Okay so I just adopted a dog here. The experience was generally a good one. I visited twice, and both times the staff was helpful with the dog and answered my questions. They also seemed to really care about the animal. The fees were reasonable, and they are including dental care that they were going to do anyway (he just wasn't in the shelter long enough for them to do it). The place looks clean and the animals appear to be generally healthy, happy, and well cared for.
There were a few unpleasant things about our experience though.
1) The lady who did our paperwork was different than the 3 women who worked with us during the visit. And she was a complete ditz. I mean like when we were going over the contract, she said we won't provide any medical care. I asked/reminded her about the dental work that all 3 other employees told me about for this specific dog and she said oh yea that's right I'll write it in. Then went on through the contract (fine by me). Then she asked me to sign it and I said not until you write in the dental work. She said oh ok right, and then got distracted talking about the dog needing to loose weight. And then asked me to sign again. And finally wrote it in after I said you need to write it in now. It was late on a Friday night, so maybe that was it but still it was funny to start with and then just annoying.
2) The dog had kennel cough. I know he didn't get vaccinated until he got there and it takes some time to take effect and that happens a lot blah blah blah. I feel like they should either work out a system to isolate new dogs or provide care (he's a senior dog so our vet recommended giving him meds which we did but added to the cost and was worrisome for me).
3) DO NOT BUY YOUR DOG LICENSE FROM THEM!!!!!! They say it takes a month. It doesn't. It takes them a month to send it to the city treasurer, who gets it out in like a day. Save yourself the hassle and do it yourself. You'll get it faster. Maybe I'm just irritated by them telling me it takes the treasurer a month and blaming them while that's not the case (the lady at the treasurer's office is the one who told me they batch the license paperwork together and only send in things once-twice a month). My neighbor waited 3 months for his license when he went through dane co humane society so it's not a one-off thing.