TLDR: My family and I have used this business for nearly a decade. We had a dog die in their care…read morein April 2023 but had such a high degree of trust in the business and the business owner that we continued to use them. In October 2023, the business lost one of our other dogs and my husband and I were the ones to find her. When we found her, she had a shock collar with huge prongs on it tied tightly around her neck and a leash looped onto itself as a choke chain. We never would have known that this was happening if we hadn't been the ones to find her. We want other dog owners to know what's happening. We hate posting online, but this is important.
Longer Story:
My family and I have used Awesome Pawsome for about a decade. In April 2023, one of our dogs died in their care. The only information we received was that the dog "went limp" and was rushed to an emergency veterinary hospital. The dog regularly received veterinary care and had no known heart, breathing, or other issues at the time he passed away. Given that we've used Awesome Pawsome for nearly 10 years and had a lot of trust in them, we continued to use the business. We would not have believed any negative stories about the business prior to this because we had such faith in them.
On October 14, 2023, we sent our two dogs (one of which was a newer dog) to board with Awesome Pawsome. The dogs were to be returned on Tuesday, October 17. At 8 p.m. that evening, the dogs had not been returned. When I called and texted the owner, she told me there was a "glitch" in scheduling and that the dogs would be returned in about 45 minutes. At 9:23 p.m., she called to tell us that the dog walkers had lost one of the dogs and blamed it on the dog, stating the dog had tried to bite the dog walker. We rushed to the boarding house in the Sunset neighborhood, which is where the dog had been lost. The dog walker that lost this dog was the same dog walker that had been with our other dog at the time he passed away. He and another dog walker helped us look for our dog, which we were thankful for. We made sure to ask them whether they had been bitten by our dog because we were willing to pay for medical bills if this had happened, and both stated no. We looked at their hands and saw no bite marks. After a long search, my husband and I were the ones that found our dog at around 11:30 p.m. and put her in our car to go back to the boarding house to retrieve our other dog.
During the car ride back to the dog boarding house, my husband noticed that our dog had an extra collar around her neck and asked what it was. The collar was very tight around the dog's neck and when we removed it, we realized that it was a huge shock collar with multiple prongs that were digging into our dog's neck. I have attached photos of the shock collar to this review (taken by my husband while confronting the dog walkers) and as you will see, it is inappropriate for a dog that is about 10-12 pounds. As we pulled up to the dog boarding house, we also noticed a leash around our dog's neck and realized it was looped onto itself as a choke chain instead of being clipped to her harness, which she was wearing at the time we found her. The leash was very short, to the point that if our dog were to take more than 1-2 steps away from the dog walker, the leash would be choking her. We got out of the car to confront the dog walkers and one told us that it wasn't a shock collar, that it just vibrates, then switched to telling us that the shock collar was on a "low setting." Then he asked for us to return the leash and said that any issues we had were "with the business," meaning the owner. I immediately texted the owner and asked for a meeting to discuss the use of the devices. At the time we were scheduled to talk, the owner casually stated that the timing "wasn't lining up" and said we should reschedule. I canceled because the owner clearly wasn't taking our concerns seriously.
We would not have believed this review if someone else had posted it. We have calendars they've given us with photos of our dogs over the years all throughout our home. Our family does not post online reviews generally, but we never would have known this was happening if we hadn't been the ones to find our dog, so we want to make sure to let other dog owners know that Awesome Pawsome may be using these devices on their dogs without their knowledge.
Regardless of whether or not a dog has behavioral issues (which doesn't seem accurate here given the lack of bite marks on any dog walkers), Awesome Pawsome should reach out to owners to let them know or return the dogs, not use shock collars and choke chains on the dogs.