ALL CREATURES PROFESSIONAL PET SITTING SERVICES

All Creatures owner, Dawn, is loving & caring guardian angel to all creatures. Her experience includes five days of training at the Dog Psychology Center with Cesar Millan. Two workshops in Dealing with Difficult Dogs, trainer, Heather Beck, Draper, Utah. A two week workshop with Michael Ellis in Santa Rosa. Spiritually based dog training philosophy with The Monks of New Skete, New York. She has over a decade of experience in pet sitting, a decade in veterinary services. Dawn has been my pet sitter, and I trust her without question. She is my Go To Gal whenever I have a critter question. Kind, compassionate, caring!

I’m Dawn’s husband and often lend a hand in taking care of the critters entrusted to All Creatures — mostly at our home with boarded animals and sometimes at clients’ homes. I didn’t know that people had started reviewing her on Unilocal and I was shocked to see the negative review by Tina A, because it is such a stark contrast to the positive feedback my wife typically receives. I wish I could have left this as a response/​comment to Tina A’s review, but I didn’t find a way to do that.
I remember the incident with Tina A’s dogs. It was certainly not the first time my wife was encountering aggressive dogs. But typically she gets a heads-​up beforehand, or better even an initial introduction to the dog in the owner’s presence. And I certainly didn’t understand why the window was left open — with only a fly-​screen and some blinds between two large dogs and a potential (requested) «intruder»… Dawn decided to use a broom to get into the house (if you’ve seen Cesar Milan’s show — he sometimes uses a tennis racket). Of course this is not to threaten let alone harm the dog. More like a staff set in between you and the dog to claim space. The dogs were fine once we were inside, but still made it very clear to us that the front door was off limits. I’m glad my wife didn’t get hurt.
I don’t know, but if I’m out of town and one of our own dogs was threatening someone I had asked to enter the house, I’d want to know about it and would try to provide suggestions over the phone on how to proceed. I guess Tina A had more of a «don’t bother me» expectation and took offense in the fact that my wife called her. And yes, I probably should have repaired the screen better. I remember thinking I’d like to come back during my wife’s next visit and give it another try, but then I forgot. Shame on me!
Also, if I am unhappy with any service I received, I typically let the provider know so they can try to make it better (for me or at least with future clients). In fact I often measure the quality of a service provider by how well he/​she takes and reacts to criticism. Unfortunately Tina A never gave us that opportunity. Luckily her opinion of the quality of my wife’s services and skills in interacting with animals is far from representative of the majority of our clients.

I don’t even know where to begin when writing this review about my dog’s savior and second mom. I have a very testy and strong English bulldog named Sebastian. Sebastian is 5 yrs old and has had aggressive tendencies since the day he turned 1. I moved to California 4 years ago and tried whatever I could to tame his «alpha» behavior but eventually it caught up to us, for Sebastian got kicked out of his first daycare for lunging at another person. I and my dog fell into a massive depression because I had nowhere to leave him so he would stay in the crate all day while I was at work. Then an angel fell into my lap named Dawn. I was told that she also specializes in handling aggressive dogs/​breeds. I took Sebastian to her place 3 years ago and have never looked back. He was a very challenging dog, but Dawn handled him the way any parent would handle a misguided and uncontrolled child… with intense discipline and persistence. Because of Dawn my dog knows never to misbehave around her, and me. I’ve learned that misbehaved dogs are reflections of distracted, over forgiving, and especially in my case, first time unknowing owners. Now my dog doesn’t move an inch without looking at me first. That is monumental. In addition to this my dog was 15 lbs over weight and would limp, which was bad especially being that he’s a big English. With Dawn’s country strong attentiveness he has lost all the weight and is so much stronger and doesn’t limp. He is happier, infinitely loved, and in an environment that is conducive to his mental and physical longevity. Everyone in my world knows that I trust NOONE with my dog except Dawn. She is my family and the reason the most important creature in my life is healthy, alive, and has not been taken from me for «bad behavior». There are people in this world who connect with animals in a way that only the gods understand and Dawn exemplifies that notion.
As for this negative reviewer … Well whoever Tina is… She made it quite evident in her own rendition of the «story» that she is the one who needs to be trained, because it was quite evident that she has no control or «know how» over her own canines; and I would NEVER leave a pet with her … SHE seems to be the liability.
Dawn has saved my dog, and me, in ways that words can’t describe. Gets me emotional. Never worry about your pet when they are with her because there isn’t a single person that could do a finer job than her; especially if your dog needs a «Dawn-​tervention» like mine did. I recommend her without ANY reservations as if you couldn’t tell already … :).

