KENNEL OF THE YEAR 2023

Having taken on a rescue dog with some behavioural issues we researched where might be a good place to get her - and us - some help. It transpires that there are quite a few different approaches to behavioural issues and after a deep dive we decided to try the Royvon approach, which is all about positive reinforcement. We were lucky enough to be allocated Romeo to work with Badger. He exudes a quiet confidence and authority and she was immediately at ease with him, not a given by any means and extremely keen to please him.
The dedication he applied to her training was absolute and he communicated with us every day of her 3 week boarding programme on his observations and recommendations. These contact points would be accompanied by videos and photos showing us her progress and the methods that were the building blocks of this progress.
By the time we got to the end of the 3 weeks and were invited to attend a 2 hour training session, showing us the methods we needed to continue with and hear of his more general advice and observations, it felt like we were already immersed in the philosophy.
The rock solid methods, transformed Badger's behaviour from unpredictable and reactive to far more trusting and focused on following instructions. Additionally, we have found using the techniques demonstrated to keep her distracted and otherwise engaged of significant impact when taking her out and about.
Royvon is a highly professional, long established family business that totally knows what it is doing with dogs. The whole team gives off the same air of concern for the dogs in their care. However, the phenomenal 'dog whispering' talents and utter dedication of Romeo cannot be overstated. He cares passionately about what he does and how to help dogs overcome their issues - and then in turn, give owners the tools to implement his approach.
We have gone from loving our rescue dog but feeling unsure of how to rehabilitate her to live a normal life and put her awful past behind her, to feeling in control and knowing how to manage her so that she can live her life to the fullest. Thank you so mcuh Romeo.

What is the most important is that they are genuinely crazy about dogs. Amazing service.

Royvon looked after my German Shepherd brilliantly. Their regular updates through the online portal gave me complete peace of mind throughout his stay. I’d highly recommend them to anyone looking for trustworthy, attentive care.

Royvon is for me in a league of their own the entire team are so helpful. the training with Romeo and Kelsey has been excellent and continues to be. I have been taking my Cane Corso "Loki" to them from when he was 14 weeks old and he is now almost a year and he loves going there, he has had several residentials that helped him and us. he is sociable with all other dogs and humans, the training is ongoing but there are improvements each week that help towards the end goal.

Kelsey and Romeo trained and looked after our cocker spaniel puppy for 3 weeks. She was having issues with reactivity and fear around other dogs but the training helped her (and us) massively. Kelsey and Romeo were brilliant with her and super helpful with us in the intro and follow up sessions. Thank you

We had a great experience with Royvon and our trainer, Mimi! The whole facility is extremely well organised, with clear communication from start to finish. It’s obvious that everyone there genuinely cares about the wellbeing of the dogs. They focus on positive reinforcement and on building a strong, trusting relationship between you and your dog, which we really appreciated.
Mimi was absolutely wonderful. She took the time to really understand both us and our new family member (Lilo), who joined us when she was 16 months old. She helped educate us on how to best support and care for our dog, and all her advice and training techniques were practical and relevant to our situation.
Her approach was always positive, encouraging, and thoughtful, which made the learning experience enjoyable for all of us. As a result of her help and guidance, Lilo is now confident, well adjusted and happy doggy.
Highly recommend Royvon and Mimi to anyone looking for professional, compassionate dog training.

We would 100% recommend Royvon to anyone! We are so blown away by how much the trainers and staff clearly care about the dogs and the communication and updates we have had throughout the whole experience. Our dog had training with Romeo whose comprehensive understanding of dogs with challenging behaviour is clear to see. Our dog Vinnie was really struggling with general nervousness and reactivity towards other dogs and people, especially when sat down in public. He had the 3 week residential training and we are now going back for 2 more follow up sessions which we are finding so helpful. We now feel much more confident in sitting down in public spaces and can’t believe how focused Vinnie is on us. It’s very evident that Royvon only use positive reinforcement and have ticked every box in how we wanted our dog to be treated while in someone else’s care. A special mention to Tilly as well, she kept us updated with how Vinnie was getting on in the kennels and went above and beyond to help him settle in and gave him so much love and affection in our absence. We are so grateful to everyone at Royvon for giving us and Vinnie the skills to be able to experience a more relaxing life together and giving us the confidence we needed. Thank you!

I have a fear reactive dog and Royvon is the only kennels I would trust with him. He stays in a special kennel away from the general noise and the staff are excellent with him.

I can’t recommend Royvon highly enough. Our miniature English Bull Terrier has been boarding with them on and off for the past year, and we couldn’t be happier. He was quite a nervous dog in new situations at first, but his stays at Royvon have done absolute wonders for his confidence.

