Do not under any circumstance bring your dog to this place. I did a lot of research before…read morebringing my dog here, I saw all the website pictures showing dogs that looked happy and well cared for, I had friends who raved about the place. I also had friends that sternly warned me to stay away, they spoke about how their dogs were abused by staff and suffered serious injuries in dog fights, and how the owner took no responsibility and always blamed the dog. I wish I had listened to those friends.
My dog attended for about a month, no issues. I went to pick up my dog one afternoon and was told by a young female employee that there was "an incident " and that the owner needed to speak to me. The owner, Laurie Wagner, came out and said again " there was an incident ", I was panicked, asked if my dog was ok, she sarcastically responded "yah, YOUR dog is fine". She brought me in to an office to a computer and spent a very long time trying to load up a video, I am standing there again panicked and kept asking "is everything ok?", she fumbled with the computer and basically told me to relax.I just wanted to see to my dog.
She showed me a video from that day. An employee entered in to the dog area from a 1/2 door, multiple dogs swarmed her, she was patting them, my dog approached her in the crowd and another dog (who I later found out was this employee's dog)snapped at my dog, my dog did not react and just stayed there seeking the same attention as the other dozen or so dogs, the employee's dog again became aggressive with my dog.
At that point the employee grabbed my dog violently by the collar, lifting her off the ground, her front legs in the air and drug her off camera. The employee plowed through the dogs in the crowd, dragging my dog while her dog was following, snapping at my dog's rear end.. my heart fell into my stomach when I saw this.
Laurie Wagner said my dog was "like a person that no one wants to show up at their party". She said my dog clearly does not respect other dog's boundaries. HELLO! my dog was not aggressive, acting out in any manner, she was not even hyper, interacting with the other dog, just happened to be next to it, she just stood there,she was in a crowd of other dogs seeking attention, she did nothing wrong. She was targeted by another dog. She said my dog needed intense training, she asked if I had children and suggested I was putting them at risk with my dog!!wtf!## she then talked about her training programs and said my dog would not be welcome back until she successfully completes training by Doggie Fun...
I was in a daze, just wanted to get my dog. While driving home, I could smell urine, when I got home, I noticed my dog was damp with urine on her paws, undercarriage, under her muzzle, I was perplexed how it happened.
Several weeks laters, I by chance ran into that young female employee(who said she quit after just a short time bc she could not stand the dog abuse) she told me she remembered the incident, and that it was not uncommon. She said my dog was put in to a filthy tiny cage, too small for her to even turn around, as punishment and just left there for hours, the urine smell mystery was solved, she had laid in her own pee. She told me the employee who violently handled my dog is now the new owner, an older woman with blondish hair.
Stay away from this place at all costs, they abuse dogs, don't believe the pictures. Thankfully other than urine burns, my dog showed no signs of physical or emotional abuse. She is resilient and happy go lucky and thankfully has no effects from the abuse she suffered at Doggie Fun & Fitness. I am glad the "incident" happened, they saw it as an opportunity to sell a training package, but thankfully it turned out to be an exposure, window into an abusive environment. If Doggie Fun &Fitness didn't call my dog out I would have never known about how horrible they are, my dog would probably still be there, being abused, mistreated like the rest of the dogs.
