Come Play Stay

I called Come-​Play-​Stay interested in doggie daycare. We had been regulars at another doggie daycare in town, but because my dog had neck surgery a few months ago and can no longer wear a collar (a directive from her neurosurgeon), that daycare turned us away. I called Come-​Play-​Stay hoping to become a new day care client. Come-​Play-​Stay gave me some line about harnesses not being allowed since they can’t release them quickly. Let’s not be confused with the facts: my dog’s harness has two quick release collars. I told Come-​Play-​Stay she’s been cleared by her neurosurgeon and rehab vet, but the woman said because of my dog’s age — she’s 8! — she wouldn’t like daycare. «She wants a coffee shop and daycare is a nightclub,» I was told. My dog has been going to daycare for years and I know what she prefers, thank you very much. She’s not broken because she needs to wear a harness and she’s not ancient; she is 8. I was incredibly insulted. I am absolutely disgusted by how I was treated and frankly so very hurt. Very clear Come-​Play-​Stay doesn’t want to work with clients and certainly doesn’t want what is best for dogs.

This is absolutely the ONLY doggie daycare in Northern Colorado that my dogs will ever go. I love that they rigorously screen all participants, and they let me know when my dog was starting to «age out of» i.e., not enjoy, the daycare setting. I really appreciated the heads up, and so did my dog! The fact that they were willing to advocate for her, even if it lost them business, means that they have my business for life.
Grooming gets an A+! All three of my dogs (even the wooly mammoth) come home soft and smelling good. As an added bonus, they’re always excited to see Noël, which makes me feel great about leaving them for the day.
The boarding staff are phenomenal, and I’m impressed at the attention to detail they take with the dogs in their care. Last time my kiddos boarded for an extended period, they got diarrhea and the staff went out of their way to not only make sure they were treated medically, but to move them to a quieter area to mitigate the issue altogether. I was so thankful that I left them at Come Play Stay and not somewhere where they could have been left to get sicker over the course of their stay.
Highly highly recommend!

My Collie mix loves Noël the groomer at Come Play Stay. He is a shy dog, but not with her. Our rescue Border Collie is not a easy dog. Both dogs get dremel nails washed an groomed. I don’t take them anywhere else because the gentle & kind way they treat my dogs.
Ashley Foster’s (clicker trainer) «Recall «class is the hardest an most rewarding class. I usually work up to this clicker class, taking dog 1−2−3. This class WILL SAVE your dogs life one day. I have a 95% recall on my Collie. At this time I am working with a rescued Dog who is at 70% recall. (Getting better every day).

Okay, full disclosure — I’m a little nutty about my dogs. I’m the sort that drives 1,200 miles to visit family over the holidays so that I can bring them with me. To me, boarding is an option of last resort.
I had to exercise this option-​of-​last-​resort when dog-​sitting arrangements fell apart for a recent trip. In the past I’ve boarded the dogs at another daycare/​boarding business in town, but was reluctant to go back since my dogs seemed stressed when I picked them up and took a few days to recover. I’d heard good things about the Come Play Stay facility from a few dog-​loving friends, so decided to give them a try.
I dropped-​in to tour the facility and got our paperwork in order a few days before boarding my dogs. The facility was spotless, and the staff friendly and helpful. My standard poodles are too big for the fancy indoor suites with webcams, so they had to stay in the «Town and Country» accomodations — your basic indoor/​outdoor runs. I decided to go with the 4-​star package that included a daily «turn-​out» (play time in a small yard, either individually or with other boarding client dogs) and a treat time (a Kong, filled with your choice of canned dog food or peanut butter). The 5-​star package would have added daily brushing … it was explained to me that this brushing was more about extra attention than a full grooming brush-​out, so I skipped it since I’m particular about how my poodles are brushed.
So the moment of truth was when I picked my dogs up, and they were … fine. Yes, they were happy to see me and jumped up on me to say hello, but there was no attempting to jump over the barriers and no pawing at me for attention or clinging to me. They seemed happy to hang with the staff member who brought them out as I gathered up our things to go. They promptly settled down when I got them into the car and were napping before I even got out of the parking lot. When we got home, they took a few minutes to check-​out the house and make sure everything was in order, then found their favorite comfy spots and resumed their naps. They didn’t even notice when I left for work.
So why 4 stars instead of 5? Well, a couple of quibbles. First, there’s the fact that they only take cash or credit/​debit cards … it’s still kind of unusual not to take checks in this town. Also, I realized later that their 3-​, 4-​, and 5-​star packages really aren’t packages — there’s no price difference between the package and a la carte pricing & they’re all treated like separate services anyway (e.g. my dogs were boarded for 5 days & I picked them up the morning of the 6^th day, but I was charged for 5 days of boarding and 6 turn-​outs & treat times since they’d already done those things when I picked them up – in the future I’ll know to ask to skip those things on the pick-​up day). Finally, there’s still the overall guilt of actually having to board the dogs — I’d still rather take my dogs with me or use a pet-​sitter that I trust, but if I absolutely had to board I would definitely choose Come Play Stay.

