Photo by Shannon Wilson / Tyler Morning Telegraph Dogs get to play with each other in sprinklers and a dog bone shaped pool while they stay at the Circle Star Pet Resort located in Murchison.

A 100-acre cutting horse ranch with its rolling hills, trees and lakes is the setting for an East Texas pet resort where boarded dogs are entertained and pampered much like passengers aboard a cruise ship.

They are treated to two activities a day, rotating between golf cart and paddleboat rides, canine massages, private agility lessons, doggie puzzles and other entertainment.

Dogs also come to Circle Star Pet Resort for two kinds of custom training.

Dogs may stay at the resort 30 days for training. At the end of the 30 days, staff members show the dog’s owner how to work their dog and all the things it has been taught. That training is guaranteed for the life of the dog.

“That’s a very unusual guarantee, (but) we are very confident about what we do,” Vicki Cooper Springer, the pet resort’s owner, said.

The resort also offers obedience training in the off-leash Mirror Method, which originated in Hungary. Owners bring their dogs for an hour and half lesson twice weekly for two months in a new training center and learn how to train their dog.

The next round of Mirror Method classes will begin Saturday.

“We are also available by appointment for a spot fix of any single issue someone might be having with their dog,” Ms. Cooper Springer said.

Dogs are shipped in for training from other states, including California and Louisiana, and even from Afghanistan.

Dogs may come to the resort just for grooming. Or, they may be homeless dogs, most from Tyler and Smith County, that the resort rescues, trains, attends to their medical needs and puts up for adoption in its new, nonprofit Homeward Bound K9 Rescue program.

“We’ve placed over 60 dogs in loving, forever homes,” Ms. Cooper Springer said. “When you get a dog from us, they are house broken and well trained, so the recidivism is low. Usually it’s a permanent placement and a happy experience.”

To fund a new trainer house for the K9 program, the pet resort has begun offering the public the opportunity to bring their dog for dock diving and lure coursing on Saturdays and Sundays.

Dock diving is a dog sport in which dogs jump off the end of a dock to fetch a floating dummy in a lake. Lure coursing is a fast-paced, fun chase sport for dogs that run after a lure, usually a white plastic bag, attached to a line controlled by a machine and a lure operator.

“You get to have fun with your dog and support a good cause,” Ms. Cooper Springer said.

The pet resort also trains service dogs for handicapped people, which takes an average of six months, and therapy dogs to visit in hospitals and for people with posttraumatic stress syndrome.

Ms. Cooper Springer and her late mother, Vivian Cooper, started Circle Star Pet Resort on a very small scale 10 years ago in a rural spot six miles east of Edom and seven or eight miles west of Murchison off Farm-to-Market Road 2339.

“We wanted to offer something that would entertain dogs, and they would be happy and have fun all day,” Ms. Cooper Springer said of the boarding and training facility.

Customers are split about half and half between people bringing dogs to board and people who bring dogs for training, she estimated.

“We were the first pet resort in the country to offer an online reservation system so you can arrange for your pet’s stay at any time of the day or night from anywhere and get a confirmation,” Ms. Cooper Springer said.

The resort has grown into a complex of five buildings, representing an investment that Ms. Cooper Springer conservatively estimates at half a million dollars. It has about 20-25 employees.

To decide which structure they want their dog boarded in, most pet owners tour the grounds before leaving their dog.

“Tyler is a big market for us,” Ms. Cooper Springer said, but added that pet owners, whom she calls “parents,” bring their “doggies” from a large area of East Texas, including Athens, Longview and Dallas.

“We have a very loyal following. Many dogs have been coming here since they were pups. People tell us that their dogs start jumping up and down and whining to get out (of the car) when they realize where they are because they’re so excited to come back,” Ms. Cooper Springer said.

For those who want the service, the resort runs a pet taxi, which is an air-conditioned and heated van.

For a per mile fee, the pet taxi picks up and delivers dogs for boarding, training or grooming in Smith, Anderson, Henderson, Van Zandt, Kaufman and Dallas counties.

Keeping people’s pets safe and letting dogs have fun while their owners are away is the overall purpose of the resort, she said.

Safety is the “No. 1 thing” in operation of the pet resort, she stressed. “Every possible perimeter and exit has two fences, two gates so that nobody escapes. They can’t dig out and they can’t chew out,” Ms. Cooper Springer said.

Making sure dogs are healthy and happy during their stay is No. 2, she added.

To that end, the pet resort is equipped with an ultra violet air filtration system — the same one used in human hospitals — and is one of only a few pet resorts in the country using the system.

“This is very unusual for a pet resort. It keeps the air clean. As the air passes through the system, the ultra violet lights kill any germs. The air that’s recycled here is constantly cleaned and purified so that any airborne diseases are squelched,” Ms. Cooper Springer said.

The resort is open 365 days a year and can accommodate up to 80 dogs. The dogs are never alone because Ms. Cooper Springer lives in a house on the resort grounds. “I come down and check on the babies all the time,” she said.

A cleaning crew arrives in the morning, cleans and sanitizes the facilities. Dogs are fed two meals a day and given whatever medications they need at no extra charge.

The resort feeds a standard high quality small kibble but will feed other food that pet owners bring. “We have the concept that we do what the parents want,” Ms. Cooper Springer said. One dog eats bananas and bagels.

In the main kennel, dogs are separated by wire and can see each other. “For some dogs, that’s wonderful,” Ms. Cooper Springer said.

In a building that she called “the lodge,” there are solid walls between “rooms” for other dogs that need peace and quiet. Another kennel called “the cottage” is set apart with six “rooms” and is extra quiet.

The fees are all-inclusive, covering all of the entertainment and special feeding, medication or other things that dog owners want done for their pet.

Every kennel or room has indoor air conditioning and heat, plus a doggie door to the outside.

The lodge is a “higher end, upscale” facility and more homelike with more amenities, Ms. Cooper Springer said.

There’s a popcorn machine that makes popcorn for the dogs. It has an indoor playroom and homelike atmosphere with fireplaces, a television for dogs to watch “Animal Planet” and a fresh water fountain.

Like a cruise ship, the pet resort has activities all the time entertaining the dogs, which Ms. Cooper Springer refers to as “guests.”

The “Zen Room” is a parlor for canine massages. There is an agility barn where dogs participate in agility workouts for fun rather than competition, two play yards with AstroTurf lawns where active dogs play Frisbee, lakes where dogs are taken on paddle boat rides or they climb onto a seat for a golf cart ride.

There’s a bone-shaped swimming pool in the cabana. A play yard has a fort and allows dogs to play with all kinds of toys without getting dirty.

On rainy days, dogs stay indoors for rainy day games, just play hide and seek and work doggie puzzles. Older dogs may just want to sit in an attendant’s lap.

“It just depends on the dog’s needs; we do what they want to do,” Ms. Cooper Springer said.

Sometime during the day every day, staff snap a picture of every dog in the resort and post it on Facebook by 5 p.m. Pet owners anywhere in the world can look at their dog and tell by the dog’s expression that the dog is having a good time, Ms. Cooper Springer said.

“We know the dogs by name. We know what they like, what they don’t like,” she said. “People trust us. They know there’s a hands-on owner and that makes a huge difference. The doggies get a lot of personal attention and don’t spend a lot of time in their room.”

The resort can be reached by phone at 903-469-4320 or email circlestarpet@aol.com.