Ornbaun Ranch Kennels

If you love your dog and don’t want them to get injured and sick, please read this before leaving them with Steve at Ourban.
My boyfriend and I live in Oakland and we wanted to take a trip to some hot springs north of Davis. We though it would be fun to leave my playful and very loving 1 and half year old dog named Meili at a kennel /​ranch that’s known for training hunting dogs since she’s a hunting breed. Ourban has 3 five star reviews on Unilocal and 3 five star reviews on Facebook so we thought we would give it a try. The other start review that was just posted wasn’t there yet.
The guy who runs Ornbaun calls himself Uncle Steve and he was very nice on the phone emphasizing safety as his number one priority. He asked us to bring Meili’s shot records.
When we arrived, Meili seemed excited at first to look around but as soon as she got near the ‘kennels,’ which were 4X10 concrete cells, she tried to run out as fast as she could.
Meili has a harness instead of a collar and we couldn’t pull her into the kennel so ‘Uncle Steve’ gave us a choke chain to put around her neck and when she still wouldn’t come, he said ‘just keep pulling her’ which would have chocked her even more. We had to pick her up to put her in the cell.
Steve told us to bring food but didn’t tell us to bring her a bed, blankets or toys and there was nothing in the cell except a pail of water and a thin blanket. There were about 20 dogs in the cells, many barking and looking sad.
We left her in the cell and she started barking and Unilocaling. I felt really bad leaving her because it just didn’t feel right but I ignored my instinct which I shouldn’t have.
My boyfriend and I enjoyed our weekend although I was worrying about Meili every few hours. When we picked her up, things got really bad.
No one was their when we arrived so we called Steve and he told us where the key was to let ourselves in. We asked how she was and he said she was great. But when we came to Meili’s cell, she was curled up in ball, didn’t recognize me when I first approached her, and she could barely get up. The blanket that had been in the cell when we left was gone so there was nothing in the cell except concrete, a wood platform, and lots of poop and pee. I walked through the other cells and they were all full of dog poop and barking, sad looking dogs. When we grabbed her bag of food, it looked like only 1 cup had been taken out even though 5 – 6 cups should have been gone.
When we took her out of the cell and got outside we noticed she was limping and her back right leg had a 3 – 4 inch gash that looked like a tear from a bite. She was really dirty, her back side was covered in pee, and her butt looked especially dirty. When we looked closer at her butt, we saw her anus looked really red and inflamed.
We took her straight to the vet which was about an hour and half away, she curled up in a ball and slept the whole way. When we got to the vet, she was very nervous around people which is not like her and when we finally got her a rectal exam, the vet’s glove came out with lots of blood on it. The cut was treated and we gave her a rabies shot because Steve never actually checked the shot history for Meili so I doubt he did for any other dog.
The vet said that when dogs are nervous and scared, they can get really bad diarrhea that can lead to intestinal bleeding.
I don’t know how the bite happened but Steve was either unaware it had happened or didn’t tell us.
The vet gave us treatment for the blood and told us to feed her white rice and boiled chicken.
We took her to a pet store where we have her a bath, got home and feed her dinner, gave her lots of love and she slept for 15 hours straight.
She also had a green slime around her anus which the vet said is a result of the dog’s anal glands ‘expressing themselves’ which is also a result of fear and stress.
The lips of her mouth look raw and pinker than normal as does her noes.
She is doing ok now, a few days later after being home but there is no excuse for the kind of mistreatment and careless that she experienced. We did not pay ‘Uncle Steve’ and I hope this place gets shut down.

Found this kennel on Unilocal… only has a few but good reviews. I decided to go and check the place out and give the place a tour before bringing my pup. Steve was very nice and I felt comfortable leaving my dog there. I left my pup in Steve’s care for 5 days to go camping. When I came to pick her up… my boy friend noticed my dog has a few rashes on her legs. I thought its no big deal… probably jst a few bug bites or something… until we got home and she had rashes everywhere. Took her shirt off… checked her inch per inch like a fine tooth comb. Found a few fleas and dozens of fleas bites… all over her poor body. Yes… I guess I left her there because its more affordable than other kennels… but boy… paid even more when I had to take her to the vet.

Ornbaun Kennels is the absolute best in the entire bay area period. There is no place better, mostly due to Steve the owner. This guy is the best. I took my 7 month old Golden Retriever to Steve and in 2 months time he turned a rowdy crazy kid to a well trained great family member. Steve truly cares about what he does and it shows. I highly recommend you take your dog for training to him. He will go through the entire training process with you. We would take Jedi to Steve for a week and come visit and train with Steve through the week whenever we wanted could’ve been once a week or everyday then we would bring Jedi home for a week and train with him at home and keep doing that until Jedi was done. Steve is a great trainer and seems to be a great guy as well, he’ll tell you stories for hours if you have the time. If you just need to board and not training again this place is perfect, Steve lives on acres and acres of land and he takes the dogs out for LONG walks everyday. The dogs are always happy and the prices are way, way, way better than anyone else in the area and I know you won’t get the level of service that you get at Ornbaun Kennels. Again I highly recommend Steve.

We have used Ornbaun Kennels 1−2/year for the last 3 or 4 years. The kennels are long runs and I believe if memory serves me right indoor/​outdoor. We have always been able to kennel our two dogs together when we board them and the kennel offers discounts for long-​term kennel (i.e. Going on a 2 week vacation). This is a great place for dogs who love to be outdoors because they get taken on walks outside, they have lots of country property and a lake. Ever time but once when we’ve picked up the dogs they have been bathed… Bonus! My husband being a hunter loves taking the dogs here. I just wish we lived closer, we use to live in vcaville and now in Dixon so the location isn’t as convent for us.

Steve and his crew are the best! I have been kenneling at his location for years. By dogs are happy when I pull withen smelling distance of his place. My hunting dog was trained by him and he is perfict! This winter I’m getting a new puppy and She will be trained at steves place.

This is by far the best kennel we have used. It is clear that Steve cares about our dogs. Steve is always available for a check in over the phone and he makes sure that our dogs are well taken care of, even bathing them before they come home. His rates are very reasonable and our dogs come back happier than ever. We feel comforted knowing they had a great time and Steve cares about them like we do.