I took my dog in today and it was wonderful. She had a flea problem that I spent $300 on at home,…read morethen she developed a skin condition. I had tried everything. Funny thing, I had done all the rIght things but if I had gone to the vet it would've been less work for me and my grandma dog wouldn't have suffered so long with the itching. The doctor didn't make me feel bad about my attempts to be a vet. The treatment she prescribed makes me feel confident. Dr Aponte is great. She loves pets and their humans

I've been a client of Stone Mountain Veterinary Hospital for almost 10 years now. I share my life…read morewith six cats so a good veterinarian is actually more important to me than my own doctor. Dr. Nicole Aponte and every member of the staff at SMAH have proven over the years to be my greatest ally in the care of my pets. Dr. Aponte is thorough in her examinations and takes the time to explain everything to me. She knows each of my cats by name and remembers their history and frankly this is better than I manage on a daily basis. If I ever have questions or concerns she addresses them in terms I can understand. Over the years she and the whole staff have taught me to administer sub-Q fluids at home (saving tons of money for me and lots of stress for the feline who needed them). They have been a shoulder to cry on when it's time to let one go off to the Bridge. They are, quite simply, they people I trust completely with the pets I love. This place isn't fancy, and located down a drive off Memorial just eat of Hairston (just west of the entrance to the Wells Fargo) you might miss it. The much more fancy, state of the art hospital is located on Sugarloaf Parkway in Snellville and this is just a short drive if things like orthopaedic surgery is needed. My Phoebe had to have knee surgery when she was only 16 months and Dr. Brown did a great job out of Snellville. If you live within 15 miles and don't see this vet you are missing a great opportunity.

Not only can we leave town and rest comfortably knowing that our three dogs are well cared for and…read moreloved, but I honestly believe they are more spoiled than ever every time we return. Communication is excellent , the house is always clean and it's the best service we have ever had with a pet sitter service. Professional, kind and caring. Can't give them enough kudos!

This is a long overdue review. I just happened to be scrolling for a specific text and pulled up…read moreold text exchanges with Karen from my days in Atlanta. And realized I owe this fantastic person a review. A very long story short, in 2015 I found myself in temporary housing after a move back to Atlanta to start a new job. It was a very difficult situation with two rescue dogs that suffered from anxiety/separation issues. The day prior my daytime pet arrangements had fallen through. I also had work travel imminent. I was in a panic and massively stressed. The same day I called Karen, she showed up to meet me and the two pups. They took to her immediately, even my ultra scared/shy guy who shivered and shook around people. She confidentially handled them, kindly calmed my anxiety over the situation and had it under control. She could double as a therapist!!! The next day while I was at work all went totally fine with their walk. I even received text photos with details of how it went. The pups were happy, I was relieved of stress and life suddenly became simpler. For simplicity sake I've glossed over a very trying and rough time in life. But for Karen and her team it would not have turned out so well. With a world of gratitude and thanks, I HIGHLY recommend.

I found A Canine Affinity from a recommendation in a Facebook group. I had recently adopted a dog…read morefrom the shelter and I suspected she had separation anxiety, so I was looking for someone that was specialized in it. The advice online is confusing and conflicting -- from keeping your dog in a crate or letting them free roam, giving them a kong toy before you leave to not giving them anything, etc. So I scheduled a consultation with A Canine Affinity to learn more about the trainings and determine if it was in fact separation anxiety, or just normal decompression from the shelter. Melissa was wonderful right from the beginning and was very thorough and explained everything very clearly. You can tell she has a passion for this area. I decided that it wasn't too early and it couldn't hurt to do the initial assessment and get some good foundation to try to nip the separation anxiety that she in fact was showing. Melissa built us a solid plan and gave great advice on things like how and where to get my dog situated before I leave, stress body language, desensitization trainings, etc. I'm excited to share that my dog, Birdie, can now be left alone for about 1 hour and she lays down on her bed that's right near the door I leave from while I'm away (although she is still very alert/has her eyes on the door). I even saw her on the camera lay her head down for about 30 seconds, which is such a small thing, but such a BIG WIN! It means Birdie is starting to get a little more comfortable alone. I find myself so proud of my dog and celebrating her small wins, which has been the most rewarding part of this training. Birdie does regress every once in a while, which I'm told is normal, so I am trying to take it one day and one week at a time. Birdie has made HUGE strides and is building confidence and comfort being alone. Just 5 months ago, she couldn't even be left alone for 30 seconds without pacing, howling, scratching at doors, and having accidents in the house. So thankful for Melissa and the wonderful foundation she set me up with. We'll continue with our trainings and hope Birdie continues to progress over the next few months, but if she doesn't, I won't hesitate to reach out to Melissa for some more trainings and guidance. Thank you Melissa, you are a lifesaver!

