Canyon View Ranch for Dogs Is Pooch Paradise

For Los Angeles-area dogs lucky enough to have a reason to be boarded, going to Canyon View Ranch is like vacationing at the happiest place on earth. "I wanted to create a Disneyland for dogs," explains Randy Neece, who started Canyon View Ranch, a training and boarding facility, eleven years ago with his partner, Jim Timko. "I almost wanted to hear the dogs laughing as they played."

Situated on five acres of land nestled high above the hills overlooking Malibu, Calif., Canyon View Ranch for Dogs -- at least from the exterior -- is easily mistaken for a luxury spa for humans. After turning off Pacific Coast Highway, a winding road delivers you to the gates of the ranch, where you're greeted by towering trees, lush palm plants, and the sound of waterfalls.

"There was nothing but a house, the driveway and acres of scrub brush and poison oak when we bought this place," Neece tells Paw Nation during a tour of the grounds on a sunny December afternoon. It took Neece and Timko several years to transform the rugged landscape into the pooch-centric paradise they had envisioned when they set out to create the kind of place where they'd want to board their own eight Tibetan terriers.

"We wanted to create a place that was special, where each dog is custom treated with lots of one-on-one attention," says Neece. For that reason, Canyon View Ranch has a maximum capacity of 50 dogs. "Most businesses don't like to restrict their capacity, but we do as a policy because we feel it's the right number of dogs for them to have a good time and not feel overwhelmed."

Entering past the main gates, the ranch opens into two distinct sections. In the "Wonderland" area, large dogs romp through a grape arbor, run up and down hilly terrain or through tunnels, and splash through a giant bone-shaped swimming pool (cleaned daily and filled with filtered water). Small dogs have their own "Munchkinland" where they get to splash through a wading pool and mini-waterfall, or sun themselves on the grass. "The dogs have a full schedule," says Neece, complete with playtime, siestas and lots of fresh air.

It's not surprising the ranch has a huge celebrity following -- being located so close to Hollywood does have its perks -- but Neece is quick to downplay that aspect. "We often don't even know if the dog's owner is a celebrity or not," he says. Still, pressed for details, Neece reels off the names of celebrity clients that reads like a list of attendees (and winners) at the Academy Awards. "It doesn't matter to us because all dogs are treated with equal love and attention," he says.

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