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!
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