Where do I begin describing our nightmare experience with this business? I want to preface my post by advising that our father is a disabled veteran who served his country in the Marines, US Army and the National Guard, but as honourable as his service is, unfortunately he developed many service related medical and mental health issues.
As a family we decided to purchase a dog to help him and to keep him somewhat active; as he is physically limited as it relates to his mobility, and often spends time at home. With the aim of providing a companion for our father, we purchased a Great Dane puppy and we gifted him to our father. We decided as our father is older, and some days he is not physically able to walk the dog, the most pragmatic thing would be to enrol the dog in a doggie daycare during the day, where he could run around and get daily exercise. From the genesis, there were problems with this day-care. As I mentioned previously, our dog is a Great Dane, but is still a puppy, so naturally, size wise he is larger than other puppies his age, but he is still a puppy. Despite, this being common knowledge to most, the staff at the day care decided that due to the size of our puppy he should have been placed in a setting with adult dogs. I protested this, as our dog was a shy puppy, who irrespective of his size, should not have been removed from a setting with puppies his age, to be placed with adult dogs who at times can be aggressive. Needless to say, the staff played down our concerns, and explained that our puppy would be monitored closely.
On December 5th, I was contacted by the staff from the daycare, and advised that our dog, had an injury to one of his paws, which was bleeding. I immediately left work to travel to the daycare. When I questioned what happened to his paw, the staff told me that he had been stung by an insect. As his paw continued to bleed and he was visibly in discomfort, I decided to have him examined elsewhere. We were shocked, when advised that the injury to his paw, was not due to an insect sting, but rather the skin being ripped from his paw, due to frost bite! Upon hearing this, I instantly became upset, as the staff at the daycare lied to me about what really happened, probably due to them not properly supervising our dog. My level of discomfort instantly increased, as why would the staff lie about an injury? And what else would they arbitrarily decide to lie about in the future in order to protect themselves? I expressed my concerns to the facilities director, who apologised and explained that he had not been aware of the injury, and that he would speak with his staff regarding the fact that they lied about what happened. He later advised that in fact our dog was allowed to play in an area where the astroturf was frozen, and his paw became stuck due to the ice, and ultimately skin was ripped from his paw. How was this allowed to happen? Why would the staff allow a dog to enter an area in which they had not taken the time to properly heat for the purpose of defrosting the astroturf? What was more disturbing was their immediate reaction to absolve themselves from any responsibility and lie about what occurred.
I was offered a concession on the fees for the next month if we decided to keep our dog in their daycare. As we hoped that this business would have been a good fit for our dog, we allowed him to remain there. After that incident, I was contacted sometimes weekly by staff advising that our dog was too "humpy". Considering the staff claim to be experienced dog handlers, I was shocked that they were unable to utilise the tools which they should have acquired, and applied them to actually deal with a common occurrence such as a dog humping another dog. Moreover, considering that our dog was prematurely placed in a setting with dogs who were older and more advanced than him, it should not have come as a shock that a puppy was now mirroring the behaviour of older more mature dogs. I was constantly bothered at work about this humping issue, and just when I thought, this experience could not get any worse, on January 31st, I was contacted by the staff and advised that another dog had attacked and bitten our dog! How did this happen? Considering the staff makes claims that the dogs under their care are all closely monitored, coupled with the promise that our dog would be watched closer due to his age, why were the staff so negligent that our dog was allowed to be attacked by another dog?
Our dog had to be sedated in order to receive stitches, and he has now been left in extreme discomfort. Our father who the dog was purchased for, fell into a deep depression, after learning his dog had been attacked, and having to observe him on a daily basis in pain caused by the attack. So, the negligence shown by this business not only affected our dog, but also my father who was already in a fragile mental state, and is currently blaming himself. read more