Canine Adventure Den Daycare

Stay away!
It’s no wonder this place has such bad reviews. We bought a package for my two dogs to attend their daycare facilities. On two different instances, they came home with injuries that the staff had never reported… they didn’t even know anything happened despite them limping/​bleeding/​etc. Even the dogs are afraid to go back when they have always loved going to daycares.
Now its the ordeal of trying to get a refund for my unused days. They won’t budge beyond policy despite the circumstances. Canine Adventure Den is only out for your money and will neglect your dogs!

I used to take my shiba inu puppy here, and decided to stop after a month. Every time I picked her up, she smelt like urine and always had diarrhea. She also developed kennel cough from there, which I guess isn’t surprising.
The last time I was there I was waiting for one of the employees to get my puppy, she came back with another dog for someone else and after they left she told me «I went to get him first because he’s always so loud and annoying. «Not really something you want to hear by the people that are suppose to be caring for your dog.
But what did it for me was seeing a dirty mop bucket in the puppy room where she was in. no water bowl half the time when I would pick her up, every time we got home she would be dehydrated which definitely concerned me. The only reason I gave them 2 stars was the fact they’re open 24/​7, otherwise I definitely do not recommend this place.

Do I even have to give this one star? How about negative stars?
Since it would take me days to recount everything that has taken place with this «business» I will just say save yourself the headache and stay away. At some point I will post all of their abusive emails, false allegations and abuse to my dog (including forcing her to sit in her own poo, leaving it crusted on to her all day and sending her home with it all over her behind! I was in tears and I saw a complete behavioral change in my dog after that final day.)
Unprofessional, rude, and abusive.
Stay tuned for full unedited rude and abusive emails from the adventure den to me.
Please please please stay away. I don’t want anyone else going through the hell I am still going through with these people!
PS Check the date on the on review telling you its OK. 2012

I tried the new daycare and can not understand why someone would bring there dog here. There is very little supervision and pee everywhere. They do not walk dogs and bad habits are created there. There are nice staff but under trained. Sorry adventure den you need more structure!

Started going to Adventure Den as its location on 3^rd and Quebec was super convenient for me. The fact that my dog would come home sticky and smelling of urine was a definite annoyance, but I figured a quick bath upon getting home was a small trade off for the great location.
Then they moved to their new location on Industrial St, in an huge industrial area and not convenient at all. And they jacked up their prices. I continued to take Bosco to this new inconvenient location as thats what we knew and his friends were there.
Then we get news that Adventure Den is «temporarily» closed for an initially undisclosed reason (I assumed it would have been due to ANOTHER pitt bull attack on their watch), which they ended up claiming was a roof issue and blamed the city (??).
They advised that Canine Concierge would look after all Adventure Den dogs and would honour all pre-​purchased A.D. packages.
I went WAY out of my way to drop off as Canine Concierge (they couldn’t have found anywhere maybe a little closer for their existing customers??), adding 20min each way to my day. This worked the first day, but the next I was advised by staff that Canine Concierge would not honour the adventure den packages and I’d have to pay cash if I wanted to use their services.
As this was contradictory to what Adventure Den had told me, I called and asked to refund my pre-​paid packages as they were now of no use to me. They flat out refused, stating I had used more than 50% of the package and their contract states that makes them non-​refundable.
I have tried calling back to speak with someone a little more rational and understanding, but now no ones answers the phone. Seems as though they taken the $$ front he pre-​paid packages and ran.
Bosco has since been to Urban Puppy, and what a difference. A professional business with professional staff and he comes home exhausted and not soaked in urine! Althiogh this ordeal has ben frustrating, I’m glad we ended up finding a better place.

