Safe Journey Dog Boarding

We used to take our puppy here about once a week to socialize and wear him out a bit since he had so much energy. We quickly got suspicious that something wasn’t right. First they never knew which one was our dog and was even brought the wrong dog (different breed) when I came to pick him up.
Everytime we picked him up his eyes were bright red and he could hardly stay awake for our 5 min drive home. He would then go straight to bed and sleep all night and most of the next day. At first we thought he was just playing really hard but then we took him to another day care with a dog friend and his demeanor and was completely different when we picked him up from there. Yea he was tired but not like when we picked him up from Safe Journey. We had heard rumors of dogs being drugged there but wouldn’t believe it until we experienced it ourselves. We now take him to another daycare and have never seen him the way he was at safe journey.
I always felt most of the staff was friendly but sometimes that’s just not enough.

I LOVE this place! My dog, Adler goes about once or twice a week and every time I pick him up his eyes are red and he passes out on the car ride home from playing so hard all day! Safe Journey is always willing to reasonably accommodate to your needs! Not to mention the prices here are reasonable compared to many throughout Portland! I have boarded my dog as well as used other daycare facilities, and none compare. It’s an awesome feeling to pull up to the awesomely decorated house with my dog wagging his tail and howling before we even get out of the car! This place is a must!

Well, this place passed the test! They cared for my 4-​month old golden doodle for 10 WHOLE days while I was on vacation. We all get nervous leaving our fur-​babies while we’re gone, but I never even called to check on him because I felt so comfortable with where he was staying. This says a lot! Of course he was a bit stinky and dirty when I picked him up, but what do you expect? He was essentially at «summer camp» for 10-​days with his furry friends! :) I’d recommend a grooming appointment post pick up, but that’s just because I’m a neat freak! Overall, excellent service. I’m grateful for the team at Safe Journey!

We love Safe Journey! The staff is super helpful, friendly, and take great care of the dogs under their care. Our dig recently boarded there for most of a week, and he came home tired, socialized, and happy! Appreciate the affordable prices and focus on quality care for our dog.

Have brought my dog here a couple of times and he loves it. He’s a playful lab and gets along well with all dogs. The workers here seem to enjoy working with animals which surprisingly isn’t the case everywhere. Will definitely be using Safe Journey more in the future!

I wrote this review 2 years ago and now I see it isn’t on the site even though there are reviews from 5 years ago!!! So I’m writing it again because my second dog has entered a phase of her life that reminded me of their care with a previous dog.
When I arrived in Pdx for a new job I had a very old dysplasic dog with mobilitiy issues and his sidekick. I tried a couple of other daycares explaining carefully that my old guy was unable to chase balls and run around but they were quite eager to take my money and ignore my instructions and assure me that they could handle that. After picking him up at a different daycare where his mobility issues were worse at pickup (one that has been sold, thank God to a different person), I found Safe Journey.
They agreed to take my old handicapped dog and even made special provisions for him including a ramp up to their house. They took excellent care of my old man every day for 2 months (along with his sidekick of course).
When I saw the bad reviews here without my outstanding review of them, it annoyed me enough so that I’m writing the review again.
I’m not affiliated with Safe Journey and actually I haven;t had reason to use them since I bought a house where my dogs stay during the day. But I’ll say this! They were a lifesaver for me and my old guy when I needed them and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again if my job requires me to travel!

Have been using Safe Journey for the past 2 years for both of our dogs. Always feel at ease leaving our four-​legged children with John and Craig when we leave town. Very quick to respond to last minute needs, great communication if anything is ever needed while out of town, great location, great prices, and most importantly our dogs seem to love it there. Have recommended Safe Journey to many friends.

