Dogtopia

I was so impressed by the staff in Alexandria. We had our meet n greet on Friday and Miss Eddie was amazing with out shy mini Schnauzer. The sweet lady up front noticed Miley was panting and got her a bowl of water. The puppies and fur parents were all very satisfied and we can’t wait for our sweet girl to make new friends away from home! Fran and Carlos

I worked at Dogtopia and had nothing but positive experiences. I worked the front desk and was thoroughly trained in person and with online training modules until I was comfortable to work the position by myself. I was very pleased with the cleanliness of the facility, I even made my parents switch daycares for their dogs back home after seeing the difference between the two. I never had an issue at the time with being able to take days off. I was a student at GMU working full time yet Marla was understanding and always accommodated if I needed extra time off to study, complete school work, or just take a mental day off. The dogs are handled with care, when I was there the employees would always trust Dogtopia to board their dog if they went out on a vacation or had an emergency back home. I am very thankful for the experiences I had here and would still want to work there if I had not graduated and moved out of the area. Thank you Dogtopia of Alexandria :

I wanted to like this location due to the staff but bottom line they don't have enough people and it's to the detriment of the dog's safety and location cleanliness. There were several events I tried to look past. 1. One of my dogs ended up getting a huge, fleshy gash in his cheek while baording. About half an inch from his eye. They didn't know how it happened because they have one handler for like 20 dogs. 2. Every time I'd pick them up from daycare, they'd smell of urine. This is because they have WAY too many dogs packed in a little room. 3. They are very bad at reading notes. My dogs need to be put in the boarding kennels together due to anxiety, I'd reiterated this several times and even signed paperwork. I found out halfway through a long board, they'd ignored my notes. I only noticed due to my dog completely balling up in the corner for several days and had to bring it to their attention. She ended up losing a ton of weight and it made her anxiety worse. 4. During another board, my other dog got pink eye and coccidia. With this it's obvious they aren't on par with sanitation and resulted in below. I had a membership and assumed with them stating I couldn't bring them into daycare without negative stool, they'd be pausing my payments... they didn't and they didn't inform me otherwise. I found out a month later they were still charging me membership fees even though I was told I couldn't bring them in and I'd asked to pause my membership. They didn't inform me of any cancellation policy and trying to get in contact was like pulling teeth. I ended up having to dispute the charges as they didn't return my messages. Overall, the staff is nice but I don't recommend.

I have been bringing my Frenchie, Stella, to Dogtopia for the past 2 years. Stella loves Dogtopia and pretty much falls asleep as we pull out of the parking lot. Stella is always happily greeted by the front desk staff and if Marla is around, she will literally run to Stella and start playing with her on the ground. That melts my heart and removes any anxiety I would have about leaving my pup at Dogtopia for the day. Thank you Dogtopia of Alexandria!

Started off being a great place for my dog to get acclimated around others. Lately, I have been feeling like I haven’t truly been getting my money’s worth and that we are getting taken advantage of. Sometimes I don’t see my pup on the webcam at all for hours then when I pick him up he is still off camera on the lobby monitors. Then when they bring him from the back he still smells as CLEAN as when I dropped him off as if he was isolated the entire day in a “blind spot” on the web cams. Usually he smells really bad as he should from playing with all the dogs for hours but I’ve been picking him up and he smells just like the shampoo I use on him at home. No mention of any behavior issues or that anything went wrong. I didn’t pay for or need dog boarding. My pup is well behaved and can stay home alone. I’m PAYING for ACCLIMATION.. I’m one for second chances so if this happens again I will escalate it to a manager or take my business elsewhere.

Dogtopia takes great care of my dog, whether for daycare or boarding. It's staff love dogs and Duncan has a great time. Highly recommended.

We recently moved to Alexandria, and wanted to find a new kennel in case we needed to board our 3 year old golden retriever. We found Dogtopia, and after browsing their website we saw that a meet and greet was needed before she was admitted. We wanted to knock this out, so we scheduled it 7/28/22. I took her there and received a tour of the facility, and despite the smell of urine lots of dogs, only so much you can do, was satisfied that she would be in good hands - especially when I learned that the rooms were separated by size/personality, and there was a “Lounge” room for calmer dogs. I was then informed that she would need to stay for 3 days of daycare before being accepted for boarding, in order for her to adjust and understand that we were coming back for her. I was also told several things about making sure she doesn’t drink a ton of water immediately upon coming home, as it could distend her stomach, and that “we promise they’re drinking water, sometimes dogs just act like this when they come home” paraphrased. These statements/requirements left a good impression for me, as it seemed as though the safety of the dogs was a top priority. I wanted to knock out the 3 days of daycare to get them out of the way so that she would be eligible for boarding if anything popped up, so I scheduled them over the next few days - 7/29/22, 7/31/22, and 8/1/22. She went in with a wagging tail, and when we picked her up each time, she was absolutely covered in spit. After my wife spoke with someone at the front desk, she was informed that it was her own drool. This has never happened before, so after some quick googling it seemed to be a sign of anxiety. I felt bad for her, and decided that we would look into other kennels. Unfortunately, a few weeks later some sudden work travel popped up, and both my wife and I were out of town. Friends couldn’t watch her, and other kennels were either booked or had meet/greet requirements. Our only option was Dogtopia. Our dog was dropped off the evening of 8/14/22, and picked up on 8/16/22. When dropping her off, my wife asked them to text her if anything was amiss, highlighting that she often gets stressed. They assured her she would, and the next morning 8/15/22 she received a text: “Good morning! [Dog] has been enjoying her time this morning Snuggled up in a corner catching up on some Zzz’s”. This was the only communication we received from them, and led us to believe she was in good hands. When my wife went to pick her up the next evening 8/16/22, she was informed by the person at the front desk that “She did not eat this evening.” My wife asked if she ate that morning, and she flipped through a log book, and informed her that she did not - and then said “Actually, she didn’t eat the entire time she was here.” This was incredibly upsetting to say the least - and not typical of our dog - and my wife asked to speak to a manager. The manager apologized, and stated that they have processes in place to make sure that this doesn’t happen, and hinted blame at someone who had recently started. They gave us a full refund. My wife later received a call after bringing her home stating “Not that it makes a difference, but she did actually eat the Monday morning” 8/15/22. My questions: - Why was the pattern of not eating not noticed, if it was written down in a log book? What processes failed? - Why were neither of us informed about this, especially as we asked to be notified of any issues? - Did she even drink any water the entire time she was there? How would you know?

Dogopia is wonderful. I had a great experience with the meet and greet. They showed me around the whole facility and explained how everything worked. My pup was having so much fun and I got to watch her on the webcam all day. She was pooped when she came home and slept most of the night.

I will never bring my dog back here. Not only did they not tell me about the ridiculous price increase prior to drop off on Dec 24th leaving me no option but to pay 25% more per day because they want me to fund their employee Christmas bonus, which I don’t mind paying people for working on the holiday but they didn’t even take good care of my dog but they took really poor care of my dog Willoughby. He was a healthy 4 year old Corgi and is now very sick with kennel cough. So glad I paid over $400 for 3 nights of boarding while I was out of town for the holidays and now spending hundreds more on veterinary care for my baby. And yes my dog was properly vaccinated against kennel cough, however they probably didn’t check that the dogs he was around wasn’t sick.

Staff was attentive to us, and they run some great programs for charity that fright the dogs. I gave it 4 stars because the staff to dog ratio seems to me to be irresponsible. There is only one staff for upwards of 40 dogs per room.