Whole Dogz Alexandria, Maryland

We had a family emergency, and I am so grateful that Whole Dogz was available to board our dog so we could hop on a plane that night. They are very caring- monitoring his food intake, especially for his first boarding. When periodically checking in on my dog I see the staff petting and cuddling the dogs sporadically throughout the day, which isn’t always standard with some boarders. They have a great store front as well- with the full line of our dog’s favorite West Paw toys. The best part is that my dog doesn’t come smelling of harsh chemicals, which has been a problem with other places.

My first few stays were great and I even donated to the company when COVID hit. They booked my donation as a groom due to tax purposes which caused some confusion for staff later on. However the point where I decided this was no longer going to be the place for my dogs was the latest time they stayed. I picked my dog up after one day (he was booked for a week of boarding, but I could see him less active on the cameras than normal). I picked him up and he didn’t want to walk. All four of his paws had burns/blisters on them. None of the staff had contacted me nor seemed to notice. I took him back in after picking him up just to try and see what insight they had so I could address it and they merely stated there were no injuries logged, didn’t seem to care about the injuries, and suggested a balm they could sell me for $17. I ended up adjusting travel plans due to not wanting to leave my dog there longer. **UPDATE** I did address the concern directly at the time with the staff. When I said I took him back, I meant that I took him directly back in when I saw that he didn’t want to walk through the parking lot. As I mentioned in my review, I had to adjust travel plans and was pre-occupied to share a review five months ago, but I am re-attaching screenshots of the photos from my camera roll I took of his paws at Whole Dogz (you can see location and date at the top of the screenshot since the business response calls the injury highly suspect). I gave two stars because as I said, I was happy with this facility until this incident. I am not looking for anything further from this company to be addressed, but only sharing my experience and exchanges for other potential customers to have insight into what another customer has experienced. If it is the case that the owners would have reacted differently from the staff on site, this is relevant information for other potential customers as well. It is clear the expectation of the owner is that everything should be escalated to the owner and the on site staff is not sufficient before posting a review. As the company edits their responses, I’m also uploading a screenshot of their original response to explain why I needed to adjust my photos to screenshots showing the time and place.

Whole Dogz is an amazing doggie daycare and I would highly recommend WD to anyone! It's clean and the staff are friendly. The owners, Mary and Patrick, really care about making you feel comfortable leaving your pup in their hands. My pup, Bishop, loves going and seems happy to spend time there. He's been going to WD for several years and and my experience has been consistent. In addition, they also do an excellent job with grooming.

I have had a good experience every time I bring my dog or use their store, however it is very difficult to get ahold of them. They rarely pick up their phone which makes scheduling difficult and I often take my dog elsewhere because I am unable to schedule grooming with them.

Extremely abusive toward their employees and animals. Filthy environment. Allow untrained animals that attack employees and other dogs. Allow dogs to go home with injuries without informing the owners. Put full blame of any serious injury on the employee when volatile dogs should NOT be allowed in. Disrespectful and RUDE. Do NOT recommend.

They allow other dogs and employees to get attacked so if you care for your fur babies ????don’t come here PLEASE! Horrible service

Absolutely terrible customer service. I will not be returning to this establishment and urge others to think twice before trusting Mary and Patrick with your pet. -Dogs are given supplements WITHOUT owners consent -Dogs are sent home with scratches and bite marks and and I’m being told no one knows what happened or how it happened. I reached out multiple times to the owners but no one seems to care! -I gave the staff clear instructions on my dogs dietary restrictions and they were completely ignored a member of staff informed me my dog had received another pets food this resulted in a trip to the vet. I’ve reached out multiple times to mary and patrick via whole dogz email…completely ignored!! No response once so ever. Exactly what kind of business are you guys running here?? You might as well sign up your dog for a cage fighting club at this rate. And I know mary and patrick are gonna say I’m not a customer here (the reservation is under my husband’s name) and say I’m making all of this up because that’s the kind of people they are!(look at previous reviews) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!.

