Planet Pooch

I am writing this review as a former employee and current customer of Planet Pooch. PP is everything you want and more for your dog! Honestly, I can’t think of a better place to leave my dogs– and trust me, I’m a very overprotective parent of my dogs who are spoiled rotten (seriously! @dukemac_ means more to me than anything!) I trust Dan & the crew at PP with all three of my pups more than I would trust any of my family or friends!
I can totally understand why some people might complain about the «lobby» and all, but for me I could care less about the lobby and care all about where my dogs are. And as an old employee who worked here some a few years back– I can honestly say I never «sat in a room watching tv». The employees that work at PP are there because they love dogs– you really wouldn’t be there if you didn’t.
As an owner, you know your dog best. If your dog enjoys being around people and other dogs this is heaven on earth for them.

We started taking our dogs here recently, mostly for a combination of sleepovers and daycare when we’re out of town. Their reservation system takes a bit of getting used to but now that I’m used to it, no issues. I did have a misunderstanding with one of the staff members about pick up time after a sleepover and I’m sure it was my fault and he was really nice about it, clearly understanding how desperate I was to see my dogs! The staff seems great. I check in on the dogs occasionally on the webcam and they seem good. They do pretty serious evaluations up front to make sure the dogs are appropriately socialized. The dogs are totally exhausted when they get home.

I used to work at a doggie daycare, so I know the kinds of things that can go wrong behind the scenes. When we were considering Planet Pooch I grilled the owner with questions about their hiring process, how they train employees, how they stay organized and communicate with each other, and what their philosophy is when interacting with dogs. I was actually quite blown away.
Their employees go through a bunch of training to make sure they are all on the same page and have common vocabulary around different body language signals a dog can give off and how to manage different behaviors. And their philosophy with regard to new or nervous dogs is to ignore them until they are ready to come over and say hi, which is so perfect for my little guy who is afraid of strangers. We have been to so many places where people try to get him to come over in a timid voice saying «it’s ok!!!» and he just looks at them shaking like «What’s wrong? What are you going to do to me??» But if you ignore him he will walk right up to you in a few minutes and be totally fine. So it was a huge relief to hear that policy.
In general the fact that they don’t have any office staff means that they can focus their resources on more important work — being with the dogs and cleaning. You pay online. You make your reservations online. You drop off and pick up your dog via an ipad intercom system. Trust me, this saves you money because staffing a reception desk is costly and time-​consuming.
Basically I have full confidence in their staff and my dog comes home exhausted and happy. They really know what they are doing, and we are so glad to have found them.

The good: my dog seems to be really happy and well exercised here. The prices are reasonable. I love having web cams, I frequently peek in on my dog to see what he’s up to during the day. The bad: customer service could be better. I’ve called and left messages before and not gotten responses. The online payment and reservation system is quite awkward (as noted by other Unilocal reviewers). You can only do payments online. I bought a monthly pass, yet I still had to make a reservation for a spot. That doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me, but whatever. It took some time to get everything sorted out. I’ve been to a few doggy daycare places and I’ve never encountered such an odd reservation system. I keep coming back though at the end of the day because my dog seems happy here and that’s what is important to me.

My husband and I adopted a husky with severe separation anxiety last year. He can usually spend the day at work with my husband, but when a conflict arose a few months ago, we didn’t know what to do. Luckily we discovered Planet Pooch, and they saved the day! We took our dog to daycare for a week, and he had a blast. He came home happy and tired from hours of playtime, and fell in love with the staff. He had such a great time that now we take him to daycare once or twice a week. In addition, we have boarded him twice. We love that he gets to sleep with a person and is never crated. Thanks Planet Pooch!

Love that they have live webcams, and a variety of indoor and outdoor areas (even a pool). And they support dog rescue groups, gotta love that!

