After much investigation and thought, we decided that our dog (an English Bulldog) would have his first boarding experience at Brookwood. We made an unscheduled visit to the facility where we were met by one of the owners, Art. He was very lovely and showed us around the facility. \r
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It looked amazing, very clean and well kept. We had no hesitation leaving our little guy there. Brookwood cost twice as much as any of the other kennels we looked at ($300 for the week including VIP package and bath), but we were ok spending it because we felt we were leaving him in good hands. \r
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We dropped him off on Saturday. On Tuesday we called to check in. Art said he was doing great and we had nothing to worry about. And then we picked him up on Saturday... \r
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We were informed by the 3 teenagers working the desk that he had an injury to his neck. They thought that his collar had started to grow in. (Now this is pretty gross, but anyone who knows anything about this knows it takes a bit of time... we had taken him to the vet just previous to his ""trip"" as well as taken off his collar the day before we dropped him off to put on his brand new, shiny dog license.) \r
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I told them that that really wasn't possible. They said that the groomer found the injury when she was washing him and that it had been ""really gross."" She had to shave his neck and remove the collar due to excess puss build up. (The collar stunk so bad I had to throw it out. And this was a standard collar that was encased in a safety plastic!) \r
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When I asked what had caused this they said, ""I don't know. The weather, maybe."" It had rained 4 of the days we were gone, but 1. this was the same collar he has had for 6 years and 2. he was to be (according to the package we paid for) kept in a ""climate controlled"" room of individual dog pods. \r
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I called back the next morning (Sunday) hoping to talk to someone who knew more. One of the girls from the day prior answered and said there was no one else for me to talk with and that I would have to call back the next day. I did. \r
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I spoke with Carol (the other owner). She said she didn't really know what to tell me. Either he slept on it funny, had an allergic reaction to the collar or it was the weather. She put me on the phone with the groomer. The groomer told me that either it was an allergic reaction, the weather or he was just too overweight for the collar (because of his breed the collar is really just for show and to hold his license. We intentionally keep it very loose so as to not restrict his airway.) The groomer then said, ""there is no need to over react."" \r
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So this is a lot of words, but in summary: 1. I paid them $300 to give my dog the VIP treatment and he was hurt on their watch 2. No one who works at the facility was paying close enough attention to tell me what happened 3. They had HORRIBLE customer service and were totally dismissive of my questions and concerns. I will NEVER use this facility again.
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