The Barker Lounge

I can’t say enough great things about Barker Lounge. The staff is always so friendly and greets your dog by name. Brinkley cannot get out of the car fast enough when we pull in the parking lot. She is pulling me in the door which is always a good sign. You can tell that the staff truly cares about your pet. Brinkley comes home wiped out and sleeps so soundly after she has been at barker. We haven’t used their overnight services (just daycare) but I wouldn’t hesitate to ever leave her there if we ever needed. Thanks for all you do Barker!

Since 2007 we have sent our dogs to daycare. We have used Noda Bark and Board, Dogs All Day, City Dog, and MetroDog. The Barker Lounge is the only daycare we have used that requires reservations in order to guarantee a daycare slot. Because we moved from CenterCity to the ‘burbs of South Charlotte, Barker Lounge is really our only daycare option. This daycare is smaller so I understand the need to limit the number of dogs daily. As busy working professionals sometimes we don’t know until a day or two before that we will be in meetings or out of town all day and need to send the pups to daycare. On more than one occasion we were unable to book a slot because the daycare was already full. Our fault but still frustrating.
The staff are great and seem to really care for our pups. The facility is clean and everyone is friendly. If only the facility were larger to accomodate the growing need for daycare in this area of town…

WE LOVE THE BARKER LOUNGE! We have been taking our dog Lou there for several months and have had nothing but positive experiences. We are always greeted by a friendly staff member (Chloe is usually there when we come in — she is wonderful!) at the counter and someone comes out from the back immediately to take Lou in for day care or boarding. We really feel like the staff there cares about and loves our dog and I completely trust them to take care of him. We have taken him for daycare and boarding and he always comes home happy and exhausted. This is a clean and safe facility and I would absolutely recommend it to others.

SAFE FOR TOY BREEDS??? Owner does not value customers. She has ruined my day on more than one occasion. Very impersonal. Drop dog off, pick dog up. No comments or updates on what your dog did or how they behaved. If you ask a question or voice a concern be prepared for defensiveness and to be argumentative. The owner argued with me that my 5 lbs. chihuahua can stay outside if it is 55 degrees. She kept saying 50 degrees or warmer. Apparently she doesn’t know anything about toy breeds! On another occasion she argued with me that hawks are not a danger for the mini dogs sitting outside. I told her clearly over and over again that a hawk had gone after my dogs twice in my backyard in South Park (I lived right behind whole foods at the time) with me standing RIGHT THERE!!! In fact, I was screaming waiving my arms and the hawk still kept coming for my dogs. i don’t want to say that safety of the dogs is not her top concern but it is like she is ignorant to caring for mini dogs and so stubborn that she is always right. Instead of saying, «I understand your concern I will educate the workers to keep an eye out for any prey birds» it was «that is not true, dogs can stay outside if it is 50 degrees or warmer and hawks don’t bother dogs if people are around».
She is giving away free day of care if you write a review so I would question the validity of 4 stars! Stay away! You will be glad you did. I developed a great friendship w. my daycare owner in Atlanta. She loved my dogs more than I do. Sorry Mindy missed the mark here. If another daycare opens within a 5 mile radius most of the customers would be gone.
I have to clarify Mindy’s comments:
1. there are no other daycares near me so I relented to continue to take the pups every so often if it was raining, knowing they wouldn’t be sitting outside.
The last straw was the rudeness for the 20^th time.

I have had nothing but a positive experience with the Barker Lounge. Their strict policies are for the benefit of my dog and everyone else’s dog. Every staff person I’ve encountered on the phone and in person has been helpful and understanding and have done all they could to accommodate my schedule. Our Boxer loves going and I have every confidence that he is being treated well and is not jammed into a playroom or space outside with too many dogs.

The Barker Lounge has been a great experience for me and my dog. They communicate daily over social media about spaces open, their website is user friendly, their staff is very friendly, the facility is very clean and the location is great for me — I work 2 minutes away!
I do wish they opened earlier — 6:30 would be great!
Also, while I like the idea of online reservations, and I understand their importance, I frequently can’t book my dog during a given week because all the days are filled up.

