Blue Dog Ranch for training and we always had a positive experience. The most important thing is that David and the staff are very kind. They do not do ANY negative type training. It is all positive and treat based. You can tell they really love dogs there. Our dogs learn how to behave and look to us for guidance. David is very thorough and has great follow up. They do a great job!

I’ve been boarding my american staffordshire terrier mix with Blue Dog Ranch off and on when needed over the last three years. They have always been great with our dog. She is a bit of a «special» dog and we don’t let her go into group doggy daycare. Although a total sweetheart, she had a rough start in life and we rather play it safe with her socializing with others while we are not there to supervise. After much research, we decided on Blue Dog. They are actually one of the few places that will keep dogs separate during boarding and I believe the only place that gives them their own personal time to run around in their many open, clean areas. We have boarded our dog there for up to a week at times and she always comes back happy and calm. It is very obvious she has not been shut in the kennel the whole time and has had her daily exercise, which she very much needs.
The people who work there are dog people as well. They love dogs and it shows. They have taken great care of our dog. It is great to leave town and not worry about our very important member of the family. Highly recommend Blue Dog Ranch.

I had Blue Dog Ranch train my dog for a 5 day overnight training. As a caveat, I will say the owner (David) recommends the three week overnight course, but this seemed like an extended period of time and I wanted to have her get the foundation down before investing in a three week course.
First off, my dog had visibly lost weigh during the 5 day stay. Probably 5 – 7 lbs on a 55 lb dog. David explained that they only hand feed the dog during the stay with treats during training to get them to better comply. I learned of this after the training. And yes, if you’re dog is constantly hungry, the dog will pay very close attention to you if you have food.
I didn’t expect miracles with the training, but would have expected her to have learned a strong down/​stay and some training with heel command. (She already had basic training). When he delivered her, she did not heel at all. And it took him standing right in front of her to get her to sit. He said she was distracted being back in her old environment and recommended that I just walk her up and down the driveway for a few weeks to get her trained. So in other words, I shouldn’t walk her anywhere else than on my 75 ft driveway!
They also charge $ 100 for a video of the training (shot with their trainer and my dog). This a complete waste of money. It was a 20 minute video of them walking my dog around showing that my dog performed certain actions (walking on lease, down/​stay, etc.). It’s really just a video that shows they did some training with the dog, but has no value other than that.
I also paid $ 200 for lesson when they dropped the dog off. The lesson was helpful (aside from David telling me I should just walk the dog in the driveway for a few weeks). Though $ 200/​hour is very expensive.
I called to bring up these issues and the owner said he would come out and do a free lesson when he was out on the West side again. Never heard back from them.

We found ourselves in a very peculiar spot. My wife and I were in the process of foster/​adopting a child, but one of the restrictions was «Dog must not be a danger to children». Well, our Chi-​Weenie, DeCooley, was a rescue from the pound. In our stay, she had bitten 2 children and one grandmother. So we knew that in order to progress in the adoption process we had to either give DeCooley away or get her trained.
We sent her to Blue Dog Ranch for approximately 6 weeks (including 4 home visits) where David Roe worked very hard in getting rid of her old habits and instilling new ones. DeCooley feels like a brand new dog.
I wouldn’t say David «cured» her, but he did give us a new set of tools to use when it comes to her training. He stressed that as long as we are strict with the training he implemented, then there will be no more problems.
I couldn’t recommend Blue Dog enough. His #1 concern isn’t making money, but rather making sure the Dog is properly trained. Having the Dog gone for so long was very tough, but once we finished going through withdrawals… and just let David do his work… we received the best result.

My dog has leash aggression. He’s splendid in the house, and with people, but once I put the leash on him… he does not like other dogs… part of that is because he was attacked twice by two other dogs, while on-​leash. In order to educate myself, I contacted David for training. Since our initial at-​home training session, I have felt more confident in my ability to walk my dog on leash. Now, i even let my boyfriend skateboard with him.
Because of the success with training, I have used David for boarding as well. This is a huge step for me, as I do not trust anyone with my baby; however, after many phone calls and advising sessions, I felt connected with the Blue Dog Ranch.
I chose the most expensive option– to have my dog, JoJo, stay with David in his home, and receive additional training. It stresses my budget, but it is well worth it. I will never forget the morning I picked JoJo up from David’s house, as he turned the corner with the female trainer he was smiling… literally smiling and prancing as if he was in the Westminster Dog Show!!! I am sending my puppy back to David this weekend… for 5 days… and could not be more excited for the structure and routine he will receive from David.
Thank you everyone at Blue Dog Ranch,
Ryan and JoJo

David and the staff at Blue Dog Ranch are absolutely amazing! I have a chocolate lab named Murphy with aggression issues and I needed to go away for a week and I had to have him boarded. After calling several places, David was the first one I found who was willing to take Murphy at all and do some training with him at the same time as being boarded. I’d like to review 2 things about the place and about David:
1. The facilities — very clean and organized with friendly knowledgeable staff. There are several separate areas outside where doggies can run and play. There is shade, toys, beds, houses, and a splash pool. The kennels are clean and large. They feed healthy treats and food. They are flexible with schedules, and really honestly care.
2. The training — David is very serious when it comes to aggression issues, as any good trainer should be, and said he would take Murphy for the 7 days for me and do some training (I really didn’t have any other options!) but he was honest and said that 7 days wasn’t going to be a life changer. He didn’t push the longer training time on me at all, which I appreciated because my budget couldn’t afford it. David cares so much about animals and their owners and really stresses that the owners need to be educated and «trained» even more than the pets do. David was so generous with me and because of his big heart I got Murphy back a new dog, and he changed me as well!
We can’t thank you enough David! We refer all our friends to you!