Do not use this sitter!
A background… I have 2 dogs, 1 is 10 and the other 5 and they’ve both had great exposure to pet sitters and have always been given EXCELLENT reports. I have also been a certified & insured petsitter and was fooled by Dawn’s experience.
Play-​by-​play:
I leave the dogs for a long weekend (one 7 – 8 am and one 8−9pm per day) and get a call at the first visit (a message), at 6:15 pm: «the dogs wont let me in, they’re barking, they bent out the screen and I don’t know what to do so I’m having my husband come over with tennis rackets so we can get in.» This message is left while she is standing RIGHT OUTSIDE THE WINDOW (which is knee high), clearly antagonizing the dogs.
I return the call within minutes and she answers while STILL STANDING right outside the window! Says, «I really feel bad for your neighbors, I’m not sure what to do but I wanted to tell you.» I had told her when I met her that my lab has a big mouth so even though he’s a sweetheart, he’ll probably bark on every visit. She said, «it’s just that I just came from a Germ Shep attack seminar so I know what he (my other dog) is capable of (all while still standing in front of the window).
I tell that if she wants, she can get some food in the garage and throw it into the window and speak very nicely to the dogs and they’ll calm done. She gets the food while I’m on the phone and doesn’t speak to the dogs at all, throws the food in and says, «nope, that wont work, they’re not interested». She then says she’ll call me back.
I’m in the process of cutting my dinner short and DRIVING BACK 9 hrs after I just arrived to my destination and she calls, «the dogs are fine, I just went in with a broom and yelled at them and they listened.»
I was as nice as I could be bc I wasn’t returning for another 3 days but she assured me that the screen was fixed and all was good.
Got a text on Sat, «did you forget to fill out the paperwork, or did you forget.» Told her I filled it out but didn’t leave it bc I forgot. Heard nothing back from her.
Came back the screen VERY bent out of shape and all it took was (literally) 2 seconds for me to pop it back into place. (Yep, window was closed so it’s not that they popped it out again).
I am only writing this review because I was a petsitter and know how easy it is to be an excellent one. If someone is scared of barking dogs or German Shepherds, they should not take them as clients. A good petsitter should also know how to deal with people because they are who writes the check.
I just moved to town so I will be researching for another sitter but she is the first one I’ve had that I wouldn’t even consider hiring again. I do feel guilty writing this because this is someone’s livelihood but I wouldn’t want anyone to experience the worry I had all weekend and the dread (but willingness) to drive 9 hours away, only to possibly have to turn around 2 hrs later and do it again.

We had a camping trip planned with the doggies and a rafting trip scheduled for one day. What to do with the pooches? We called around and were referred to
which helps to find certified petsitters based on locations, needs, etc. We were desperate, it was the holiday weekend and there was only 2 options available to us. Fortunately All Creatures was one of those options and we made arrangements for them to watch our dogs the very next day from 7am to 5pm at a very reasonable cost for the 2 dogs. They are life savers, or at the very least trip savers.
We were able to enjoy camping with the dogs and know that they were in good hands while we went river rafting. This should be a pet sitter all rafting companies recommend to their clients. They are located very near the pickup spot in N. Auburn and our dogs seemed tuckered out by the time we picked them up.
Thank you All Creatures for doing what you do.