Pender Vet Centre Dog Training

Michelle Jackson - Puppy Kindergarten

Great trainer, great class. Michelle is positive, enthusiastic, and makes class fun. Offers multiple approaches to dealing with problems or teaching skills, so you can find what works best for you and your puppy. Covered all the things you need to deal with when you have a new young puppy, and the basic skills your puppy needs to acquire. Puppies love puppy playtime -- this is especially valuable with pups too young to have all their shots, so not able to just go out in public and meet and play with other dogs.

Michelle is a wonderful trainer who obviously loves dogs and is knowledgeable about canine behaviors. When I got a new puppy, it was important to start her off with good training and socialization so that she would grow up to be a happy, well behaved dog.
The Puppy Kindergarten was the perfect place to start. Michelle's classes started with a puppy training lesson with very helpful tips for success, and ended with a puppy playtime to help socialize the puppies. I found these classes helpful and I recommend these classes to anyone with a new puppy.

In 2008 we took-in an 8.5 year old which had not been vetted in years due to his family's economic conditions. We took him to Pender immediately and got him tested. He had worms and his blood work showed low platelets. But the rest of his blood values were all within normal range. I emailed the rescue lady who immediately told me that the low platelets are most likely due to the worms and as soon as we deworm him he will be fine. I wish I had listened to her and not the abundance of expert vets at Pender! They misdiagnosed him as having autoimmune disease and dismissed the possibility of the worms being the cause of the low platelets. They started him on Azatheoprene and Prednisone and asked that we do a complete blood work on him every week.

I started an excel spreadsheet that day and carefully plugged in all his initial values. Every week they were getting worse! Remember the initial blood work only had low platelets? Now we started seeing the platelets going up and everything else getting screwed up. The white blood count kept going up and the red blood count get decreasing... not to mention that every other value was getting off the normal range too. But mainly it was the red blood cells that kept dropping. The idiots and Pender - because frankly I don't have a better epithet with which to describe them- told us to continue on with the treatment and to bring him in for hospitalization. They noted on his chart our concerns that it was the medications that were causing the values to go off the charts but that's about it. We researched online and found that the two medications will cause low red blood cels but they said that was rare. Horse manure!!! They were killing our dog. I kept showing them my spreadsheet...I kept saying..when we brought him in everything was fine but the platelets. Now you fixed those and screwed up everything else...

To make a long story short I once again pulled him from there and took him to Town and Country Animal Hospital. Dr. Reed also misdiagnosed him and continued Pender's regiment but not for long. He shortly thereafter realized that unless he did something different this dog would die. His red blood count was now almost nonexistent. He sent us to a specialist in Springfield who conducted a series of specialized tests and determined that it was the Prednisone that was killing him. He weaned him off the medication and all his blood values returned to normal.

$4,000 later ... our dog was ok again... but a year and a half later at the age of 10 he became diabetic. There is no history of diabetes in his family (and we know both parents and siblings) so I googled " diabetes azatheoprene prednisone"... and long and behold there are studies about the fact that the two medications he was giving cause diabetes...

He has been on insulin for a year now. All thanks to Pender.

Early 2010 my other dog started coughing. Dr. Denny x-rayed him and said he had lung cancer. Then he asked if I wanted a second opinion from a radiologist specialist and I agreed. The radiologist said it was not lung cancer but that he had a tumor in the abdominal area! $500 bucks later I was disgusted... I took him to South Paws. They immediately said they could not see any cancer on the x-rays and that the mass in the abdomen was most likely his stomach! An ultrasound confirmed that... My dog had allergies and mild bronchitis which was treated with antibiotics.

Horrible, unethical and greedy. Have no care or compassion for pets or their owners. They permanently damaged my pets paws and did nothing after months of opportunity to help him. I wouldn't trust them with grooming much less emergency care or surgery. Beware of this dealership style business waiting for the next emotional pet lover to dwindle out of thousands for unnecessary or inept care. Just go to hope center or south paws for ER care

Pender Vet is an outstanding outfit. I changed to their services when we brought our sick dog to our local vet and they told us they were closing and we had to take our dog somewhere else. Pender is open 24/7 and I have been very happy with every vet visit we have had, routine and emergency. Any time I have a question I have called and spoken with a vet tech immediately and I can't tell you the peace of mind that gives me when I'm worried about my dog's health! I have three dogs and have been to both Pender Vet in Fairfax and the one in Chantilly and am so very happy with the services.

I have been using Pender Vet since 2005 and I have so many good things to say about them! First off they are a caring company with so many employees to help, there is someone always there. We left our last local vet because when we had an emergency they told us to take our dog and go elsewhere. Pender's availability can't be matched and my pets are cared for 24/7. There are so many highly rated vets, it's hard to choose.