Pride and Pedigree

When we moved from Oakland to Pleasant Hill, we had to cut back on how often our pups got to go to Pride and Pedigree. We would still take them as a treat, and board them there when we were traveling.
We are THRILLED that Pride and Pedigree has moved to Concord! It’s back to being our dogs’ regular hangout.

I can’t say enough great things about Pride and Pedigree! We are soooo sad they moved to Concord. Our 7 month old puppy, Taco, loved going there. He would start pulling on the leash when we turned the corner towards their place. They really seemed to enjoy what they do and there was a friendly vibe about the place. Never had an issue with the.

Highly recommended. PnP offers boutique-​level, individual service and will lovingly care for your furry four-​legged friend. They also focus on what’s good for the dogs — so they don’t get too tired, they play well socially, learn good behaviors, and come home happy. My boy Petey leaves PnP content, not stressed.

PnP provides the most friendly and compassionate care our Portuguese Water Dog could hope to receive. Oakland’s loss is Concord’s gain. Please be kind to Kelli and her team. We will miss you!

There aren’t enough stars to explain how wonderful Pride and Pedigree has been to our family for the past 9 years. To best express our feelings, here’s what we wrote to them when we got the news:
«It goes without saying I know, but we are devastated by the news you are leaving Oakland. The gift that you have been to our family is immeasurable. You ARE part of our family. We have trusted you to take care of our babies. As you know, we never had a dog before our precious Lucie. You took care of her like she was your own. The support and love you gave us when she died — I can’t write those words without crying — was truly a comfort. Your tears mixed with our own. The emails you sent us even after she was gone touched our hearts like you can’t imagine.
And 11 months later, when we were finally able to let go of enough of our grief to adopt our sweet little Tommy, we did it knowing that you all would be there to take good care of him while we were at work. He loves coming to see you and can’t get out of car fast enough!!! I can’t imagine anyone but you taking care of our little guy. I do know that no one will compare. (We’ve already started calling places. Ugh.)
We know that your new spot will be fabulous. Those doggies and their parents have no idea how lucky they are about to become. We wish you every possible success. We truly can’t thank you enough. Nine years with you have been a joy and a blessing.

Pride and Pedigree is the best! The team has been caring for my pug since he was a puppy. He’ll be 7 this year. Everyone who works at P&P is great! They care for your pets and are always happy and friendly! I will miss having them around the corner in their old Oakland location, but I look forward to taking Puggy for boarding to their new location.

I am SO SAD that P&P is leaving Oakland! Our German Shepherd, Maya, has been attending their puppy day care twice a week for over a year — since she was a 4 month old puppy! She has a ton of pals and comes home super pooped from playing hard. The staff is awesome and treat her like she’s their own pup. Concord, you’re lucky to get these guys! They will be missed!

Hey dog owners in and around Concord: congratulations on landing P&P. Kelli and team are the best, from day care to boarding to training.
My pooch has grown up in their care for 8 years and I highly recommend them. I’ve never had an issue. They asses dogs by temperament and closely monitor all interaction. Dogs get a lot of attention and appropriate supervision. And you can tell they all really love their work, and all the dogs love them just as much. Sniffle, sniffle, so sorry they’re moving, but Oakland’s loss is your gain.
Happy to talk with anyone interested or answer questions.

Caution! The third time we used Pride and Pedigree for day care our 10 month old lab retriever jumped an inside chain link fence and cut his back paw to the bone on a protruding sharp fence point. As a result our dog has had 2 surgeries and a severed tendon was not able to be repaired. Caution!

Not impressed. I stopped by to learn about their business and see if it would be a good place for my dog and for my clients’ dogs. The front staff person seemed annoyed that I was there, despite clearly being a prospective ongoing customer. She grudgingly told me what services they provided. I mentioned that my dog doesn’t get along with certain other dogs, and she glared at me and said he would not be welcome there. Why not just be polite and say something like, «Just to let you know, we do have certain requirements for our dog clients around socialization and behavior.» I will not be recommending this business to my clients.

