Central Bark Atlanta — Attraction in Brookhaven

Pushing this to the top: Still no email response from owner, Lyndsey, even though she has responded to our Google review. Parading your performance of ‘professionalism’ which failing to respond to customer communications!

An absolute abomination of an institution. Overpriced, poorly managed, and an owner that who cannot control her temperament or properly train herself or her staff on proper customer service.

I have been sending my dog here for a year and the service has degraded incredibly overtime. The turnover in staff in and of itself is a testament to the poor management of this institution. There is rarely someone at the desk for drop offs and if there is there is one employee during peak drop off times who is unable to keep up with the volume of incoming dogs.

They offer a $1 discount in pricing for a second dog for daycare - is this supposed to be impressive? Competitors offer significantly better individual pricing, pricing for two dogs, staffing, and care.

Further, when we initially tried to schedule an intake for our second dog, it took the staff over a week of non-response before we got an email reply, a clear testament to the understaffing, disorganization, and overall mess that Central Bark encompasses.

We wanted to try out this daycare for our second dog, and it proved to be such a mistake but enlightening in just how little the business shares with you until they are unable to manage different dogs. On the intake form, we specified that our second dog does in fact jump over barriers/fences. Upon dropping him off today, the front desk attendant didn't even confirm details, asked if his name is Copper (it is not), and rushed us out the door. The owner, Lyndsey, proceeded to call me at work 2 hours later and leave a voicemail stating our dog had hopped over fences and could not attend daycare at the facility. No email follow up.

I called her back for details and asked what the height of their fences were. She stated that they were 4.5 ft tall. I asked her why she thought a 4.5 foot barrier could not reasonably be traversed by a large dog and she said 'the other 120 dogs haven't done it' as if justifying that a 4.5 foot barrier is supposed to classify as a fence. I asked why she didn't move him to another play group with larger barriers as this was clearly notated on his intake form, and she answered that 4.5 feet is industry standard and should be sufficient.

I informed her that most other daycares that we had tried had actual barriers (fences/walls 10' or larger) and this was not the industry standard. She snapped and said that she was in compliance with all laws. News flash Lyndsey, being in compliance with laws and regulations is far different than having common sense especially if your own intake forms specifically asks about dogs who can jump and it is specified as yes. Clearly Lyndsey has the incapacity to review dogs she is intaking or refuses to upgrade her facility to have barriers necessary for larger dog breeds.

Lyndsey stated that it wasn't a good fit for our dog and I told her to go ahead and cancel our other dog's subscription with the facility - which she joyously agreed to. I asked where our dog was at that point, and she said he was being held in isolation for his own safety even though it is specified that he has separation anxiety. She planned to keep him there for the remainder of the day. She cited it as a safety concern even though she cited he played fine with other dogs.

Maybe consider redesigning your facility to have real barriers that work for more than just chihuahuas Lyndsey and consider taking some customer service training rather than punishing other people's dogs for your own sadistic pleasure.

If you care about your dog, send them somewhere else or they will be the next victim of...

I brought my puppy to Central Bark in the late summer of 2020 and haven't brought him back since Thanksgiving 2020. I held off on writing a review because the employees were always friendly and my pup did have a great time at daycare. But I feel like I need to share my experience at this point.

When my dog started at Central Bark he got kennel cough twice within the first two months. The second time he got it we got an email from CB saying they were having an outbreak - but no plans to close down and stop it from spreading, just saying keep your dog home if they are sick. My dog also got giardia while he was going to CB and when I called to let them know the employee said "oh yeah another owner told us their dog had that last week" yet we had not been informed. They said we could bring our dog back whenever he was done with treatment... no negative fecal test required or anything like that. We stopped bringing him after that. Now I just got another email from Central Bark saying they are having another kennel cough outbreak, and again they are not shutting down. I am so glad I stopped bringing my dog there because with 2 major outbreaks in less than 12 months, I do not want to continue to risk my dog's health. I also recommended the puppy play group to my friend who got a puppy and after taking him just ONCE he got kennel cough. It is clearly running rampant at CB.

I also find it suspicious that Central Bark does not have webcams available for viewing online like the vast majority of other places do. They even say on Yelp they have cameras installed but only internal viewing I guess? Not sure what exactly is going on behind closed doors, but there are many other daycare options in the Atlanta area that are more sanitary and more transparent, I would not recommend...

My dogs love Central Bark! I have a 12 lbs, 10 yo shih tzu terrier mix that didn't quite 'fit in' daycares when I lived in Miami Florida. He tends to be grumpy when dogs are jumping around and trying to play with him when he doesn't want to. After moving to Atlanta I decided to give daycare another go, and what set this daycare apart from the rest was that they have more than a big dog and small dog group, they have 6 different groups for all sorts of personalities! My normally grumpy guy fit perfectly in the 'pink' group, which is full of mellow dogs that like to hang out in a chill setting. As for my second dog, a 50 lb almost 2 yo golden mix full of CRAZY energy, he comes home tired every day after playing in a group that is made for his kind of rough housing play style. I actually adopted this dog as a young puppy through Central Bark! They work closely with a rescue group named SAVE, and will even foster some of their dogs to help adopt them out. My wife was hooked the minute she saw him. You can really tell the staff cares about the dogs, I constantly get updates, and with my older boy having some health quirks come up recently they have truly gone out of their way to make sure he's as comfortable as possible when he sleeps over. Even during the initial tour with my wife asking a million questions, and my spicy boy yelling at all the staff because of his stranger danger, they didn't seem to mind. The facility is also huge, by far the biggest one I had toured in Atlanta. It's been over 2 years now, and without a doubt I trust them completely...