I just read Cindy F’s negative review from yesterday, and it motivated me to come and update my review from last year.
We first brought Toby to Barker Lounge in May of 2014 for grooming. In January, we started using Barker Lounge for doggy daycare 5 days a week. Toby loves the Barker Lounge and so do we. He’s there every day, all day, and he is really well looked after. All of the staff love on him, and they are just the nicest people. He comes home every day, curls up on the couch, and goes to sleep. Every morning he wakes me up licking my face and wants to go to daycare.
Now: on a couple of occasions (including a whole week in July), WE screwed up and didn’t book Toby for daycare enough in advance. And even though Toby is there all day every day regularly, no exceptions were made to let Toby come because they were full. It was a pain in the butt coordinating time to work at home to watch the pooch. And you know what? I’m GLAD! Because when Toby is at Barker Lounge, I know he is safe because they don’t try and cram more dogs than they can safely supervise into the daycare.
It was OUR fault that we didn’t book in advance, and Barker Lounge was polite but firm that they couldn’t take him and maintain a safe daycare.
I can only guess that Cindy F was more concerned with dumping her dog off somewhere rather than it being a safe, secure and well managed place. And there are plenty of places where she can do that in Charlotte that won’t be nearly the quality of Barker Lounge.
Keep doing what you are doing Barker Lounge. I appreciate you drawing a line in the sand for the welfare of my fur baby. That’s the most important thing to me, and in my opinion should be the most important thing to any pet parent!

READ THROUGH THESE POOR REVIEWS… see Adreienne, Michael K, Marapril S reveiws…
I meet people and dog owners everywhere, at dog parks… just everywhere and I will make it my privilege to share my horrendous experience with everyone I meet, as I am asked all the time about vet offices and dog care locations. Regardless of any of their miscommunication… the owner Mindy is beyond rude, raised her voice on the phone, and a very rude tone! I have never had an experience like this! MINDY THE OWNER COULD CARE LESS HOW SHE TALKS OR TREATS CUSTOMERS. It’s shameful!
I took a tour through the facility and it looks nice and I booked a trial day for my dog with a staff member on a Friday for the following Monday. On Monday morning I called to check if they had received my vet paperwork and if another dog could come. Unfortunately they did not have the reservation for my dog in their system. That is not good organization, however once the owner Mindy spoke to the lady I met with for the tour they found my vet forms and said the online docs were not received so I couldn’t come with my dog. However, online it says if you want to fill out the forms by printing the forms… you may. Which was the process I chose to take and was bringing them with me. I had my appointment booked so there is no reason I would not bring the forms with me! Change your online information if your going to use that as an excuse to not allow someone to bring their dog especially when you do not record their reservation!
MINDY THE OWNER HAS NO RESPECT and VERY DISRESPECTFUL SPOKE TO ME ON THE PHONE! As a business executive, I asked her to keep this at a professional level and I as a professional would never speak to my clients or prospects so disrespectfully! Mindy even more loudly replied she was being respectful and not yelling, therefore she must not have any idea how disrespectful or loud she talks to customers. Once that was said Mindy said she didn’t think this was a good fit for my dog. Really Mindy… that is your retort to a customer unfortunately having to ask you to take it down a notch and speak to me professionally to resolve the miscommunication and mistake of her co-​worker vs yell at a customer? This is not excusable. If you had a customer yelling as you had, I could see that… only response should have been a polite tone, sorry for the miscommunication, and move forward with results, not the behavior I received.
This is a lovely location, however Mindy could give a darn how she speaks to people and will not take responsibility for their errors! There are too many dog sitters and kennels to put up with this treatment! I have NEVER left a bad review… I leave positive reviews to help businesses, however this is ‘THAT BAD’ of a CUSTOMER SERVICE experience and THAT UNPOLITE of an owner to not leave this detailed review!
New people to Charlotte… DO NOT TAKE YOUR DOG HERE!
(in response to the owners response… She was yelling due to her obvious stress during her busy time and intake of morning dogs. As a first time customer I do not know her routine and certainly should never be spoken to like that. I asked her to speak to me in a less yelling tone and she said she was. She has no idea how to be professional ! I’m disguised with her rely and she should be overly apologetic for speaking to me as she did during her stressful morning. I cannot help her stress level and should not have been the brunt of her problems. This is ridiculous!)