I brought my dog here as a puppy and was initially generally happy with their care. One red flag was that my vet was concerned why the puppy got so many bacterial infections and thought it was from the daycare. I couldn’t imagine that being true because puppies are suppose to be kept secluded in the puppy room…
My dissatisfaction started when they moved to their new location. We went to the open house to support them and view the new location. It was very big! Unfortunately there was a lack of adventure den staff and attention to customers questions.
Almost everyday when I arrived at the new place I waited over 5 minutes for someone to realize I was at the front door. This was not just me as the woman ahead of me started jumping and calling over the big wall the hides the dogs from pain view.
Another thing is the facility stinks. It reeks of dog urine and my dog comes home smelling of dog urine. I have taken my dogs to other large daycares and small daycares and this has never happened. I see others were ripped to pieces for a comment like this but it’s TRUE!
Our regular routine was three half days a week and two full days. I arrived one morning to ask if the dog could be dropped off at my office but unfortunately they were full. I told them I had a meeting and would come as fast as I could before the end of the half day. I showed up at 2 minutes past the half day and then waited in the lobby for someone to come to the desk for 4 minutes. The employee wanted to charge me for a full day with being 6 minutes late. She told me they had no grace period anymore. After arguing for a bit she finally gave me the half day. I emailed the owner who apologized for this. She told me they had no eliminated their grace period and it had been changed to 15 minutes. This was only because people were taking advantage of their 30 minutes grace period. I was happy with that response and woke up the next morning to an email from one of the staff. She I guess didn’t realize the owner sent me an email (lack of communication). She told me there was no grace period but she would do me a favor just this one time. I replied that I already talked to the owner and there were no favors needed. When I arrived in the store she ripped into me. She told me the owner was wrong and made a mistakes and I should be grateful to be the only customer with a grace period. Just absolutely rude!
My next issue was with payment and packages. I arrived one evening to pick up my dog and they told me I owed them money for three days at $ 145. I reminded them I had packages and couldn’t see how they were used up. She refused to review the days with me or send me a print out. She also wouldn’t let me take my dog. I told her I would look into it over the weekend and count the days myself. I told her I would pay online when the weekend is over. I did exactly that and found some mistakes I didn’t bother to argue with her about. I did complain about her abrasive and rude behavior. The owner was almost dumbfounded and shrugged her shoulders and said sorry. I almost felt like I intimidated the owner and I could have steamed rolled her with another complaint. It’s no wonder her staff behave worse then the dogs she clearly has no backbone.
When the moved to the canine concierge location it is 14 minutes in traffic away from the other location. We still had packages left and asked for a refund because the location was to far away. We were told no because we had used over %50 of our package. I tried to reason with her about the extreme situation and she would budge. She said she would give me $ 40 and some cents back because if she were to refund my packages she wouldn’t charge the reduced price. I finally decided to extend my days by leaving 20 minutes earlier for work then I normally would and spending close to 1.5 hours getting home in rush hour. I did this until I was out of days on my package. The two last days I paid over $ 40 a day because I asked to combine two half days to pay for two last full days.
I was really happy to get the hell away from them! I must say the Manager Jessica is sweet and caring and the only person my dog likes. The Canine Concierge facility is also clean and my dog never left smelling like urine. There are other daycares so I suggest you look further. Unless you like a urine soaked dog and rude staff…
I have now found a really great daycare who does two walks a day, pee breaks, agility and actually obedience training! My dog comes home tried and happy. She never smells like urine!

I had heard a few bad things about Adventure Den prior to bringing my puppy there but thought it was just gossip. I thought it looked alright so I took my 4 month old puppy there this time last year.
As we were leaving from what was either his 1^st or 2^nd day — on-​leash in the lobby heading out — another dog leapt out of the segregation enclosure they had in the lobby, hopped the fence completely, and attacked my puppy. He ended up requiring surgery at the emergency vet that night which cost me $ 1000. When I called the owner (I believe her name was Kristy or Kirsty), she was appalled and the staff had not told her of the incident. She informed me the dog that hopped the fence was a foster dog for a rescue but that somebody would reimburse me for my veterinary bills. That never happened and nobody from AD has ever contacted me to apologize or pay for my extensive bill or not even check on my dog.
What if that had been my toddler? What if he had grabbed my dog’s FACE instead of his leg? It could have been much worse. I never have and never will return to Adventure Den… They had no problem having extremely reactive dogs attending and couldn’t control them. I suggest you not take the chance.

