City Dogs 18th Street NW — Local services in Washington

This is an extremely dangerous place for any dog, as the staff is grossly negligent and there is a culture of hiding dog injuries and lying to owners. Fellow dog owners, I beg of you, do NOT make the mistake of trusting the staff at City Dogs with your beloved pup.

We sent our dog to City Dogs daycare for a couple of months, until he was attacked by another dog. As dog owners, we understand that sometimes dogs do bite. What we didn't expect was the shocking response from this supposed "doggy daycare" company.

We discovered through video footage (that City Dogs first claimed did not exist, then refused to let us watch, and finally let us watch but refused to let us document) that our dog was attacked because of an extremely dangerous environment created by a City Dogs staff member. You don't need to be an animal behaviorist (or know anything about dogs, for that matter) that you shouldn't force a pack of 10 dogs on top of each other in a tiny corner so that they are literally crying and climbing over each other. We were truly in disbelief.

Even more unbelievable is how City Dogs responded to the incident. My dog had a SERIOUS dog bite that was gushing blood all over the floor, I later found out. Nonetheless, they waited TWO HOURS to call me, trying to see if they could cover it up. When they did call me, they refused to give me any details, saying only that he had a “minor puncture wound.” They refused to send me photos or explain what happened in any detail. They claimed they weren’t able to get an appointment at our vet (which is literally down the street from the City Dogs location), which I was surprised by. I told them I would call the vet, who confirmed that City Dogs never tried to bring the dog in but they would take him right away.

I tried to get in touch with City Dogs to tell them to rush my dog over but no one was picking up the phone. I tried calling them for THREE HOURS in addition to sending four frantic emails. No one responded to me. The owner called me three hours later, sounding bored and annoyed at the inconvenience. I told him to rush the dog over. The vet informed me that he still wasn’t brought in for another HOUR AND A HALF — he was bleeding through this entire five hour incident and easily could have lost a life-threatening amount of blood. My vet was appalled by the negligence, as were we.

When I asked why I wasn’t called sooner or why no one would pick up my calls or answer my emails, the owner Jesse literally said to me “What are we supposed to do, drop everything just because a dog was bitten?” Are you kidding me? YES. In fact, I found out from a staff member was that the reason I wasn’t getting through the phone was because the owner Jesse told them not to speak to me until they had gotten the story straight. I was horrified to hear this.

In the days that followed, we heard conflicting stories from the staff and the owners, continuous lies, and defensive legal posturing. Never ONCE did they apologize or act remorseful or consoling.

I later found out from friends, family, and coworkers that this is actually a very very common occurrence at City Dogs. Many of my coworkers suspect abuse at the facilities.

Please, I know you love your dogs — do NOT endanger their lives by trusting this dangerous company with their care!

P.S. I later befriended a sympathetic staff member who told me the truth about City Dogs: they often lie to dog owners about what happened to their pets, and lie about their services on their website. Specifically, they do NOT use “Tagg GPS collars” on their dog walks. They do NOT give dogs “several outings on [their] artificial turf patio” — this patio doesn’t even exist in their 18th street location! Dogs are cooped up inside all day, sometimes forced to literally be on top of each other as we saw with our own eyes on tape, often lying in their own filth because “indoor bathroom incidences” are NOT “sanitized immediately” as they falsely...

H St location. This review is not based on their daycare services. I have taken my dog here for daycare several times. Although he always comes home with sopping wet fur and smelling like urine, I’ll continue to take him there because it’s the best option available to me in terms of location and price at this time. I don’t fault them for anything pertaining to daycare in this review. In fact, I added a star to what otherwise would have been a 1 star review because I appreciate the availability of an inexpensive daycare option near my house.