We have 2 dogs that frequent the Barker Lounge. Stella has been going for around 3 years and Brady for 1 year. In the beginning we were very nervous about Stella going to this type of a facility, she is a rescue and has a few nervous tendencies. Stella has absolutely loved it since day one!!! We have been to multiple doggie daycares in Charlotte and have not found a better facility than this one! We were given a tour on our first day of daycare and it went well, clean and very roomy. Unlike other facilities there is staff watching the dogs every moment they are in contact with other dogs and they aren’t playing on hot concrete! Yes it is recommended that you make a reservation online which is a good thing because they are busy and there are laws on capacity. I don’t want my dog in an overcrowded area, would you? This has never been an issue for us. Brady loves it there also! Every Time we are near on Park Road they both start tail wagging and can’t wait to get there and when we walk inside they go straight to the door that they go in to play.

Took our little guy there once a week for several months. We were very happy. The staff is wonderful and gets five stars. But, sadly, the Owner Mindy blew it with rudeness, miscommunication, misprepresentation of facts, and poor people skills in general. We will go elsewhere. What a shame. Mindy should take some notes from her staff on how to interact with clients.

Whoa! I’ve been boarding my dog there since we moved to Charlotte a year and a half ago. I’ve had some issues that I’ve expressed in the surveys they email you after each time you board. They never contacted me about my issues which included my dog’s bed being returned reeking of pee and them clearly having to bathe him (this happened a few times and they never said anything to me proactively about it). Then I was rushing from the airport to pick him up and called because I was going to be 10 minutes late and asked them to waive the $ 18 fee (we were regular customers). They wouldn’t waive the fee so I complained in the survey. I also called them once to find out what might have happened to my dog because he was vomiting for hours after he came home. The vet said he was dehydrated.
Did I ever get any kind of contact from them regarding any of the issues? No! Then I have to unexpectedly go out of town and called to board, as I hadn’t found a new place yet. They said the owner, Mindy, said I wasn’t allowed to board my dog there because of the negative comments on the (internal!!!) survey. WOW! As I said to them, they are going to have problems as a business giving service like that. Which is why I now leave this negative review in a public forum so you can spare yourself the aggravation and possibly the health of your dog.
I should have heeded the warnings I got from a few neighbors and some former employees and looked elsewhere as I am now.

I have taken Ryder to barker lounge since he was a puppy! It was been an excellent experience every time. I moved 20 miles away and still take him to barker lounge for daycare and over night. We have been to other dog day cares around Charlotte and nothing compairs! People think I am crazy to drive and pass many dog day cares to get to Barker lounge but it is 100 percent worth it!