Calling David Roe and sending our dog to Blue Dog Ranch was one of the best decisions I have ever made and I can’t say enough positive things about him and the job they do. I urge each of you to read my rather lengthy review as I hope it will be helpful for you in your decision
process.
A bit of background on us: My husband and I adopted a dog from a rescue about five years ago. He is absolutely adorable, cuddly and all around very loving. However, we started to have incidents where he would react very negatively when he did not get his way, was intimated by new people or became territorial of his toys or us. My husband and I did whatever we could not to provoke this behavior, which basically meant that our dog was in charge. After I got pregnant, he only became more territorial and we realized something had to be done, as the problem was only getting worse. I asked a friend who was involved with a dog rescue and she said she had an amazing contact who she had used tons of times with both rescue and non-​rescue dogs.
David first came to our house, and was incredibly patient and understanding, listening to our issues and spending a great deal of time with us. We determined after the first training session that it was going to be really hard on me to do all the training and since time was of the essence, we would send our dog to his month training session and then we would be taught how to implement it. We needed to not only show our dog that we were in charge but also have him get ready for the upcoming arrival of our first baby.
David was great about keeping me updated and taking my calls when I would want to know the progress. After a few weeks I happened to look at a few of the negative reviews on Unilocal and called my husband in tears. What I did not realize was that at the bottom of the page were about 50 additional incredibly positive ones. I have no idea where these negative ones came from because it truly could not have been a better experience for us and many other people I have since sent.
David cares deeply about the job he does, (he ended up keeping our dog a little bit longer because he wanted to be certain he did as well of a job as humanly possible). He urged me to call him with any questions as he more than anyone wants to ensure that you are doing exactly what needs to happen to ensure the necessary changes with your animal. When we went to get our dog, we were blown away by how much he learned and how incredibly happy and proud he appeared while showing us his new knowledge.
It was not until about a month after our dog returned home with us, when I realized how positive this experience had been. Not once did we have an incident and we had been implementing all new rules in our home.
David came back to check-​in with us and see how we were doing and the second our dog saw David coming down the sidewalk, he went absolutely crazy, jumping up and down and trying to get close to David. He was ecstatic to see him! If I ever had an element of doubt, it was completely erased at that moment. Now months later, our dog is a completely different animal. He is much more calm, responds
incredibly well to our commands and gets very excited when its time to do his training.
Please feel free to write me with any questions, I truly cannot say enough positive things about David, his methods and our drastically changed dog. We are forever grateful to Blue Dog Ranch and David Roe and will continue to use them for boarding going forward.

Disclaimer — I have not boarded my dogs here, however I toured the facility and was very disappointed. There’s no way I’d leave my babies here.
a. Loud construction going on non-​stop (on-​site) when we looked at the place. Dogs were barking all around us and I knew that level of noise would drive our dogs INSANE.
b. Weird treatment from the staff. One girl showed us around, while the other girl at the desk barely acknowledged our presence. Very stand-​offish treatment from them both, vague answers to my questions, and just a general unfriendly vibe that made us feel uncomfortable.
MOST IMPORTANTLY:
c.) The facility. Don’t be fooled by the pictures on the website. Yes, the outside play area is pretty nice. But we were told when the dogs are boarded overnight, they’re only allowed access to the play area outside a couple hours a day. Ok, fine I guess, but where do they stay the rest of the time? In a poorly lit back room stacked with old, dingy dog kennels. The room looked suspiciously unclean and when I asked if we could look around the room, we were given a simple «No». Hmmm. Really? I’m going to pay $ 50/​day for my dogs to be locked up in a cage 75% or more of the time in a room that I’m not allowed to see? Don’t think so.
I know this place has some good reviews. Maybe it’s good just for daycare, since the daycare dogs spend the day in the outdoor play area. But there is no way I’d recommend boarding your dog here based on what I saw.

David Roe and his staff are angels. My dog Rusty had developed some fear aggression issues and I didn’t know what to do. He didn’t like strangers and he REALLY didn’t like men. I had tried other trainers but they didn’t seem equipped to handle Rusty and had all told me that he was the worst they’d ever seen. I was beginning to feel hopeless when someone told me about David and Blue Dog Ranch.
Since Rusty’s problems were extreme I had enrolled him in their Boot Camp where he would go to live at Blue Dog for 3 weeks. I was sad and nervous about having him be somewhere else for so long but the staff was so reassuring and I thought their facilities were top notch.
The Boot Camp is expensive and Rusty’s problems were so severe that he had to stay a little longer than expected but it was worth every single penny. I trusted David implicitly when he told me Rusty needed more time. When I went to visit Rusty he was a changed dog. He was calm and happy and most of all I noticed how he had bonded with David. At one point David had left the yard and Rusty went looking all over for him, even though I was standing right next to him and hadn’t seen him in a long time. For a dog that was scared of men, it was amazing to see how much he had grown attached to David.
While Rusty was gone, David assured me that I could call him to check on his progress. His staff would also give me updates on how he was doing. T even took pictures of Rusty for me and sent them to me. I really felt like everyone cared about Rusty and his well being.
What’s so great about David is his follow through. He doesn’t just train the dog, he will deliver them to your house and transition him back with you.
It’s been awhile since Rusty has been at Blue Dog but his training is still in place, since David stressed how important it was to maintain the skills he taught Rusty. Someone remarked the other day that Rusty was like a robot — did everything I told him to on command and was just so sweet and well behaved. In the past 6 months I can’t say that I’ve seen hum revert back to his old fear aggressive ways and I know that I have David and his staff to thank for giving me back the sweet little puppy I first fell in love with!