The reason for my low rating is based on my dog's grooming experiences there. When my dog was 6.5 months old, I took him for his first grooming, merely for a cleanup around the mouth/eyes/belly. I talked to the front desk person beforehand and we agreed that he should not get his nails cut because he had recently had that done while he was at daycare just a week before. When I picked him up from his haircut, he was whimpering for the entire walk home, but I thought that maybe he was just tired or something. When we got home, he went to lay down on a blanket and I started working on school work. He was still whimpering every now and then, but I couldn't understand why. I thought maybe he was just tired. An hour later I checked on him and realized that there were several large spots of blood on the blanket and a toy, and that he was licking his paw. I finally took a closer look at him, and discovered that several of the nails on his right paw had been cut so short that they were still bleeding, an hour after I brought him home. On his belly was a large cut from a poorly handled razor. And on his testicles was terrible razor burn (which I know is not necessarily the groomer's fault).

For clarification, my dog is only 8lbs, and is generally very friendly, easygoing, docile, easy to control, and non-reactive. When I bathe him, he sits nicely until I'm done. He never bites or growls. I've even been told by daycare staff that, behaviorally speaking, he is a joy because he is so friendly, cuddly, and compliant. There is no reason that he should have been hard to shave resulting in a large cut on his stomach. Furthermore, there is no reason that his nails should have been cut at all. I WAS NEVER NOTIFIED THAT HE HAD BEEN INJURED.

Upon discovering his injuries, I immediately called City Dogs and informed them of what happened. They asked if they could call me back later after they called the groomer about it. About 15-20 minutes later, they called me back and asked if I could bring my dog in so that they could stop the bleeding for. By that point, it had mostly stopped, and there was nothing they could do that I or my vet couldn't, so there was no real point in me returning, which I told the woman. She said, "Okay, bye." I received NO apology. I wasn't asking for any kind of compensation; I was merely expecting an acknowledgement that they regretted harming my dog and that they would be more careful in the future. Instead, I got a brusque dismissal.

I will never have him groomed there again because I don't trust the groomer to not injure him, and I further don't trust the staff to notify me if/when my dog gets hurt so that I can immediately provide first aid care for him. As a small dog, I'm horrified to imagine what would have happened if he had experienced greater blood loss without them notifying me of the injury.

Oh, dear. When I first tried to upload the photos, they wouldn't show up, and now there are...

We have been going to see GG at City Dogs for about 2 years now and I am so beyond thankful we FINALLY found such an INCREDIBLE groomer!!

GG is not only extremely knowledgeable and talented, but she is deeply deeply deeply kind. She truly loves every pup that comes to see her (even the one like mine who used to try and bite her!).

One of our pups is VERY anxious (to the point of biting groomers .. eek!) as a result of some truly terrible grooming experiences in the past, and GG is a literal miracle-worker with him. She let me stay in the room when she groomed him the first few times. Right off the bat, that showed me how truly talented of a groomer GG is - she knew that she was heading into a tricky groom, and instead of shutting me (the parent) out of the room in case it didn’t go well, she encouraged me to stay. Now, I can drop him off and know that he will be loved with abundance! And that he will come home looking amazing!

Our other pup is extremely chill and loves to go see GG! He knows that he will get soooo many kisses and cuddles and, when he’s done, to sleep on some cozy towels in the linen closet that he loves so much 😂 (to be clear, he is not forced or shut in there - he discovered it as his favorite spot to be cozy and now he just naps there after his groom).

I have many favorite things about GG, and one of them is that she will never push a dog past their limit. For me, it is extremely important that my pups have the least stressful time possible while they are getting groomed. And if that means that their groom isn’t 100% to GG’s very high grooming standards? That is hands down what I would prefer, every time. And, because of this, it means that my anxious dog no longer dreads getting groomed. All thanks to GG’s doggy magic!

To be extremely clear, she does an AMAZING job grooming both pups every time! They always coming out looking chic with their tails wagging (and a cute new bandana or bow tie)!

I confidently recommend GG to all of my friends in the DC area, especially if they have a nervous pup and have had trouble finding patient and endlessly loving groomers. Go see GG, and I promise you will find your...