HORRIBLE CUTSOMER SERVICE. I am sad to say I have to agree with other reviews that they have gotten so busy they do not care about customer service at ALL. If you question anything they get very irritated. Firstly, their policy of NO cancellations seems rather rigid. In my surprise, I asked why this was and the person was SO abrasive in explaining/​defending the policy it was a very unpleasant conversation (apparently past customers have booked every day and then cancelled).
I was told to pre-​pay and sign up online (they will not make a reservation over the phone). That would be fine, other than for a week I tried a few times to register and it didn’t work. I called to see if they could help and again they seemed irritated and stated they would not take the reservation. After asking what I was supposed to do the lady tried to sign me up online and couldn’t do it either (apparently I was the first person to identify a website issue with Internet Explorer). They finally resolved that issue and got me signed up (w/​o any apology for the issue).
I scheduled my dog for half day of day care and then grooming. Since half day daycare is until 1:00 and grooming is 3 – 4 hours I figured I would pick him up at 5:00. When I scheduled they didn’t mention any specific pick-​up time (by the way I scheduled over the phone b/​c apparently you CAN schedule day care over the phone if you are also doing grooming but I didn’t mention that as I didn’t want to «push my luck» since clearly they don’t like to be questioned).
Be aware that if you want half day daycare followed by grooming you will have to pick up at 3:00 or pay for a full day of daycare (even though the dog will only be in daycare in the morning and you are already paying additional money for grooming in the afternoon — so they basically they double charge for all/​most of the afternoon). I was NEVER told this and only realized it when I called mid-​morning to confirm the grooming since they seemed a bit unsure of things when I dropped him off.
They justify a full day charge b/​c «they don’t have room in the grooming area for the dog to wait». OK — fair enough (I guess?). If ANY of this had been explained to me in a clear (and hopefully NICE) way that would have been fine. However, when I questioned the cost/​schedule (honestly trying to understand) I was told that I was being «rude» (FYI — I am in a professional work environment and must speak professionally at all times). At no point did I raise my voice, use profanity or criticize them. Asking questions (even if frustrating to the person being asked) does not equate to rude. Stating someone is being rude ONLY serves to escalate the situation, so why would they (the business) choose to escalate the conversation? Horrible customer service is the answer to that question.
After being told I was rude by the first guy he said he was going to pass the call to the manager. I thought «that seems like a good idea», however her first statement was «So, I understand you have a problem with our policies». WHAT?!? I had never said I had a «problem» so again this will only serve to escalate. WOW! I had to remind her that At NO POINT did I ever say that I wouldn’t pay for a full day and possibly needed to DO a full day based on what they were telling me now (that I wasn’t told when I scheduled).
She then stated that she had «told me several times on the call» what their policy was. I had to ask her to stop saying that they had «told me several times» b/​c obviously I didn’t yet understand or wouldn’t continue to ask questions… and that, in fact, saying that to someone could be considered «rude» if they wanted to use that word so freely. She then told me that they would prefer if I came to get the dog right now… WHAT?!? I am at work! Granted, we are having a strained conversation but they think it is reasonable to suggest that I leave work immediately to come get the dog simply b/​c we are having a problem on the phone?!? How would that change anything? Is the dog that was doing «great» a few minutes ago now somehow causing a problem being there? What an amazingly unprofessional and ridiculous response!
She conceded that the dog would be fine there (I would hope so!) and that in the future to not use their service. Obviously I would NEVER GO BACK so it is ridiculous she felt the need to tell me not to come back. Just another example of horrible customer service.
Had I made a scene in the shop or used language on the phone that was inappropriate at all then, yes, tell a customer to come get their dog/​not come back. However, they should be able to handle a conversation w/​o escalating like they did. Given what I’ve seen I’m sure they will post a self-​justifying response here — if they even bother to respond to feedback vs. acknowledging there was NO reason to treat a customer in such a way over a simple question/​misunderstanding.

Exceptional, every time!
I have been in Charlotte for almost a year, and my dog requires regular grooming, and the Barker Lounge never disappoints. They remember my cut preferences and seasonal differences in the cut I like for my dog. Great job every time.

I just moved down here in October from Pittsburgh and have nothing but great things to say about the barker lounge.
–In the mornings, the drop off time is very quick.
–The staff always knows your dogs name.
–Frequently update the facebook page about cancellations or number of spots left for daycare.
–Prices are reasonable
I would recommend this place to any dog owner!

My beagle Otis loves the barker lounge! When he realizes he is going there for the day, he howls in excitement. They staff is very friendly! They are so good at remembering all the dogs names and you can tell they love their job. Highly recommend the barker lounge!

My yellow lab, Chelsea, absolutely loves The Barker Lounge! The staff is extremely friendly and the facility offers a fun atmosphere for all-​day play! My highly active puppy always leaves happy yet fully exhausted!

Biscuit always comes home exhausted from doggie daycare/​boarding. The Barker Lounge is a great facility — very clean, organized, and super friendly staff. I always leave here knowing that my puppy will be well cared for and come home tired from a fun day of playing. I love how you can drop the dog off for grooming and they can also take advantage of daycare as well. Super easy check in and check out process.

My dog (Bentley) and I love the Barker Lounge. The staff is friendly and know me and my dog by name which means a lot to me. My dog comes here between 1 – 4 times a week. In my line of work, I don’t get a lunch break so I feel horrible leaving my pup home all day. Thanks to the BL I can stay out a little later after work and not feel like a guilty dog mom. The facility is clean and new. And location right on Montford is ideal.

Great place to take your dog for day care and boarding! We took our Lab/​Pit puppy in for his evaluation and he loved it. Tucker played the entire day and when I went to pick him up he was happy to see me but sad he had to leave all his new friends. Tucker now knows what the barker lounge is and if I say it before we leave the house, he knows where we are going and get super excited. We have boarded him there and everything went well. The staff here is one of the best, they are always friendly, the facility is clean and you can tell they truly love taking care of these dogs, especially Tucker!