If you love your dog like a member of your own family, do yourself a favor and never take them to this doggie daycare. This place is absolutely horrific and un-​SAFE for any dog.
My dog got giardia, kennel cough, a cyst and multiple wounds from being at this day care. He had to have a $ 5,000+ surgery to fix the cyst and the other multitude of problems from this place. And they took NO responsibility! For any of it!
It is NOT SAFE or clean and I would not advise anyone to bring their dog here.
The owners don’t care and just collect a paycheck. They have an aggressive Husky dog that will attack your dog if it doesn’t like it. They don’t separate the owners dog from dogs it doesn’t like and therefore those dogs continually get attacked and hurt.
My dog is friendly, playful and submissive when playing with other dogs. They advertise that they have webcams, but when I SAW with own two eyes the Husky going after my dog on camera, I had enough.
Do yourself a favor and save yourself vet bills and headaches with this filthy, poorly managed, unsafe, cess pool for dog feces and bacteria. DISGUSTING!
ABSOLUTELY FILTHY DISGUSTING PLACE!

There is always a degree of anxiety when you find someone new to care for your pets. New to the area, I met Dan and toured the play areas. He explained the easy procedures and routines and talked lovingly about his multiple rescue dogs– that’s always a good sign.
When I dropped my dogs off on their first PP morning, my puppy (9 months) scampered off happily, excited to see the staff… my older dog (10 years) was trembling and resistant. She didn’t like the temperament test. She is not a «dog-​dog», she prefers people. I knew she wouldn’t like daycare but I was in a bind and needed a place for my whippets to play during the day while I was at school for two days. As I walked away, I made the mistake of looking back. My oldest dog stared at me with huge pleading eyes. She couldn’t believe I was leaving her there.
I spent the day worrying about her and how mad she was going to be when I picked her up. I felt like a terrible person for leaving her and tried to figure out how to keep her hoe the next day. When I walked up to the gate I was completely shocked to see my oldest dog more happy and jaunty than my puppy! She was almost prancing and even made a point to say goodbye to the lady who brought her to the gate. I couldn’t believe my eyes. When they got home, they both curled up and slept, I swear I could see dog smiles on their faces.
I didn’t think she’d like daycare, in fact, I was certain she would hate it. But it wasn’t just that. I lost a dog to cancer in early January and my other dog (who didn’t know life without her companion) became incredibly depressed. She wouldn’t eat, didn’t want to play, lost 6lbs (Which is a LOT for a 25lb whippet). She was never excited about anything. I got my puppy in the hope that it would help her but it almost did the opposite. She had finally been on the upswing when I uprooted us, moved to the bay. New place, new routines. She was not happy.
In steps Planet Pooch. I knew the real testament to the daycare being a good fit for my girls would come the next morning when I dropped them off for their second day. They both TUGGED at their leashes to get into daycare, they were so excited and happy. My oldest didn’t even look back. I almost cried.
I could not possibly be more pleased with the care provided by Planet pooch. The staff has been wonderful– from the initial phone consultation with Durine, to the temperament test with Dan, to the day synopsis and tender goodbyes from the evening staff. It is an incredible place and I could not be more grateful to have found it :)

Got introduced to PP through a few Meetup group events and took my dog (Sully) there for a few overnights while I was away for work. Sully had a great time! The staff sent videos and let me know she was doing great — she looked happy, relaxed, and in her element. It had been a long time since I spent a night away from her, so I was pretty worried, but the videos/​check-​ins were such a relief! I think she even misses being there with all of the other buddies haha.
Thanks Planet Pooch! We’ll be back!

Honestly, people who are complaining about the lobby etc. make no sense. This facility is EVERYTHING a dog could hope for. It’s everything any dog person wants for their dog. You may not want to hang out in the lobby, but you don’t have to. I would go here over ANY of the other available facilities. I’m paying for dog care, and you REALLY get it here. I have no interest in paying for a fancy lobby.

Literal life saver!!! My 11 year old foster dog has separation anxiety and without having a day care/​boarding option he would surely have not made it this far along. If it weren’t for Dan and his amazing staff he would be either dead or living a miserable existence in some kennel.
He is also happy when I drop him off and even pulls to get in the door which makes ME very happy. They are very flexible with his schedule since I never really know if/​when I will need to drop him off which is another big plus.
I had to board him for a long weekend (which I was nervous about because I have never boarded a dog anywhere) and when I called to check on him I was relieved to hear he was doing well and was even sleeping in bed with Dan! Knowing he was in good hands and was having his own vacation made it possible for me to enjoy mine.
A heartfelt thanks to everyone at PP for taking such good care of my sweet, sweet Odin!