The team is incredibly kind, helpful, and accommodating. When I recently broke my foot, they arranged a last-minute stay for him so he could be properly looked after while my husband was away. They even let us pick Vincent up after hours when our flight home was severely delayed — something we were so grateful for.

We love the daily updates and photos they send, and they’re always quick to respond to WhatsApp messages or suggest services that might benefit Vincent during his stay. We always feel he’s in the safest, most caring hands.

Thank you so much, Royvon — we’re so glad we found you!

With This company because my other trainers want available at the time He was sent up to Wales he came back worse than when he arrived!
I basically paid for the privilege of having him pester people and jump over people for food which he had never done before do not go here! They have no idea how to train dogs very very disappointed!
go to Michael Stokes kent trains his sniffer dogs and is amazing..

Excellent facility with amazing staff at Bridgend. I have been boarding my Cockapoo Rusty here for that past few years. The staff go an extra mile to keep my dog very happy with extra cuddles etc. The place is much better than a home boarding or any other luxury pet hotels that I have used in the past.

Great staff. .. Leanne and Iiona assisted me in last minute changes and extensions to their stay and delivered them home. Nothing but praise on their service or facilities. One of my dogs is diebetic and requires insulin 2 x a day and they handled this all in their stride.

Romeo was amazing with Cassie, He seems to be like a dog whisperer we have tried everything but we are now confident the 3 week residential might just work for our rescue English Bulldog

The most amazing place!
We have taken our puppy to Royvon since he was 12 weeks old and now 6 months. Starting with the master class at home then puppy school and 1:1’s! We have felt completely supported by everyone at Royvon, nothing ever too much trouble.
We couldn’t have asked for better care, all staff are kind, friendly and so welcoming. Our Puppy is excited as soon as he enters the Royvon premises, he knows exactly where to go and always greeted with open arms and cuddles. So great to have a safe environment to leave our puppy without having to worry about him! Thank you Royvon for all your help and ongoing support! Rocky is one happy and beautifully behaved boy!

We decided to send our 3 month old Staffy, Zola, to Puppy School sessions at Royvon so he could have a mixture of training and structured socialisation at this key age. Safe to say Zola is loving his trips to Royvon to see Tils! After only a couple of sessions he’s wiggling his way out of the car to see everyone! Highly recommend the team at Royvon!

It was a huge and daunting decision to entrust Royvon for their three week training programme with our adorable five month-old baby shark Great Dane puppy who was bouncier than Tigger. For a smaller pup such a combination would be manageable, but at 35 kilos and growing daily, it was becoming increasingly stressful. Our boy remains a work in progress but Kelsey and Romeo have worked wonders with his excitement/ arousal levels. The improvements with his nipping and lead-walking are amazing. They sent us daily videos of both training AND cuddle sessions. He really has been loved. We also received regular feeding reports (Royvon were mindful of Bloat, and his feeding bowl was raised and he wasn’t exercised for two hours after eating) and photos from socialisation/playtime with the other dogs. Reception was caring, helpful and cheery - especially Ioana.
We have Romeo and Kelsey’s on going support and together I’m hoping we’ll help our boy become the calm gentle giant we know he can be. Ps his recall is also now excellent

Our dog formed a strong bond with Romeo. He really enjoyed his time at Royvon. We’ve seen big improvements in his behaviour and Romeo has been great at helping us learn how best to keep this up. We would thoroughly recommend!

Our dog was well cared for, well trained, and very happy in their time at Royvon. Romeo is an excellent and communicative trainer, who we will certainly continue to work with. Daily updates, videos, photos, and comms from the whole team - strongly recommend

Very good with dogs treat them like family

My Rottweiler Ciro has stayed at Royvon in Bridgend for 10 days and he absolutely loved it .I must say that the team were incredible with him and I cannot thank them enough for looking after Ciro .A truly professional service with all aspects of his stay .Once again thank you from myself and Ciro 🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️

We contacted Royvon for a trial overnight stay for our nervous reactive rescue dog. We were recommended by our friends who have dogs in similar situations. When we came for quick tour, the girl was lovely and showed us around. Answered all our questions. We booked in an overnight stay.

However, closer to the time, we had to rearrange the trial boarding date. When I called to change the date, I was informed that a male handler would be looking after him on the second day. During our initial visit, we made it clear that Buddy is a nervous reactive rescue dog and we would prefer a female handler as he is scared of men he's not met before. We were reassured at the time that there would be two female handlers covering the two days due to the shift pattern, which we were comfortable with on the understanding that both handlers would be female.

I was therefore quite disappointed that one of the handlers were changed to a male and this was not highlighted to us. Had I not called to reschedule, I would only have found out at pick-up time that a male handler had been assigned. The women I was on the phone didn't ask my reasons for cancelling. I wanted to highlight my concerns and reasons for cancelling. Which she told me I don't have much choice, it's either this male handler or no one to look after my dog. She also mentioned they look after a lot of dogs at Royvon so can't remember all the details and there was nothing on the file our dog was scared of men. I thought this is quite bad as our dog could of bite one of the male staff if our bites. After the phone call, we don't feel we have confidence or able to trust Royvon to look after our dog.

