After reading all the positive reviews on here, we took our newly adopted pup to Camp Bow Wow for an evaluation, and being that she's so outgoing, playful, and sweet, we weren't worried at all.
We were a little turned off at first because we had to wait around for about 30 minutes while the staff member working the front desk took care of other dogs, and there were several turds on the floor that no one had bothered to clean up. (Good thing our pup isn't too interested in eating those kinds of things!)
Finally, the woman took our dog in the back to try her out playing with another dog, and she soon came back to report that our pup had tried to bite the other dog's face. This came as a total shock to us because she had never done anything remotely like that in her interactions with our friends' dogs or dogs on the street. But we had to take the staff member's word for it, as we weren't allowed to watch the interaction. The staff member also let us know that despite our dog's supposed bad behavior in her 1-on-1, she was taking her to a room full of dogs to try that on for size.
To me, the way they introduce a new dog is a bit intense -- just throwing a puppy into a room full of large, adult dogs that already know each other -- so it wasn't surprising that our little girl was a bit tentative. The staff member initially said we should leave our dog there for the day, and she'd probably warm up, but she called me no more than an hour later to let us know that our dog was too reactive and scared, and she wouldn't be allowed to stay at Camp Bow Wow anymore. She said I had to drive back up there and pick up our dog right away.
As new puppy parents, we were crushed! Here we thought we had a perfect little angel, and then she got rejected from day care! Talk about a blow to the parental ego!
A week later, we took her to Taurus for an evaluation, but at this point we weren't expecting much. (In fact, we were considering hiring a behavior specialist to help us recondition our apparently messed-up pup.) But to our surprise, Taurus gave her a stellar evaluation and said she was a wonderful, outgoing dog who got along great with all the other pups! We asked them about the discrepancy between their evaluation and Camp Bow Wow's, and they couldn't explain it except to say that sometimes normal dog behavior seems more threatening than it is to people who are inexperienced with dogs.
I think that's probably true, but I've also since read that Camp Bow Wow has a history of discriminating against pit bulls, and it just so happens that my puppy is a pit/boxer mix. So while they've changed their official position on the breed after much public outcry (they used to have a hard-and-fast rule against allowing the breed in their facility), I think there might be some institutional discrimination still going on.
Thus, I can't say what your experience at CBW will be like if you have a chihuahua or a lab, but if you have a pit, don't be surprised if they interpret her every move as threatening. (And don't hesitate to give pit-friendly Taurus a try -- They've been awesome with our pup!) read more