Taurus Academy

I came here during the non-​open hours for a tour, I like to see how boarding facilities operate outside the designated «tour» hours on surprise — they let me in… This review is in no way a reflection of the girl that gave me the tour, you were great and informational. By my uploaded pictures, I’m sure you will remember who I am. With that being said… Drumroll…
*If you don’t love your animal, bring them here*
Lets start off with the facility, apparently it was a Veterinary office prior to being sadly converted, by sadly. I mean nothing changed. Basically as you can tell by the pictures… they use the vet tech rooms (closets) to stack crates on crates. basically small bathrooms with crates shoved into them and clutter (junk) strewn about… See photo.
Continuing onward… room on left side as a storage room for treats, food (which was sitting out in the open not sealed sitting in a giant 4 foot high barrel. Crates with random hoses blowing air into them (see picture)… apparently if they give the dog a bath, they put them in there to «air dry» — ummm. ya. ok… Let’s keep walking to the back, ohh more crates stacked on each other with every dog looking lethargic. (see picture) I think Mike Vick’s dogs had better care than this…#MV7 — The outside play yards had what was described as a structure for athletic play and height variables. IT’S A DAMN CIRCULAR BENCH, PEOPLE. But, hey… who am I to judge, its only $ 1200 bucks for two weeks of boarding and that includes training of the dog… oh wait, you are right next to Uchi. — Let me take my $ 1200 and blow it on some Sake instead, at least I wouldn’t be contributing to the profits of this place that are obviously lining the owners pockets instead of going towards the care and well being of the animals. «c’mon man»… in my ESPN voice — Someone called this the «Four Seasons of doggie care» — how long have you and the owners been best friends? — F****** joke. Pictures don’t lie.

I’m not sure why Taurus Lamar has only 3.5 stars. They are amazing! We’ve taken our middle aged dog, who is seven years old, there since April of 2014 for weekly doggie daycare. And, we added our new 6 month old pup to weekly daycare as soon as we could. The new pup has a ton of energy, and the staff are very patient and understanding with her, and they work some training into the play. They carefully place dogs in play groups with dogs who match their energy level and size. Our dogs LOVE it there. They come home tired and content, but not completely exhausted, as they are given some quiet time during the day as well.
It’s easy to see how much the staff members love and care for the four-​legged members of our family!

We took our black lab here for a day of day care because we had an all day event. We were so disappointed. They said they didn’t have time to give us a tour when we dropped her off so we settled for seeing the place when we picked her up which was a big mistake. When we came to pick her up we had a tour of the facility. There were cages of dogs stacked one on top of the other. They told us that our dog was let out for 15 minutes at a time maybe a couple times throughout the day. After the tour they took +15 minutes to locate and bring our dog to us. Two breaks at 15 minutes each is not day care. The place was tiny and cramped and our girl did not get any exercise while she was there so we still needed to take her to the dog park. Would not use this place to board or for daycare!

I have been taking my chocolate lab here for about a year and he has never been happier. We tried other day cares around town and they were terrible. Taurus has trained employees who understand canine behavior and create a safe and loving environment. I am partial to Nikki the trainer, as she has taken special care of my boy on a number of occasions. Rachel and McKenzie are also delightful. I recommend Taurus to everyone I know. Bodhi and I won’t go anywhere else.

We have been associated with Taurus Lamar for about seven years now. They tamed and trained our first Puggle and about a year and a half ago we assumed joint responsibility for our very active second dude. God love ‘em that was a tall order with the new guy.
Here is what they have done for us:
*Been a partner in training
*As part of the puppy boot camp trained on basics at their location; came to our home on multiple occasions to train US, including kids; gave text numbers to meet at car exiting, which was initially a disaster and now better; offered to show up at our home at random times to work on door etiquette; work continually on bark and other issues (no charge, part of the responsibility they take for our pets)
*Assess which dogs are good «transition» to interact with the newbies
They all really care at Taurus Lamar. When we were to have a Christmas card photo shoot, Jose had agreed to be right there to keep the dogs in line.
Yes, they are expensive (plan your drop off times carefully and save $$ on boarding; buy play date and walk package deals, etc, etc). I joke that it is the «Four Seasons» of doggie care.
Also the application for new dogs makes Harvard, Ivy League look like a piece of cake. As near as I can tell they don’t allow aggressive dogs or owners, hence the screening.
But I can easily justify the expense and hassle with the happy results we get at Taurus Lamar. We genuinely like the folks there. Our dogs do, too.

