So not wanting to send our dog to a place that abuses animals (understandably right?) my husband and I went looking for a dog playcare/ dog boarding business that had reasonable standards. Our search took us to A DOGS DAY OUT in Alexandria, Northern Va. After speaking with the owner, the manager took us on a tour. I was elated. This place was amazing... so far. It had large play areas and they definitely seemed to know dogs. We let our dog go into the evaluation and we watched through an upstairs window. Things seemed great, but I was a little bothered how the employees didn't seem to be allowing my dog, who was in the large dog area, to actually play with the other dogs. When ever he started to get a little goofy and go into 'play time' mode they would just grab him and smother him with 'love'. To me it seemed that they just didn't know him and that would take time. I was more then willing to watch the process unfold. I waited... and waited. It didn't happen. Instead of giving him some space and watching him play (supervised of course) they wouldn't let him near the other dogs. I mean the whole point is to let them get to know each other, they are there to play, right? Wrong! Instead the staff kept yanking on my goofs collar and keeping him separated. After quite some time of this, one of the staff members decided to tease him. The employee pretended to have a treat in his hand and held it up encouraging my dog to jump 6ft in the air. Now not only do I have a problem with teasing, but when you have a 80 lb dog jumping, that is encouraging bad manners (we have all had big dogs jump on us, who likes that???) and on top of things, this breed tends to have its biggest problem with hip displacia. I just didn't understand what these employees who work with dogs day in and day out were thinking... perhaps they weren't?!? When I asked the owner (I tried to be polite even though I was pissed) what-on-earth his employee might have been thinking and why would they encourage this type of behavior???
His response.... sometimes my employees get bored, they have to keep entertained somehow. HA! NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF: My time training my dog NOT to jump! The health of my dog and problems that could happen with encouragement to reach such a height! And teasing a dog is completely inappropriate!
So for a second time, my lovable companion passed the evaluation with flying colors, A DOGS DAY OUT in ALEXANDRIA FAILED. MISERABLY!
1 comment:
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