Dirty Dogz, DJ Rice, Chantal Johnson, Doggy Dayz Academy & Inn Disastrous pet boarding experience. Dog injured, boarding facility will not take responsibility. Hampton Virginia
This info is related to a report I filed with the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce after boarding my dogs with Dirty Dogz for a few days in earlier this year. Dirty Dogz is a boarding, grooming, and pet training company in Hampton, Virginia. They did not take any action to resolve this complaint and have in fact made legal threats to try to keep me from telling people about it.
We boarded our dogs at Dirty Dogz in Hampton, VA. They advertise on craigslist quite a bit. The people seemed nice and their rates were very low so we chose them over some less personable, more expensive boarding facilities. We left our dogs with them for a few days and we are regretting it. We paid in full for grooming and boarding while they were there even though they negligently left a prong collar on one of our dogs long enough to open up the skin on her neck and cause wounds which became infected. We felt like we didn't have a choice but to pay since they had our dogs and we needed to get them out of there. Our dog who was wounded there had awful sores all the way around her neck and two large open wounds on top of her neck. I was mortified.
DJ Rice told us it wasn't a big deal and that she wouldn't need vet treatment. She suggested we massage the wounds with baby oil a couple times a day and squeeze the puss out! It was late in the evening when we picked them up so we waited until the next day to get to the vet. We spent $90 on the vet and antibiotics for the infection and the vet said she should come back in a week for the infection to be checked out and she might have actually needed another run of antibiotics.
Dirty Dogz had told us the wounds occurred the first night our dogs were there because someone thought the training collar was supposed to stay on. The vet said it was highly doubtful that injury occurred in one night and the collar was probably on for several days. Considering our dog is all white with short hair, the bloody mess had to be visible and we no longer believe our dogs were even supervised while they were at this boarding kennel.
We contacted Dirty Dogz to insist they cover the charges and they refused to reimburse us in full but agreed to pay half of the vet costs for the infection which they caused. The next day one our dogs started coughing and the day after that the other did too. We found out they had kennel cough. The vet prescribed a cough medicine (another $30) without examining the dogs but said we'd have to bring them both in for kennel cough medicine ($68 just for the visit, more if they needed antibiotics).
Dirty Dogz denied our dogs were infected with kennel cough at their facilities and refused to help with those vet expenses or even reimburse what we paid for their inadequate services. We cannot prove our dogs picked up kennel cough at their facility but it's quite coincidental that they were both vaccinated against bordetella, hadn't been anywhere else, and no other dogs had been in our home or yard, yet they started coughing within a day or two of coming home from Dirty Dogz boarding kennel.
A Dirty Dogz representative told me in email "Like I stated before we have never had a sick dog here. I am going to contact our vet on Monday and have them come in to double check everyone here and vaccinate everyone for Kennel Cough." Our dogs are vaccinated but I absolutely cannot believe she basically told me the dogs in their facility are not! They have not only boarding and grooming in their building but also rescue animals and possibly personal pets. That includes a wolf and wolf cub they had on site while we were there. All of those animals should have all the necessary vaccinations for such an environment.
I have given them an opportunity to resolve this matter and they will not. They will not refund their own fees or help with costs for treating the kennel cough which we cannot prove our dogs caught while in their care. I shared copies of the vet bills for the neck wounds with Dirty Dogz months ago and still have not even received the 50% they promised to reimburse me. Every time I requested the reimbursement, they emailed me to ask for my contact information, which I have provided them SEVERAL times, for their lawyer. I asked for their lawyer's name and contact number and they refused to give me the information.
Later, I received a letter in the mail from their prepaid legal representative telling me to cease and desist telling people about the situation. The threat letter is packed full of lies and they are accusing me of making this all up. Either they lied their behinds off to the prepaid legal rep or the rep made the changes to the story themselves and made it almost 100% fabricated.
