Dogtopia Alexandria, Maryland

We love the daily updates that we receive from the staff. It has been about three years since we last went to Dogtopia (we took a break after our first pug passed away). Since the last time we went to Dogtopia, the facility received an amazing upgrade and the hours of service expanded. We are very happy that our new pugs have a great place to go when we travel out of town. Thank you for a great boarding experience.

We had taken our pup here a few days for daycare and boarding and each time he came back he contracted kennel cough due to having 20-30 dogs in a single room with no outdoor time during his stay. We will not be taking him to this location again!

I love that they genuinely love my dog.

I love the webcam where I can see my pup anytime while he is in daycare. I also love the fact that the attendants are always in the room with the pups and play with them all the time.

Comet loves Dogtopia! Hayley, Connie and Matt are wonderful.

Definitely would not trust any daycare with my dog when they can't return phone calls...

NEVER AGAIN. I took my two large pups for 4 nights of boarding. My Golden has anxiety and will rub his nose raw on kennel wire if he’s alone. Hence the reason I chose a place with a suite. After discussing with the front desk, I booked a suite (with “more than enough space”) for him to share with our other dog. They called half way through the visit to say the Golden had, big surprise, rubbed his nose raw—after assuring me there was no way that could happen in their incredible suites. When I went to pick them up I asked to see the suite because things weren’t adding up. They would not allow me to see the facility. The employee went and took a very blurry and unclear photo and they waved it once in front of me. She suggested that he rubbed the top of his nose on the window sill—in a way that was not physically possible. Then, I said there was no way way both dogs could fit into that suite if that was the one they were assigned. “Well, no, we had an extra crate, so we just put one in there.” As if she had done me a favor! I was available by phone. If you’re not going to serve the pet in the way that we’d agreed to and PAID for, then you should contact me and make other approved arrangements. To top it off, she tried adding $80 for the “meet and greet” that never happened and wasn’t required due to their transfer status. Save yourself the grief and the $$. Find another place.

Great place for doggy daycare :-) Our pup is so much happier getting to play with other dogs throughout the day, especially since we're not all cooped up together every day anymore.

If I could give this place ZERO stars I would. My dog was ATTACKED twice within one week, the second time resulting in a visit to the vet followed by medication to heal the bite (which after calling and my 2 months later, they finally paid the vet bill). The manager had a nonchalant attitude about the whole thing and the staff. they kept telling me " It wasn't that bad". If you have a larger dog they just place them in a room, there are NO toys nothing for the dogs to play with. They are constantly crating dogs and leaving them for long periods of time. THIS PLACE IS A DUMP. Please reconsider another daycare for your fur baby. There are plenty of local daycares that have play groups, stimulating activities, tons of toys, and that rotate play groups throughout the day. I even had a front desk staff tell me he wouldn't connect me to the manager if I didn't tell him my pets name and told me "Well I guess you'll only speak with the manager if you come up here" Trust me, the discounted rate is for a reason. This facility lacks professionalism, do not let the fake welcoming voices fool you. Lastly, they do not have a limit on how many dogs come in daily which is likely the cause of so many dogs being attacked (as you will see below) and on top of that they only have ONE attendant for about 20-30 plus dogs. I would not recommend this place even if it were free.

Haley, who works the front desk, needs to improve her customer service and listening skills. She scolds current and prospective customers on the phone and provides irrelevant information instead of answers when asked a question. I thought about boarding my two Collies here but they seem understaffed, overwhelmed and generally snobby. Any question I asked of her seemed like she was taking it personally and was offended I would even ask. For example, when I asked about how boarding availability works, her response was “look, we’re really busy right now and everyone is trying to get their dogs into boarding. you’re just going to need to use the app and see if it’s approved”. I genuinely just wanted to know HOW it works - I wasn’t even asking about specific dates! I didn’t even know there was an app. Also, while I was there to try to schedule a meet and greet - there was an uncomfortable discussion between staff about an issue with a dog. I couldn’t hear specifics but it sounded as if they didn’t know what to do and argued over who should call a customer. Definitely taking my business elsewhere - I would hate to entrust my beautiful babies with someone as rude as Haley.

Marla, the General Manager, gave some thoughtful tips after the Meet&Greet. Ray, Connie, and Hailey do their bests so that Cola feels welcome. She has a blast whenever she goes there. Dogs are said to be undercover therapists, but even therapists need some downtime with their other furry friends... Highly recommend Dogtopia for their Woofffbulousness ( Woof + fabulous.)

Great fun, a huge dog park with beer and food.

Upon arrival for our Meet & Greet, it was very obvious they were extremely understaffed and overwhelmed. We scheduled our dogs to be boarded for 3 nights while we were in the area for a family event. They misread my dog’s records, which were fully up to date, and tried to schedule a vet appointment for them before me giving them permission. They also called me twice the first night saying that my dogs couldn’t stay there and needed to be picked up within 15 minutes. But it was their mistake again, and the staff didn’t realize they were there to be boarded, even though we scheduled the stay many days ahead. Their webcams were down the majority of the time, but while it was on it was extremely hectic in the dog room. I don’t understand how they think 1 trainer to 30 dogs is acceptable... it was a mad house clearly not under control. The staff did not acknowledge nor apologize for the inconveniences. The entire stay with Dogtopia and their staff was very unprofessional and disappointing. I will not recommend this place to anyone.

