Dogtopia

My Shi-Tzu has been going to Dogtopia Manassas for about 7 weeks. About 2 or 3 weeks ago, I took him to Dogtopia to be groomed and got him back with abrasions/cuts on both sides of his nose - very close to both of his eyes. I ended up taking him to the vet the next day because the wounds were starting to seep yellowish fluid and he was in pain. The vet had to give him an antibiotic shot and pain killers. Dogtopia reimbursed me for the bill($175), but only after I insisted that they do so and then went by the shop on 3 separate occasions to ask for the reimbursement. First they tried to tell me that my dog squirmed and was probably just shaved a bit too close. Then they told me that he was probably burned by the clippers because the groomer waits to cut the face last and the clippers are hot from being turned on so long. Well if they already know that, why would the groomer cut a dog's face with hot clippers?



The owner told me that he would refund the $53 grooming fee, as well. I never got that back and I didn't insist on it. I still had about 1/2 of a $300 daycare package left for him to use and I didn't want to create an even worse situation. I was assured that the daycare was run separately from the grooming and my dog would not be in contact with the groomer again.



About 2 weeks later I picked him up one day and was told by the husband (co-owner) that my dog had got into something and they had to bath him but they didn't clip him. A staff member came into the lobby and let it slip that he had rolled all over in poop and it was so bad that they had to bathe him. The owner had specifically avoided mentioning what my dog had rolled in. Perhaps he didn't want me to ask why poop had been left down for so long that my dog had time to roll all over in it un-noticed. I just thanked them for the bath and left.



A week later, I was told when I picked him up at 6:15 pm that his left eye had been bothering him since about 8 am. They said he had some hair in his eye and they didn't know where it came from, but they took it out and he was fine. I looked at his left eye and saw that it was red, and that he appeared to be missing a fair amount of hair around his left eye. When I got home and looked closer, I found a large cut under his right eye that had swelled up into a small bubble and was very red. The cut was hidden beneath the long hair under his eyes. I immediately took him back to the shop. The wife said she wasn't there during the day and didn't know anything about it. She refused to look at the cut or to resolve the problem. She told me to wait for her husband. The husband told me that he didn't see the cut, and that the employees told him about the left eye but said nothing to him about the right eye. I pointed out that the left eye was still red - nearly 10 hours after they claimed to have noticed it, and he was cut under his right eye. Something more happened than what I was being told. I have made another vet appointment for tomorrow. The husband told me that doggie daycare was like having a child that gets injured - it happens. My dog has been at Dogtopia for 7 weeks and has been seriously injured twice! Both times his injuries involved serious wounds to his face. Not even children have similar injuries within such a short period of time without there being some form of neglect involved.

My dog needs tons of attention, and Dogtopia gets her tired, which if you have a Border Collie you know that's hard to do! When I picked up my dog after her first day of daycare-she was tired out! At Dogtopia, I have had nothing but positive experiences. I like the webcams so that I can keep an "eye" on her for the day. We haven't tried the boarding or grooming, but I will definately consider it, the next time we go away. The atmosphere is friendly-when I took my dog for her assesment, everyone who came in said wonderful things about Dogtopia, which told me this was the right place for my dog.