The next day I called Golden Paw to schedule a tour of the facility. Before even setting an appointment, the girl asked me a bunch of questions about Kona. She wanted to know what type of dog he was, if he had been neutered and if he had ever stayed at a kennel before. She also requested that we bring Kona in, so that they could evaluate him before giving us the tour.

I have no idea why, but I was SO nervous. Kona is great at the dog park, but he doesn’t do well with other dogs when he’s on the leash.

We drove over to Golden Paw the next afternoon. As soon as I walked through the doors I immediately felt a sense of calm wash over me. The facility was beautiful! It looked like one of those luxury spas and was decorated with dozens of pictures of the kennel’s regulars.

Best of all, it had a HUGE playroom right in the middle of the building. As soon as Kona saw it, he jumped up onto the observation window to check it out. Talk about doggie heaven! The room was full of fun doggy toys, a couple of slides and even couches for them to rest on. There were about a half dozen dogs running around inside and they were all having the time of their lives.

One of the staff members came out to take us on our tour, while another one took Kona back to the play room to start his evaluation. The facility was amazing. They had luxury suites for the big dogs, which had beds and TVs in them. They also had a potty room for the dogs to do their business in and a salon so that they could get groomed while you’re away. We politely declined their offer to give Kona a blueberry facial (He’d end up eating it anyways).

At the end of the tour, we walked back to the observation window to watch Kona interact with the other dogs. The girl came back out and told us that he passed with flying colors. After faxing the kennel a copy of Kona’s vaccination records, we were able to set his appointment for the following weekend.

Needless to say, Kona had a fabulous time at Golden Paw. We signed him up for four days of all-day play, so he got to run around with his little friends everyday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. By the time we brought him home, he was the most tired I have ever seen him. He literally slept for three days straight.

Every now and then, he would get up to eat or poop and then he would slump right back into bed.