Inflexible. Curt managers. Dog play facilities do not have any equipment in them as advertised (at least for large dogs).

Most employees are wonderful and have patience. My dog was attacked and the manager blamed it on my dog even when the employees and veterinarians said it wasn’t his fault. They did pay for stitches but seeing my baby in pain was the worst feeling. This place suck because they just acting like nothing happened.

We decided to board our dog here for vacation. We did the evaluation and it went well although waiting to start for 30 minutes after being told to arrive. They offered a great deal which was 3 play sessions for the price of 1 if we signed up that day. We did and took her to play the next day. We went back 10 days later and when I went to leave, we were charged because the 3 sessions expire 7 days after the eval. They apologized for not informing us and said they would get with the staff to remind them of this so it doesn't happen again. They charged us $33 for the day and we essentially lost the 3rd session. We then did drop off for vacation and things went well. When we went to pick up, the price was $2 more per day because half way through her stay, they raised prices and charged us the higher amount for the entire stay. We got home and noticed that her sleeping blanket had marker on it with her name and the word Gym. Each letter is about 3" so takes up about 20% of the blanket. We washed it and it didnt come off. I called and was told they use permanent marker so they know who it belongs to and apologized for ruining her blanket. Lots of 'Im sorry' out of this place. I strongly recommend any other place. They seem overwhelmed and half the time we called, they didn't answer or would put you on hold for over 5 minutes.

Horrible. Do not send your dog here. Ever since we got our dog back after boarding him for a few days he refuses to eat and is extremely lethargic. We've spent $500+ in vet fees since sending him here and he still is not better. When i called dogtopia to ask about his eating habits when boarding/get a little more information about when he started feeling bad, they were extremely rude and couldn't give me any information. Save your money.

Not planning on bringing my dog here again, even though I have 2 free daycare sessions with them. My dog came home with a cut across her face, and scratch marks all over her underbelly. This location really needs additional staff. I monitored the webcams for the majority of the day, and I only saw one employee per playroom; each playroom had more than 10 dogs in it. There is absolutely no way they can watch the dogs attentively with everything else they have to do. The webcams constantly lag, but it's helpful to see what is happening. My dog is a female, so other dogs try to mount her (I understand that is typical dog behavior), but when she is being weighed down by multiple dogs at one time, I expect the staff to step in and separate them. I watched this happen multiple times on the webcam, and the employee didn't do anything about it. I got fed up and called this location to ask if she could be moved to.a different room. They said she could not because she didn't meet the weight requirements, but they would connect with the staff in the room to make them aware of the issue. Even after that, not much changed. I won't recommend this place to anyone looking for daycare services for their pet.

Do not board your dogs here. We took our two labs to Dogtopia for the 4th of July weekend. I brought them in for their meet and greet a few days before boarding, where I had a weird encounter with one of the staff members. I was interacting with one staff member for at least 30-40 minutes when they brought our dogs into the rooms to do their meet and greet. They both passed and I was brought to the front desk to pay for the visit and to schedule boarding. During the transaction, a different staff member was having me pay – right in the middle of me paying and scheduling, she had to “excuse herself for a minute” and she displayed odd body language and tone of voice. I asked the guy I was dealing with previously, “is everything ok” – thinking there was something off about boarding or our dogs… he followed her into a hall where I overheard her scolding him and saying something along the lines of “well you are going to have to tell them, not me”. I couldn’t help but think she might have been talking about me or my dogs, as I was the only person interacting with this guy she was scolding for the last 30-40 minutes, and she felt the need to excuse herself mid-transaction. I brushed it off but left Dogtopia with a weird feeling. Boarding day comes, I check them in and they are good to go. While they were there, I was never told that the cameras are shut off random times of the day. I was informed via text that they were “off until 8am and between 12pm-5pm”. This was never right, they were on and off at weird times throughout the day. When they were on, I saw them constantly mopping up urine and picking up feces. I even caught a moment where MY dog was drinking out of the MOP BUCKET, with the “coach” just standing there not doing a thing! A few minutes later, I see her filling up the bowls of water and ALL the dogs came rushing to it as if they had not had water all day – including my pup, no wonder she was drinking out of the mop bucket?? I arrive to pick them up, feeling terrible that they were there to begin with, just having bad feelings the whole time. I arrived and just had to ask the gentlemen in the front, “do they ever get let out to go to the bathroom? Like outside? I watched the dogs pee and poop in the room the whole time”, he replied “yes we have astro-turf. Did you notice the cameras were off some parts of the day? Well yeah that’s where there were”. First off – rude. Secondly, he added “if they have to go they have to go”. I’m not sure about other dogs but I know that if my dogs are let out an appropriate amount of times, they do NOT go to the bathroom INSIDE. Fast forward a few days and my older dog has to be brought to the vet for an eye infection. Fast forward 8 days, to today, and we wake up and my younger dog is non-stop gagging/coughing. We bring her to the vet to find out she has BORDETLLA/KENNEL COUGH. The incubation period for this is 7-10 DAYS – perfect timing from boarding. Also, she is vaccinated. Since we’ve been home, we have not gone anywhere, not interacted with any other dogs and have stayed home in our backyard. My vet asked me to call Dogtopia to let them know that she likely contracted this at boarding and that they should expect more calls to come in from other dog moms/dads. Well, the manager was just rude (similar to the front desk employee I interacted with the first day) and got defensive and kept saying she probably didn’t get it there. We were just calling to inform you not to blame you but thanks for being rude! Anyway, we won’t be back.