Another 1-​star review to get lost in the sea of negativity that is the Canine Adventure Den. This information is a few years out-​of-​date, but I expect it should give people a good idea about the type of people they trust their dogs with.
The owners are… hoo boy. They’ve straight-​up lied to their clients. Clients were told they take in 50 – 60 dogs in a day. That number was usually 70 – 90, sometimes pushing 100. That wouldn’t even be so bad, if they actually had enough staff to supervise the dogs.
I can’t speak for their new location, but at their original location, which they boasted to be 5000+ square feet of space for the dogs to run and play in, the dogs were generally separated into 4 much smaller areas: the puppy daycare upstairs (left mostly unsupervised except when someone had to go upstairs to do laundry or wash dishes), the little dog room (left unsupervised most of the time; they used to have a fence so they could peek through but they drywalled over that years ago and left the dogs to fend for themselves), the quiet/​old dog area (separated by a fence that the staff couldn’t see through or over, so again, the dogs were largely unsupervised), and the Big Dog area, where the staff usually were.
Not that the staff were particularly interested in supervising the dogs. Staff would often keep their eyes on their cell phones, surfing the web and texting instead of actually watching/​cleaning up after the dogs. Not the kind of people I trust to watch my pooch. These staff are also instructed to follow Cesar Milan’s example and flip dogs over and pin them to the ground by their necks and hold them there until they stop struggling. This is a TERRIBLE way to train dogs and shouldn’t have to happen. It wouldn’t happen if there were enough staff who actually cared enough to watch the dogs and be aware of altercations before they result in full-​on dogfights. The overnight dogs were also often left unattended for hours at a time.
Of course, it’s hard to blame the staff when they’re being paid a laughable wage to do a disgusting job (with no breaks on Sundays because there’s only one staff member! One staff member who isn’t supervising the dogs while she’s in the front assisting human clients), they weasel out of paying overtime and stat holiday pay, and they fire employees without giving them any feedback beforehand. Who could possibly expect a 20-​something-​year-​old to give half a crap about her job when she’s not being properly (or legally) compensated?
Besides not supervising the dogs closely enough, the other main problem this daycare has is hygiene. Everything other reviewers have said about the offensive odours (urine [ammonia] and harsh-​smelling cleaning chemicals) is absolutely true. But what most people don’t know is that the smell is just the tip of the iceberg. The dogs were not always allowed access to the backyard (only the dogs in the Big Dog area ever had access to the backyard, and only during the times when the door was open. Let’s not forget the whole debacle when the city made them turn their backyard into parking spaces and for a while the dogs had no access to the outside whatsoever – they don’t usually walk the dogs, either). Since they can’t get outside, the 70 – 90 dogs will urinate and defecate inside wherever they please. If a staff member isn’t paying attention (which happened frequently), another dog will probably try to eat the faeces. Remember that when your pooch gives you a big ol’ slurpy kiss on the face when you pick him up. If the staff member DOES notice the poo, they scoop it up then mop the area with dirty mop water. They may TRY to keep the place as clean as possible, but it’s simply NOT possible to clean it to a standard that would be considered hygienic. All they can do is spray cleaner & mop the floor a couple times a day with that same poopy mop water.
You may notice many of their 4– and 5-​star reviews occurred in bursts during short time periods. This is because they offered incentives such as free days of daycare for positive Unilocal reviews. Obviously not a good situation when you need to exchange free days of daycare for positive Unilocal reviews. Yes, they do have many loyal customers, even some who, bless their hearts, bring their dogs back after repeated serious (requiring stitches) injuries.
Another concern that seems popular here on Unilocal is the lack of «doggy report cards.» They don’t do report cards simply because there are TOO MANY dogs. They would need a full-​time staff member to ONLY do report cards all day for each of the 70+ dogs. That’s simply not economically feasible for the Adventure Den, so don’t expect any written feedback about your dog’s behaviour or experience there.
If this seems like a lot of insider info, that’s because it is. There’s a lot that goes on behind closed doors that isn’t shared with clients. Be cautioned. Those in the know would NEVER take their dogs to the Canine Adventure Den.

I took my little dog to Adventure Den a few times on Saturdays, as they are one of the few daucares opened on Saturday. I always pay same day, but this week I received a «past due» invoice for an amount I already paid 3 months ago. No phone call or email got any answer, they are completely unwilling to fix their error. Please be careful when dealing with them to never pay in cash or get a receipt immediately, otherwise they will invoice you again and refuse to deal with the matter.

