Our Sheboygan Dog Training Club, Sheboygan, Wisconsin purchased the Alpha Trax interlocking flooring last year and installed it in September. The new building in which we have installed the flooring is 60' x 120' and was built in 2003, but as yet has no heat.

One problem we do have when the weather is cold is that the seams are looser due to contraction from the cold. We have not had that cause any difficulty with the dogs nails getting caught as the looseness is not that much. The floor will expand when the weather warms up. If you have heat in your building you will not experience this change in the floor.
If you plan to have puppy classes on the floor, you may have to pull up a mat to get at the potty spill if it lands on a seam. Lifting the mats apart is not difficult. If you cannot grab it with your hands and fingers you can use a flat screw driver to lift a corner. We have not had many accidents on our floor. We just wash them up when necessary.

We used the building mostly for agility right up to the time in late December when our weather became very cold and we started getting snow dumped on us by the ton. We like the floor very much. I am 65 years old and I can run and lean into turns without slipping. The dogs enjoy the surface very much also. Seldom does any dog slip and none of them have crashed for lack of traction. It is pretty much impossible to damage this rubber flooring. None of our equipment ever leaves any marks when we move it. We move things around all the time. We have not even been able to dent it.

There is a slight rubber odor when the floor is initially installed, but it has not really bothered us. As time goes on that odor has dissipated.

We are very happy with the Alpha Trax mats and probably the best experience we have had is working with the people at Summit Flexible Products. They have been great through the whole process. They are very nice people to work with.
Roberta M. Gilson
Magicstar (standard poodles)
Home of 24 champion standard poodles and 6 standard poodle agility dogs
Plymouth, Wisconsin

I am in remiss for not writing to you sooner. I just want to let you know I think the mats are wonderful. I know we had a few problems, but at this point has pretty much resolved itself. As it turns out, it was four people (out of 70) who were not "happy". As it turned out, the problems were directly related to the way they are training their dogs.

I also want to tell you how these mats have affected me and my own dogs, personally. I have a 9 year old Doberman, who hasn't really grown up yet! She still has a lot of energy and that used to cause her problems. With age and all the jumping she has done, she has some arthritis in her right shoulder and foot. On the old surface it was not unusual for her to be a little sore the day after training, or even by the end of that night. Now mind, it never kept her from working! But you get concerned when you see a dog of her age starting to show signs of discomfort. Since we have the new mats, I have to say, she does not come up lame anymore - even by the next day I am not seeing anything that would suggest she is hurting. As for me, I have bad knees, I work retail, so I am on my feet all day. When I do train, I am working 2-3 dogs in an evening, about 3 hours and I have to say, since we installed the new mats, I am having far less problems myself. I wish I could have these installed in my store!

It has been a pleasure doing business with you, and I would have no reservations about recommending these mats.
Liz Long, Pres.
Hilltown Dogtown Training Club

You probably get tired of hearing this all the time, but we just love our KennelSafe mats. We have had regional AKC trials and the dogs and trainers and owners alike were just thrilled with the floors. We need to order more for another ring we are adding.
Kay Sadowsky,
DOTCORNY (Dog Obedience Training Club of Rochester, NY)

We have had our Agili mats for 6 months already and they are so nice. We love them as do the dogs. They were very easy to install. We had them ready in just a few hours.
Hop On Over Agility
Cleveland, TN

Feedback from our members has been very positive.
Darrell Burson
ECHO Club, In.
Buchanan, MI

For a few more references visitors may contact:
http://www.barknpurrinn.com/facility_p10.html
where you can see a picture of a happy customer using AgiliFlex. They also use KennelSafe.

For AgiliFlex floors also contact Kristin Deluca at New England Canine Rehab (413-783-0066).

For AgiliFlex Plus floors you may also contact Patricia Hayden at Canine Training Assocs. -
pmh7387@comcast.net

For Alpha Trax contact Pepsi Gilson at Sheboygan Dog Training Club
rmgilson@excel.net or

Lois Platt at
Real Life Obedience
(413-528-8451)