I am a member of German Shepherd Rescue of Northern California. When I read the reviews of this place I was skeptical when I was told that we would start placing some of our rescue dogs here, prior to them going out to foster homes.

I went to the business and met with the new manager Christy. She was very nice and gave me a tour of the entire facility. This place used to be a professional breeding facility, so it doesn't look great to the layman. Lots of fencing, cinder block walls, etc.

If you allow yourself to get past the looks of the place, you will find that this is a safe place to put your dog. Christy and her staff get the dogs out and play with them, if dog get along well with others, they get to spend much of the day in one of the large excercise yards hanging out. On hot days Christy will take some of the dogs swimming in their pool.

To check up on things I have regularly stopped in unannounced and found our dogs in an excercise area with other dogs playing, taking a snooze outside in a fenced area, or something similar. I have never seen one of the kennels dirty (not sure how many times they clean them a day, but it has to be often) The dogs are housed inside in a warm (sometimes very humid) building with plenty of fresh water and food.

If you are looking for a place that is as good as home, then get a pet sitter. If you are looking for a safe competent kennel to take your dog, who will do what they say they will do, and you want it clean and secure... this is definitely the place. Our organization uses this place exclusively now in the Morgan Hill/San Jose area for all of our kenneling needs.

I was surprised to hear of so many problems there. I even went down just to ask about the parasites, and they gave me a special tour just to see how the kennel was cleaned. It seemed to me that the cleaner they used, a product called Nolvasan, would kill anything smaller than a mouse, so I asked my vet at Acacia, and I was told there was no way a dog that got a parasite from a kennel would show signs of it that early.
The kennel manager also apologised for the state of disrepair the kennel was in. She tried to hide it, but I found out that she was maintinging most of the upkeep of the place as well as managing and looking after the dogs.
I've been taking my dogs there for nearly three years now, and they've yet to come back smelling bad or looking underfed. I always drop their blankets and food off in a well-labled bag and give full instructions on feeding and socializing with them, so everything's in order whenever I get back.
I also had a problem with payment in advance. I tried to get refunds but they were always seeming to have trouble. But recently, they havn't asked me for payment in advance like they always did, and I don't pay until I show up to drop my dogs off.
The dogs seem happy, and the crew works hard. I even saw one of the kennel hands exersizing dogs while it was raining pretty heavily; they still have a good, large overhang over one of their play yards for just such an emergency.
They even let me visit with the little lamb dogs they breed there whenever I visit.

I see some rather negative reviews here. I'm no expert on dog kennels (just got my first dog a few months ago), but Calero seemed fine to me.

Their location out in the hills (near Calero Reservoir, in south SJ) is a bit out of the way, but it's a nice environment.

Nick seems to me like a good trainer. His own dogs are remarkably well behaved. The training sessions would often go beyond the alloted hour, and they would stick around afterward to talk dog care and answer questions. As far as I could tell, they sure seemed to want to provide good service.

I see that some people complained about having trouble getting money back. I'm actually having trouble paying them. Throughout an eight-week training course, they never asked for payment, then when I tried to pay them by mail, the PO Box on Nick's card was wrong, and the check came back. I'll see to it that they get paid, but they have never bothered me about it.

As for the woman whose dog lost seven pounds, is it possible that it just got plenty of exercise?

My dog was there for the past 2 weeks and lost 7 lbs. They claimed they ran out of dog food or something - that just seems odd right there. her nose has scratches/cuts on it and she had to be hospitalized last night due to a parasite she caught there! the damage costed $750.00. I highly reccommend AGAINST leaving your pet there!!! it's a terrible dirty place with parasites,obviously.

This was absolutely the worst kennel that I have ever seen. I would highly recommend against putting your dog in this facility. I brought my two dogs to Calero to stay for a week. My husband and I walked through the kennels and it smelled awful. In addition, none of the kennels have access to outside.

We ended up leaving with our dogs to place them in another kennel, but have not escaped the nightmare of trying to get our prepaid charge off of our credit card. We have called numerous times for a charge reversal and they have told us that they will credit us, but still have not. We have contacted our credit card company.