We have returned from collecting our 10 ‘month old German shepherd Barry who has been with the team at Royvon for a 3 week residential to help with his reactivity. Charlie and the team have worked so well with him and following on from our handover session we feel so much more equipped to build on what he has learnt . We are looking forwards to returning for our follow ups and even though it’s a 4 hour round trip it’s been worth every penny and mile . I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Royvon .

Our Border Collie Grace has spent some "holidays" in Royvon over the summer and was very well looked after; she also had training sessions with Romeo; we also recently met Romeo to introduce Grace to a new family addition, my daughter's Canadian Husky Coco. Romeo's calm and confident guidance made this first encounter entirely successful and gave us the confidence to build on this great start. Romeo is brilliant and we will be back for more!

The team at Royvon have been really great with Neptune our anxious dog who can be reactive to other dogs and people. We needed somewhere for him to stay while we went to a wedding and were worried because of his behaviour issues. We worked with the team and did some training and day school sessions to get him more used to the environment and people and this has really helped him feel more comfortable at royvon. When he stayed for the weekend we were sent regular updates with photos and videos. It was so reassuring to see him going out for walks with Romeo and knowing he was in safe hands! Thanks to Romeo, Kelsey, Tilly and the wider team at Royvon we can go away and know that Neptune is safe and well cared for.

We sent our dog to Royvon for the 3-week behavioural programme as she was highly anxious and in need of strategies to help her to regulate. The grounds are secure and secluded, with nearby woodlands and parks as well as activity areas on-site to enable a variety of settings for training. Romeo and Kelsey were extremely helpful, reassuring and approachable, and looked after our dog superbly. We appreciated the videos and photos via a WhatsApp group and daily report via email. We also really valued the 4 hours worth of follow-up sessions to consolidate what our dog had learnt and ensure we were implementing everything correctly. Our dog is much calmer, more confident and causing us a lot less stress now thanks to Royvon, so I'd highly recommend their services!

Our dog Moose had a great stay at Royvon being looked after by Romeo and the team. He is reactive and normally struggles with strangers but Romeo did a great job working with him to help make him feel comfortable. We did training sessions before the boarding which worked really well to get Moose used to the kennels and Romeo. While away, we received very regular updates showing Moose was happy and relaxed which helped us relax and enjoy our holiday. Thanks very much for all the help!

Had a great experience with Anna the dog trainer for Bridgend Royvon. I am looking forward to many more days learning together.
Thanks
Sha

We picked our dog up today after 11 days boarding at Royvon Esher and I think he has the holiday blues..!! Tilly was amazing and kept us updated regularly via WhatsApp with lots of videos and photos. Highly recommend especially if you’re an XL Bully owner.

Charlie was very helpful and patient.

Our Border Collie, Coby, often would chase cars, wildlife, etc. With her guidance, Coby is a lot better.

Thank you Charlie for all your support and encouragement.

I brought my anxious rescue dog to Rovyon for training, and was assigned Romeo to work with her. He is very knowledgeable and uses kind and positive reinforcement to achieve good results. I have been impressed with every aspect of boarding and training.

Our battersea dog has some other dog reactivity issues which causes problems going out on walks.. Upon arrival all staff were friendly and engaging,obviously all knowledgable and dog lovers. Wonderful facilities.had such a positive experience with Romeo..he put our dog through their paces, understood her needs and really helped the dog and me find a way to get through the reactivity. Wil definitely be a regular for training sessions.thanks

We’ve got a nervous and reactive dog so we’re very apprehensive to board her but for reason outside our control we have too. We’ve avoided holidays and family events because of not being able to leave her with anyone. We’ve avoided holidays dropped our dog off for her confidence stay and by the afternoon she was giving the kisses out in abundance to Tilly (the trainer). Honestly, could not have been happier, the people there are all accommodating!

Five stars from us and from Mabel and Albie!
From point of enquiry about boarding for our two dogs Mabel and Albie, the communication from the team has been amazing and so helpful. It was an easy booking process and I loved that we could make the stay as bespoke as we wanted to suit our dogs best, enabling them to follow a similar routine to when they are at home.
This is the first time we have left our dogs but would not hesitate to use Royvon again. Every member of staff we met showed their passion for working with dogs and were true experts. We collected our dogs yesterday after a 10 day stay and it was evident they had been so well cared for. We loved the updates whilst we were away, ranging from photos to written reports which were so reassuring. It was also clear that they really got to know Mabel and Albie as their observations and comments were spot on, also showing that both dogs were relaxed and settled in the boarding environment and with the staff that cared for them. A special thank you to Millie and Sofia who were both amazing and spent a lot of time with them. Mabel and Albie send kisses!
We would not hesitate to recommend and are already looking forward to booking them in again.
The Hooper family.