I was very keen when I came across the Adventure Den in my search for a doggy daycare facility for my beagle. I called up a few months ago and spoke to a representative who explained their vaccination requirements and described the facility. I liked the size of it, based on the photos on their website, although one thing stuck with me… There is a photo on the site (which is actually referenced in another review here) that shows two large breed dogs baring their teeth at one another. This kind of behavior isn’t uncommon, but it’s also not something that should be a representation of a daycare. Aggression is something to be avoided, not put on display. Perhaps the photographer should have put the camera down and intervened instead?
Regardless, I pressed on. Beans got his shots last week and I was advised to fill out the downloadable application form on the website. The waiver section is incredibly alarming:
«I hereby waive and release the Adventure Den, its employees, owners, representatives and agents from any and all liability which I or my dog may suffer, including specifically, but not without limitation, injury or damage whatsoever arising from the Dog’s attendance and participation at the Adventure Den.»
And then:
«I further understand and agree that the Adventure Den and their caregivers will not be liable for any problems that might develop with the dog, including, but not limited to, sickness, disease, injury, running away and death, provided that reasonable care and precautions are followed.»
RUNNING AWAY?!
Um… no.
By signing this, the owner is basically saying that Adventure Den has a free pass to be as irresponsible or neglectful as they’d like. I’ve looked at a large selection of doggy daycares, but none have had a waiver as alarming as this one. Would you trust the safety of your kid at a childcare facility with a similar waiver? Not a chance.
Then I came and looked at the reviews here. The «Sugar Bear» incident referenced in another review as well as a second, filtered review is alarming. More alarming is the staff member’s response that confirms that the staff made a commitment to the owner and then went against it because of their own «better» judgement. Unacceptable. You can go on about how «well trained» your staff are with regards to dog handling, but all you can back that up with is your own word. Not terribly comforting when you hear about instances like these. If you make a commitment to a paying customer and then break it because you feel you know better, but have a waiver that frees you from liability if your well-​trained staff make a mistake, your business ethic is questionable at best.
My contact with the Adventure Den was entirely phone and web-​based so I can’t comment on the facility itself, but I won’t be taking advantage of their «First day free!» policy because this place has left a bad impression.

Unfortunately, I had such a bad experience (after two years of great experiences) I will never return. When I approached the owner about resolving this, I was practically laughed at. This business has lost my business… Too bad.

Hello Adventure Den + People curious about this place,
I have been very happy with Adventure Den. Our Basenji Teo has been going there on and off since July 2012.
I am sad by all the negative reviews from other Unilocalers. In my opinion, some dog owners are unrealistic with their own dogs.
On the complaints about urine, one must be realistic. Dogs pee. period they pee, they lift a leg or sqat and pee. My dog will pee and walk right into it. He doesnt care.
I am not a fan of the smell of pee, and do not want to get it on me when i pick him up. So i do the rational thing and shower him off once we get home. When I bring my dog to a dog park, he and his peers, run, jump, chase, pee, bite, nibble, play, etc. This is what dogs do.
We must remember that dogs do these things. Adventure Den does not claim to be a «Dog Spa» nor does it claim to be a «Dog Retreat».
Possible Solution: Perhaps Adventure Den can offer a *Scheduled Premium Service and wash dogs before pick-​up. Perhaps add a $ 20 fee to those who want a tidy dog before pick-​up. For example Parents can notify a pick-​up at 6pm and AD can scehdul a clean up before hand.
Adventure Den has definitley helped our dog with his social skills. We monitored him closely and watched him on the following days after visiting Adventure Den. This was something that we were concerned with, as we didnt want him to be a nervous recluse or dominating.
We always asked the staff how he was during the day, to see if we needed to work on behavioural issues with him when we were out with him, etc. Luckily he has been a good ‘lil guy.
We have really enjoyed the rapport with staff. They often comment on how Teo’s day was, what he got up to, etc. I feel the staff genuinely care about all the dogs in their care.
I dont really have much to say except Thank You to Adventure Den and the nice staff. See you all sometime soon!

