The girls are amazingly nice. When we met during my in-home interview, I was excited and ecstatic…read moreto use their services. Unfortunately, everything got messed up.
I've never had a dog before. I picked up a stray doberman, and I needed to find some alternative way of getting him exercised here and there. I was excited to try Itchy Paws because of their reviews on Yelp, but it was a disaster. Albeit, a lot of the confusion wasn't their fault.
I've never let anyone have free access to my house before, let alone complete strangers. Because of this, we decided that I would leave my dog outside in his crate in a shady area. I had only been in possession of the dog for a couple weeks at this point, and he had anxiety about being crated. When the girls arrived, my dog was in the neighbor's front yard, because he had apparently "busted out" of his crate. They called me to check on his status, which was great.
Because he was not yet on a flea regime, they were going to take him for an individual walk. They actually posted a picture of him jogging on the beach (I think?) which was awesome to see while I was away.
There was an issue about leaving him in the backyard, since he busted out of the crate initially. I told them that they could tie him in the backyard and that this would be fine. They told me that they would call me when they dropped him off, just to let me know how it went.
I never got a call.
I actually called multiple times and texted them, only to get a response hours later, that he was tied in the back.
When I got home, not only was he tied, but they had pulled the heavy crate onto the lawn and fixed him a blanketed area. This was going above and beyond the call of duty, so I was happy to see it.
My gripe comes on two points:
1) They told me they could not take my dog to Long Beach parks, because he didn't have a LB license, and this is required by posted signs. They advised me to go and get one from the SPCA. Well, I went to the Long Beach SPCA, and they said that I couldn't get one and this was completely unnecessary. The lady said my dogs tags were fine in any park, as long as he had tags. Since then I have been to numerous parks in LB and all over LA, and no one cares what tags anyone has or if they even have tags. Maybe it has to do with their licensing and insurance, but to not let my dog in a park, because he has licensed tags from a neighboring city is stupid.
2) Once my dog calmed down and I got him crate trained (no more busting out or anxiety), I called them again to ask them to take him out once more. I left messages, but they never called me back.
I understand that their experience with my dog, and with me as well, I guess, was not ideal. But they knew going into it that I was a new dog owner and that my dog was a stray. I was disappointed that they took the unprofessional route of ignoring me, both at the end of the first service and then afterward.
I guess it all works out in the end, though, because now my pooch is *almost* perfectly behaved, and we get all of our services at Bark Bark where we've had nothing but wonderful experiences.