We took our puppy to Safe Journey because we were planning on boarding her overnight while we were out of town. We met with John, one of the employees who actually lives in the house and he gave us a tour and the run down. When you go for the tour they also let you leave your dog for a free day of day care which was great!
The tour was nice, we saw all the rooms except the kitchen (they keep all the dogs in the kitchen with access to the back yard during tours so you and your dog can tour the rest of the house). The rooms have nice beds which have withstood heavy dog chew testing and are basically chew-​proof. At night they bring out blankets to go on the beds for those dogs being boarded.
I was nervous to leave our puppy but during the tour they let you peak into the kitchen and see all the dogs currently there and you would have never guessed there was about 15 dogs outside since there was NO barking. Not even a peep. They were all really calm and just hanging out.
Needless to say, we left our puppy and picked her back up later that evening and she was happily exhausted from playing all day. We plan on boarding her there overnight during our vacations and are excited for her to continue to be well socialized and stress free!

I own the most active and excited puppy in the world– a samoyed. We know she has a blast coming here for daycare because when we pick her up at the end of the day, she is content and exhausted. However, she is just as thrilled when we pull up for our morning drop off the next day. The staff here is very nice and familiar with my dog’s excited behavior. Our dog comes to daycare most weekdays and though she’s always glad to see me when I pick her up, she sometimes doesn’t want to leave!

I’ve been taking my dog to SafeJourney for over a year and love the consistently disciplined, stable environment that the SafeJourney staff provide. I know the staff by name because I drop off my dog on average once or twice a week for daycare, and they all know my dog by name — the personal attention and thoughtfulness helps me feel that my dog is well cared for and supervised while I’m busy at work or running around taking care of my own life.
I also use SafeJourney for boarding when I travel for work or holidays, and the staff never mind me calling to check in on my dog. SafeJourney has been a great boon for helping me get through the puppy years and I plan to use their services as long as I live in the neighborhood.

I had a very positive experience with Safe Journey. I have two beagles who stayed there for a few days last summer. I first visited the facility to meet the owner and see the place and found it clean, organized and welcoming. They explained to me their system to take care of the dogs and when I brought my beagles everything was set. My dogs came back home fine. I plan to use this place again this coming summer.

I have two small dogs who go here for daycare several times a week. They get so excited when they know they aren’t going to be home bored when I’m at work. They especially love John and wag their tails when they see him, but also like the owner and the other guy who works there. I was surprised to see bad reviews because I’ve been going here for almost a year and my eight pound poodle who has anxiety issues seems to really like it, they have never come back with any scars and even let them wear their coats when it’s cold and rainy. It’s affordable, especially if you’re doing two dogs and they’ve been boarded there and came home exhausted and content. Also, I had to be at work early one day and Craig the owner said he would be there at 6:30 when I had to drop them.

These reviews are very confusing to me. I recommended this place to a friend and she told me it had horrible reviews, came here and was horrified. However, my personal experience there was really positive.
Our dog was a shelter dog and has severe anxiety issues — won’t walk down stairs, is scared of everything, cowers from everyone. Over Christmas we had to board her as we were going on a trip and found this place online (note that google reviews of this place are very high and there’s like 40 of them).
I called here and he said he wanted to meet first to talk about our dog’s needs, etc. I went thinking it’d be like 10 – 15 min, but ended up spending over an hour there, talking about our dog’s special needs, doing a tour, meeting other dogs. He had actually wanted us to bring our dog so she could meet some of the other regulars. He stressed the importance of easing her in slowly and asked for us to bring her in for a day so she could know we’d come back when we actually left. He seemed very knowledgeable and his philosophies were right on, according to what I’ve read.
We had no problems when we came back to pick her up, in fact, our dog seemed more comfortable with herself than before.
The one thing I found weird at first was his policy to wait outside for them to let you in. This initially felt like something fishy was going on, but knowing my dog, at least, it makes total sense for them to try to mitigate the number of knocks on the door and strangers walking up unannounced. This would terrify my dog and I appreciate him taking all of the dogs’ needs into consideration. The other thing to maybe note is that the guy seems more like a dog person than a people person. I personally have no problem with people having some social awkwardness about them, but I wonder if this played into any reviews.
Again, the previous reviews ARE horrifying and if I had seen them, there’s no way I would have taken her there. But I wanted to report that our experience was great, and the reviews on google is 4 stars (which have many more recent reviews than on here).