I used to be a client here when I lived in town and my dog always came back from their daycare super hyper. Which lead me to believe she wasn’t getting much exercise. I never bothered to post a review until now…
The reason for my Unilocal review today is because of a TERRIBLE email that I just received from Canine Adventure Den Daycare. A lot of anger and attitude comes through this email. Here’s an excerpt:
«We are wanting to send an email regarding our hours of operation.
We try our best to please everyone with our hours but unfortunately we can’t be open 24 hours.
Our nap time is important to us and we would really appreciate if parents would abide by the hours our doors are locked.
During nap time we like to have a period of the day that is undisturbed and the dogs can get down time. When parents come during nap time and ring the door bell (which should be for emergencies) this disrupts the energy.
Our staff during nap time are to lounge with the dogs and when we stay still and lay down, so do all the dogs. After a morning of play and lunches have all been fed we like to have this quiet time.
We get parents complaining that they want to pick up or drop off their dogs at a time that is convenient for them. The dogs are our main priority and just like any other business we have hours of operation that we will be strictly enforcing.
Parents have been coming by before we are open and ringing the door bell which is UNACCEPTABLE! As well as parent that are coming to pick up their dogs ²⁰⁄₃₀ even 60 Min’s late and complaining about the late fees.
Our staff are on site 24 hours to supervise the overnight dogs, and we like to provide a structured bed time for the dogs for this reason we will not be answering the door after hours.»
The email goes on for a bit but you get the picture.
Canine Adventure Den Daycare, here’s a few tips for future communication with clients:
1 — Communicate directly with the «wrong-​doers» rather than sending a blast to your entire database.
2 — Email marketing rule #1, don’t write nasty emails to your customers, ever.
3 — If you’re going to go on and on about the hours of your business, you should probably include them in the communication.

Canine Adventure is just what is sounds like, a place for doggies to get some!
It’s no spa for doggies, its much more like the daycare your parents used to drop you off at as a young kid, with tons of other kiddies screeching around. Some kids are nice, some are not, some steal your toys, it’s a bit of fend for yourself but also more fun and exciting.
Not every kid/​doggy is going to love it, some are just too shy or weaklings.
My dog is not a weakling, it can kick major ass if it wants to, but never does. He’s not a whiner and can take some rough and tumble — in fact he lives for it.
This place is big, as it needs to be so the dogs can charge around.
The front is a bit deceiving, it looks like an abandoned warehouse lol, you have to go in to actually see something.
It’s funny but some people seem to think dogs are like special needs children, feed them this special biscuit at 2pm, rub his belly like this before his nap, LOL jesus gimme a break.
If your dog likes to jump over his fence and cause trouble in the neighborhood, he will like it here, mine does. Wimpy doggies? I am not so sure.
I mean look at their profile pic on google — its 2 dogs teeth barred RRRRAWR! I will post the pic of outside and the doggy war one.

We took our puppy here when we first started experimenting with day cares last May. We were motivated by the fact that they had a group-​on and we can try them out for a discount.
It first glance, they seemed pretty good, it was cool to be able to you-​tube our puppy playing (but who has time to just watch your dog play? that’s why they’re in daycare). Also it was neat because they give us a little report card on her first day on how she did and who she she liked. BUT, the thing that bothered us the most was the fact that the staff didn’t know who our dog was and how she was actually doing. After the third time we brought her there, we were fed up with answers such as «I wasn’t here all day, I don’t know what your dog was doing» and «Who is «who’s your dog?». Along with this, our dog never seemed happy to go there, we actually had to push her little butt through the door; we knew she wasn’t having that much fun. We just decided to not go back and forfeit the 7 remaining trials that we had.
It was disappointing because they were closer to where we live than the other day cares. But we rather travel farther and have our dog in trustworthy hands than with people who just seemed like they didn’t care.

Our pup came home smelling terrible and very unsettled. Very unstructured, moved our puppy to the ‘big dog’ area without informing us. Not very trustworthy.

