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| - Last week I brought my 4 month old puppy to dogtopia for his assessment and first day of daycare. The staff all seemed to be very friendly upon our arrival, and my tour. I'm very busy and refuse to leave my puppy alone for more than 5 hours at a time, so I figured a couple days a week he can interact with other dogs and have a blast, while I get things done! My puppy loves other dogs, might I add!
It was very difficult to leave him, especially watching how he got greeted pretty excitedly by the other dogs (normal for dogs). He seemed very scared, which I wasn't used to seeing him anything but excited to play with other dogs. Anyway, I ended up leaving and trying not to spend my whole day watching him on webcam.
I did tune in just to check up after the "nap time", where they crate all of the dogs side by side for 2 hours. I watched a male let several dogs out, and then finally come to let my dog out. My puppy was in the back of the crate, obviously overwhelmed and scared of the other dogs running around in the open room. The male dogtopia worker tried stepping away for a couple seconds and calling my puppy from farther away, but my puppy was still to scared to come out. The male proceeded to pick the crate up from the back, and tip it forward, almost to dump out my baby! I was so upset, I called them right away, and asked to have my dog removed from that room, and that I would be over right away to pick him up.
Once I went into the office, the "trainer" told me "come sit" while patting a chair. She wanted me to watch the video with her... I told her I don't need to, I had watched it 20 times and it got more and more upsetting each time. I didn't appreciate her referring to me as "sweetie" and what not either.
I then met with the area manager, who happened to be there at the time. She defended the behaviour of the male who dumped my puppy out of his crate. She said that "it's not like we were abusing him".... I never thought that they were, but the lack of care and the impatience shown to my sweet boy was unacceptable to me. My puppy listens EXCEPTIONALLY well, but it was his first day and he was scared. At this point I knew this was not the place for me or my puppy.
I have since brought my puppy to Barks N Rec, and he had an awesome day there! I got to be a part of his first day, and watch him through the fence and webcam (they don't have any blind spots or shut the cameras off at any point). I watched my puppy have a blast with all of the other dogs! It was amazing to see the difference in how comfortable he was at this new daycare as opposed to how terrified he was at dogtopia.
A couple other turn offs:
1. they take your dog from you right away and bring them to the back without you, they don't let you be a part of your dogs first interaction.
2. they don't let the dogs outside, but rather let them use the bathroom indoors... the staff claims their floors have some special scent - which doesn't affect house training.. I don't buy it.
3. they crate the dogs for 2 hours a day, and turn off the cameras during this time... very strange to me and made me uncomfortable from the beginning.
Overall I would never go back to dogtopia. Is seems to be the cheapest place, and they obviously market a lot, but culturally it's just not the right fit for me. I would recommend you avoid bringing your dog here, and look for a place with a bit more transparency, allows dogs to go outside, demonstrates more humility, and doesn't defend being impatient towards a scared puppy on his first day.
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