HuntingNet.com Forums - Found a Great Kennel -- Zion Kennels in North Texas

the zion kennels website is outdated and incorrect. the facilities listed are not what the actual facilities are. it appears the operation may have moved. some people listed on the site do not even train there any longer. see below from our experience of the past 3 weeks.

having researched Zion kennels online and found good reviews on its owner Eddie, we decided to take our two labrador puppies there for training while we were out of town. the dogs were just at 4 months when dropped off, as specified by their training program requirements. we were told 2-3 weeks. at two weeks, not hearing anything from anyone at Zion, we reached out to setup a pickup time. we were told training wasn't going great, so the the third week would be required, with no real detail as to why. we waited another week. the day before pickup eddies obedience trainer Matt sent us a message requesting a 4th week stating training was not going well. it was at this point we knew something was wrong and declined the additional week. two days later at pick up our fears were confirmed. one of the two dogs we dropped off was in horrific shape. both labs were of equal size and weight at drop off and within one week in age. at pickup one dog was 10lbs behind the other and 6lbs underweight. he was terrified, urinating on himself as eddie drug him around to "show" his skill. mind you this dog knew how to sit and stay (loosely) at drop off. once home with both dogs we performed a basic visual check on each, one dog, like i mentioned before was in fine health and spirits. the other dog however was vomiting, underweight, his nails were cut so far down half the quick was gone, his pads were burned, his joints were now covered in rough skin from too much concrete time. he wouldn't eat, wouldn't go outside. we took both dogs to the vet the next day where all this was documented. the dog was put on anti nausea meds, and anti inflammatory meds, his intestines were also found to be hardened. i reached out to eddie to report on the condition of the dog and the findings of our vet, of course he denied any and all wrong doing (even though he was not even the hands on trainer) yet had no good reason for such a drastic decline in metal stability, willingness to please, physical health and weight that occurred during the dogs 3 week stay with zion kennels. this facility, however attractive from the drone camera is nothing more then a car port placed over 15 or so standard outdoor kennels, when these become full eddie will double stack the dogs, when that is exhausted he stores the dogs for long periods of time in his travel trailer kennel boxes. perhaps years ago eddie was on top of his game, and zion kennels was a reputable facility however it is our opinion that those days are now gone for this establishment and training team. i can't imagine leaving dogs with zion for months on end, what a disservice to a great animal.