The Dog Zone — Local services in Sandy

It's taken me a long time to decide if I should write this review or not, however, when it finally comes down to it, my fur babies mean enough to me to stand up for them when they are mistreated. I used to use the Dog Zone frequently and was a good customer. I would buy their specials and bring both mine and my boyfriends dogs in for Daycare and Boarding several times. Like other reviewers here, I gave the Dog Zone a few chances before walking away from their business forever. The first time was when my dogs came home with Kennel Cough. It wasn't until the next time I dropped them off that the Dog Zone had put up an awareness poster to not bring your dogs to daycare if they are sick - why wasn't that always up, should have been. Second time, my baby girl came home with a weird skin infection that we had to get her on antibiotics for and she was sick for quite some time. The last time was what made me walk away forever and simply INFURIATED me. My baby boy is the most sweet natured, kindest, trusting dog you have ever met. He loves his humans and thinks the world of his sister-dog. He is also very sensitive, both to physical and emotional pain. One day I brought him home from The Dog Zone and discovered that he had a HUGE slice through his ear, to the point that I had to run him to the ER and have him put under for them to stitch it up. When I contacted the Dog Zone inquiring what had happened to my poor sweet boy, they could not tell me anything. They had absolutely no idea how he had received such a ghastly wound and tried to shrug it off in a manner of, "eh that's dogs for ya" NO! If that was a human daycare and you were questioned on what had happened to a child's ear and you had no answer, you would be shut down for negligence. Plus dogs' ears bleed, a lot, so for him to go a whole day bleeding from his ear and no one notice.... very upsetting. Then on top of that, I know my baby boy would have let out a VERY loud scream when he was injured, and again, no one even checked on him to see what had happened. This place did not offer to help us pay for anything, on top of that, they tried to fight us when we demanded our prepaid days back, (because I was never going to take my children to a place that neglected them again). When I first met the management of this place I thought he was friendly, safe, and kind. But when it came down to the well being and care of the animals (mine particularly), he was only in it for one thing, the money. He did not offer to even try to talk to his staff or reprimand anyone for being neglectful to my baby boy the day he was so severely injured. He spent a very long time in a cone, unable to do anything he loved because of this place, and to this day is still very sensitive about that ear now. I want people to know this because you should go somewhere else. Take your dog to a place that has cameras so that if your baby EVER comes home with something like mine did, you can watch the footage and prove what happened and who should have been there to help. I did not receive a call or any notification that my baby was hurt. If I had, I would have immediately picked him up to receive medical care. I only discovered it that night when I was cleaning him up, because no one noticed him all day and no one told me. He suffered ALL DAY LONG with a open ear wound, because Dog Zone staff didn't notice his injury, his yelp of pain, his bleeding, or his obvious discomfort in...

I am absolutely horrified with this place. My puppy has been attending the doggie daycare a couple times a week since June, and often comes home smelly and extremely thirsty, as if she hasn't had anything to drink all day. I understand she is playing with other dogs during the day--and is prone to getting dirty--however I am beginning to think that place is just extremely unhygienic.

I just recently boarded my dog for her first "long" stay (4 nights) and this is where I've reached my breaking point. I showed up to pick her up, and they were apologizing profusely about her blanket that I sent with her being soiled and unwashed at this point. Note that this was 1:00 in the afternoon, plenty of time to wash that blanket. My puppy will typically make it through the night without an accident (8 hours) and this blanket was DISGUSTING and covered in many different soils and stains. They claimed it was only soiled this morning, however there was A LOT going on with that blanket. I also had left a spare blanket in case of this situation (I do have a puppy after all, and accidents do occasionally happen) and it seemed to be untouched, and still rolled up in the bag I dropped off when checking her in. I literally asked them to throw the soiled blanket away rather than sending it home with me.

Once I got home I realized that half of her kibble was still in her packed bag. Take note that I individually packed each meal (breakfast and dinner) for her in separate bags in addition to a lunchtime chew treat that was packed individually as well. I also wrote down her schedule for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that they were made aware of when I dropped her off for boarding. Now, I totally understand that a young puppy staying overnight in an unfamiliar place.. there is bound to be less eating than normal. HOWEVER I called The Dog Zone roughly halfway through her stay to check-in and see how she was doing, and I was told that she "was doing just perfect." I don't know about you, but if my dog is not eating well at this point, I would not consider that perfect. I would have liked to know that she was struggling to eat, to maybe have opted into purchasing some of the center's kibble they offer to try and entice her with something new.

After I got home with my dog, I called the Dog Zone to see what in the world was going on the last few days. I told them half the kibble was in her bag, and how I called up there halfway through her stay. I was only given an unenthusiastic 'sorry' and 'if I had known, I would have said something when you called'. Be warned, apparently the front desk has no idea what's going on but they'll tell you everything is perfect anyways.

I'm beginning to wonder, does this place have anywhere reasonable for the dogs to use the bathroom? Are they attentive enough to the requested routine and schedules of the owners? They definitely don't take the dogs outside, although their website advertises "hours of both indoor and outdoor playtime".

It's unacceptable this place just gets away with the bare minimum, and I will not be returning for either doggie daycare or boarding. Do yourself a favor and avoid this place and don't be fooled by the reviews. They have signs all over the windows asking for 5-star reviews. We aren't stupid... you're only trying to bury the negative reviews...

The only reason I'm giving two stars instead of one is because the girl at the front desk was very accommodating and friendly. Let me just take a minute to explain my experience. I've been into this place before to use their dog wash and will probably be back to use it again at some point because it's very convenient. I took my German Shepherd dog in to do a behavioral test to see if my he could be taken there for daycare. I informed the young lady coming to test my dog that he's not aggressive but has some anxiety and can be very forward, but he's never been aggressive. She acted very nervous and had to drag him to the back, coddling him the whole time. She took him to the back area and met with another lady, who immediately let another shepherd out to meet him. I saw my dog become very nervous, start barking, raising his hackles and going for the door/hiding behind the young girl holding his leash. The girl was very nervous and loud, almost immediately bringing him back out to hand him off. After witnessing this I immediately I got a wrong feeling. I've taken my dog to at least four other doggy daycares and I have never seen him taken back to a new area (with people he didn't know) and immediately be introduced to a new dog without at least being let off his leash or be allowed to sniff the area. I could tell the girls introducing him to the other dog either didn't have much experience, or didn't care to go through the proper procedures because they were nervous about my dog. I will admit he has a lot of anxiety and that can be nerve wracking for someone that doesn't know him, but I've never heard of people in a doggy daycare letting dogs meet that way. This morning I went back to inquire about the situation. They said it usually works if they introduce the dogs on leashes and that they only have dogs on leashes to introduce them if they, "see something in the dog" so they can control him and "protect" the other dog. Okay so first let me say if there's a dog fight, leash or not, you won't want to get involved with two 80+ lbs dogs going at it; second let me just say for a dog with anxiety having a leash on in a new situation like this can cause them to feel trapped and react even more skittish because they can't comfortably get away. I've called three other doggy daycares in the area and they all agreed that this was a bad situation and not a fair judgement for my dog. I will definitely be going elsewhere for my doggy daycare and also will only probably be working with the girl I met at the front desk, since she actually took time to explain a little bit of why they did what they did and also didn't get offended at my questions. Not recommended for apparent lack of experience and...