If you care at all about your 4 legged family member - STAY AWAY - from whole Dogz! They mistreated our two dogs by not feeding them the required amount of food per our direction during a boarding. When we picked up our pups and the owner returned a large amount of “ left over” food my wife questioned why this was. The owner then started making excuses, rolling her eyes and giving us condescending attitude about our questioning their care and feeding of our pups. Her behavior would have been laughable except for the fact it was about the care of our dogs. The owner has since been harassing my wife over email even after we asked her not to contact us again. When we got our pups home we also realized one of them had significant cuts on her shoulder and around her neck area - it looked like another dog had been chewing on or biting her. We were never called or told about this. If I were you I would just stay away from whole Dogz!

Happy to have found this spot. Never have I been to a daycare where the owners were present, knew how my dog did during the day and chatted with me not just about my dog but love of cars! All around special spot for my 4 legged buddy. He recently boarded and they took the extra attention to bring him to the manager's suite because he was having a bit of trouble being alone. Can't find that kind of attention at those corporate locations!

Clean and wonderful place! They treat the dogs like they are their own. The doggy day care is superb and for those who don’t get to do doggy day care, they spend time with your dog to ensure they get the attention they need. Great place!

Essential oil diffuser going off in a pet store? No bueno. I'm hoping it was just water in there. Also none of the aisles have any wheel chair clearance. If you are disabled, don't shop here. Smelled like they forgot to clean up a few accidents too.

We have two dogs - an older dog who can sometimes get a little nervous when lots of other dogs are around, and a super high-energy younger dog who will try to play with every other dog he meets. The fact that the staff at Whole Dogz does so good with dogs with such different personalities is a major credit to their standards of staff training. Good help is hard to find in the current economic climate, so sometimes they can be quite busy, but the webcams make it easy to observe the staff working diligently to provide a clean, safe play area for the dogs. We've used them for both day care and boarding, and I would recommend them for either.

Is there an option for 0 stars? Dogs left in this facilities care are picked up by their owners, bit and bleeding and say it’s ok because it happens all the time. Insane if you ask me.

I hope that people read real reviews. I happened to be picking up my dog when animal control came to Whole Dogz yesterday and they said that the minor scratch on a dog’s ear was not something unusual as part of play in an open play environment. My dog has been coming there for 6 years. Once he had a scratch from a nail of another dog during play. The wonderful staff cleaned it and gave me something to take home to continue cleaning it - no big deal. If my kid falls down and scrapes his knee on the playground I don’t go nuts. This is a great place - great toys and treats and they deserve 5+ stars.

My insta friends dog got bit by another dog here and they said “it happens all the time” Should be, no stars. Also… VERY unprofessional for the so called “owner” of the company, to be responding to the comments on here the way that they are. It’s called “constructive criticism” ????

Location is clean and spacious and I was thankful to get a last minute weekend boarding. There's 4 rooms with cameras in each so you can watch your dog from across the cashier counter. There's a wide variety of items for purchase and I was happy to get raw dog food for my dog bc his subscription ran out. My only wish is that their hours were a little more expansive.

Second time my grand dog has been hurt by another dog while in their care...when my daughter asked if the other dog would be allowed back, the man said it happens all the time and it's no big deal!! An aggressive dog should not be with other dogs...sweet Renaldo is the most docile dog! This place obviously doesn't take safety and welfare of animals seriously...attached is a pic. In response to the owner...again I say, this is the second time this docile dog was hurt in your care! Normally I wouldn't condone my daughter cussing and carrying on, but in this instance, I think she was right! You are lucky she didn't file a police report like we suggested !

Totally love this place. Patrick and Mary both have given us great advice on training and food options. Helped heal my pup’s gut and we learned how to make her a better daycare dog. They really love all aspects of every dog thats there. Dont get that kind of attention at other places. And an update - we have been there for over two years and still love them. The steps they took during COVID were amazing despite a crazy landlord, and they have great unique toys, wonderful food choices and supplements that have helped my dog -- amazing al around!

Being told dog bites happen all the time is not okay! If my dog had been bit twice I would have raised hell too! It is not something to shrug off your shoulders. Be better owners.

My experience with this company is that they are rude and condescending. Apparently leaving a negative review about this company will get you reported as spam. No wonder their "rating" is so high. Don't bother calling with questions. You will be dismissed.