I am a veterinarian and worked with Melissa on my own dog, I would recommend her to anyone. She is…read morevery knowledgeable and very good at what she does. I love that she is truly an advocate and voice for pets. She has a lot of patience for both me and my dog - and that is definitely what we needed. My dog was very fearful and was scared of everything in the world. My dog would panic and freak out on her walks, afraid of strangers. Through private trainings and her "while you're away" day training - I saw my dog becoming more confident, and is enjoying her walks more and is not freaking out at every little thing. Melissa helped me understand dog behavior more, what my dog needs with a lot of positive reinforcement. She helped me set realistic expectation and taught me tools that is helpful in the long term.

My much loved, very skittish Australian Shepherd was missing for nine days. Ramsey, who runs Good…read moreBoy K9 Training, spotted her in his neighborhood and did everything possible to capture Rosie, incurring expenses that he would not allow me to reimburse. Once Rosie has recovered from her nine day unplanned camping adventure, I plan to send her to Ramsey for basic obedience. I am so thankful for his kindness and concern for a pet belonging to someone he'd never met.

I need to update my review. I have heard from the groomer. I cannot say that she has no area to…read moregroom dogs. Apparently I looked in the wrong window at the time. That was her storage area of her basement. She says she tried to call or text to let me know she wanted to cancel. I did not get either a call or text. I cannot say what type of groomer she is as I did not meet her. She has tried to make it up to me.

GRRA is quite good overall. They have some wonderful dogs and most of the fosters and…read moreemployees/volunteers are quite friendly. The process is lengthy, with an application, a home visit, the meet-and-greet events, etc. They treated us much better than another local rescue place. Keep in mind that they have a preference for families where at least one person works from home, stays at home, or lives close by so they can come by regularly. We did not check those boxes since we both work full-time (though we did have a dog door for them to go in and out), so were not deemed a fit for certain dogs there. However, other fosters were definitely interested in us. Their dogs are truly taken care of and they do great work. Plenty of others interested in the dogs though, so make sure you attend the events. We ended up finding an amazing GR elsewhere who was a great fit for us but GRRA is a quality place and they love their dogs. They treat applicants better than some similar places as well. So I'd try a place like GRRA or even a humane breeder with healthy dogs if you want a GR specifically, and also consider rescue places, Humane Society, etc. if you are open to other breeds (and GRRA sometimes has doodles, mixed breeds, etc.)

We adopted our Golden Retriever Luna nearly a year ago. She is to us the most wonderful dog in…read morethe world and is so loved. The wonderful volunteers at GRRA made our adoption process super easy. An important note about GRRA is that they meet and exceed all government and accepted standards. Everything they do is for the welfare of the dogs. Every applicant and volunteer has to be interviewed and have a home inspection check. Every dog has the most thorough vet care before they can be adopted. GRRA is the best.