Excellent daycare and boarding option in a convenient location. The staff really cares about dogs and knows their behavior; my puppy always comes back happy and tired after a day of playing around with his new friends. Having a convenient, locally-​owned option to get my puppy some much-​needed socialization and take care of him when I’m out of town is huge for his development.
Very well run place, too. Clean and well organized. They require an initial 30-​minute behavioral interview to get a sense of your dog’s personality and you’ll need to schedule your first couple visits and any overnight boarding, but after that you can just drop in the day of to drop off your dog and get them some playtime. Invoice for the stay is always in my inbox by 10:00 AM, and the report card for the day is always delivered by noon, which really puts my mind at ease knowing how my dog is doing while I’m away.

After my puppy’s first boarding experience there, she came back forgetting ALL of her commands on which we worked very hard for 4 weeks. She became an entirely different dog for the first three days. I don’t know what happened during the 2 nights and 2 days there. None of the strange behaviors of our puppy potentially displayed there were discussed with us. We only got report cards that showed our puppy was happy and normal during the stay.
Evaluation and screening were all good in advance. We understand it is a protocol. When I was first on premise, a complete tour was not given and I was barely shown the place when asked. I had to follow up with another email afterwards inquiring about whether the dogs have outdoor playtime and can relieve outdoors.
Vanessa the groomer was awesome — skilled, organized and communicative. Highly recommending her. However, beware the grooming service isn’t part of the boarding service. We still had to spend extra time calling/​scheduling/​explaining to the groomer even though we physically went there several times for evaluation and saw the groomer there on premise. It is not the most convenient for those that are looking for one-​stop shop.
Various miscommunication took place during this short two night/​two day stay for my puppy. We intended to get our puppy groomed during her stay, but she almost didn’t get to be groomed due to lack of communication between the worker and the groomer. The worker there did not relay my message of the schedule change to the groomer. I could have told the groomer myself since again, I saw the groomer sitting right by the worker when we were talking about the schedule change. Luckily the groomer was organized enough to check in with me.
I was told I didn’t have to work on one of the days so thought I could keep the dog for one night, but since no one ever picks up the phone at this place to be able to get my message in time, i brought the puppy in regardless. The workers there verbally told me they don’t have cancellation policies. I also did not see any on their website. Further such policies were NOT ever mentioned on the various communication they gave us prior to boarding including the written consent/​agreement/​paperwork I had to fill out.
Subsequently, we ended up with the original boarding schedule anyway.
After the boarding service was over, I read a message from the operations manager that they actually have a 24 hour cancellation policy, and they reserve boarding time with a 50% booking fees. This was the first I have heard after 1.5 weeks we have been talking to them! My husband was the one that booked but never mentioned being charged for a booking fee. He was on travels so I couldn’t reach him to verify. So I emailed the organization to verify, because they would have double charged us. I NEVER got any emails back since!
This is not what I expect from any organizations, even though this is an org that deals with animals. Needless to say, this is not where we will be boarding our puppy in the future.

I had my Golden stay a PnP for nearly 4 ½ years… the staff is very professional and always greets you with a smile. My dog rarely leaves my side and when he does, he gets a bit melancholy except when I take him to PnP… there he drags me to their front door… he’s so happy to visit his buddies and the staff treats him like a Prince… thanks PnP!

I like this place because every dog gets personal attention. It’s cozy. Most of the boarding facilities around are very big with high staff turnover… The dogs here always see a familiar face when they come in and the owner is onsite most days. They also don’t charge extra for a lot of services and it’s easy to check-​in via email etc to see how my dog is doing. :) I like!

An update almost four years later… Trotsky is now a happy, healthy adult dog who gets VERY emotional about his favorite humans, and everybody who works at Pride and Pedigree is in that group! He is well socialized and always gets compliments on his behavior, and I credit Kelli and her wonderful staff more than a little for that.
Having a resource like Pride and Pedigree has been invaluable to us. We are so grateful for all the great care, clear communication and general awesomeness.

This is dog-​grooming heaven!
From email to in-​person, what a grand experience. Vanessa is the best — attentive, warm, positive, and cool. She got right down on the ground with my pooch and also made my 7-​year old daughter feel right at home. She was crystal clear on setting my expectations in terms of time, price, and style options.
The woman knows her dogs!
She started exactly on time and finished exactly on time (though the service is so great I really wouldn’t care if she off by a few minutes!). We got a nice review after the grooming to go over what happened, how my dog handled it, and what I can do to keep him well groomed.
The space is great too — nice big open spaces for the dogs and the people.
The best part? My dog looked amazing! We didn’t think it was possible to have our labradoodle look good after a cut and wash but Vanessa has the touch. I’m so impressed and happy to have found this wonderful doggie savant.
I’m going to book my next appointment immediately because I know Vanessa will have a full schedule — an rightfully so. What a great service!