$ 100 for boarding my dog for 24 hours??? WTF???
We lived in S. Lamar for several years before having to move to the West Coast for my wife’s job, and used Taurus frequently for boarding our dog when we traveled. While they were somewhat pricey, they were convenient and at least reasonable.
Fast forward to last December, where we were in TX for an extended period of time, and visiting friends in Austin for 1 ½ days, with our dog in tow. We dropped him off on a Monday afternoon, with a scheduled pickup time for the following afternoon. Expected total — $ 40. So far, so good.
From there, the price of a 24 hr boarding shot up. First, we found ourselves needing to pick him up an hour early, as we needed to beat traffic in getting out to Houston, which was an additional $ 25. We knew about this, and agreed to the charge when discussing on the phone, as the gained time was more valuable. Total: $ 65
The last straw was when we came to pick up our dog. They charged us the $ 65 noted above plus an ADDITIONAL $ 35 for a «play day». When questioned about why we were being charged for the play day, they explained that we had left him for an overnight boarding + play day. I asked them what would have happened if I had dropped my dog on a Monday A.M., then picked up on a Tues A.M. The answer — «well, that’s a boarding, not a play day». When I asked a manager to explain why the cost of 24-​hour stay varies by ~2X, depending on when the animal is dropped off, DESPITE BEING AN OTHERWISE IDENTICAL 24 HOUR PERIOD, the answer I got was «well, they’re different, and that’s our policy». Total: $ 100, and a line of complete bulls**t from the manager to boot.
To add insult to injury, the manager told me that I could have avoided the $ 25 early pickup charge if I had given them a couple of hours notice in advance, which is PRECISELY what I did, and despite being held over the barrel for the ludicrous «play day» charge, he refused to waive either of the additional charges.
So, I’m out $ 100 for boarding my dog for 24 hours, no bath/​cleaning or other special services, of this, $ 60 came from the privilege dealing with an arbitrary boarding policy and apathetic management.
Bottom line — Taurus will take you for every dollar they think they can squeeze out of you, and they are completely unapologetic about it, despite having previously been a loyal customer for nearly 5 years. With the explosion of businesses in S. Lamar over the past 2 – 3 years, there are likely much better alternatives available by now. We will absolutely not be going back, and have advised our many friends in Austin to do the same.

Love love love these guys. They have done sooo much with me and my 2 Shelties! Casey and Sidda my 14 month old is becoming quite the little lady!

Our 5 month old puppy finished his 2wk board and train program with Nikki at Taurus. I was so impressed to see the way my puppy followed his trainer attentively and adoringly when I picked him up and when Nikki came back to visit us at our house. The two had established a great bond. I was also delighted to see our puppy finally start to walk on loose leash, which had been a major challenging for us in the past.
Taurus is a very well run and organized facility. When our puppy stayed with them, I got regular text, email with pictures and videos on his updates, which is very reassuring. Our puppy is always happy and well behaved after spending time at Taurus.

We’ve been so pleased with Taurus. I previously worked from home, but when I got a new office job, we needed dog day care a few days a week. I think that having consistent time with the staff and trainers at Taurus has been good for our dog, Alice. Alice, is a bit of a handful! She is very sweet, but also high energy, excitable and a little off socially. We had taken her to puppy training classes and sporadic day care at another local training center and she actually was digressing there — we needed to turn things around and Taurus has really helped with this!
Taurus understands Alice’s energy and quirks and the team there has tried different methods to find what works best for her. In January, they made her one of their focus dogs, which meant that they would spend extra time training her (this was free of charge, I think it is part of a program they have for training their trainers — we didn’t sign up for this, they just asked us if we were interested.) This extra one-​on-​one time, mainly with a trainer named Rianna, has made a huge differed to Alice. She is much calmer in new situations and we’ve seen a huge improvement in how she acts — and reacts — to other dogs on walks. I think the most impressive thing with Taurus is that they are flexible and adaptable when it comes to their training approach. Not all dogs will learn in the same way. Alice’s former training center didn’t have this same flexibility and gave up when their approach wasn’t working. I love that Taurus didn’t just give up or label Alice as un-​trainable, they tried a variety of approaches and tailored their training style to fit Alice’s needs. To me, that seems like what a good trainer should do. And we have seen much improvement as a result!
In addition to Rianna, we have liked pretty much all of their staff. Nikki is great, too and is always quick to offer tips on the fly when we drop Alice off in the morning. She too has a spirited pit bull mix, so she gets it. We get helpful feedback from the whole team. Alice is also very excited to go to Taurus each week and has made some great friends there, both dog and human. We are big fans of Taurus.

