Requirements

Evaluation

All dogs must complete an evaluation before being accepted for boarding or daycare. Evaluations are free, take about 20 minutes, and are scheduled by appointment.

During the evaluation, we review the information you’ve provided and talk with you about your dog’s personality, behavior, and history. We then carefully introduce your dog to selected dogs currently staying with us, so we can see how they respond to different sizes, personalities, temperaments, and energy levels. We look for signs of aggression toward other dogs or people, as well as signs of stress or other problem behavior. Afterward, we’ll give you our honest opinion of whether your dog will be a good fit at the ranch.

Why is this evaluation so important?

Lone Star Dog Ranch is not like any other boarding facility. In every other boarding facility, your dog is alone 95% of the time. Why care about a dog’s personality if they don’t interact with other dogs? Here at Lone Star Dog Ranch, all dogs are free to play with each other, socialize, etc. For almost every dog, this does not present a problem. Dogs are social animals, and quickly adapt to the social order of the pack. A very select few dogs, however, simply cannot function in this environment. How do we know which dogs can’t get along? Again, this is where Lone Star Dog Ranch is different from other boarding facilities. Our owners and staff have well over 100 years of combined experience caring for dogs in group-play environments. We are able to very quickly spot any problem behavior, and occasionally we enlist the help of some of our younger staff members. Our own personal dogs have been raised in this environment since they were puppies. They are no strangers to the interview process. They have the ability to quickly adapt any dog to the social order here, in a limited one-on-one fashion.

Our number one objective is your dog’s safety, and we are strict about what temperaments we allow. Your dog needs to be nice. Being nice means different things to different people, and that is another reason why our evaluation is so important.

While we ask how you would describe your dog’s temperament, in the end your dog will make their own choice about how they will act. If we feel your dog is not making good choices for themselves, we will step in to make choices for them.

We are strict about the dogs we accept. Depending on their temperament, some dogs are not allowed at the ranch. Dogs who display any form of aggression toward people or other dogs are not allowed, and we may be unable to accept dogs experiencing extreme fear that could put themselves or our staff at risk. People are often curious about whether the dogs fight. At the ranch, the dogs do not fight because we do not allow it. While arguments are natural, we are trained to keep them from escalating into full-blown physical confrontations. If a dog is unable to heed our warning, they will not receive a second chance.

It is paramount that your dog plays well with others. As the pack leaders, we can judge very quickly which dogs are happy in this environment. Some of the dogs are clowns, preferring to play with anyone and everyone. Other dogs are observers, more comfortable on the periphery. There are dogs that are the fun police; it’s their job to ensure that the pack doesn’t get too carried away. And of course, there are the dogs that earn their role as the dominant dog. There are many dynamics to a pack of dogs that we could talk about for hours and hours, but it is important for you to know that the number one objective is the safety and happiness of the dogs that visit.

Lone Star Dog Ranch believes that the happiest place on earth for dogs is to be with a pack of dogs. Their instincts allow them to know where they fit into a pack of their friends. In the pack, there are few mixed messages for them to understand. The rules that dogs live by are as old as time. Fit into the pack or don’t fit in at all.

Watching a pack of dogs is exciting and educational every day. Our ranch is full of fun-loving, good-hearted dogs. Happy, funny, wild, full of energy, sweet: if these are the words you would use to describe your dog, then your dog will be welcome to join in.