Come Play Stay is a doggy daycare, boarding, grooming and training facility that is part of South Mesa Veterinary Hospital. It is gorgeous and clean plus they have a really friendly staff that loves your dog! I have no idea about South Mesa’s vet care, never used them but I do know Ashley Foster. Ashley runs the Come Play Stay side of things at South Mesa. She is awesome, educated, certified, and truly understands dogs. In the past we used Ashley for in-​home training of our two dogs, Daphne and Alice (our dogs freakin’ love her!). Her motto for training is do no harm and develop trust, totally reward based not fear based. So, when we heard Ashley was involved with a doggy daycare we were in!
We went to the grand opening of Come Play Stay and got to do a tour of the whole place, seriously, I would bathe, play at the daycare, and sleep in the pet lodge, it is that nice! They do not have any ridiculous breed restrictions like other doggy daycares in town. They do something much better, a thorough pre-​screening. That’s right, before your dog is even allowed in daycare he/​she is evaluated (you have to have an appointment for this… my advice is to call first). Plus dogs are further evaluated on their first day of daycare. Very smart. They also try to keep your dogs play group consistent. For example, my dogs go every Wednesday and they are pretty much with the same dogs each time. This means these dogs kind of become a little pack this eliminates the time it takes for the dogs to get acquainted each time they go to daycare. Like at other daycares my dogs would have to spend ¾ of the day sniffing butts and figuring out who’s who and where they fit in but not at Come Play Stay — they get right down to playing.
Another nice thing about CPS is that they work on manners (barking, sitting, waiting, etc.), I don’t know about your dogs but mine can use all the help they can get in this department! They even have cameras throughout the place so you can watch your dog (s) hanging at daycare, so cool! CPS has a really nice gal that does the grooming and a great area for it. I am comfortable having my dogs bathed here (most other places not so much). It is nice because the girls can play at daycare then at the end of the day get a bath, when I pick them up they are tired, happy, and clean! It is loverly!
I haven’t used the boarding option but I would. Now this is saying a lot because I am not very trusting when it comes to leaving my dogs with someone. In fact, I have never boarded either of them ever. It is nice to know the CPS pet lodge is available if I need though. They could go to daycare during the day then go to the pet lodge in the evening, nice.
CPS offers training classes too, I haven’t taken any yet but they are taught by Ashley so they have to be great! Oh, and all the staff is just fantastic, they always know who my dogs are, they really like them, and they aren’t breedist either! They don’t treat little miss Alice like a second class dog because she is a pit bull mix from the Larimer Humane Society (or Daphne either, she is a Boston/​pit mix from the Omaha Humane Society). I am so grateful to have a great trainer, great daycare, great groomer, and pet lodge right here in Fort Collins!