Taurus is really popular in Austin but I was disappointed in this location.
The thing about taking your dog to a boarding place is that you can’t ask him/​her how was their day? Did they have fun? Did they get to go outside a lot and play with other dogs? Were any of the dogs mean to them?
This is where we as dog owners depend on the establishment to feed us some PR. For example my dog’s vet downtown does overnight boarding and they always give me a written report card on what she did, and they tell me some sort of story about her and even give a print out of a digital picture of her. Of course all of this is to make me the human feel like she had a good time and was in good hands.
On Saturday I had an all day 8 – 5 event and being the fact that the high was going to be 72 degrees I felt like my lil’ munchkin (Dolly) deserved a doggy day-​care day instead of being trapped inside the house all day. I took her here.
The girl that checked Dolly in had the personality of dish soap. She said maybe 2 words. When I went to pick Dolly up she was full of energy, so much so that I took her to Auditorium Shores to play with the other dogs for an hour. I seriously wonder if she really got to play at all while at Taurus. I asked the girl checking me out what Dolly had done that day and she acted like I was weird for asking. She went back into the hall and came back out, claiming that Dolly had played with a Maltipoo and some other small dog that day though I’m not sure if she just made that up. The other Taurus up off Metric always gives report cards and I made mention of that but she said they don’t do that. She really had a I-​could-​care-​less attitude.
The real clincher: $ 35 for a day of doggy day care! This pricing is INSANE. Especially for the tiny location and lack of customer service/​communication. I wish the Taurus Metric location wasn’t so dang far away because they are much better. I will be finding another place to take Dolly for any future doggy day care needs.

We use Taurus for boarding only as opposed to play days and have been very happy with them. A plus is that that they take 10% off if you have a Go Local card which paid for itself the first time I used it and boarded my dog. My dog was getting stressed when lots of dogs were coming and going and they placed her in a quieter environment which I appreciated. A downside regarding this specific Taurus is that if you are not already an established client they are not taking any new dogs for play dates. They are expensive, around $ 40/​night for boarding with play date but I think they are the most conscious of dogs needs.

Our dog Fido is a Labradoodle of the most energetic sort. When he first started at Taurus Lamar, he was almost a year old and was rapidly growing out of the cute puppy stage and into something akin to the rowdy teenage dog stage. We started at Taurus one day a week and he did so well and loved it so much we signed him up for Play and Train, which includes training sessions throughout the day in addition to the regular playtime in the backyard doggie playground. Thanks to Jilian and the rest of the staff, Fido’s manners have improved greatly. He sits before we go through doorways, stays in a down stay in a room full of distractions, and actually looks us in the eyes when we say his name. Fido loves everybody at Taurus and I venture to say the feeling is mutual.

I would strongly recommend against boarding your smaller dogs with Taurus — rr620 location.
I had a horrible experience boarding my min pin with them. He is my baby and is very small. I had a death in the family that required me to leave on a very short notice and travel overseas so I decided to let him board with Taurus.
While in their care my little dog broke his leg, it snapped in two. I was told that his leg caught in one of the linoleum metal strips on the stairs that hold it down and broke. The dog was supposed to be carried down the stairs, but instead they let him run down the stairs and hurt himself. The little bone on the leg is broken in 3 place, the bigger one snapped in half. I am crying as I am writing this, I still cant believe that they did that to him.
The dog is not the same. He is always afraid, his leg is now crooked, and who knows if/​how he will heal. I am heartbroken looking at my little boy suffer every day because of the pure negligence of the people at Taurus.
PLEASE, FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR PETS, CONSIDER BOARDING THEM SOMEWHERE ELSE.

