Located just southwest of Marshfield near Ebbe Park, Almosta Ranch consists of 60 acres of sprawling fields, beautiful woods with trails, and a clean kennel area.
Patti Christensen, a retired teacher, owns and operates the facility with help from her brother and other volunteers.
“A year and a half ago we began home care visits for pets and had many, many people ask about boarding,” said Patti. “That was when the idea started.”
The idea grew from boarding to become a comprehensive K9 Learning Center, she added.
“We now do day care, boarding and problem solving with individualized learning activities,” she said. “Just a few examples include working with socializing puppies and older dogs, preparing dogs to have calm, successful vet visits, and helping the transition of a new dog coming into your home.”
With different areas outlined as an “exploration experience,” “socialization spot,” “confidence zone,” “scent adventure,” nature trails, and a dog park, Christensen’s setup is designed to build a dog’s skills and make them as comfortable as possible when away from home.
“Every dog that comes to K9 Learning Center is treated like our own dog,” she said. “We provide a wide variety of learning activities specifically designed for dogs. The comment we hear most often from our clients is ‘our dog came home happy, well-behaved, and tired.'”
Individualized programs help dogs learn manners, and develop confidence with people, environments, textures, sounds, and smells.
“We are able to provide the environment where dogs have a BLAST and everybody goes home happy,” she said. “Some people come to us with problems. We identify the unique needs of each dog and their handler and develop intervention strategies which will work best for them. We love dogs and provide them with all the opportunities they need to learn to be happy, healthy dogs.”
Though working their way through the challenges of being a new business, Patti’s favorite part of her work is receiving feedback from happy owners that tell her their dog is coming home calm and exercised, and are so excited to return to Almosta Ranch.
“Working and pet care are difficult to balance, and we want to help reassure people that we are providing exercise, activities and socialization for their dogs to be happy and healthy,” she said. “We have activities to help dogs build confidence, social and scent skills which are balanced with exercise and rest. We have created a variety of learning zones which include exercise in the K9 Korral, a couple miles of wooded trails, a Confidence Zone including an agility course, Scent Adventure, Exploration Experience, Plunge Pool, Prey Play, and a Socialization Spot.”
Standard canine vaccinations and Bordetella are required for all dogs, as is flea/tick treatment.
Almosta Ranch is located on a secluded portion of HWY BB. They can be reached at 715-305-1802.