Great experience in my first time booking with Royvon. Good communication and excellent care of my two dogs. They enjoyed it! We will be back.

Romeo was great at handling Monty! I will definitely be coming back!

We booked our dog in here for a few nights and had a great experience. Place is well managed and the staff are great.

The whole experience was made so nice for us .
The staff were brilliant ( Millie especially)
My shepherd ( Easy ) was looked after so well on his “ confidence “ stay .
I was updated regularly.
We will be booking another stay soon .

A very professional, efficient ,
knowledgeable & friendly set up .
I highly recommend a visit .

Thanks very much everyone at Royvon

Nick & Easy 🐾

We are so grateful to have found Royvon and the team! They have been fantastic caring for Henry on his recent short stays to get him settled and happy for his 2 week holiday at Royvon. All the staff from the receptionist to the dog handlers have been so patient and amazing with Henry and his character. Can’t thank them enough, it has enabled us to go away and relax knowing he is well cared for and understood. Especially for Tilly who has primarily been Henry’s handler and takes the time with him. Thanks!

Great facility and the people working there know what they're doing. It's been a pleasure working with Royvon on our 2-week residential training. Especially Romeo. Highly recommended

We couldn’t have been happier with our first experience at Royvon. Our spaniel Riley is reactive and anxious and the entire staff and setup were so reassuring and impressive from the moment we arrived for his Confidence Stay. Huge special thanks to Tilly who looked after Riley on his first day, shared photos and a video with us of his progress and clearly spent real time building a bond with him and giving him the space and patience to adjust to the new environment.

It has been very difficult for us to leave Riley in anybody else’s care because he requires experience and a controlled environment and we were blown away by how intuitively and confidently the team at Royvon took care of him and put our minds at ease. Millie who checked Riley out was fantastic too and had spent extra time with him that morning, and everybody we met on site was so responsive, kind and professional. It is life changing to know there is a place we can trust with a tricky but beloved dog, and we are looking forward to Riley building strong relationships with the team there. Thank you Tilly, Millie and all at Royvon!

Our German Shepherd, Sisu, has stayed at Royvon (Esher) well over 10 times now and every single visit has been a fantastic experience for her and for us.

Sisu absolutely loves it at Royvon and gets excited every time we pull into the car park!

From the moment we drop her off, we know she’s in great hands. The staff are professional, caring and clearly passionate about what they do.

Sisu always comes home happy, healthy and tired after enjoying days packed with play, training and love from the team :).

It gives us total peace of mind knowing she’s getting great care and we never hesitate to book her into Royvon when we’re going away.

We highly recommend Royvon!

We dropped our dog reactivish River for confidence stay. Millie and Ionnna did tremendous work while checking her in and out. River is usual drama queen when she is away from us. She had a lot of fun and she was quite happy when I picked her up. She usually run towards the car to leave quickly. Instead she chose to stay and keep sniffing around.

Molly enjoyed her long stay very much. She can’t wait to go back!

I decided to send my dog Buddy to Royvon for a 3 week residential course after reading several favourable reviews plus it was only a 30 min drive from my home. I adopted Buddy from the RSPCA. When I got him he was very reactive when on the lead due to the fact that once he left his home after 8 weeks he then spent about 8/9 months kept in a shed in a cage. He had never been socialised and seeing other dogs was freaking him out. Romeo, one of the trainers at Royvon, was certain that he would benefit from the course and said it was not aggression but frustration ...he was not wrong. Buddy is a much calmer dog when he sees other dogs, no more barking & jumping around like a lunatic. It means I can now take him to places we were not able to go to before. Watching Romeo, on the videos that we got sent daily, you can tell heclearly knows his job and is so calm in his approach to training. I would definitely recommend Royvon and in particular Romeo if you have a reactive dog. Since Buddy has returned home I have been on 2 one to ones with Romeo which are included in the cost with another booked in this week. Buddy is still a work in progress and Romeo has shown me techniques which I can carry forward with Buddy's ongoing training. In my view it was money well spent and I am looking forward to our holiday in Cornwall next month as now it won't be so stressful.

The welcome from the staff upon arrival is as friendly as a dog wagging its tail at you. The checkin left me feeling confident that I was leaving my dog in good hands. The regular updates throughout my holiday created certainty and trust. When I returned to pick up my dog I couldn’t believe that she didn’t actually want to leave. I have never ever had that experience before.
I can now go on holiday knowing that my dog will be having a great time too.

Our dog has gone to the Esher boarding for the last 5 years.He is not an easy dog,but he loves it there