SafeJourney was exactly what we were looking for and everything went well. The staff was super nice, responsive, and flexible. Based on customer service this place is 5 stars.
We were going out of town for a few days and had two little dogs (8 and 10 lbs) who had never been boarded before. We were a little stressed about it because Luna and Chloé aren’t very social and Chloé is quite quirky and doesn’t like metal, loud noises, or stranger dogs… she’s super sweet but these quirks made us nervous about boarding her. Enter the idea of cage-​free boarding.
I read up a little on their website and then called twice (I spoked with Mike and then the owner Craig) and discovered that SafeJourney offers a free day of daycare before you board your dog. This was awesome way to feel out the experience. In fact we did a little 15 – 20 introductory tour, then a couple of days later did the free daycare, then the next day dropped them off in the evening for 4 days of boarding.
During the introductory tour Craig had us bring our dogs into the living room area and sniff around by themselves. Then he brought out a dog at a time so that we could gauge if Chloé was going to be cool. She barked her heart out but eventually mellowed. It was really cool because I think the slow introduction helped her a lot. Then Craig showed us the kitchen and backyard. Basically the whole lower level and backyard are for the dogs. The main living room is full of human furniture but it thoroughly smelled like dogs lived there. Which was fine, but it was a moment of «oh yeah, dogs live here even though it’s a human house.» Oh, and a caretaker lives above in the upper level. It seems like there were about a dozen dogs there and Craig was pretty transparent that even though they are supervised the dogs are free to roam and they aren’t going to follow your dog around all day and keep an eye on it all times. Craig is a down to earth guy and he was completely low pressure during the tour. He really seemed to want to make sure it was a good fit and that we knew what were getting. When we picked them up Mike was nice enough to let us come a little late in the evening because of our flight time. Luna and Chloé were in good spirits and while they are still shy they aren’t more shy. Which is awesome because that’s what I was worried about the most. Apparently they even played with a little Dachsund! I think for the price their service is totally reasonable and the staff are willing to work with you if you communicate openly with them.
As far as the other Unilocal reviews I don’t really get why the this place has such a low rating. I think any pet owner is gonna have anxiety and feel a little guilty boarding their fur children. It’s hard to entrust others to care for your pets. I found SafeJourney on Google and then when were getting in the car to do the introductory tour I looked up the address on Unilocal app and was shocked by the low rating. I almost told Stefani we should bail on the place but then I figured it was just an introductory tour, why not see what’s up. all I can say is that my experience was NOTHING like what you’d expect based on what has previously been written.
Just so we’re clear, I have no affiliation with SafeJourney. I found them very randomly and would recommend them to anyone looking for an alternative to caged boarding. I have no previous experience boarding dogs, so I can’t really compare it to anything which is also why I didn’t go all in for 5 stars. The SafeJourney experience is definitely a little weird, but the vibe is good. Try it out.

This review is Long, LONG overdue, I just had chosen to not think about anything having to do with Safe Journey. Please, for the love of your animals and all that is good, do NOT take your animals here and please spread the word how awful this place is!
I believe that my dog is the dog that Barry B. wrote about on 1÷25÷11. I had left my dog here a few times. My dog has very bad separation anxiety and I brought her to doggie daycare when I had long days at work for some socialization and loving. Or so I thought. I had even left my dog overnight once and it didn’t seem like there were any problems. My dog was always a little shocked looking when she got back in the car, but I just assumed that was from her separation anxiety and being away from me, it never occurred to me that something bad might be happening.
Well on this one day in January last year, I had a long day of work and then was in the process of moving to a new house, so I left my dog with Safe Journey and my friend was picking her up in the evening for me. Around 6pm I got a phone call from a woman who said that my dog had been running around in the street near Safe Journey for about 20 minutes, and that she was just barking and not going near anyone and looked terrified. They said that no one was around at Safe Journey or answering the phone. Someone next door was going to watch my dog until one of us could pick her up. When my friend finally arrived to pick up the dog, Craig (the owner) was back and mentioned NOTHING of her getting out or his absence. I drove over to her house immediately to pick up my dog when I hear she had her safe. I asked her what the owner said to her and she said «what do you mean?» I mean, this man did not breathe a peep about this whole situation.
I called Craig myself and he admitted to being gone from the property, leaving about a dozen dogs HOME ALONE for over an hour!!! He said he just needed to get some lunch or something. I’m sorry, when your business is taking care of other peoples animals, you do NOT leave them alone! Who knows when a couple dogs might decide to get into a scuffle that needs breaking up or when a dog might chose to ESCAPE!!! My dog could have been run over and I might not have found out about it until it was way too late. Luckily there are still decent human beings left in the world who will stop for a scared animal in the street. Thank you to those people, you saved my beloved dog.
All Craig did was refund me my day at the daycare and apologize. Seriously, this business needs to be shut down. They leave animals alone unsupervised and don’t even care. I don’t know what to do to get this business in more trouble, but it shouldn’t exist anymore.

