Red Dog Pet Resort & Spa Northshore — Attraction in Saugus

Boarders BEWARE - my Boston Terrier went into Red Dog Resort Spa (Saugus location) for a 10-day stay with a perfectly healthy eye and when we returned her eye was a mess! During her stay she suffered a corneal ulcer (appears like puncture in her eye). My frustration with this situation stems from a number of issues and apparent lack of "advertised care" by the Red Dog Resort Staff. We only discovered the issue when WE contacted Red Dog to inquire on the well being of our pups (Red Dog NEVER initiated a single call). We were told she appeared to be suffering allergies as her eye was red and runny. Given she had recently experienced allergies - their assessment sounded logical. We requested she be taken to the vet - but were told no transportation was available. Since we were told she couldnt be taken to a vet and she had suffered allergies previously we quested a refill for her allergy meds and had them dropped off and called the next day to hear that our dogs condition was "much improved". We NEVER heard from Red Dog again. After picking up our dog and discovering the extent of our her issues (which were obviously not allergy related) and spending an entire weekend applying around the clock treatment - I called to speak to a manager. After several weeks, their Director responded and instead of offering an explanation of how this happened - she blatantly fabricated an entirely NEW story line. Saying they never refused transportation - but our vet was too far. She also added that they offered to take her to Woburn Veterinary Referral Hospital, but we refused. FACT: our vet is .2 miles further than the hospital, but more importantly Woburn Veterinary Referral Hospital is EXACTLY where we took her upon return (we have used them REPEATEDLY for all of our dogs). So it WASN'T the distance and it WASN'T that we refused the animal hospital. The TRUTH is that transportation was not available either due to staff shortage or scheduling confusion. It's bad enough this situation occurred under their watch (which they still offer no explanation of how it happened), but the fact that their management was willing to compromise their ethics and integrity by fabricating a story in their defense is reprehensible. I even requested to speak with the owner - who although found the situation regretful and offered monetary compensation - he too, continued to stand by the fabricated story line. Even when presented with evidence to refute their claims, they refused to accept responsibility for what took place under their care. The only way to avoid this from recurring to another dog/owner is to evaluate what went wrong and put new policies procedures in place to ensure they do not recur. This is obviously something they are not willing to do.

My dog's eye is improving, however we are still continuing treatment with scheduled follow ups to minimize the long term damage. This has clearly been a lesson learned for us, sometimes what sounds like an enhanced service - may not be what you think.

Long story short - although I would NEVER recommend their service, if you are a current client or just considering Red Dog Pet Resort, please keep the following in mind before using their service. Ensure you have in writing WHERE and WHEN they will take your dog should an emergency arise during their stay. This should be something that is VERY clear to every owner. An owner should NEVER be told that their dog can not be transported to a vet when a problem arises. Take a picture of your dog in advance of the stay, this is not a company willing to accept responsibility for any accidents which occur under their watch - luckily my dog had just had a checkup the day before so we have documentation of her condition. Call and inquire how your pet is doing during stay - because you cant count on Red Dog to alert if an issue arises, but at least you'll have your phone record to confirm you inquired. Read the other reviews carefully - just because you haven't experienced an issue yet, doesn't...

I took my dog for a grooming visit on 2/16/21. He is admittedly difficult and had a lot of mats that required the hair to be cut short. This had happened once before and I had, had him groomed at Petco with NO ISSUES other than his general dislike for grooming becoming apparent. I had switched to Red Dog to see if he could have a better experience and because I was interested in their boarding program should I ever go out of town and could not bring him along so I wanted him to get used to the location.

Note that whenever I take my dog to the groomer I specifically mention that he is difficult so that someone with experience can groom him WITHOUT hurting him or traumatizing him (which would obviously make future grooming visits even more problematic).

When I went to pick him up, the groomer mentioned that he was a bit weird at the beginning of the visit, but had settled down. She did NOT mention anything about the injuries he had sustained during the grooming visit. UNACCEPTABLE! Seems like a pretty important detail to include when I pick him up so that I could monitor him or determine if he needed a trip to the vet.

I only noticed his injuries once home. I noticed him acting weird, but I figured it was a drastic haircut and he doesn't like grooming visits anyways so at first I thought nothing of it and thought he'd get over it. After no change in behavior I examined him and I ended up finding clipper cuts in several areas of his body, including in his genital area. Some of the injuries were past superficial. My dog was uncomfortable and in pain to the point where he did not sleep well for two days (us included) as we tried to remedy the situation at home first. After the third day with no change in his behavior I took him to the vet to get checked out and they were equally as horrified by the injuries to his skin. The vet visit ended up being $200 including the exam and medication to prevent infection and relieve him of pain/discomfort while he healed.

Additionally, I called Red Dog Spa North Shore after the vet visit to personally give my complaint to the manager so that they can make sure to be more careful with other dogs. The manager actually asked me if I was sure they were from the clippers or from him scratching because he was itchy - I think I can tell the difference. She mentioned they would make note of that for the future - 1) Where's the concern about the injuries my dog sustained? 2) Why on earth would they think I'd ever trust them with my dog again?

I expect a professional groomer to either a)have methods of calming or restraining a difficult dog to avoid injury or 2)STOP and call the owner if the grooming is not possible without injury. I would've preferred him to have half a haircut than to have him in pain. I will never take my dog to this or any other Red Spa again. Today 2/21/2021 his injuries are doing better, but not fully healed – but I am still concerned as I notice some behaviors & I just hope he recovers from the experience mentally.

If your dog is anything except an angel while grooming, do not bring them here.

UPDATE: I wanted to update the rating and include that Alyssa reached out to me and alleviated the situation as best as possible. I appreciated Alyssa’s professionalism and...

If you love your pets, please keep it away from this facility!! I went to Red Dog to check out there boarding services, the gentleman at the front desk gave me a tour of the place, answered all the questions I had, reassured me I would get daily updates and pictures of how my dogs were doing while they stayed there. At this point everything sounded great and the facilty looked great and I thought I was making the right decision by choosing Red Dog. After the tour I told the gentleman I wanted to make a reservation; his response was; “You can make the reservation online, I’m too busy and it takes too long to make the reservation. I stood there and made the reservation from my phone, it only took me less than 5 minutes to make the reservation. Clearly he didn’t want to be bothered. On the day I dropped my dogs off, I provided them feeding instructions and they took them in. I didn’t receive any updates, no pictures, nothing at all. I reached out to find out how they were doing, they finally replied saying they were fine. The day I went to pick them up they brought them out and said have a good day we will charge the card on file. No communication at all, the gentleman was very cold. I put the dogs in my car they were acting very strange, they seem scared and not excited to see me. The car ride was about 5 minutes from Red Dog when I got them out of the car, one of my dogs started pooping nothing but blood. Both dogs were coughing really bad and almost seems like they were choking. I called Red Dog and asked to speak with the manager and the gentleman said she is not available but said how can I help you? I adressed my concerns and he went on trying to argue with me telling me they were fine while in their care. I asked him to have the manager call me back. The manager didn’t call back until 27 hours later. Next day she called back no sympathy at all. I had to rush my dogs to the vet. They contracted Kennel cough while they were there. They are currently on antibiotics and currently waiting on the stool sample results. They also experienced some time of trauma. It’s been 6 days and today is the first day my dogs allowed me to hold them. I requested Red Dog to reimburse me for my vet bill and it took a day for the manager to call me back once again when she called she was more concerned on protecting the reputation of the facility then to take full responsibility that they didn’t communicate well with what had transpired.

I understand dogs catches things and there is a risk but the fact that they didn’t communicate with me to let me know how they were is very disturbing. It’s sickening to think how they were...