Woofs 'n Whiskers — Local services in New York

I have used them a lot for boarding when I had to go on work trips but after the last boarding experience, I will not be using them again.

Below is what I had emailed them for a more detailed reference.

"I spoke to someone on the phone (I failed to get her name) and let her know that I will be sending this email along so I can share the feedback in detail.

I board Saba with WNW quite often. The last boarding experience was from 8/13-8/16. 1 - At 1152am on 8/16/24, I emailed and said I am running a bit behind and will arrive at 1pm. I ended up arriving at around 110pm. The checkout took so long, longer than usual. I waited nearly 20-25 minutes for Saba to come out. When she did come out, I was informed that the towel/blanket I had sent was not ready for return due to being soiled (i asked if she had soiled it somehow via bowel movement and I was told not at all, but that it just got dirty and it was put in the wash and was not ready) and that it was in the washer and maybe the next time I bring Saba, I can retrieve it. I said that is fine, as Saba was out already and was excited and pulling to go home. However, I gave over an hour of a heads up for my arrival and it is clear that there was not a proper check out process performed. Nearly 30 minutes of waiting to get my dog in addition to missing items (towel + see #3 below) signals disorganization to say the least.

2 - After I put Saba in the car, I returned to WNW to make a note to WNW staff that each time Saba is returned, the chain is not looped correctly, and I showed a group of WNW employees how to loop the chain. I cannot help but note that as a dog boarding/daycare place, knowing how to place collars and chains properly on a dog should be something that every person working there should know - should have been trained on.

3 - When I returned home, I noticed that the long, clear plastic tupperware container that I had sent was missing. I called WNW to ask about the missing tupperware, to help locate it. The person on the phone let me know that they did indeed locate it and that there was also a tube of Freshpet food in there. So not only was this not returned to me but there was food left in it and there should have not been ANY food left if the feeding instruction was followed. It was a one pounder which is ONE MEAL's worth. At this point, I expressed to the person on the phone that from the check-out time to missing items, this whole experience felt very unorganized and frankly untrustworthy in terms of care. I was beginning to doubt how things were communicated about the feeding instruction, as well as how things were organized AND communicated for check out. It just seemed everywhere, scattered, unorganized and irresponsible.

4 - Then a few hours later, I noticed that Saba was licking the bottom of her legs excessively and I noticed that she had scrapes (see attached pictures) on the exact same location of her hind legs. It didn't look like some one time scrape or injury, but it looked like something that took place from prolonged scraping. It is nothing major, but I would like some explanation of how she could have gotten these scrapes. I feel there should be a regular and final examination of the dog's overall state, and if that was done this would and should have been noticed and communicated.

I do feel that the quality, communication and organization of WNW have rapidly declined over the last few boarding experiences that I have had. After this last experience - which also has me making an extra trip to pick up the leftover food (which should not have been), food container and the missing towel - I have lost trust in WNW to take care of Saba with care and...

My dog has stayed at Woofs at least 10 times since she was a puppy. Her stays were usually between 2 and 6 days. After her last stay, I will never go back there. Two hours before I was due to pick her up, I received a phone call from the front desk at Woofs. I was asked if I wanted them to bathe my dog because she had diarrhea. I asked her to back up and to tell me about the diarrhea. She said, “Oh, she only had it twice this morning but don’t worry, there’s no blood.” When I got there, she changed her story and told me that my dog had diarrhea for TWO days—-but no blood, she added again. She claimed that my dog ate and played. Now, this is a dog who never once ate an entire meal at Woofs before. Previously, I was always told she barely ate or that she didn’t eat at all. When they brought my dog to me, she was shaking. She continued to shake all the way home in the car. This had never happened before when I picked her up from Woofs. As soon as we exited the car, she had diarrhea with BLOOD IN IT. She had blood in her diarrhea for five days. We had it tested and it was negative. The vet said she must have been highly stressed at Woofs. Once again, this had never happened before when I brought her home from Woofs. I noticed that the entire staff of Woofs has changed. I didn’t recognize one person there at the end of 2023 or during the last visit in January. I don’t know what they are doing there but they completely failed to take care of my dog. I hope she was not hurt in any way but I will never know the truth. She stunk like cleaning fluid when I picked her up, she was shaking and she had blood in her diarrhea contrary to what Woofs told me. I don't like being lied to and they should have called me about her diarrhea immediately. There used to be lovely people working there. The two tall young women always put me at ease and my dog adored them. Last summer, one of them even said she gave my dog cool whip in a kong when she wouldn’t eat her regular food. That was the kind of attention my dog used to get at Woofs but it wasn’t what she got in January. I spoke to an acquaintance in the park who used to send her dog there often for long stays. She said she didn’t like that when she brought her dog home from recent stays, he was going straight to his water bowl because he was so thirsty. She has started to take her dog to other doggy boarding places. I am going to hire a neighbor to stay in my home. I feel guilty that I left my dog at Woofs with a...

Seeing that they are still in business I am full of regret we didn’t sue this place. I will recount our experience from almost 20 years ago but remains fresh in my mind. After a 4 day stay we went to pick up our beloved dog Annie and find her lethargic and laying in her own urine soaked bed, What’s worse is that she had a serious injury to her eye, perfectly healthy when before, which had turned completely white. I asked what had happened and if she was treated by our vet– the manager on call that Sunday had zero answers. No one called the vet, no one removed her urine soaked bed or cleaned her up. For all we knew they just left her in her cage only to let something horrible happen to her eye. I refused to pay which the manager simply shrugged off. I demanded our deposit back which he was all too eager to provide. How telling in retrospect. It was clear this guy didn’t care. I immediately took her to our vet who said the only thing he could think would have caused it was trauma to her head. The eye needed to be removed. After calling several times the following week for answers they had none. They did not care. We should have sued–instead, here they are 20 years later a...