Red Barn Kennels - Dawsonville, Georgia

Terry W.

What a wonderful experience for our pups. Martha and Jay along with their staff are wonderful. When we drop them off they don't look back at us. We just returned from a week away. Martha was so kind to send a picture of our boys to us. Made my/our day to see them with happy faces. Have used Red Barn for many years with the previous owners Shelley and Bob and now with Martha and Jay. They are truly a blessing as they love our pups as much as we do. Smokey and Jeffery with some Red Barn friends pictured.

Nicky S.

Our Bellarina just loves RBK! Oftentimes, she plays with a gang of doodles, to which I'm sure it is hysterical to watch.

chris B.

Our dog Callie loves Red Barn. She really likes the people and dogs there. We have used them for both daycare and boarding and they are great!

SNN

What an unfortunate change for the worse of what once was a great place since it has gone to new ownership! We used to rave about Shelly and Bob to everyone and how much we liked the facility. Not anymore! We are truly saddened to see what Shelly and Bob built go in the gutter.

The new ownership is subpar and disingenuous on a good day at best. The male (Jay) has a very condescending demeanor and can best be described as passive aggressive. The wife (Martha) appears to be a “know it all” and very arrogant.

Our dogs were not the same this time when we picked them up from their stay and for about 3 days after coming back home, they appeared to be suffering from a form of doggy PTSD. We had them there last November while transitioning from the prior ownership and we already noted some minor things (like the male making a smart comment about prior owners) that made us question the new ownership and we should have gone with our instincts and not come back 3 months later. The other item that should have been a giant red flag was when they refused to let our daughter do an unannounced spot check on our dogs during their first stay under the new ownership – this was a major alarm bell we overlooked and that is our fault.

One of our 2 dogs came back with an injury during the most recent stay. When we confronted them, the story kept changing on how it occurred. We were told nothing ahead of time of the injury and only found out as our plane landed and our daughter who picked up our dogs sent us a picture of the injury – granted it was not a life-threatening injury but non the less something happened. At minimum we should have been told by the ownership with a photo and explanation, but we received none.

When confronted with the situation the story changed a few times (too much detail to type here) and we were told "well you were out of the country and we didn’t want to bother you with what we didn’t think was a serious matter" – well you knew our return date so perhaps having called and told us the morning of our return would have been a wise thing, at minimum, to do!? At the end of the day the male half, Jay, blamed everything on the dog and had a elaborate story of just how hyper she was and how it was all her fault ….. odd none of the behavior he described has ever occurred and our two newly hired in house sitters have told us the exact opposite of what Jay said and our home video surveillance does not show any of the behavior Jay alleged to have occurred. We are fairly certain that Jay just made it up as he went.

We had other concerns too (they clearly didn't follow any of our directions for the dogs) along with a host of other things, but we won’t go into great lengths on here.

One thing to note, as others have mentioned, the staff is no longer the same as under the prior ownership. The original staff was caring, and they truly were there for the animals – its almost as if the new ownership has run them all off and in fact, we saw a “for hire” posting for them on social media – I don’t think anyone wants to work for them.

We are not the only ones who have noticed the negative changes, and we are certainly not the only ones who will no longer bring our loved fury family members to Red Barn Kennels. We are fairly certain these people just bought it for the house and to have the business as a source of income and write-off for the house/property which is very plausible as the female half is a CPA by trade/education for 25+ years and the male half appears to have come from a marketing background which neither seem to have any experience with animals.

They will go under as a business at the rate they are going, and it is just a matter of time not a question of if they will go under.

Bottom line – form your own opinion but we do NOT recommend them! Buyer Beware!! We have the text messages for this past interaction along with pictures which 100% supports our position.

Tatiana P.

Both of our dogs stayed at RBK for the first time while we vacationed in Florida. We could tell right away that they loved it because they were licking the faces of Martha and Jay (owners) more than us when we saw them at pickup! The owners sent us pictures and kept in touch with us on how they were doing since we are those overprotective parents. It was so nice and relaxing to see and hear from them often! We are going to book our upcoming vacations soon so we secure our spots at this great place. Thank you again to all RBK staff and Martha and Jay for giving us peace of mind during our time away from our poochies!

Joanne B.

Red Barn Kennels has been a godsend for me. I live in a community near the kennel and take my dogs for daycare frequently. My dogs are always happy when I pick them up and anxious to go in the mornings. Recently I was hospitalized. My dogs have been staying at Red Barn that, at this time, amounts to 2 weeks. Knowing they are in a safe secure happy environment is extremely reassuring. Thank you Martha, Jay and all helpers at Red Barn for caring so deeply about the welfare of your visitors..

Donna M.

Very easy to work with. They love my fur baby and treat her like family. The daily pictures during her stay are wonderful!

Judy W.

We just picked up our dog, Tobe, from Red Barn and are so grateful to Martha and Jay for the excellent, loving care they gave him for 41 days. We have boarded at Red Barn since 2009 with Shelley and Bob and have found the transition with Martha & Jay an easy one. 41 days without our boy was very hard, but we consoled ourselves that he was having fun and not missing us a bit. This was proved by the photos Jay & Martha sent showing Tobe playing with his buddies. It gave us enormous peace of mind to know our boy was being so thoughtfully and lovingly cared for. We highly, highly recommend Red Barn and Martha and Jay.