Brickyard Kennel

I called today to make an appt. with the cat groomer. She was so rude that I will not ever use their services. She kept saying «if I could get a word in» and «you are not listening to me». I thought we were having a friendly conversation about how the first appt. would go. Well she could have listened to me as I was asking about prices and particulars. I was told drop off was between 8 – 9 am and then it could be as late as 4 pm for pickup (this part was by the first person who answered the phone, who was very cordial and nice). Well that system does not work for me. I feel you should have an exact appt. start and finish time within reason. It sounded as if it was first come first served. This business just lost the potential to have 3 kitties of mine groomed and I had not ever even walked through the door.

Very pleased! I went there based on great reviews I’d seen. When calling for information, it was shortly after they closed but the kind individual still answered and was in no rush, turns out it was the owner! I feel bad, my Husky was exploding under coat, and energetic. They took him and did him in half a day of course, absolutely perfect result and super friendly and patient. Repeat customer earned ;)

My mom used to bring our dogs here all the time, and they had a great staff of caring groomers. Recently in the past couple of months there have been new groomers that are not so great. Not so great, meaning that one of the new groomers yelled at my mom at length for being late for an appointment rather then just telling her they couldn’t groom our dog. My mom called me crying from the parking lot trying to compose herself, she was so shaken up. A long tirade in addition to cutting our family dog’s nails so short that it was to the quick and looks split now. My mom did call the owner who apologized and had the groomer apologize.
An incident before this last one was when our other dog was clipped on her leg, and took some skin, an inch nick on a tiny dog. Nothing was ever disclosed to us. We discovered the cut, and called to see what happened, and they said it was an accident. Clearly the people that work there now do not have the same attention or care of the previous staff. For this reason we will not be returning as we do not have the level of trust we once did.

I have taken my dog here twice and will never go back. Both times we asked that they test her to see if she can be in daycare with other dogs as opposed to doing two one on one playtimes with a person. Both times they didn’t even try to get her with other dogs. When I asked about this when we were picking her up, they said they were told that we requested her to not be in daycare. They all said they only worked weekends and basically didn’t know what was going on. They suck!

My dog loves this place! All the employees are nice and really listen. My dog goes for daycare and is so excited to go. He is also excited when I pick him up. They really wear him out there! They are helping me get in touch with a trainer and my dog will spend a week in boarding soon. I’m sure he will love it!