SafeJourney made the news today, and I was reminded of the very poor service we received when we used them for boarding in 2005. Our dogs came back traumatized and smelling very badly. We have never used them again and when we vacation now hire someone to come stay in our house. Much cheaper and much better for the dogs.

Last time I dropped off my dogs there, the place smelled overwhelmingly like feces. The owner wouldn’t let me in past the entryway, and kind of ushered me out the door in record time as I tired to explain their feeding instructions. I was nervous the whole time we were away.
They came come with serious scrapes and wounds, they didn’t look like they were from other dogs, either, they looked like they were from brambles of some sort, and I’m certain they weren’t fed correctly. There was maybe 3 cups of food total missing from the bag and we were gone for a week. My dogs eat 3 cups a day. He mentioned nothing about the scrapes, and didn’t explain what the dogs had been fed. To top it off, we had gift certificates he’d given as a refund when we’d come home early in the past, and he wouldn’t accept them because it was a holiday. We’re looking for a new boarding place now.

Shawn and Daniel, the owners of SafeJourney, responded to my review and offered to compensate for the vet bill with free boarding. They have apparently returned to their previous model of just a few animals at a time, which was what made them so special to begin with. I will certainly consider boarding with them in the future, if this is the case. Thanks, guys!

Firstly, I think it is in very bad taste to post reviews of your own business… especially FIVE of them. C’mon, that is not what Unilocal is supposed to be about.
My own experience with Safe Journey wasn’t great… We left our pup there over a long weekend this last spring. When our friends picked her up for us they asked how everything went and were told that it was all great. On their way home, our sweet dog couldn’t stay out of their laps, craving attention. It was then that they discovered a couple deep bite marks on her face.
Now I know that things happen. You have a group of dogs all together with different personalities. I’m not even trying to defend my dog… she is a deaf puppy who sometimes pushes the limits with other dogs because she doesn’t hear warning growls and just thinks everyone is playing, all the time. The problem that I have with this is that these obvious marks on her face were never addressed with us or our friends that picked her up for us.
We contacted the owner who was EXTREMELY apologetic and ended up not even charging us for the stay. He said that he obviously needs to be present more often. We appreciated his sincere concern and that’s why I gave them two stars instead of one.
From what I have put together, it seems that this daycare has gone downhill since the owners no longer have as much involvement. I hope that turns around!

I’m glad to see I’m not the only person who had a ~really~ unpleasant time with these folks. I met with them and discussed my plans and schedule, and the needs for my dog. They were at first really pleasant and accomodating, but I sent them a follow up email trying to confirm dates, and I got no answer. A full week later, I sent another email asking for a response within a few days or I would have to arrange another pet sitter. The response I got from the proprietor then was the weirdest, bitchy, most unprofessional rant I’ve ever heard in a business context. He was upset with me for sending a second email and being «impatient». Odd, considering I was trying to arrange significant business with them. Run, don’t walk away from these cranky unpredictable bums.