I took my dog here today for the first time and will not be taking him back. A few days ago when I came in to try the place out, the woman came to the front and, as she was answering some of my questions, had to return to the back to deal with the dogs who were howling. I asked her if she was the only one there and she said no, that there was another woman in the outdoor area.
«So there’s nobody with the indoor dogs right now?»
«Well, it’s the door is open, so she’s doing both.»
This didn’t make any sense to me; if the open door made it possible for the other woman to take care of the dogs inside, why didn’t she take care of the ruckus? And, it being 10:30 on a weekday, why weren’t there more staff? The site says that:
«We have 6 staff working throughout the day. There is always [sic] 4 – 5 staff with the dogs at all times.» (see:
)
When I asked her about this, she said that there were two others who were on their break. The next day, when I spoke with another staff member, I asked why they would send two staff members on break at the same time when it could potentially leave all the dogs and puppies (upstairs, downstairs and in the isolation room) in the care of just one person. Her response to this was to tell me that the woman I’d spoken with yesterday had been mistaken; there weren’t two staff members on break because there were only three people there altogether!
I gave it some thought though, and, wanting to have a place to take my dog on the weekends should I need to, I decided to give it another try. He seemed to be happy when I picked him up, and they gave me a tour, which was great, but I have to say that the tour also really turned me off of the place as it smelled strongly of urine. When I mentioned it, the woman said that the room we were in held an older dog that day and she had incontinence issues. That seemed reasonable, but the smell was also there, albeit less intense, in the area where all the other dogs (mine included) were being kept. When I got home I could still smell it so I wiped my dog’s paws off. Hours later I could still smell it and realised that it was on his coat (and mine too!), so I’m going to have to bathe him. It’s pretty gross.
I take him regularly to Dizine Canine, and don’t have this problem at all. They may not have the fancy gym equipment, but they have the know-​how, and my dog has never come home stinking of pee.
The one plus about this place is that the staff were very friendly and sweet with the animals.

My baby has been going to Adventure Den since he was a pup… shortly after they first opened.
In those first couple of months this place was FANTASTIC, friendly and attentive staff, great space, reasonable prices and even better operating hours — including bathing and nails services. For someone that works late, the 8pm closing time was PERFECT for me. My dog would come home each night exhausted and happy and I was secure in my choice of a place to leave him during the day.
Then…they got popular, and things went downhill. One day in early winter of 2010 I walked into the lobby and was hit in the face with a very strong smell of urine. That day I felt apprehensive leaving my baby there but had no other choice. When I got into my car after, my friend sniffed and recoiled…“You STINK!” The smell had clung to me even after leaving!
That day I wrote an email complaining about the smell, to which I received a reply that a lot of the owners don’t take their dogs out to pee when it gets cold so the dogs often go when they get inside in the lobby. When I picked up my dog that day the smell had improved, so I do have to give them kudos on listening to my complaints.
The final straw was appropriately the last day of my daycare pass. I requested that my dog be bathed etc but I noticed the staff member doing intake that morning wasn’t paying attention at all to me. I repeated it again and she replied with a yep. When I picked him up, not only had he not been bathed but he was also never marked down as having been there! The thought that in an emergency there was no record of him ever having been there freaked me out.
I do hope the place goes back to it’s former glory someday. The hours are unbeatable and there is one staff member in particular, Denise that is FANTASTIC. She is always friendly, helpful, and most importantly, my dog adores her. At any rate, now that my daycare pass has ended, my puppy and I will be moving on for the time being.

Yikes. I really feel bad complaining after taking advantage of their first day free offer, but the stress of leaving my puppy there just wasn’t worth it. There was nothing reassuring about leaving my little dog there. He was placed in the front gated reception area with a couple other rowdy pups and electrical cords dangling in some places. The young girl at the counter seemed to have no control over the dogs or customers — I think she stepped on my dog at one point since he Unilocaled («gee he’s small») –and didn’t really complete the intake process. I checked the boxes that he’d had his shots and walked out, feeling horrified all day that I’d left him.

Canine Adventure Den deserves a 5-​star review because Miley came home tired and exhausted!
Not only did I get to work AND run 1001 errands but I get to come home and relax!
I was happy with what I saw at when I went for a viewing. its a huge space and there is an outdoor area for the dogs to play so I brought Miley back today and am very happy with the results.
The staff were really nice and made me feel confident that Miley would be in good hands.
So far, so good!