I have a feeling Dirty Dogz may be going by different names now so please take note of the owners name and their location in Hampton, Virginia. DJ Rice and Chantal Johnson ran the place when I took my dogs there. The address was 500 B Copeland Drive. I have heard that Chantal may have left the business but I am not sure about that. Another name they have used is Doggy Dayz Academy & Inn and they have a couple different websites. Two that I know of are dirtydogz.bravehost.com/ and dirtydogzonline.com
No matter where you take your dogs for boarding or grooming, please do a complete check on the business. I was not aware that the odor in the boarding facility was unusual. I figured it was natural for a business like that to smell, but I found out later on that boarding facilities that are clean and have good ventilation do not have that odor. I found out too late that it is absolutely reasonable to ask for a tour of the facility, to see where your pets will be staying, and to see other animals who are being boarded at the time and the condition of their environment. We were only brought into the lobby and our dogs were taken to the back without us. It is also not a wise idea to go with a company that's just starting out and you can't find much information about. Check them out THOROUGHLY to make sure your pets will be safe!
B.K.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Dirty Dogz
Hampton,Virginia,
U.S.A.
Concern Ms. Berketts Complaint
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Sun, December 16, 2007
We made every effort to solve this issue. We asked the owner to send us the vet reports as well as receipts and all she sent us were the bills.
They pronged collar in question took 2 people to get off the dog. It was not properly fitted to the animal and used by the owner improperly. The dog attacked another dog while coming in our door while the owner stood there and screamed hysterically. The dog bit her boyfriend. Any injury happened while she was yanking on her dog and trying to choke it. When we took the collar off the dog, there were several marks on the dogs neck. But no wounds. When the dog had it's bath there were no scabs or other wounds on the dog. We fitted the dog with a new normal collar for free and showed the owner how to use it. We recommended that she add links to the collar and not use it like it was again. We never told the owner to use baby oil, that would be insane. We used Tea tree oil a common skin treatment and an ointment. We told the owner to watch the marks keep them clean and dry and NOT to put the pronged collar back on. We also told her that just for safety sake you should always take your pet to the vet if a mark on the skin gets worse or does not heal with in 24 to 48 hours.
They did not notify us that their dogs had a cough for several days. Again I asked for vet report. When we finally recieved a full vet report and not from the owner. We found out that one of her dogs had been sick less then 3 months before coming in for boarding. Relapse is very common in many types of cough in canines. Stress is a wonderful thing and can cause all kinds of things to happen to a dog. It is common practice to have a vet check out all the dogs in a facility and to revaccinate just in case. Our vet came in and checked every thing out. There was no one sick here. We use Bleach to clean and disinfect. This way we know that everyone is safe. Her dogs were not in contact with other pets. They were kept in a 8 by 8 pen by themselves with out other dogs. We took percautions because one was aggressive and the other blind. the dogs were taken out to run and play 3 times a day.
I have spoken to the vet that saw the dog for the wounds and have the vet report. I also have the report for the illness. The owner never took her dogs in for the cough she called in the script for 1 dog only. It is normal to ask for vet reports to be sure that what an owner is claiming is true. If a incident was to happen at Dirty Dogz we would take full responsibility for the incident.
All animals are vaccinated before they come into Dirty Dogz. We check records and call vets to be sure. We have a rescue who keeps dogs in our facility. All of their animals have to be up on all shots and parasite control before walking through the door. They offer health certificates with their adoptions. Yes we had a wolf hybrid in rescue for a while. She was fully vaccinated and kept separate from all the other animals in a locked pen or in a crate in a locked room for safety.
We have someone in our facility 24 hours a day, the pets are never left alone. We give tours all the time. Unless we have a biting dog or one that is dangerous in the back we have clients who walk through. We have never gone by any other name other then Dirty Dogz. While we did take over for Doggy Dayz Academy and Inn when they went out of business we have never been in business with them.
The owner was sent a letter by our lawyer. She admitted to me that she wanted all of her money back and would stop harassing us if we gave it to her. She stated that was all she cared about. In Virginia she has the right to sue us for the vet bills and she has not. She has not taken any steps against Dirty Dogz other then to bad mouth us and harass us. We are not in the business of hurting animals that would take us out of business.