Wagsworth Manor Pet Resort — Local services in Charlestown Township

If you have a dog that is old and having a difficulty with adjusting to a new place and being away from you for a long time (like a week), this is not a place you can safely trust to care for your dog. No honesty and loving care per my experience.

Our dog Pupa, 10 years old, stayed there for one week during the Labor Day holiday. We called in the day after the holiday (4th day) to check in to see if he is eating okay and no issues. They said he’s been eating well from day 1. No concerns to address.

When we picked him up last Saturday, he smelt so filthy. He had significant amount of leftover dry poop around his butt hole, and nobody cared to wipe him. Up to this point, it was just a minor dissatisfaction. But when we gave him a bath right after we got home, he couldn’t stand up and was constantly crying as if he were in pain. He kept slipping off and looked like he lost his balance. He also looked so much more skinny that I could feel his bones. This makes me believe he was not eating properly and under a high level of stress. He even went crazy for dry food after he got home, which is unusual for him.

His symptoms got worse the next day, Sunday. He could not even get up and go out for his bathroom business. We made an appointment with our vet for the next day. So...we got back from the appointment just a while ago. He lost his weight about 2 pounds. He weighed only 12.8 lbs. If he truly had all his meals everyday as this place said, how could he lose over 2 pounds over just one week?! His back legs are weak (that’s genetic), so we initially assumed that he may be experiencing the same symptoms again. But the vet could not find anything wrong with his legs or any other part of the body. So we had to do additional blood work and x-rays. Everything came out normal... The vet consulted the network of other vets, but they could not identify the definite cause and classified this as very abnormal. As of this moment, he is still lost with his balance and can’t even stand up with his front legs so that we just picked up the pee pad and diapers. They were suspecting potential nerve issues and suggested for MRIs. We decided to give a week with pain medication to see his progress, instead of putting him through another series of stressful procedures.

Why am I taking this time to write this review? This place gets a great review, the facility from outside looks very nice. That is one reason why we decided to have our dog care for a week while our family had to be away. It may work out okay for some dogs, but be cautious with their philosophy and trust system. The place who can’t even speak the truth for such a small thing like eating food on a regular basis, I don’t know how you can really trust your family, your pet, to be cared for an extended time. We asked the person to call us if he doesn’t eat his dry food (since we knew he may have difficulty adjusting). They did not, and even when we called them, they said no issues. When he is in such a weak health condition, even a small pull from his resistance could be detrimental. And I don’t know what went wrong. All I hope is he can get back to his prior state as soon as possible. I’m taking this time to write this review so that you don’t make the same mistake I did...

Pros: It’s a huge, beautiful facility. Cons: Everything else. Do not board your dog here during the busy season (June-August, November-January) because it becomes an overcrowded nightmare and a large majority of the dogs get stressed to the point of not eating and getting diarrhea. It’s even worse if your dog ends up in one of the overflow crates because it’s row after row of loud, stressed out dogs facing each other. Speaking of crates, your dog will only be out of his crate for 4 hours max. When it’s busy it’s only two hours, maybe less depending on weather. If your dog does individual play it’s even less. When it gets busy, it’s common for individual dogs to hardly get out of their suites at all. If you only opt for a 1 on 1 or TLC, your dog will only be outside of his suite or crate for a grand total of 20 minutes per day. At one point it was so overcrowded and busy during a holiday weekend that arriving dogs were put in crates, only to be left there for half the day because no one had the time to get them checked in and send them outside. None of the staff is trained in animal first aid or even anything basic like dog behavior or body language. Because of this multiple fights have broken out in group play, because the daycamp monitors don’t know what to watch for. In fact, most of the current caregivers are teenagers that know very little about dogs. New staff that have only been working for a week have been training other new staff which, as you can imagine, spreads misinformation. All of the senior caregivers have left due to everything being run so poorly. For example, communication between the front desk and everyone else is so bad that services (like something as simple as a nail trim) do not get done because no one is told and nothing gets written down. In addition, you know those report cards you can get for your dog? Those are more often than not made up as you go. When you call in to check up on your dog, the front desk pulls up the notes that the caregivers take, which are also largely made up. The staff is specifically told to make the notes sound positive, even if the dog is obviously stressed out and doesn’t want to be there. To sum things up, if Wagsworth is at its capacity your dog will not be taken care of very well. Your dog will be watched by staff that is poorly trained and who do not know a lot about dogs. You will be lied to about how your dog is doing. You’re better off boarding during the slower season or not boarding...

How disappointing in every way, and ultimately damaging to our dogs. Our dogs stayed for a week. They went in healthy, daily brushing and we requested a bath and grooming at the end with Havanese puppy cuts. We brush and comb them daily so I expected a little bit of extra grooming would be needed at the end. We made the reservation on the phone, picked the mandatory daily activities and confirmed their dates. We requested a note on the account that they book the stay until Monday but would likely be picked up after 1pm the Saturday previous as long as flights were not delayed for cancelled. We were quoted a total of $900-1000 for everything. When we arrived for drop off we were informed that no daily activities were noted so we went through the whole thing again, fine things happen no big deal. We reiterated the note about likely Saturday pickup and we’re told they’d be ready after 1pm and the young lady went back and checked When we were arriving home we received a call that one dog was “so matted that he had to be shaved down completely.” That call came at 11:42am which made sense given the request that they be ready after 1. I arrived to pick them up at 2:45 that day. The young woman was shocked that I was there and I explained the notes we left. She said they were not ready and there was no note in the system. After acting rude and annoyed for several minutes she finally went to check and returned to let me know there was only 20 minutes to wait so I was “lucky” and it “worked out.” She then told me that the total charge without the extra day and a half was almost $1300. Then I got my dogs back. One was completely shaved and the groomer lectured me on brushing him everyday. I explained that I do and she rolled her eyes and walked away. The second dog came out also shaved and I asked why. They said she was matted down and it was necessary. Her fur is NEVER matted even though we brush and comb her everyday. I asked what happened to her and they said that she “must have showed up that way since it would never happen there. I expressed some shock and the groomer told me she was an expert and groomed for more than 16 years.” Left to find these “experts” shaved off both dogs” whiskers!!!! We will never go back. If I had a way to call the owner and request a severe discount for the rudeness and trauma of shaving our dogs” whiskers off I would. Instead I’m stuck with a google review and ensuring that this doesn’t happen...