Whole Dogz is an amazing doggie daycare. My sweet pup, GiGi was at another daycare and was never happy. We tried Whole Dogz and to our amazement she loved it. She gets super excited when we turn the corner heading there. On top of it Mary has given me great advice on food and supplements - she no longer itches and her skin is all clear. Thank you Whole Dogz!

Based on reviews I was excited to allow my “baby” to have a great place to socialize with other dogs and eventually some boarding while on vacation. Upon calling to schedule my evaluation, the staff was not friendly over the phone and seemed to rush me to schedule and complete the paperwork. I gave them the benefit of doubt assuming a bad or busy day and proceeded with my appointment. I arrived approximately 5 minutes early and the store was packed with at least 10 people waiting for dogs or other services. I waited patiently as the staff helped people. Despite me being directly in front of the staff they never acknowledged me, walked past me several times, and proceeded to help others who walked in the store clearly after me. I reminded the staff I needed help despite the young woman looking straight in my face then moving on to another customer to ask how she could help them. I informed the staff I had not been helped and was there for an evaluation appointment. They asked I wait and I stayed another 5 minutes while they talked, sat around behind the computer, and brought other dogs to their owners. It was clear all the staff was frustrated with the dogs and the busy waiting area, but also apparent they were unwilling to assist me as a new client. As I waited patiently, it became clear that if this is how they treat a prospective client with lack of regard and poor customer service I can only imagine my dog would be treated even worse. Absolutely appalling the customer service of this establishment which definitely resembles discrimination. I would not recommend this unorganized and overcrowded establishment. To be clear — the issue is not the wait, the issue is poor customer service and discrimination to only acknowledge “certain” clients.

We have been taking our dog to Whole Dogz for seven years because we know they take such good care of him and he loves it there. However, we didn’t realize how important it is to have a great kennel until this weekend when we were way out of town and our dog had a seizure. The owners of Whole Dogz called us immediately and showed great concern. They took him to the ER immediately and gave him the kind of love they give their own dogs. I am just so relieved our dog was at Whole Dogz and not at home alone with a dog sitter coming in and out. I could not be more grateful to Whole Dogz and would give them more than five stars if I could.

Attached is the confirmation. Also, we were never told that "multiple staff" were bitten, only that there had been one incident with someone who was handling our dog in or around his kennel. If it truly was a concern and you did not want our dog back, you could have told us the last time we picked him up from boarding. In fact, Patrick mentioned that Whole Dogz would be partnering up with a trainer that could be helpful for us and our dog. This is not an indication of concern, rather someone who was interested in us coming back. ***************************************************** My husband and I had used Whole Dogz for boarding 3 times before. For this past memorial day holiday, we scheduled our dog for boarding for about 10 days. When we arrived to drop off our dog, they told us they did not have our reservation, which was a lie as we received an email confirmation and showed it to them. Patrick refused to accept our dog. Our dog has had some behavioral issues previously but we were fully transparent with them about this from the beginning and they assured us they could handle him. However, when we were there to drop him off, Patrick told us they could not handle him anymore and that they were short-staffed. We don't have a problem with the staff in general but that day, Patrick was completely unreliable and unprofessional. This almost forced us to cancel our travel plans. But we were lucky enough to find our dog boarding at Ridgeside K9, which we highly recommend! We definitely expected so much better from Whole Dogz but they are a huge disappointment.

We love this place! Our baby,Marley, spent a few nights here and came home safe and happy. I love that they have a webcam where We can see him anytime. While they are running a business, they truly love dogs. I see the employees petting dogs, playing with etc whenever I look at the webcam. The place is super clean and not a crate in sight. Our Marley has a comfortable and spacious “suite” to himself and everyone I meet there is responsive and organized. We will keep going back!

Gizmo had a great time. Love that you can watch anytime with cameras in each room posted on the web.

Great place for my dog, he loves it. Great staff, and I love the web cam so I can see what my pup is up to.

My dog loves playing with her dog friends and the staff at Whole Dogz! I know she’s well taken care of when I’m away, and I love being able to check on her with the webcam on their website.

Really nice setup and very clean. Nice shop, too. You should really take a tour of the doggy hotel before you board your pet anywhere else. It is like they each get their own apartment!

Our dog loves this place and the staff is great!