This is for the SSF location. I bought the one month package for my pup and this was my experience:
In the inititial interview, I wasn’t really impressed. When you first walk in, the lobby (if you would even consider it one) is dark and very un-​inviting. You are supposed to press an intercom to tell them either you’re dropping off or picking up your dog. When we took the «tour» we were only allowed to see through a glass window that showed only one room that the dogs played in. We only got to see the backyard througha tiny window from the laundry room. They wouldn’t allow us to walk through the facility because the dogs would bark and go crazy. Well that’s weird because when I went to the tour at Woofgangs, we got to see every inch of that place. Also, during our interview the owner took us to a room with a couch and big screen TV. No dogs were in this room nor could you supevise/​see any of the dogs for this room. It made me think «Do people just sit in here and watch TV until they hear the intercom go off?» We have no way of knowing…
We bought a monthly package to give it a try, and because it was $ 50 cheaper than the place we had been before. All month everytime I dropped off my dog, she would put her tail between her legs and shake. I wasn’t sure to attribute this to the fact that she has separation anxiety– but as long as she’s around a human, she never cares if I leave her.
Whenever my boyfriend would pick her up, he’d press the intercom and jump up onthe platform to see her through the window. He said she was ALWAYS by herself with big dogs (she’s only 20 pounds), and no human around. He’d see a human walk through a door (near the door of that TV room) and grab her. Multiple times they had to ask him «oh your dog is the black one, right?» AFTER he already told them her name. I would sign the sheet everyday to check her in– there were only lik 20 dogs MAXIMUM there per day. How did they not know her name after a month? None of the workers ever interacted with us or let me know how she was doing. There was never anyone in the lobby to chat with while waiting for my dog to be brought out. It was like pulling teeth asking them how she was doing. I would ask «How was she today?» and they would say «Ok». Well my dog shakes when I leave her here so I’d expect more of a detailed answer like she was playing all day or something. Make me feel better about leaving her here and giving you guys my money.
If you don’t buy the monthly package and only buy a 10 day or 20 day package, you have to reserve your spot online the night before. And if you have to cancel then you have to do it by noon the day before you’d come or you get charged. For my situation, this didn’t work out well. Sometimes if my brother didn’t get called into work that day, he would call in the morning and say he’d watch her (for free). Well it was impossible to ever use him without losing out on a whole day of daycare. Or if I was sick and called in to work, I’d lose out on that day of daycare. With the other doggie daycare I’ve used, this was never an issue. You never had to reserve spots so I could decide that morning if I was gong to use daycare or not, and not lose out on money.
One more thing… the SSF location is only open «certain weekends», whatever that means. The few times I’ve wanted Saturday care for my dog we were told to use the Redwood city location, which was way out of the way if we live in San Bruno and were heading to SF.
OVERALL: They didn’t seem friendly, my dag shaked every time I dropped her off, they didn’t know her name after a month, their cancellation policy sucks, and she is not supervised whenever we pick her up (and left in a room by herself with uge dogs). Even when I mentioned to people at the dog park that I was using them, I only got back negative feeback.

My previous review vanished, so I’ll write another because I’m still extremely satisfied with Planet Pooch and all their services. A summary of my previous, much more detailed review: if it wasn’t for Dan and his crew I would have had a dog with chronic separation anxiety and anti-​social behavior, a hopeless dog that could neither be left alone or be around other dogs. His weekly trips to this daycare — unlike his experiences at others in the Bay Area — led to incredible, possibly life-​saving improvements. He can now be left alone without tearing my place apart, and can even go leashless at Fort Funston. As I said before, this daycare and their employees put both the physical and mental wellbeing of your dog first and foremost.

