Short Story: NEVER AGAIN. I will NEVER take my dog to this pet hotel ever again. And you shouldn't either. I should have listened to all the bad reviews, but my mom's coworker highly recommended it to her and she insisted it would be ok.
Long Story: Usually my parents watch my dog when my wife and I are out of town or we need to leave him for a day or two. But my cousin was having a desitination wedding and my whole family was going. Even my closest friends that have watched my dog before were going to this wedding. Quickly running out of options, my dad was suggesting that he'll skip going to Hawaii just to watch our dog - our dog is literally his furry grandson. My mom asked her coworkers what they do when they have to have their dogs boarded and one of her coworkers highly recommends THIS specific PetSmart. So I do my research. I love doing research. And I come across all the bad reviews for this PetSmart's pet hotel... but how could that be? My mom's coworker had glowing reviews! So with limited options and time running out, I decided to give it a shot and trust my mom's coworker, rather than "strangers on Yelp."
So when you fill out the paperwork to have your dog boarded, there's a section for specific needs ("must use harness when walking", etc.) or additional comments - I end up typing up and printing a seperate attachment. My dog is quirky and its best my dog's caregivers know them ahead of time rather than figure them out on their own. For example, "my dog likes his kibble a little moist so please put a little water on it. When he's done eating his food, he'll be looking to get his Milk Bone dental chew as a treat. If he doesn't get one, he'll stare at you like you're forgetting to do something." Another quirk is that when my dog goes poo, he goes twice - he'll poop once, and then take a couple of steps away, and then squat a second time. Anyways, I put a couple of these things so that they know - throw some water on his food, give him a treat when he eats it, make sure he's done pooing when he goes... seems reasonable right?
So they look of the additional attachment and they don't make a big deal out of it so I assume it isn't much to ask for. As I'm checking him in, they're looking him over like a rental car make note of any bald spots or patches of missing hair or anything and just note he has two spots behind his back heels that are kind of thin of hair because of how he sits/slouches, nothing else seems notable. And then my wife and I leave him for 10 days as we turn the wedding into an extended Hawaiian vacation.
My parents come back to CA the day after the wedding and pick up my dog on my behalf and sent me a video of them picking our dog up. My dog is so happy to see my parents and he's practically trying to run out of PetSmart to go home. According to my parents, they just simply picked him up and walked out of the store after paying - they didn't do a final lookover to make sure he wasn't any worse than when we left him with the thin hair behind the heels, they didn't tell my parents how his individual playtime that we schedule with the other dogs were, they didn't tell them if he ate all his for or give back any excess food/treats (which I had to individually pack).
My parents said right when our dog got outside of PetSmart he had to go poo right away - like as if he'd been holding it for days. They said that they walked him 6 times that day and each time they walked him he had to poo. He never goes that much. And when they brought him home and put a bowl of water out he drank it like there's no tomorrow. Then they noticed his face and saw on his upper lip he had a rash/bald spot. They began taking pictures and send them to me thinking its ringworm. I'm taking him to the vet to get checked out now that I'm back home. But my dog is lethargic, isn't eating, has diarrhea, and has this rash on his lip - and he was none of those things before we left him at PetSmart.
I'm I'm warning you, if you're thinking of having your dog boarded at this PetSmart, don't do it. Now my dad's wishing he didn't go to the wedding and stayed and watched our dog, my mom is wishing she didn't listen to her coworker and suggesting this PetSmart to me, and I'm wishing I just listened to everyone else on Yelp. I'm sure he'll be back to normal after some time, but it sucks that this could have been prevented had I listened. read more