Pros
You get to play with dogs
Cons
Do NOT take your dogs to CDT in Homewood. (this review does not apply to the other location, although it is the same people who own it) This place is not sanitary. The workers leave dogs in pee and poop filled kennels for hours before they are cleaned. The dogs don't go outside from 4pm to 7am the next day. So if you are boarding your dog, there is a long period of time before they will get to go outside. They have had 2 cases of kennel cough since spring break, and have still been using the same sponge to clean all of the dog bowls. Ever since I worked there for 2 months, they have not changed the sponge, despite the fact that I requested several times for a new sponge to be used. If your dog is having a health issue while boarding, the workers will not tell you about it if they don't think it's serious. There are dogs who get incredibly sick either from stress or other health problems that result in blood in the vomit and/or stool. The only thing they do is take the dogs food and water away and don't let them outside. The dogs water bowls are only checked at 7am and then again at 4pm. So your dog may be going without water for any number of hours between those times and the workers will ignore it. The bowls are only cleaned once per day, so if your dog is boarding for several days, there's a very good chance that they'll have the same bowl of water over the course of their stay. They have a major rat problem there, so often times there is rat feces in the water bowls. The dogs are left alone all night with the rats, which your dogs could be eating over night, making them very sick and possibly catching diseases. The workers do not have first aid training, so if your dog chokes on the mulch that is outside in the play area, then they are told to "look up an instructional video" to help the choking dog. They don't pay attention to what the dogs are doing because they're too busy on their phones to care. So if your dog poops mulch (very bad for his digestive system) then it's because they were eating it from the play area. There are also several dogs who eat poop, so if your dog has that habit, it's probably only getting worse because they think they're allowed to do it while staying there. When the dogs are playing outside, they are sometimes not given water for several hours due to certain dogs not liking the water hose. So if your dog freaks out about water hoses, there is a good chance that they're outside without any water for up to an hour and a half. I have witnessed a coworker giving the wrong dog her medicine. There were 2 black dogs named Lola, and one of them was given the others medicine. Once that realization was made, still nothing was done about it. If your dog is not good with other dogs, they are set as "individuals" where they play by themselves. These dogs are only getting 10 minutes outside to play, and then they get 10 minutes inside to play. The other dogs never have to resort to the inside play group. They are supposed to have another 10 minutes to play but are usually skipped because the workers want to go home early. So if your dog is boarding over the weekend and they're not good with other dogs, then they're only getting about 20 minutes of outside time every day while the other dogs get over 2 hours. The weekend hours are different, so all of the play groups are shortened and the dogs are left alone for a lot longer than they normally would be. Their medicine is put in pill pockets in their food. If the dog doesn't voluntarily eat the pill pockets, then that dog will not be getting their medicine that day. The dogs only have access to their food for a couple hours a day. So if your dog is a grazer and doesn't eat all of their food at once then they will be eating very little over the course of their stay. The kennels are painted very poorly, paint is always chipping off the walls, usually because dogs are chewing it off. Especially puppies love to find something to chew on. So you can pretty much guarantee that your dog is eating paint during the hours that they're in their kennels. Workers regularly spray dogs in the face with Bitter Apple spray. This spray is supposed to be used for dogs that have problems chewing their fur, and is not meant to be sprayed in the eyes or nose of the dogs, but they are regularly sprayed in the face if they are barking in their kennels. If there are a lot of dogs there, like over spring break, there is a good chance that your dog got skipped for certain play groups simply because of the workers not writing lists correctly/not knowing which dogs are there. There are several dogs who stay there for free, simply because they are friendly with the owners. There is one dog who is living there, while the owner has to pay $1,200 a month for her to do that. Unless you provide toys or bedding for your dog, they will be left in the kennel with absolutely nothing. Sometimes without even a water bowl. If you request for your dog to be given a bath, they will usually bathe the dogs very early in the day to get it out of the way. Once they're bathed, they are not allowed back outside and their food and water bowls are taken away. So if you dropped your dog off at 8am to be picked up around 5pm, there's a good chance that your dog hasn't been outside or had food or water since about 10am. If you pay extra for your dog to have outside training and obtain a green report card, it is guaranteed that your dog was not actually trained and the workers are just putting random answers on the green report cards. I could honestly go on and on but hopefully if you have read this far then that's enough reason to keep your dog as far away from this place as possible. The owners just want your money, they don't care about the dogs well being. They don't care about the opinions of their employees.