Lisa is awesome with cats but not great with humans, sadly. Our feral-turned-indoor-princess is…read morevery skeptical of humans, but she loved Lisa. Despite Lisa's serious communication issues and difficulty processing feedback, we were content to keep her on forever, simply because the cats loved her. But then she fired us as we were about to go out of town and refused to inform us whether she intended to honor her pre-existing commitments. Some background: It was often a struggle to understand what Lisa wanted. Lisa doesn't like being texted on vacation, but she has little issue texting clients about personal things on their vacation. She sometimes insists you use the app, while feeling free to contact you via text message at other times. She'd get frustrated if we didn't pay the right Zelle account, but she gave us both accounts. Sometimes, one would not work so we'd use the other. This was one of many matters prompting Lisa to snap at my wife, a common occurrence. My wife is not rude or demanding. She is to the point and simply trying to communicate, especially on vacation. On a few occasions, Lisa's terse replies had my wife on the verge of tears. The real problems escalated over a plant, though. My wife propagates plants on our window sills. Lisa asked if she could have one in exchange for her plant-watering fee. My wife said OK, but she'd need to wait. Our friend in Asheville had lost EVERYTHING in the recent flooding, and many of the plants my wife was propagating were earmarked for her friend. My wife planned to give Lisa two plants from her next batch and even intended to plant them in fancy pots as a thank you for the care Lisa has shown for our cats. Well, Lisa got impatient. On a recent vacay, Lisa kept texting my wife about a plant. A bit annoyed because Lisa doesn't like getting texts on her own vacations, my wife told me she'd deal with it later. When we got home, Lisa had not only taken a plant, but had taken the biggest one. She'd also taken the wrong plant, mistaking a coin plant for a money tree. She'd left a note saying she'd taken it because my wife hadn't replied. Where on Earth is that tantamount to permission? Anyway, my wife sent her a text saying she could keep the plant but in the future she should wait for a reply. Lisa did not like this. I was on the couch when she arrived. Lisa put the plant on the porch with a note. I knew my wife told her to keep it so I motioned through a window "no" as she set it down. She shook her head and made haste back to her car. As I was opening the front door to call to her, she took off with a little squeal. The note said she didn't want to wait for the plants my wife intended for her, that she wanted to give one to one of her friends now. She added that she didn't want a plant at all because it would bring "bad juju" to her house. In my mind, taking a plant without permission would be the source of bad juju, but what do I know? After this incident, Lisa became noticeably shorter. Her reports weren't quite so friendly. Sometimes her messages were incomprehensible. We couldn't make sense of them. She gave our furbaby with a pancreas disease the wrong food serving, despite us updating it in the app. There were other issues, most of them minor, but she was clearly annoyed. Again, what mattered most to us is the cats liked her. Lisa was slated for an upcoming visit, so I told my wife that Lisa hadn't closed the cat food properly -- she left the top of a 17-pound bag gaping open with a chip clip hanging off its side -- and she'd failed to close our broken fridge door properly, even though we'd left her a note, which disappeared for some reason. These were small, basic things, just a little constructive feedback as we didn't want the cat food or food in the fridge to spoil. Lisa did not agree. She wrote a text screed complaining that we didn't inform her earlier and FIRING US. Shocked, my wife wrote back that that was fine, but would she still honor her upcoming commitments? My wife sent multiple notes. Lisa didn't respond until two days before we left. We'd found another sitter by then, which for those in the know, is a huge hurdle when you're getting ready to leave town (catsitters need a meet-and-greet before taking on new clients). Lisa said she hadn't seen the messages in the app that she demanded we use! This, after much complaining that we weren't using the app properly (we thought we were). When my wife explained we found another sitter, Lisa, within what seemed like minutes, complained that we were hurting her reputation by telling another catsitter about our experience and later cut us off from the app (so, now, we couldn't copy and paste info and instructions for other catsitters who use the same app). After all this malarkey, we are kind of relieved she fired us and have found two awesome catsitters to take her place.

Really can't say enough good things about Lisa. She truly cares about our cats, takes time with…read morethem and knows them so well. We never need to worry when we are away and she goes above and beyond for them and in alerting us if anything is unusual or needs attention at our home.

We love these folks. We have a lot of animals: dogs, cats,…read morerabbits, a lizard and foster pups! Everyone with k-9 & Katnip has done a great job when visiting. We have an older cat that requires meds 2x/day and I never have to worry about her being taken care of properly while we are gone. Our dogs are geriatric so, it's always comforting when we receive our detailed updates with photos. It really takes the stress off of us from being away from them. We have had K-9 & Katnip take care of our animals for both drop-ins and as long as week also. Never a worry. They are great communicators and very responsive. I would highly recommend this service.

I cannot praise Hallie and her team enough for their outstanding service and dedication to their…read moremission. Hallie and Millie tagteamed for 3 overnight stays, pottie breaks and feedings this past weekend, not an easy task for 3 senior dogs, with various health issues requiring numerous medications, but they pulled it off without a hitch.