City Bark Lodo — Local services in Denver

I hate to have to write this review because I really try hard to never be a Karen but I figured I could save some other dog owners some headaches.

I've had countless bad experiences with this place, but I want to start with the positives:

the staff is very kind and friendly, for the most part. I think they're overworked and understaffed, but that's not their fault. They're the reason I gave this place second chance after second chance. The deal you get for the first month of daycare (unlimited visits within 30 days) is amazing.

Unfortunately, those characteristics were heavily outweighed by the bad. Here are some of the experiences I have had with City Bark Lodo:

Every time my dog comes home, he is covered in dirt and urine. Some of that is to be expected with a doodle, and I get that, but it is consistent, and this dog takes hours to clean. It seemingly gets worse by the day, as they have 80+ dogs rolling around in there daily. If you have a long haired dog, dont go here.

Multiple times I have been handed a dog with feces caked to his face. I don't think I'm being a jerk by saying that's not acceptable, and someone should have noticed either the poop or the dog over an 8-hour day.

It routinely takes about 20 minutes to pick up or drop off a dog because they are understaffed. Again, not the staff's fault, and they're really pleasant people, but it's really inconvenient.

they advertise training, but there is no trainer on site. I attempted to contact the trainer from their other location for weeks, and got a response after 3 weeks that they had been out with an emergency. That's fine, stuff happens, but they went AWOL again upon "return." The lack of availability or effort to even respond to a message to let me know they'd have to respond later was disappointing and unprofessional.

they advertise that you can watch your dog on webcams while they're at daycare. most of those webcams have never worked even once. the app is also hard to use.

My final straw was when I scheduled a haircut for my dog. I dropped him off in the morning, and they tried to tell me I was in the wrong because their trainer doesn't come in until the afternoon. they said I could let him have a free day of daycare while he waits, so I left him there. I came back, and they said my appointment had been canceled and they charged me for a full day of daycare. the groomer came out and said he would give me 20% off a cut the next day, and I said I wasn't ready to book yet (as I did my best not to be disrespectful to the staff for yet another mess up). I looked into other options, but since none were available elsewhere, I called back to book. they said the trainer was taking tomorrow off. I now have a filthy, ungroomed dog who is going to cost more to groom elsewhere, and I will have to wait a week to get that more expensive appointment because of the neglect of somebody handling the appointments.

I hope this saves someone some money and hassle. I recommend looking into other options for your own sanity. What is supposed to give you peace of mind actually will just stress you out and leave...

I’ve held back on leaving a review for a long time but there’s been so many issues at this point.

I have one incredibly nervous dog. He had an issue there where I had to fly home and pick him up. The staff gave me inconsistent reviews about what happened. When you arrive, the staff you get is so inconsistent. Some/most and incredibly dismissive. You should never be nervous leaving your dog at a boarding place that something may happen to them and then not even be able to get the full story of what happened when you pick them up.

I went to pick up my dog and they had her under a totally different man’s name and almost wouldn’t let me pick her up and gave ME an attitude about it

I booked my dogs and confirmed with 3 different people on 2 different dates that I could pick my dogs up on Easter Sunday. All said yes without a question. Had they said no I would understand being the holiday. But I made my plans, showed up on Sunday and it was closed. I live 2 hours away, adding a 4 hour trip. when I went to pick them up Monday, not only did they not apologize for the incorrect information, they were rude, dismissive, and charged me for the extra night as if the miscommunication was my fault. Someone there claimed to be the manager and claimed they would not be able to discount the extra night stay due to their own lack of employee enablement… the kicker for this is I called back later to try to speak to that manager and the person on the phone told me there is no manager in in the mornings and someone would call me on the afternoon. So this woman just point blank lied to me.

My one large dog is leash reactive. I tell them this every time. During pick up this time there were other dogs. The employees still walked out and let the leash go… luckily my dog was ok with the other dog in there, but that’s just idiotic. You do not know how dogs will react. And similar to everything else, I would have been at fault.

It’s unfortunate because I’ve had some good experiences, (especially with grooming, the groomer at this source location is amazing) but the rude dismissive people who clearly don’t care about you or your dogs ruin this entire place.

They don’t train their employees properly or hire people who actually care. you’re held at fault when things fall through, left feeling as if you did something wrong. They lack the structure needed to care for dogs.

God forbid you try to talk to a manger, you get thrown around to multiple people who claim to be managers. Between the concern for my dogs being in this care and the rude and dismissive/untrained staff, I unfortunately am looking for a new boarding facility that I can trust to leave my dogs at with peace if mind.

I do feel it’s this location. The 2000 W 8th ave location had better service. 3150 Brighton needs to get its...

Stay away unless you want your sweet dog to be traumatized.

When I spoke to the receptionist, they reassured me they would look after my 5-month old pup. The red flags were obvious upon dropping him off. The woman with long fake eyelashes at reception kept complaining about how much she wanted to go home and take a nap when I tried to verify my pup would be looked after during evaluation. I requested he not be put into 15+ groups with large dogs and to let him rest after evaluation given his age. She reiterated how much she wanted to take a 3 hour nap. I should’ve known in that moment the neglect present at this facility. I requested he be socialized with low-energy small dogs that aligned with his needs and was reassured he'd be monitored properly.

I never received a notification that my pup was finished with his evaluation as promised. At 2 pm, I checked the webcams and, sure enough, he was in a playroom with 20+ large dogs. The attendant was checked out on their phone texting, not paying attention at all. I watched multiple times as my helpless, timid pup was bullied without any intervention. A bully dog continued to grab him aggressively by the ears and drag him around. It was obvious in the live cam that my pup was not consenting to this rough treatment. Wouldn’t call it anything close to "play". My dog was trying to get away but would be pinned on his back and dragged by his ears by this bully dog. The one attendant on their phone, not paying attention. This went on for 15+ minutes. My dog was left defenseless and helpless.

I called multiple times to ask that he be removed from this playroom but was sent to voicemail. I had to leave my work conference early to rescue my dog from this maltreatment and neglect. I had asked that he not be put in this environment in the first place given his age.

Proceed with caution at this facility. They will throw your dog into groups of 20+ when understaffed with untrained, distracted professionals monitoring playtime. They allow the one attendant on-duty to text while neglecting a room full of dogs. It's shocking. They don’t care about the needs of your dog or actively monitor consensual, equal, fair dog play. Seems obvious given the evaluation is free. Should’ve known. Stay away unless you want your sweet dog to be traumatized.

See attachments for proof. In one screenshot, the attendant...