We’ve been bringing out dog here for a few weeks now due to job relocation – we used to go elsewhere in the bay area.
So far my dog seems to love it. The staff are all courteous, friendly w/​a smile, and my dog comes home clean and tired which is a good thing!

I am beyond happy that I’ve found Planet Pooch.
Cosmos, my 7yr old Bull Terrier get’s pretty bad separation anxiety which has made it extremely hard to take her to doggie daycares for over night stays. Up until now I was taking her to a big name «doggie hotel,» but after the last time taking her I realized the experience was far too traumatic for her. The following week she didn’t leave her bed unless I physically carried her out of it.
Over this Christmas holiday I took her to Planet Pooch for the first time, and boy am I thankful I did. Half way through the 6 day stay Dan and the team sent me pictures of Cosmos being the couch potato she is, sleeping on the couch with the friendly staff.
I love the fact that Cosmos got to sleep with staff in a bed, rather than a kennel. And she got to play with all size dogs, not just ones her size. The staff does a great job picking the right dogs to play with each other, which is not just a size thing.
When I picked her up today she was her same crazy self, and really didn’t act like I had even left her at all.
I love the whole group at Planet Pooch! Finally I won’t be nervous about leaving town again.
Thanks, you guys rock!

Came here today to check the place out. Waited a while for someone to come up to the front. When someone did, we asked what their rates were. The girl who came out didnt know the answer and had to ask someone, who mumbled rather rudely (and within earshot) that we should check out the webpage.
Note to the owner or manager: If you’re too damn lazy to give good customer service or even go out of your way to help a customer, that attitude makes me question how lazy and rude you would be as a service provider, then I’m better off spending my dollars somewhere else. And no, I didnt care enough anymore to check out your webpage.

Love Planet Pooch! Otto’s been going here (in SSF) for daycare and occasional boarding since he was a pup, and is always excited to see me on pickup, but winds down to doggie coma for the evening and is super lazy the next day. That means we can actually have a day of rest with our usually-​energetic schnauzer. The good people at Planet Pooch really seem to like the dogs, and getting Otto in here as a pup was a big part of socializing him to his own kind.
I love it that their overnight stays involve a big dog pile with a human, and not a sad row of jail-​like kennels like I heard they have at other places. Sure, I can think of ways they might improve their web site and booking, but once you have established the relationship, it’s smooth sailing.
I do just wish the online booking was more fully featured, like with account history, and that I could drop off without scheduling. But since I can’t give half stars, I am sticking with 5.

This review is a long time coming.
We rescued our pup from the Oakland Animal Shelter about 2 years ago, and he came with several issues, including a case of worms that took us 4 or 5 months to cure. Like many rescues, ours was very fearful — of people, other dogs, new places, new people (especially men), you name it, and he was afraid of it. B/​c he was afraid of cages, they had to keep Oso in the back of the shelter b/​c they were afraid he’d hurt himself if he was out front in one of the cages. This meant that no one knew he was at the shelter b/​c no one ever saw him; so he had been at the shelter for a long time.
When we brought him home, he wouldn’t get into the car and I sat on the floor of the car w/​him while my husband drove b/​c he was shaking, he wouldn’t walk up the stairs to our apt b/​c he was terrified and we had to carry him up.
We needed a place that we could leave him if we ever went out of town and didn’t have any friends available to watch him. Given his fear of everything, we wanted to get him comfortable someplace and we knew it could take a long time. Also, it was important that the site didn’t cage the dogs at night. We couldn’t do a Wag Hotel, b/​c Oso would freak out in the small room. A friend from work recommended PP and it was the BEST recommendation ever.
It took a long time, both and home and at PP, but our dog is a VERY happy, calm, more confident dog. We’ve done a lot of work with him at home, but I really credit Dan and his crew to helping him come out of his shell. Knowing that Oso was afraid of everything, Dan had him hang out in smaller rooms w/​other less confident dogs and then slowly worked him into the larger packs. Recognizing that Oso was afraid of men, Dan and his team worked w/​him to get him more comfortable with all the staff and worked at Oso’s pace, and didn’t freak him out and set him back 100 steps.
The prices are reasonable; the space is huge; there is always water available; they keep the space cool w/​huge fans, and have a pool for dogs to swim in on hot days; they make sure the dogs sleep in a way they would do at home (if kenneled, they have kennels, if on the bed, they let them up on the bed, etc); Dan and his team to out of their way to make sure that the dogs are safe and having fun.
I guess I can understand that people would like more flexibility wrt payment options and drop off/​pick up times, but it is a small business and it’s run by a skeleton crew. I’m really happy and proud to be supporting a local small business and can deal w/​some of the minor inconveniences that come w/​working w/​a small business.
Oso is now one of the dogs that breaks up other dogs when he thinks they’re being too rough. Can you imagine? We never thought that our dog could get to that point.
While my husband and I have put a lot of time and work into Oso, I really think that having Dan’s insight and experience have really helped us help Oso to be a happier, more balanced/​less fearful dog. Dan has really gone out of his way to help us work out Oso’s different issues and is always thinking about new and different ways to address them. I don’t think we would have been able to make as much progress if we hadn’t found PP. It really is all about the dogs there, and it really should be.