I’m writing this to hopefully prevent another future customer from having a similar experience to what we had. Let me make it clear that I have no malicious intent to defame or bring them down, but I have to honestly share my experience because I personally find value in knowing multiple stories from other customers before making a decision of which business to pay for services from.
We boarded our dogs overnight. When my husband asked what daycare hours were we were told Friday til 5 and Saturday at 9. Apparently this staff member either didn’t know their own hours or misunderstood his question, because the next day, when watching the 4 cameras from the app on my phone and not seeing my dogs anywhere by 10:30 I called and was told day care actually ends Friday at 4 and starts Saturday at 10. Then it was explained that they would start day care late because they had a lot of play times scheduled that morning. I was annoyed, but hung up. Half an hour later, they were still doing play times so I called and requested that our dogs get play time too since they were still stuck in their kennels and I worried that being in a kennel from 4 pm-​11 am (19 hours by then) was too much for them. They said it wouldn’t be a problem. The website description for playtime is «generally, dogs have Private Play Times twice per day — in the morning and in the afternoon or early evening. Play Times will generally last 20 – 30 minutes each. The types of activities in which your dog participates are usually dependent on your dog’s age, temperament, health and physical abilities.» So I watched the cameras and observed our two huskies being brought into the main area and a girl stood in the corner of the room and watched them sniff around. This lasted 8 minutes. Then they went away. So I watched play times continue with other dogs and saw that day care officially started with all dogs sometime between 11:30-noon. Besides the 8 minutes they were having a very un-​interactive «playtime» they were in their kennels from 4 pm Friday night (according to the woman I spoke with on the phone) til about 11:30 the following day. Roughly 19 hours. I was very upset that spending my money on a boarding service meant that my two dogs (our only babies) sat in kennels most of the time. The person the day before did not inform us correctly of the time they would be in their kennels, and the person on the phone on Saturday morning didn’t give us a realistic time frame either. For that, I was not impressed.
So I thought, maybe I’ll let the owner know privately on facebook how bad my experience was and she could either explain what happened or make things right before I write a review. I know that sometimes miscommunications happen and was hoping that at least an apology would be issued. So I did. And I got 4 responses back. All of which denied what I said to be true (I assure you, I’m not making this up, nor am I exaggerating), and then stated that if I did write reviews that I would be sued for defaming the business. Then she ended the reply with this lovely remark: «I don’t know what kind of vendetta you have against us – maybe you work for a competitor. Whatever it is, it is a shame that it has turned you into a bitter, bitter person bent on destroying everyone else. Shame.»
After responding to the email, she did write me back and said she had looked into the situation on her cameras. What she wrote back did not correspond with what I personally witnessed. She alleges that they got more time out of their kennels than what I had reported, but, like I mentioned, I was watching from my phone, what was going on and making notes of times. However, she did say, and up until that point I had not once heard this from her or any employee, that they did get a potty break in the evening and one again in the morning. Why she waited until that point to mention this is questionable to me, but nonetheless, I thought it worth noting in my review. So, according to her email, they were let out to pee at 6 pm and again at 8 am. I made the mistake of not researching all of this beforehand, because, in my opinion, 14 hours in a kennel is way too long for any dog. Her email ended with a long excuse about how she never gets time off or makes any money off the business. While this makes me feel a little sorry for her, all my interactions with her were terrible and any time a business issues an apology with a long list of excuses (especially if they’re personal excuses), it turns me off even more because they have not taken any accountability to right a wrong.
We won’t be using them ever again. Why? TERRIBLE customer service (who threatens with a lawsuit for writing a bad review???), dogs were in runs way too long, and there was little if any accurate communication during their time there from the staff.

Let me begin by saying that before my last experience with brickyard kennel I was a fan. My dog got very sick at brickyard the last time I boarded him. I took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with «kennel cough». After 180 dollars in vet bills and antibiotics I called brickyard to tell them what had happened. I spoke with a helpful manager named Chris. He was sympathetic about what had happened and told me that three other people had called as well about their sick pets after boarding them with brickyard. I told him that I wanted my charge of 65 dollars refunded due to the fact that I had incurred so much extra expense due to the fact that my dog got sick at their facility. He told me that the owner «did not do refunds». As a local business owner I found this to be insulting and ridiculous. I asked to speak personally with the owner and was told «she won’t be handling this issue». Apparently the owner of brickyard kennel has no respect or regard for her customers or their pets. Please take my advice and NEVER spend a dime at this establishment. If they have this little regard for their customers just imagine how they will treat your pet!

My life got really complicated around the holidays, and I ended up flying my cat home to Utah with me and then boarding her at Brickyard for part of the time I was in town. (Cat that has always lived in an apartment without a dog and a yellow lab who hates cats in the same house just doesn’t mix well). My aunt has used Brickyard’s vets for years and highly recommended them.
Overall, everything about their boarding service was top notch. They were significantly less expensive than the facility I use in Seattle. They were friendly and I could tell they were taking good care of my pet. They are set up to reach either their vets or a 24-​hour clinic at any time in case of emergency. They charge a little bit extra for playtime, but it’s completely supervised and they will either play with your pet by itself if yours is the antisocial type, or see if it wants to make friends with the resident cats/​other boarders.
I felt completely comfortable leaving my cat at Brickyard, and that’s really saying something (while I had to admit it, she’s kind of a substitute/​practice child at this point). Highly recommended.