Kelli and the staff at Pride and Pedigree have been absolutely stellar to work with, and our puppy Harper is really happy there! i’m so grateful to have found them. :)
we made an appointment for Harper to have her behavior assessment right after the holidays, but unfortunately we had an unexpected death in the family, which meant i needed to go out of town in a rush. i called Pride and Pedigree and asked if there was any way they could move up the behavior assessment, and if there was any way we might be able to use them for a couple days of emergency day care if need be. Kelli immediately got back to me, before she had even met me in person, and said she’d take Harper as often as i needed for as long as i needed, even though there wasn’t really space in their puppy program right then.
Harper has been going there for a few weeks, now, and she comes home happy and worn out each day… a lovely combination. :) she’s also clearly learning things there… i’m not quite sure how to describe it, but she seems more worldly since she’s been spending time with the mentor dogs. and when we take her to the dog park, or out for a walk, she is much better with other dogs and other people than before she started. i realize some of that is likely just because she’s getting older, but i definitely she that she is learning manners from the older dogs that she hangs with while at PnP.
last night we had another emergency when Harper inadvertently pawed my fiancé in the eye, which resulted in a late night ER visit. we need to go back to the doctors today for follow up… a day Harper is not scheduled to be there… but Kelli responded to my email early this morning telling us to bring Harper on in, no problem at all.
Pride and Pedigree takes very good are of our dog, and she clearly loves being there. every person i’ve met on the staff is friendly and helpful, and they all know Harper and how she did on any given day… the whole staff clearly knows their dogs. i know Harper is in good hands, and i truly appreciate how much they’ve gone out of their way to accommodate our quirky needs, right from the start. thanks Pride and Pedigree!

I emailed the owner of Pride and Pedigree to request that she give me a tour and introduction to her business. I own a dog walking business (Doggy Lama Pet Care) and I take referring to other pet professionals really seriously. I already have a couple of doggy day cares/​kennels that I refer to, but recently they’ve been full at times and I wanted to expand my list of good folks to tell clients about.
Kelli met with me last week and spent over an hour showing me around her business and chatting about their policies and procedures. I was very impressed and have already given her business’ contact info to a few people.
Here are a few of my notes:
–I was there during «nap time» (12 – 2 PM every day) – there were 32 dogs there (maximum is 40) – it was the quietest day care I have ever been to! (Dogs were all in individual crates for nap time. I observed a staff member checking on all the dogs.
–Typically, ratios of handlers to dogs in the play areas are: 5 – 7 big dogs/​handler and 10 – 15 small dogs/​handler.
–The huge warehouse space in which Pride and Pedigree is located has plenty of sunshine and fresh air, and they also have an outside area that has shade and a water mister for hot days. They use the outdoor area some days.
–The play areas have «relieving boxes» that I think are the high-​end fake grass specially developed for dogs to use for that purpose. During nap time they’d all been cleaned and were draining. There was no smell of pee or poop that I detected and I went all through the facility – that is no mean feat for this kind of business!
–We talked about reasons why we don’t accept clients – Kelli put her policy succinctly and clearly, «If the dogs are not socially appropriate or we can’t keep them safe.» (I am planning to steal her language – I say the same thing to clients but it takes me about 5 minutes to say it!)
–Kelli’s been a vet tech for 9 years, (I think it was 9 nine years she said,) so she can give oral meds and eye drops and doesn’t charge extra for that service. She can also give subcutaneous fluids, but there may be a charge for that.
–Unlike some other doggy day cares, (some of wich I think are very good,) they do have a staff person in the facility overnight. He or she spends most of the overnight shift cleaning but are allowed to take a nap after their duties are done. This is a big selling point for me.
–On Tuesday nights there is a Sirius Puppy Class at Pride and Pedigree, and they are going to start «puppy socials» soon.
This is a bigger business than the one I own, but I can see it’s not as big as many day cares and kennels (again, maximum of 40 dogs). Kelli’s very much in charge and «hands on.» I got a great feeling about her and this place and am excited to be able to send folks who are looking for day care to Pride and Pedigree.
(Wishing you continued success, Kelli!)