My dog hates this place! One time I dropped her off she literally jumped the counter trying to escape. When i picked her up she was overly happy to see me and did not seem she had much outside activity, as she was full of energy. 90% of the time when i board my dog she falls asleep in the backseat in the car on the drive home. so i am always suspicious if she is all over the place.
This place sucks!

I am completely disappointed in the poor customer service Taurus has shown to a faithful return customer. I moved to California for almost 3 years and my dog is now back in Austin and we wanted to return to Taurus b/​c he’d spent a number of years boarding there and getting training. Previously they had been accommodating of the fact that he has separation anxiety and barks a good deal. However, after putting in both a phone call and an online request upon my return I received an email informing me that they could not board him at all. Sight unseen after 3 years, apparently they are no longer capable of devoting a full run to a dog. I didn’t realize all runs had to be shared or they were so seemingly incapable of boarding they flat refuse business. They ARE a DOG boarding facility right?
And to not even return my phone call but send an email is horrible form. They of course have yet to return my follow up phone call. I’ve spent thousands of dollars with Taurus and in return to be welcomed back to Austin with such incredibly poor taste leaves me with the inability to recommend them to anyone.
It’s unfortunate I will go to a large chain like Petsmart and get far better customer service and appreciation for my dog, not to mention better prices, and not be able to recommend a local Austin business. Very disappointing.
«Unfortunately, our kennel has become increasingly busy and we are unable to board **** here because of the care he requires while boarding. We just don’t have the room to devote a full run to him.»

My dog loves it, I can tell. We try to take her once a week to doggie play days to burn off her energy. Asside from the obvious I think it has also helped our rambunctious lab learn to socialize with other dogs. It is nice to know that when we are on vacation she loves her boarding place and is having fun the whole time too.

i have a special needs doggie. no, she doesn’t need pills or wear a special harness or have braces or anything, she is just a needy, spoiled, socially retarded mama’s girl with some Issues that not all doggie day care places can or will deal with.
i had taken lucy to another place here in town, which is extremely convenient to my house, and the people seemed nice enough, but at the end of the day, i suspect she had spent the whole day in the corner of the big dog pen, and was more torqued up when i got her home than she would have been had i just left her there all day. it was kind of like i had put her in a big kindercare and all that really happened is they made sure she had a place to pee and get some water.
i had heard good things about taurus from a couple folks at the dog parks, and so decided to give them a try. my first clue that this might work out better for miss lucy was the first gal we encountered at the counter had dog tattoos on her arms. i mean, if your commitment to the love of the canines goes to that length, i probably can trust you with my dog. they called me that first afternoon to give me a report on how lucy was doing. she was still freaked out, spent a lot of time on her own, but they were going to try and introduce her to some dogs her speed. no great success that time, but i felt good about trying again. she’s still a little shy/​skiddish of other dogs, but i think she’s loosening up, and i have no doubt it is the attention and care these folks have for pups that is doing it. they still give me little updates on how she is doing and i have faith that one day my nerdy little dog will be the bell of the ball. or a pain in the ass to all the other dogs. am not sure.
if i could change or improve one thing at taurus, it would be to give them a bigger yard and a team of bored little leaguers to throw balls and frisbees all afternoon for my pup. but that might be asking a bit much.

I love Taurus. We adopted our doggie in January. Shortly afterwards, we realized we needed a place for her to go to daycare. This Taurus was one of the closest doggie daycare places to our house so we decided to give it a whirl.
I have always been impressed by their professionalism and obvious love of the dogs who go there.
My dog loves going there. seriously. We can’t really use the word Taurus around our house or else the dog starts making happy noises and running to the garage to to hop in the car. We have a small dog ~ 20 pounds. She literally leaps into my arms for me to put her in the car when she knows she is going to Taurus and leaps back into my arms when I take her out of the car at their location.
We have probably taken our dog there 30 times now and she still loves it. They know her by name and love on her when she comes in. Every dog is treated like a special guest on arriving and picked up.
The best part is when my dog comes home at night (we take her twice a week currently). She’s happy, calm, and sleepy. She wants to eat, have a bathroom break walk, and then curl up with us on the sofa and snooze until bedtime.

