DO NOT BOARD YOUR DOG AT PAWS INN THE WOODS, GRAFTON OHIO…read more
My dog died because of the carelessness and complacency of the kennel staff at Paws Inn the Woods.
My retired working dog has been boarded periodically at this kennel for years. He was never allowed to have blankets or toys in the kennel for his safety. This past stay, they put not one but multiple blankets in his kennel and admitted to having zero accountability of blankets or toys in general. They do not pay attention to how many blankets they put in and certainly do not pay attention if any become missing. Not even two days after having him home, I noticed he wasn't acting normal. He was trying to vomit and was struggling to poop. We took him to the Vet immediately, where they found he had a serious obstruction in his digestive tract. They performed emergency surgery and removed the material, which ended up being nearly a whole quilted blanket. Tragically, he ended up dying shortly after surgery due to the severity of the surgery's impact on his system. This was a healthy 8 year old GSD living out his retirement after years of service to this country which was tragically cut short due to a completely preventable incident.
When I spoke to the owner of the kennel, she told me three things that broke our hearts even more.
1. She insisted this kind of thing has never happened before at her kennel. Which, after many years of working in pet and working dog kennels and professionally handling and training dogs, I know is not true. Dogs eating things is a very common thing in a kennel environment, which is why it is so important that the staff monitor and keep accountability of exactly what is put in each dog's kennel, if anything.
2. She said she had no idea how or when it happened. When I spoke to the kennel staff, they were immediately defensive and straight up told me they put not one, but multiple blankets in the kennel and had no idea one was missing because they don't count them. They said they don't have time for that.
3. The worst thing the owner told me was that she had no intentions of changing the way she ran her kennel and said she wouldn't lie to me and say she would, just to make us feel better. She was unbelievably unempathetic and offered us nothing in the way of an apology or anything.
It is also important to note that while I had this conversation with the owner at the kennel just days after the loss of our dog, I witnessed another dog in an outside run tearing apart the stuffed dog bed that was in the kennel with him. When I pointed it out to her, she said "Oh he does that all the time, he doesn't eat it." She did NOTHING to stop the incident as I literally witnessed the dog pull mouthful after mouthful of stuffing out.
For the safety and well-being of your beloved dog, I strongly discourage using this facility to board your pet. The owner and two staff members are lazy, and complacent. Keeping track of what goes in each kennel and making sure it comes out should be a priority at every kennel, among other important things that keep the dogs healthy and safe. For my dog, that lack of attention to detail cost him his life. I am speaking out to hopefully save other dogs from the same fate.