This review is long overdue. A few months back I was looking for a day care for our puppy Samoyed (8 months at the time). My girlfriend usually comes back home to take our little one out during lunch time, but she was planning on traveling for a few days.
She decided to try to board him at a place around the corner without consulting me and after I read some Unilocal reviews I decided that I would rather board our puppy at P&P even though we were happy with the service that the other daycare offer because of the better Unilocal rating at P&P. Boy was I wrong.
First red flag: The hours at P&P are very inconvenient for any working professional with a bit of an unpredictable schedule. I work in SF and would have to make sure I leave work at 5:30 on the dot to pick up my dog on time.
Second red flag: I asked my gf to take our puppy for an evaluation and he passed with flying colors. However, my gf said that she doesn’t feel that the staff at P&P were very friendly compared to the daycare around the corner.
My gf then gave P&P our dog’s rabies shot papers (she didn’t tell me she did this already) and agreed with the staff that she would get them more vaccination papers from our vet when we drop off our dog a few days later.
My gf went on her trip and she asked me to give P&P the rest of the vaccination papers that she prepared. I met one of the staff when dropping off our puppy and she really wasn’t that friendly as my gf suggested. That didn’t really bother me as long as they took care of our pup. She reviewed the vaccination docs, and said they look good and took our dog into the daycare area.
Around 11:30am I got a phone call from P&P saying that my dog had too much energy (he’s a pup of course he would have a lot of energy), not sure what happened, but he managed to jump the fence in the play pen. They said that due to that they will not let him play in the fenced area because he could hurt himself. They then said that my dog didn’t have rabies shots (I couldn’t get a hold of my gf and thought that she didn’t give P&P the papers) and they will have to put him in a crate and I will have to pick him up right away!
I was having a very busy day at work and wasn’t expecting that something like this could have happened. Especially at a place that also offer dog training services. I ended up leaving work around 1pm to come pick my dog up. Arriving all stressed I asked a few staff members what happened? They said that my pup wanted to play with the other dogs in the other side of the fence and tried to jump the fence (OK, so why didn’t you just walk him to the other side of the fence?)
They also mentioned that my pup had too much energy and they couldn’t pair him up with other dogs. Another odd comment because he always find other dogs to play with at dog parks and the day care around the corner. Also since the «Rabies» papers cannot be located they had to put him in the crate. I found out later that they lost the rabies shot papers that my gf dropped off at an earlier day.
This was one of the few times that Unilocal reviews weren’t trust worthy as we ended up going back to the other day care and couldn’t be happier. I think their recent Unilocal reviews are getting better as well, but I see that P&P reviews are slightly going the other direction.
In summary if you have a highly energetic young dog that’s not a lap dog, this place might not be the place to board your dog. I see a lot of lap dogs and the staff seems to know how to take care of them fine. They are not as organized as they should have been especially with documentation and I was hoping that they will have more experienced people working there. I give the 2 star because they were nice enough to call me to pick my pup up, but couldn’t give them more stars because they still charged me full price for this whole experience.

Like a few others who have written reviews, I really wanted to like Pride and Pedigree as well mainly because I saw they did Sirius Puppy Training but also because it was near my home.
I’m a new dog «mom» and, at the time, had a rescue pup that was 5 – 6 weeks old. He’s now 8 weeks old. I was struggling, when I first found him, to quickly gather information and figure out the best situation for him while I returned to work. I called/​emailed P&P a couple of times and found the customer service to be awful. In the second voice mail from them, they went so far as to suggest that I give up my puppy to someone who would have more time for him! Give up my puppy!!! Seriously? Without so much as talking with me, meeting my puppy or understanding our situation at all, they suggest I abandon the rescue pup I carried with me from the canyons in AZ. I was horrified.
We’ve since moved to a larger, dog-​friendly house with a big back yard and found an amazing «sitter» (until he’s old enough to go for walks) with Little Spot Runs. He adores his noon-​time pup sitter and we’re both happy with her caring, nurturing support as well as her instruction and training.
Once he’s able to start a more structured training program, I plan to take him to a facility 1 – 2 days per week along with his in-​home care but it certainly won’t be Pride and Pedigree. My pup deserves better.