Houston Bark Park and Daycare — Attraction in Houston

I took my dog, Moose here for the first time yesterday. Staff was very helpful & friendly, the facility was nice and clean, and the report card I received was a nice touch! This is the first time I had tried dog daycare for the dog I rescued in May, and it was clear it was just not for him! He clearly had anxiety, and did not interact much with the other dogs. i was half expecting this, but wanted to give him the opportunity to see if he would be enjoy the environment. The reason I am deducting 2 stars is for safety. HBP charges an extra fee ($20) on top of normal daycare, for the dogs’ daycare eval- which is totally understandable! I was told it was because a new dog requires more one-on-one time during their eval, which makes complete sense. Unfortunately I did not see the follow through on this. I did not observe staff members attempting to comfort or include my dog throughout the day, though I’ll admit I did not watch every single second of the live cameras. I could forgive all of this, except the lack of check-ins did potentially put my dog’s health at risk. When moose got home from daycare he was ravenous for water. I’ve never seen my dog drink this much water in the time I’ve had him, and he was literally drinking from his bowl before I even got through the door. He drank around 3 bowls full of water in the first hour he was home (plus more later in the night), and that was with me rationing it! Even today he has had increased water intake. Based off of his baseline water consumption, I immediately became concerned he potentially had not drank any (or very little) water at daycare. As anyone who lives in Texas knows, a dog spending ~10 hours outside with no (or even little) water, is definitely dangerous. I know dogs’ eating/drinking habits can be affected by stress, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was offered water & didn’t show interest. However, I’d expect anyone caring for a dog in this situation to recognize the importance of getting him hydrated, even if it took some one-on-one effort. With the extra fee for eval day, I thought basic needs like this would be monitored more closely. Even if they weren’t able to get him to drink, or even if they could only get him to drink a little, I would have liked to be notified of such a problem. I may have been able to offer ideas on how to motivate him to drink (ice cold water, ice cubes, etc), and if still impossible, I would have come to pick him up early. My dog’s safety is my top priority & I quite literally would have left work to get him so he could be hydrated & not risk dehydration & the complications that come with this. To be clear, i do not blame the HBP staff for Moose not drinking water, but this is something I’d expect to be at least somewhat monitored on eval day as a dog adjusts, particularly given the fee. Further, as his owner I would have liked to know about any problems with water intake, as this is safety related. All this being said, I appreciate the work HBP did do with my dog, and I’m sure they could be a good fit for a...

What I thought would be a fun experience for my dog, Bear, ended up being a nightmare. Normally he stays at his sitters but they were traveling so I boarded him at Houston Bark Park since he went to day care there. The night I picked him up after his first boarding with them for 15 days he was vomiting and had diarrhea all night. I was concerned but they said it can happen when dogs get over stimulated. It was his first time staying there so I thought maybe it was true. The next night he was fine.

After being home a couple days I had to leave again. And again, his sitters were gone so I boarded him at HBP. When he was picked up this time, however, there was a problem. Bear was uncontrollably vomiting and had diarrhea with blood in his stools. Immediately he was taken to his vet for an X-Ray. He had swallowed a needle.

Bear was rushed to the emergency room, a 6 hour wait. The doctor did the consultation noticed his teeth were silver.... SILVER! He had such horrible anxiety while at HBP that he chewed on the crate they kept him until it made his teeth coated in metal. It's so bad that it does not come off with scraping or brushing. For the needle, the earliest they could schedule a scoop was the next day. The scope would go through his esophagus to retrieve the needle, no surgery required. Much much cheaper than surgery. Unfortunately, the needle had moved to his lower intestine before they could do the scope. This meant the only option he had was surgery.

It was apparent and confirmed by the doctor that he had to have been ill (vomiting with diarrhea) and HIGHLY anxious while under the care of HBP.

I was so upset that HPB never reached out to me, they never said he was sick! I called HBP and asked if there were any records of him being ill. 1st call: They said nope, they had nothing. I sent and email showing all the documentation for his medical bills. 2nd call: HBP then says "Oh we see he had loose stools but thats normal so we didn't need to call you."

I WAS LIVID. You didn't need to call me, email, somthing? You didn't want to tell me my dog was severely anxious because you were getting paid well since his stay was so long, perhaps?

I emailed and shared the facts with them. I have included it in the photos. You will see where I only asked for reimbursement for his last stay and the surgical costs only. I included my reasoning as well.

It was a fair and generous offer.

What was Patricia's response?

"We will have a $300 check for his expenses."

If you weren't guilty, you wouldn't have offered pathetic hush money HBP.

I responded denying that insulting offer, to which I have not gotten a response.

Please see pictures on yelp, google will not upload them. Bear clearly received horrible treatment here, neglect, and abuse. They have been a nightmare for both he and I.

Do. NOT. take...

Beware… We boarded our dog at the 27th St location for an extended weekend. To start off, we only saw her on the cameras one time out of 4 days. We called multiple times after not seeing her on the cameras and just got the run of the mill “oh she’s doing just fine and not problems at all”. After picking her up, a few hours later she started vomiting and had severe diarrhea with lots of blood in her stool. After bathing her and cleaning up I did a detailed look to inspect her and found multiple deep cuts, a large patch of missing fur around her neck where she usually wears her collar and 3 of her 4 paws were covered in blisters. I expected some cuts and scratches from playing hard all weekend; just the nature of dogs when they play.. but these were wounds that went without being treated. Management says they keep track of loose stool and do morning and nightly health checks but the system has seriously failed if even the surface wounds are not caught let alone if your dog is getting sick. As the night progressed she refused to eat and continued to defecate more and more blood.

I called in to speak with a manager, Patricia, who told me it could not have happened there because there is not documentation that states it happened. She even stated we signed paperwork saying they’re not responsible for illnesses your dog gets after they leave… This is where I say their system has failed and they were extreme negligent with our dog; just because there is no paperwork stating she had issues, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I requested a refund and they refused to do so and as I imagine any person would do, I’m leaving a review of my extreme disappointment in the care they took for our dog. They have a system in place but the individuals that you depend on to take care of your dog are not fulfilling their part of the job. Our dog just spent all day at the vet and they confirmed she picked up a severe infection while at Bark Park and was put under extreme stress. I would SERIOUSLY reconsider boarding your pet at Bark Park to avoid the psychological damage to your pet, extra time you’ll have to take out of your schedule and the $500 vet bill you’ll have to pay to treat for all the damage...