Dogtopia of McKinney — Attraction in McKinney

Ghost (our Husky pup) was just starting to get acquainted at Dogtopia. He had been there for an evaluation and then for a free trial day. Both times they said how well he did, and from the cameras, he seemed to love it and have a lot of fun interacting with the other puppies.

However, from the very beginning, and each time afterwards, we cautioned them that he has severe crate anxiety in foreign places. We learned this lesson during the vaccination process with the vet, who recommended he not be crated unless at home.

We specifically asked Dogtopia to give us times for visits that would avoid him having to be crated there for any reason, and we asked that they pass along the info to the other employees/trainers. We noticed they never took down any notes. They just nodded their head and said it wouldn’t be a problem.

Yesterday, we called them to ask if we could bring him for daycare from 2-5pm (after nap time was over, so NO KENNELING). The lady on the phone said yes, and also pitched my wife on Ghost getting a “spa day” while he was there, and then joining the daycare afterwards. This seemed a little sudden but we trusted they knew what they were doing and assumed they wouldn’t pitch it unless they thought he was ready for that.

We got there right at 2pm to drop him off. The trainer that came up to the front to get him was new to Ghost and he didn’t want to go with her right away. Instead of letting him warm up to her for a minute, she started trying to drag him to the back by his leash. I asked if I could help by walking him back, but they said it would just be best if we left, which we did.

About an hour later, my wife got a frantic call from Katherine (a manager/trainer) telling us we needed to pick him up right away. When we got there to get him, Katherine came out and was telling me how he was absolutely not ready for this and that we should’ve brought him to more daycare visits before booking a spa day, and how they don’t feel safe having him there at the moment because he won’t come out of the “suite” (which is essentially a kennel with a glass door.)

I was starting to get pretty upset, but stayed calm. I politely stated the front desk lady was the one that pitched this spa day idea, not us, and that she should’ve known he had only been there twice. I also asked why he was put in a crate to begin with considering we specifically told them, multiple times, to not do that until he’s been there for a long time and was comfortable with everyone there. She said there was a “scheduling conflict”, which was “our bad” and they had no choice, which they didn’t communicate to my wife or me beforehand.

She asked me to go back and get him out of the crate. When I did, I was extremely angry and upset with what I saw. He was in a 2nd level glass crate, with his leash noosed around his neck, collar attached to the other end just dangling. To me, that’s a dangerous situation for an anxious and scared puppy. I feel like he could’ve easily wrapped himself up in the leash and choked himself. When I went to pick him up, I noticed he was pretty wet, which I then found out was pee. He was so scared that he peed himself inside the crate (something he’s NEVER done before). Then I looked down and noticed there were drops of blood all over the crate and a tooth laying there. Granted, he’s been teething and this is normal, but that was just too much at that point. He had been sitting in his own urine and blood, with his leash noosed around his neck, for an hour straight, scared to death, with no one in the room even attempting to comfort him.

So, to me, they pretended to care about Ghost’s trigger-point, only to completely disregard it on his 3rd visit to try and sell a grooming package. They also double-booked the time-slot and made no effort to inform us after the mistake was realized. Katherine was also pretty rude and condescending at times, and did not accept much, if any, responsibility. When we got Ghost home, it took about 4-5 hours before he was acting normal again.

We would absolutely not...

I am extremely disappointed and frustrated with how my dog was treated. I had a good feeling when we toured the facility and saw how all the dogs were running around, playing, and having a good time. My dog passed with "flying colors" at the meet and greet and then it all went downhill from there. My dog's first day at this location appeared to be a good one, but a few times when I was watching him on the camera the female handler in the room pushed my dog away from her. I brushed it off as he tends to get close to another human, especially when he is tired and does not want to play with other dogs anymore. Then this morning when my girlfriend brought him in he appeared nervous and was hesitant to go inside, which made me wonder what I did not see when I was not watching the cameras. Once he was in the room though that all changed and he was wagging his tail, sniffing other dog's butts, and appeared to be having a good time. Within 10 minutes though the male handler in the room appeared aggressive towards my dog, looked like he tried to call him over to him once, and when my dog did not come to him immediately that is when his aggression towards my dog got worse. He came up to my dog, grabbed him by the collar with such force that the collar came off his neck, then he used a rope tool to lasso my dog around the neck, dragged him to a create, and threw him in there. He did not act that way towards any other dog and that is unacceptable! It's not like I am hearing about this from another person, I watched it all on the camera. I called my girlfriend and asked her to go get my dog out of their care. When she got there and asked why my dog was treated like that she was told two different stories, both were lies. She was told by one worker that my dog had a liquid stool, which in the 10 minutes he was in the room he never went to the bathroom. The second person and this was the male handler, said he appeared to be nervous with the other dogs and he wanted to calm him down with a 7 minute crate time. I do not care who you are but physically dragging a dog and throwing them into a crate is not going to calm any dog down! How would you like to be treated like that? Then the fact that the workers are just standing there lying to my girlfriend's face was the last straw! What I think happened based on what I saw on the cameras was there was another dog in the same room that looked like mine that was hyper and playing a little rough with the other dogs. So maybe the handler thought it was my dog? Even if that was the case the way he handled my dog is unacceptable, even if it was meant for another dog!! I urge you if you consider bringing your dog to this facility to watch the cameras and make sure your dog is being treated properly. The unprofessional handling of my dog, and then the lies that were told to my girlfriend makes me with I was able to give this facility and their staff zero stars, and I will never be bringing my...

Do NOT take your dog here. My fiancée and I have trusted Dogtopia in Southlake with our Aussie for the last year, and had nothing but positive experiences with them. When we bought a new house we were thrilled that there was a Dogtopia in McKinney and happily enrolled him here. After TWO days in daycare, we will be pulling him and looking elsewhere. Just like other reviews, we completed the meet and greet and he passed with “flying colors”, and a had positive experience looking at the facility. Day one was fine, but day two everything went downhill quickly. I logged into the webcam in between work events for 2 minutes, and was appalled by what I saw. The trainer was being aggressive towards the dogs, he was a man with long hair in the “Park” room. I watched him grab another black dog by the scruff so hard that it ripped his collar off. Naturally, you can assume I was concerned and I continued to watch and decided to start screen recording. I watched him approach my dog who was just playing like the other dogs. He put the leash around him and walked with it very tight to the crate (my dog was not resisting). He puts him into the crate, and yanks on the leash so hard that both front paws leave the ground. My dog is 45 pounds do you can only imagine how hard he must have pulled him for both paws to leave the ground. I was absolutely horrified, but I very respectfully called Dogtopia and spoke with the manager, Doug. He told me he would “review the tapes” and when he called back he was rude and dismissive. He told me his employee behaved within his realm, and did nothing wrong. He told me that the collar on the other dog only ripped off because it was a “quick release”. I have never seen even a quick release collar that just falls off because you simply touch it. I told him that I trusted them to keep my dog safe, and how concerning that it only two TWO minutes of watching the webcam to see this behavior, what about the other 8 hours I was not checking on him? It is clear that the manager of this franchise does not hold his employees to the high standards I had experienced at other Dogtopias. Please take the other negative reviews about this location seriously. Protect your fur babies, they have no way of speaking up...