I’ve only used Taurus once so far, but I’m a fan.
A month or two ago, I made a boarding reservation for my dog Mindy for an upcoming trip. However, before they’ll accept your dog as a boarder, they require him or her to come here for a «play date» (basically a day of doggie day care) so they can evaluate his/​her personality to ensure that it’s compatible with the way they handle the dogs. I like this philosophy, because it makes me feel confident that I’m not boarding my dog with somebody else’s mean/​aggressive dog (this is important because they allow the dogs to play together outside).
So I took Mindy for a play date. The staff was suuuuuuper nice and very sweet to Mindy. I asked for a tour of the kennel when I dropped her off, and they jumped right up to show me around. This building is older and used to be a vet clinic, so it’s nothing to write home about. However, it appeared clean, very organized, and the kennels are plenty large (actually, large enough for two dogs — and you can choose when you leave your dog here whether you’d prefer for your dog to be kenneled alone or with another dog of compatible personality). They have two largeish play areas outside that are very well-​fenced and which allow them to separate intact males from intact females. The dogs are rotated outside in groups for supervised 45 minute intervals of play time, 4 – 6 times a day. AND they have a person who lives on-​site, so that if there’s a problem with the dogs during the night, somebody is right there to take care of it immediately. I was very impressed by this, and I know Camp4Paws (which is the other place I’ve boarded Mindy) does not have anyone living on-​site.
So I left Mindy in the morning, and they actually called me over the lunch hour to just let me know that she was doing great. How nice is that? Then, when I picked her up, they gave me a freakin’ «doggie report card» that told me how she did, who her favorite four-​legged and two-​legged playmates were, what time she napped, etc. Admittedly totally over the top, but when you don’t have any human kids, you tend to channel all that mother-​hen energy into your dog, and you appreciate that kind of nonsense.
Did I really just admit that I was excited to get a report card about my dog? Uh… moving right along…
Pick up and drop off hours are pretty liberal — drop off runs from 7 – 10 a.m. and pick up from 4:30−8 p.m.
And best of all, Mindy was literally busting with happy/​excited energy when I picked her up. She was all smiles, rolling on her back so that one of the Taurus employees could scratch her belly, and panting and wagging as if she’d just had the time of her life. After being boarded at Camp4Paws, she moped around for a couple of days, so that alone was well worth going a little out of my way to board her at Taurus. Mindy and I will be back, for sure.
One day of doggie day care at Taurus: $ 23
One night of boarding at Taurus: $ 34
Coming back to a happy dog: priceless.

Taurus has been my primary kennel for my doggy (Sophie) for the past few years when I’ve needed the service. There has been somewhat of a growth spurt in the kennel business in recent years, and throughout this I continue to stick with Taurus since I’ve been pretty happy with their quality of service.
I initially started to use their McNeil Rd. facility since I lived in the area. I recently started using their Lamar location for a few times now — it’s a smaller operation (not as much outside space for the dogs to roam around) than other locations, but Sophie doesn’t seem to mind at all.
I like how you can log onto an account online and fill out the timeframe and schedule, plus the staff is good about following any special directions or needs your pet may have and the service has always been solid. I’d say the only drawback to Taurus is that they raised their prices dramatically (close to 50%) within the past few years during that surge in business. Even though I wasn’t happy about that, I still continued to use them based on a good history.
Pricing details: they currently charge $ 23 per dog per day (which used to be mid teens), or $ 34 per dog per night (which used to be mid 20’s). There is a $ 30 savings if your dog stays there 10 days or more, and there’s also an extra charge if you want your dog washed when you pick him/​her up — which I recall thinking was a bit overpriced (IMHO).
I guess I could shop around for something a few dollars cheaper, but like I said, Sophie always seems really happy when pick her up and she’s not complaining so why bother to change? I wouldn’t want to stress her our too much or be responsible for an anxiety attack, right? Right.