I only used Betsy's services for a week and a half while I rented her basement apartment. She…read morevisited my dog twice per day-my pup is shy and anxious and would not have anything to do with Betsy. To her credit, I did see that she was making progress with my pup, which is no easy feat.
Betsy and I were discussing my dog attending her daycare because my dog does infinitely better in a group setting. In addition, it was convenient for me for obvious reasons. My dog has gone to daycare for the better part of the year that I've had her, and she thrives in that environment. Never once have I had a complaint or negative report about my pup's behavior at daycare.
In this conversation, Betsy used a condescending tone to refer to my dog as "difficult ". I informed Betsy that we no longer had an interest in her services, as I don't want my dog to be cared for by someone who would speak about her in that way.
However, that's not why I'm leaving this review. I'm leaving this review because of something I observed with regards to her dog daycare.
What her dog daycare consists of is several dogs hanging out with Betsy's daughter, Amelia (my best guess is she's a teenager)in their living room/dining room/kitchen area all day. Betsy is typically gone all day (8-3:30) from what she told me.
There is a narrow dog run, running along one side and the back of the house. The daycare dogs are let out briefly to do their business a few times a day.
While I was a tenant there, I had to do my laundry on the third floor of the house, above the daycare. This required me to wade through the group of dogs each time I went up and down the stairs to switch loads from the washer to the dryer.
Every single time I did laundry during the month + I lived there, I noticed that Amelia was never downstairs with the dogs during daycare time. She was always in her room with the door closed.
I suppose it's possible that she went in her room each time she heard me coming, but sound carries very well in that house and I'm sure that I would have heard her moving. I would also have considered this discovery a coincidence had it not happened multiple times.
My primary inspiration for making this review is the fact that the very last time it happened, while sitting on my couch reading, I heard a kerfuffle between the daycare dogs. It did not sound like a fight, just like the dogs getting rowdy.
Eventually, things settled down. Shortly afterwards, I had to go upstairs and get my last load of laundry out of the dryer. While making my way through the sea of dogs, I noticed that one of them was now holding one of its front paws up and was wearing a plastic cone around its neck. I only observed the dog for a couple of minutes, but it was never once willing to be weight-bearing on that paw.
I hope that the dog wasn't seriously injured. Even more so, I hope that this is the only time anything like that has ever happened to any dogs that have attended this daycare.
And even more so than that, I still have hope that it all was a complete coincidence that the dogs were never being cared for when I made my trips up and down the stairs.
To be transparent, Betsy and I did not have a positive dynamic as landlord-tenant. Interactions were never heated, but Betsy did tell me that she is a very sensitive person and perhaps her daughter is as well. She may have been encouraged/wanted to avoid me due to the tension between her mother and I, despite the fact that I was polite to Amelia each time I saw her and professional to her mother.
Bowser's Best Buddy is far different from any dog daycare I have ever seen, and I've been taking my dogs to daycare for over fifteen years. It's basically akin to your dog being at home, hanging out with a group of friends, sometimes supervised and sometimes not, with a potty break or two sprinkled in. There are no cameras for pet parents to observe their pups. I've never considered taking my dog to a daycare that doesn't offer this and my observation here has cemented that requirement for any pet care provider we use.
