Birch-Bark Kennels Ltd

Great rates and superb care. The dog came out happy as ever, and was bathed when I came to pick her up. The cat was happy too. Would recommend this kennel!

It is easy to blame the customer for poor service. No, I didn’t see the point in calling the kennel to discuss issues that happened 2 years ago since I have made a personal choice not to do business with them in the future.
When the health and well being of my family is at stake, I don’t give second chances. As disclosed in my review, when I initially wrote it 2 years ago it didn’t get submitted but I strongly feel that it is important to share my experiences so that others can make informed decisions.
Having been left at other kennels in the past for an equal amount of time, eating has never been an issue for either of my dogs. Given the opportunity, they would both eat themselves sick which is why it is so important to measure their food (and is a common trait of the breed – ask anyone with a dachshund).
Regardless of whether or not they had become stressed while at this facility, we were never informed of any such issues which is an important thing to mention upon pick up – or even during their stay if «adding hot water» did not make their food «yummy» enough for them to eat any of it — If this was being done, there would have been more food gone because I would hope that uneaten soggy food would be discarded if not eaten at least by the end of the day. The food we left was barely touched and we measured out enough for 3 weeks for each of them in case something happened and we weren’t back in 2 weeks. The food we were given back didn’t look like it was touched so what were they being fed?
As for blaming «the owners for leaving the door open in the office», this is also a fallacy. While beside my truck I opened my dogs’ crate so that I could pet my dogs. One of my dogs came out of the crate because she was excited to see me. There were no other pet parents in the area and the facility is well away from busy streets so as an owner I did not see a problem with visiting with my pet. There was no reason (nor is there ever a good reason) to grab a dachshund by the legs.
If there was a dog that had it’s legs grabbed to prevent it from running out of the office, this was not my dog so perhaps this was a different instance being remembered.
I still stand by my review – I cannot in good faith recommend this service based on my experience. I’m sure that there are people that have had great experiences with this facility but it’s up to each individual to decide if it’s worth the gamble. Do your homework and buyer beware.
*****
Dorothea, in my first review I stated that my dog tried running to see me – I did not state where to or from. In my update I clarified that she was trying to come to me from her crate while in the parking lot since the example provided in your comment clearly was not us. When she came out of her crate someone from this kennel (whoever checked us out) grabbed her by the hind legs to stop her from running to me. My apologies if my edited version was not clear enough. In your comment you wrote «The dog almost bolted out of the door in to the parking lot». This is not what happened to us so if that memory was valid it was not my dog that tried to run out of the office.

Whenever we leave our dogs with anyone I meticulously measure out their food and leave an extra week’s worth for each and leave specific instructions and measuring cups to make sure there is no confusion. My dogs are small and eat less than a cup of food each a day. If they were being fed correctly there would have been a third of their food left upon our return – even if soggy food was discarded because it wasn’t yummy enough. The food we were given at check out was barely touched and they had both lost weight. This either means that they were not fed enough or they were fed something other than what we left.
As stated before, I’m sure there have been changes in the last 2 years but I am not willing to take the chance after such a poor experience. If you left your children in someone else’s care and felt they were mistreated would you take them there again just because the facility insists that changes were made?
Good customer service is apologizing for mistakes that were made and making an effort to correct the issue. It is not making excuses or blaming customers for what went wrong.

Avoid!
We went on holidays to the Domincan Republic for 8 days this past December and left our two dogs in their care… When we returned, the dogs looked to be incredibly malnourished. They lost about 30% of their body weight. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t eat the entire time we were gone.
One of our dogs was so thirsty, he started drinking Tim Horton’s coffee on the trip home.
An absolutely disaster!