I don’t know if every Dogtopia is this good, but the Alexandria Dogtopia is amazing! I have a maltese who is super needy, with separation anxiety and he absolutely LOVES this location. My dog begins to bark uncontrollable of excitment, in the car as soon as he realizes he is near Dogtopia. There has been days that they bring him out, and he try’s to run back in lol. I have nothing but good things to say about this place. Thanks for taking care of my little monster Nugget!

Our dogs love it here! The staff are great it's super clean and they are so happy after!

Our dog Ellie LOVES Dogtopia!!! She cannot contain her excitement whenever we take her for daycare. It's like we don't even exist - bye mom and dad!!! She seems to have a blast running around and playing with all the other dogs when she's there. I also appreciate that there's down time for the pups. The staff at Dogtopia really do take great care of the dogs and we are so thankful to have such a wonderful place for Ellie to go to run out all of her energy once or twice a week.

The staff clearly care about the pups they take care of and were so attentive to my beagle, Waffles. They called me a couple times to give updates when we boarded him and he came home tuckered out and happy.

I have just used them once, we went for the meet and greet and then stayed for a full day of day care. The staff were very knowledgeable, both about my dogs behavior and health/safety. Usually when we stay places staff just tell me that my dog enjoyed himself, but these staff explained the apprehension he had at first (which I’ve seen at dog parks) and gave advice about how to help him feel most comfortable. They made me feel my dog would be well cared for and gave lots of advice about how to help my dog recover at home. I think the pricing is very fair with the amount of time they spend playing, both for day and overnight services. I love the webcams. I was excited by the welcome offers and we will be taking full advantage of them to help my dog adjust before boarding. I plan to become a regular costumer here!

I took my puppy in for an interview. I thought it was great to see if he fit in and for the caregivers to see what each individual dog needs when they are new whether it be a lot of play time or a lot of naps. They really care about the dogs and are just friendly and fantastic overall!

The staff are each given what looks like a sprayer of mace filled with citronella they’re allowed to spray at dogs if they act up. My boyfriend told me one employee frequently sprays it onto dogs when they’re acting up, and even play fighting, instead of verbally correcting or physically restraining them. He quit working here in the middle of his shift today, we would never trust leaving our two Rhodesians here. My boyfriend and I are both college students, we’ve worked at not so great animal facilities before this but were so appalled by their use of the spray... Just not okay! They’re understaffed, maybe why they need to employ this doggie mace spray, and apparently used to turnover. The management is dishonest.. They don’t even staff for overnight stays so dogs are left all alone. Lastly, my boyfriend got yelled at for trying to remove a full bucket of triple2 from the dog room (triple2 can cause chemical burns and hair-loss to dogs, the fumes are also horrible for you). The manager made him fill the bucket and keep it in the room with the dogs. My boyfriend has seen a dog go home with chemical burns from that before and the place had to change the policy on keeping it out in the open. If a dog knocks it over they could get seriously hurt. Another thing that made us sick to our stomachs because of how this place is managed. So... Definitely weigh your options when considering this place if you care about your pup!

LOVE this place. My puppy is very high energy and he loves to come and play with other dogs. The staff are responsive and friendly. They do sometimes get very busy, which means you might wait a few minutes for an answer to a phone call or for your dog, but that means they are giving attention to the dogs! Spa services available as well - great value.

After dropping my baby off, I was so nervous. She not only Loves playing with other dogs, but she is super Cuddly with humans. I was so concerned that she would exhaust everyone with all the love she has to give. To my surprise, SHE came home exhausted! She slept the entire way home, super peacefully all day, and like a log all night. Thank you for giving her one heck of an exciting weekend!

Great Staff & Take Great Care of The Dogs

I am absolutely furious! My sweet puppy was supposed to be in a room with the other puppies and she was put into the room with the big adult dogs that were biting and hanging from her neck! I was not able to view the cameras for most of the day until I was going to pick her up in the afternoon and I was shocked at what I saw. How completely irresponsible. My dog is traumatized and soaking wet with slobber. We will not be back to this terrible disorganized place that has poor communication, ill working cameras, and overcrowded rooms.