Doggie Zen Den

The groomer that we’ve been going to for years recently made a career change and left us in need of a new groomer for our finicky toy poodle. He can be admittedly quite difficult to work on, and we were nervous we wouldn’t be able to find anyone who could handle him. Turns out, the staff here is so friendly and helpful, and Tomas did a superb job! Our toy poodle has never been so nicely groomed before! We’ve really lucked out on this one, and we’ll be sure to come back for all our dog’s grooming needs in the future!

***Long Review*** 1 of 2nnAfter researching different places that had training, we saw that Doggie Zen had some of the best reviews. We decided to go forward with it knowing that the trainer had Aussies. We have one Aussie that needed leash training and an Aussiepoo that needed leash training and help with his confidence.nnThe training started off with a phone conversation with Bethany, the trainer. She was very nice and asked us what training we needed for our pups. Dexter, our 3 year old male Mini-Aussie needed help with leash walking. He tends to pull when he sees other dogs and squirrels and with a baby coming, we needed him to not pull so we can go on walks as a family.nnOur other dog is a 3 year old dog Minnie Aussiepoo named Niko, he needed help with the same thing and also needed some socialization. He is a bit timid and scared around other dogs. That’s why we thought bringing them to a daycare that also offered training was great.nnWe started with basic obedience training where they learn place, sit, down and walking by your side. The first day that we brought the dogs in we were greeted by Bethany, the trainer. Both of our dogs were very scared and didn’t want to stay and it was heartbreaking to see them resist. We have brought them to other daycares and they were always so happy. But we figured this was good for them to help with their separation anxiety and for training. It’s an 8 hour day, we drop them off at 9am and pick them up at 5. I believe training is about an hour or two a day and the rest is daycare. They also get nap time in the middle of the day.nnAfter a long day, we were excited to pick them up after their first day to see how they did. Each owner goes in one by one because of Covid restrictions and there are times when there are 2-4 people waiting outside. When it was our turn to go inside, the receptionist tells one the staff to bring out the pups. It’s usually Bethany, the trainer but there are times when it’s another staff member. I like when Bethany brings out the dogs because she had them trained to relax and walk by her side and she would tell us how they did.nnWe expected a little bit more explanation on how they did for the day. Like if they played with other dogs and how they acted. They would just tell us that they did good and nothing else. I’ve been to other doggie daycares and they would send us pictures and tell us how they’re doing and they even had cameras. This place did not have cameras nor did they send us pics. They do put pics and videos on their Facebook but I did not know this until later. We would go home with an uneasy feeling. I would have felt more comfortable if they had cameras or if they sent us updates. We weren’t even given a tour of the facilities until the end of the three week training.nnEach week we met with the trainer, Bethany for her to show and tell us how they were progressing. I will have to say that Bethany was awesome! We learned so much from her and the dogs seemed to be learning as well. It was more like we needed training and not the dogs. Bethany was super helpful and nice each week and we loved our sessions with her. She did recommend a slip leash to train for their pulling. By the second week, she recommended a plastic prong collar for them because they’re pulling was so bad. This also made me feel uncomfortable but we saw that it was helping them with correction.nnWe asked Bethany a lot of questions during our 1 hr weekly training with her and she answered all of them. This is when we’d ask her how they were in daycare and if they played with other dogs and training questions. The best part of this experience was Bethany!

Part 2 Review********for SophiannWe weren’t really sold on the day care. When we finally got the tour, we noticed the dogs were not as playful and just standing around . There was only one person in there with a long stick (they call it a crypt) to keep the dogs in order. The dogs seems a bit afraid of it and weren’t playing. From the other daycares that I’ve been to, I’m used to having more than one person watching the dogs. But not only watching but also playing with them. We noticed the attendants just walking around with the crypt. It didn’t seem like the dogs were having fun.nnOverall, I wish the other workers were a bit more friendly. They seemed a bit timid and unwelcoming. My dogs felt their energy because every time I dropped them off, they would cry and didn’t want to go in. And they’ve been to other daycares and at those daycares they were greeted with so much love, enthusiasm and they were called by their name.nnThese are the things that I feel should be improved.nn-Get a tour of the daycare before they start daycare or training and tell us what they’ll be doing in daycare. What play methods they use and that they use a crypt for correction. Also, we should be told how often they sanitize and where they drink water. We noticed a bucket that was left outside and my dogs always drank so much water when they arrived at home.nn-Install cameras or send text messages to owners telling them how their dog is doing so we can feel more comfortable and so we can see how they are playing and socializing. Or tell clients that you posts videos on Facebook.nn-Clients that are doing the training should be told that training is for a specific number of hours. If I knew that they would be in daycare most of the day, then I wouldn’t have signed them up. I would have done a private training elsewhere and only brought them for daycare for 2-3 hrs. I think to have them there for 8 hours is too long especially if they only do training for 1-2 hours.nn-Hire employees that are happy to be there. Bethany was the only exception! We just expected to see employees playing with the dogs in day care and greeting them with a warm welcome when they arrived.nn-Hire more employees to play with the dogs in daycare. We only saw one person in there with a lot of dogs.nn-Feedback! We would love to hear more of how they did in daycare instead of “they did great.” We had to drive around the back when we dropped them off to see how they were playing. Unfortunately, my sister saw one of the employees tie her dog to the fence with a leash. I won’t go into too much detail but my sister ended up taking her dogs out of training because of that incident. Bethany was very sweet and calmed us down to tell us that those corrections should never be used. It was a mistake by that employee.nn*************************nnI might be being a bit picky but I just had high expectations considering it said it was a high end daycare. I’ve been to other daycares and we received the royal treatment. I expect nothing less for my pups and I’m sure other owners do to. Again, Bethany was the only positive employee and exception to this place!

I have been bring teddy bear here for almost a year if not over a year now, and Doggie Zen Den have yet to disappoint me. I'm really picky about how he is groomed and how long he smells good and I have to say I'm honestly happy with the results we receive every time we visited them

I drove 6 hours to use Tomas! He groomed our doodle and did such a fabulous job! She loves him and we love her new hairdo!!! I cannot say enough fabulous things about him! Our baby turned out looking fabulous even though she was a little matted! He is amazing!