I was torn between giving this place 3 or 4 stars. It wasn’t GREAT but it wasn’t bad either.
Pros:
— Price is reasonable
— Place looks cool
— Webcams to watch all day (but their a little slow and you can’t see everything)
— The overnights are spent with an actual person and a bunch of dogs. Not all alone in a cage.
Cons:
— When we first went we toured and they didn’t even take us inside. Just to various windows where we could peek in. Did it smell inside? Did it seem clean? Was there anything that stood out as great or terrible? I don’t know and I’ll never know because the dogs area is for dogs only at all times. I just wish for peace of mind I could’ve gotten a glimpse or something. What ARE they hiding?
— If my dog evaded the webcam all day there wasn’t a way to ask how she did. She was always DESPERATE to leave. Other places we’ve taken her, she’s always eager to leave and come home, but a couple times I picked her up here she seemed almost frantic. If I had someone or something to tell me she did ok, and what her behavior was while there, I’d trust it and just think my dog was crazy. (She usually is). But there was no way to tell and the people never interact more than a couple of words at most.
A lot of the other reviews here complain about their being difficult to contact or the split payments being a pain in the butt. I never once had a problem contacting them. I’d call with my incessant questions and a person answered every time. The payment system wasn’t my favorite but it wasn’t as if I had to do challenges and jump through hoops just to pay. If anything I felt like the payment system COULD be really good for some people. Just not for us.
I prefer to pay for everything up front, get it taken from my account, and be done with it. Here you have to go online and purchase the amount of days you want. And for an overnight you have to pay with a check, which they didn’t take out of our acct until like a month later.
We chose this place over woofgang after the tour and interview because it seemed cleaner and smelled better and there were webcams.
We ultimately stopped taking our dog here because the reservation and payment process was just a little bit of a hassle.
If you plan to come REGULARLY this place would be great. But if you’re like us and want to sporadically drop your dog off the next day because you’re going on a day trip or have been too lazy to go to the park all week, this is a little less convenient.

Here’s the scoop from an insider, i might be bias or not, but my reviews worth reading. I use to work here years ago, it was one of the coolest jobs ever. I fell in love with the dogs that attended for daycare.
Overtime, working there you develop these personal bonds with each dog, and you learn to know how they are and their personalities.
I must say this place is one of a kind, a daycare and overnight boarding service (we’ll redwood city location had overnight, not sure if this place does now) but they are free to roam on the grass or hang out in the big barnish looking area.
They have access to water all day. The poo gets picked up by the minute so it’s a clean environment. Even the feeding process is almost military like, it’s all done in such a smooth operation, their in to get fed and out to play again.
Only downfall for this place was the people. The owners own pets too and of course their is favortism and if their is a brawl with the dogs, it’s never THEIR dogs fault. And it’s funny the whiniest and most obnoxious dogs are the owners dogs.
But anyhow, If you are able to bypass the rude owners then your dog is on it’s way to a fun daycare.