PUPS Pet Club — Local services in Chicago

Edit: Pups did reimburse me. They expressed sincere apologies, which I appreciated. Hopefully this will be a learning experience.

I'm so sad I have to write this (long) review, but I'm disappointed and furious with Pups.

I've been coming here for a couple of years to groom my Pomeranian. I found I really liked Will; he did a great job and I always booked with him when I could. I made an appointment with him at her last grooming in January. When I called a couple weeks ago to reschedule the appointment, they told me Will had left, but they could get me in with their new groomer, Cece. They said she had several years of experience, so I said yes.

I have a list on my phone of the things I want done so I can be very clear: two-inch guard all over (I like her a little shorter), trimmed legs and belly, and rounded face, in addition to a couple of other things (sanitary trim, ears, etc.). In my admittedly uninformed opinion, it's a pretty easy groom. When meeting Cece, I read off the list. I even made a gesture showing two inches with my fingers when I mentioned the guard. When I mentioned the rounded face, she asked if I wanted a rounded chest. I said that wasn't necessary, just the two inches all over. She said she understood.

When I picked my dog up, she was completely shaved. I could see her skin! I was so shocked I didn't say anything, just ran out. On the walk home I stared at her little exposed body; she seemed so nervous. Usually she is overjoyed to walk home.

I called and spoke to Cece. Apparently, she thought I meant a #2 guard. That's a quarter of an inch! When I spoke to the manager and asked for a refund, because this is absolutely awful, she said if I received a refund the groomer wouldn't get paid, and that she could offer me a credit for another groom. I said fine. But the next day I was still so upset, my dog was clearly still very uncomfortable, and I had made up my mind to not go back to Pups. I called again to ask about the refund, and this time the manager told me she could only refund the gratuity because the bad groom was due to a "miscommunication."

Even if this is a genuine "miscommunication," any decent groomer would know to ask and clarify about a shave that close. It's terrible to shave a double-coated breed like a Pomeranian unless it's a case of severe matting or other health issues; it's bad for the dog and can cause a whole host of problems, including permanently damaging the coat. Cece neglected her professional duty to look out for the dog's best interests and wellbeing; if she really thought I wanted that close of a shave, she should have spoken up and this whole situation could have been avoided.

Not only that, but the groom is terrible. Her face is rounded, yes, but it's not blended at all. The legs aren't shaped. It looks awful and lazy and I feel sad every time I look at my dog. To their credit, I'm sure Pups would offer to correct it, but there is no way I'm taking her back there.

Pups has done a great disservice in hiring people that don't know how to groom different breeds. And at a time when they're under the microscope due to losing Minnie (who still hasn't been found), they failed to take an opportunity to maintain or improve their reputation. I hate to have to go nuclear and write this review, but I am so angry. Do not take your dog to be groomed here, especially if it's a double-coated breed. They do not understand how to groom a different coat, or the consequences of certain cuts. They are terribly misinformed, and they refused to make it right. I'm out $130 (because conditioner is an extra $15).

Now, I have a badly shaved dog who has to get used to not having her coat. It may take a year or two to grow out. My dog is 14 and has cancer; she might not have that long. I just have to hope it'll grow back to the beautiful, soft, fluffy coat she had before -- and definitely find a different groomer who can take proper...

Unfortunately, I had a really negative and even disturbing experience at this place. I recently moved to Chicago and was looking for a place to get my dog groomed. After doing some research and seeing great reviews, I decided to go with PUPS. I have to say the person on the phone was really nice and accommodating. Stefanie was supposed to be my groomer.

The whole experience started off on the wrong foot. She seemed very annoyed and snappy from the very beginning. I don’t know if she was having a bad day or that is just her personality, but it’s definitely not acceptable in the customer service space. First of all, she didn’t even greet us or introduced herself, giving it is our first time at the place and first time seeing her. The first phrase that came out of her mouth was: “So what are we doing here?”

I explained to her that I was looking to cut about half of the length of my dog’s coat. She roughly grabbed my dog and told me that she has a lot of mats and she will have to trim her hair really short (shaved look) or she also said that she could add extra de-matting conditioner and try to brash her mats out but she didn’t know how long it was going to take her and if it actually was going to work and they were charging for each 15 mins of that service.

I want to be crystal clear that I’m giving this place 1 star not because of the options Stefanie gave to me, but because of her attitude and lack of any customer service skills and, most importantly, because of how she handled my dog.

I was unsure what option to pick because I didn’t really expect to trim my dog’s coat that short and, per Stefanie, it wasn’t clear if the additional services would work. I told her that I did see mats, they didn’t seem too terrible to me (I’ve definitely seen worse). The bottom line is I was trying to understand if de-matting conditioner and extra brushing would work because she was not giving me a clear answer.

This is where things went really down. So she told me that I could walk to the grooming table with her so she could show me my dog’s mats. She grabbed my dog again, she was visibly annoyed, and she put my dog on the table. My dog sensed that she was mad and I could already feel my dog tensed up. Then she took the blow dryer and started blowing air all over my dog’s chest while brushing her with her hand. Her whole attitude was very negative and she was very rough and careless. My dog started to VIOLENTLY SHAKE and CRY at the same time, and Stefanie didn’t even seem to notice it. She just kept going even though my dog was clearly distressed. I’ve been to different places before but I’ve never seen a groomer to show such a lack of care for dogs and I’ve never come across before anyone with such attitude.

I took my dog and walked out of that place. I would never let Stefanie touch...

I sent my 1 year old Aussiedoodle to the 2 week Stay and Train Bootcamp at the Lakeview location and had a great experience. He had multiple issues that I wanted worked on, ranging from leash walking to reactionary behavior towards strangers. Overall, he saw great improvements from the bootcamp, to the point that friends and family commented how noticeably different and better behaved he was across the board. His leash walking has gotten so much better, along with his ability to “focus” on me and ignore or resist triggering stimuli, like other dogs in the apartment lobby or a person running by on the sidewalk (things that used to cause barking, lunging, etc). Though he still has his good and bad days, I think the camp helped him a lot. I felt comfortable that he was in good hands, by paying a small daily fee to access the cameras I could watch him most of the day as he played with the other dogs. I also got a few check in calls from the Pups team with updates, questions on his diet, etc which put me more at ease. The daily training videos were also great; I got to see the things my dog was working on with the trainer and also tips and tricks for things I should do differently when handling and training him. It was nice to feel like I was getting pointers too to takeaway for after the camp! His trainer, Ryan, was absolutely amazing. We had done some private lessons with Ryan before deciding on a more structured approach with the bootcamp. Ryan posted not only the helpful and clear training videos, but pictures and goofy video clips too that felt like he really did care about my dog and was enjoying getting to know him better. He went above and beyond and made me feel very comfortable that my dog was learning and being treated well. Overall I’m glad I made the investment of time and money to send him to Pups for the Stay and Train because I feel like not only did he see improved behavior, but I feel more confident in my ability to handle him in different situations. I can’t recommend Pups, and especially...