The Dog Den

Don, and the Dog Den, took phenomenal care of our high maintenance puggle, Missy. Missy can be a bit of a pain, though she is good off lead, and we are always nervous about leaving her with other dogs. Not only did Don for us in last minute, he was calm and clearly the «leader of the pack» that our dog needs to feel safe. He is extremely knowledgeable and is obviously not only a dog lover, but a dog expert. We are thrilled to have found the Dog Den, and will be regular visitors.

My dog and I both love the Dog Den when we visit Summit County. Don has a excellent demeanor with the dogs and keeps them incredibly calm and quiet. My little dog is a bit timid and shy, and the staff have been very sensitive to that issue and will separate her from the group when she gets overwhelmed.

I took my older Weimaraner here for day care, and I don’t feel like she got very attentive care. I spoke to Don on the phone and he was very friendly, but when I dropped her off, another man was there, he took one look at her and seemed to write her off. She has a bit of nervousness and since this was a new place for her, she was shaking a bit, but still happy. He immediately asked me for my phone number (although it was on all the paperwork) in case he needed to call me to pick her up early. At this point, we had been there for about two minutes and he didn’t spend any time with her. He was quite rude and unwelcoming, and didn’t make me feel comfortable at all. The other dogs there seemed happy and well cared for, so I decided to leave her. Upon leaving, I asked (since I had never been there before) «Is there anything else I need to leave with her?» which I felt was a fair question, and he looked back and said «I don’t know, is there?» I was just double checking to make sure he had everything he needed. She ended up spending the whole day there, but when I went to pick her up, he looked at me and said «Are you here for the gray one,» not even calling her by name. He basically said that she was not welcome back to Dog Den. This might be a good fit for other dogs, but I don’t feel like my dog, who only has slighter greater needs than a golden or lab, got any attention at all. He didn’t ask me about her commands or how to make her comfortable, he just seemed completely burdened by the fact that I was leaving my dog in his care. Which made me feel very unwelcome.

Thank you, Don, for taking such good care of our Faye on July 1, 2014. While vacationing in Dillon, we had a day activity where we could not take Faye with us. Before leaving Faye for the day, we visited the facility and met Don, introduced Faye to him. We felt comfortable that Faye would be in good hands. Our only hesitation was small size of the outdoor play yard if there would be a lot of dogs attending, especially if they were large. However, at the end of the day, Faye was happy and tired out after a fun day at doggie daycare.
The facility is clean and the dogs who were there seemed happy and well taken care of. It was obvious how much Don loves animals which gave us a comfortable feeling. We are relieved that we’ll have a place for Faye when we’re in the area and have an activity where she would not be able to attend. Keep up the good work, Don. ~S and J Gilbert

I just wanted to add to my review that I will be back this season, and with another addition to our family. I will have TWO dogs at daycare this year. I’m so glad this place is so close to where we snowboard!
Here we come ²⁰¹³⁄₂₀₁₄ season!

We brought Dakota to dog day care this weekend. This was our first time at Dog Den and Dakota is a small dog. Nick was on duty Saturday and Sunday and he was great to deal with — friendly, knowledgable and really knew how to evaluate our dog and introduce him to the day care «pack». Dog Den is clean, the dogs seem very relaxed and our overall experience was excellent! We will be back…

This place is amazing, and has been a ski-​savior for us. We’ve dropped our 1 year old GoldenDoodle off at the Dog Den a few times now, and she loves it. The place is very clean and well taken care of. The owners are incredibly nice– in fact, earlier this month the Vail Pass was shut down, as was the exit to Silverthorne due to a 25 car pile up. We were cutting it close to pick up our dog, but they waited for us to get there and gave us no troubles. We will be back!

We used the Dog Den for our two dogs for 5 days while skiing summit county and we could not have been more satisfied. The place was very clean, they do not use kennels and all of the employees we dealt with were both caring and professional all the way. I really thing our dogs enjoyed their time here and our older dog who is always pretty shy with new people seems to be a bit more social after spending the week here. We will definitely be back.

We have been taking our dogs to the Dog Den for 6 years and they love it. They are always excited when we arrive and the staff is always excited to see them. It’s spotless, the owners love the dogs and our dogs are treated like family. We will never go anywhere else as our dogs are our kids and know they’ll be taken great care of!

The Dog Den is a GREAT local business — they really care about our pets! Very professional!

Our dog Brady really likes it here. He needs something to do, since Vail Resorts doesn’t he let him snowboard with us. Dog Den is convenient day care for canines when owners are hitting Keystone or even other I-​70 resorts further west. Just remember to leave enough time to pick ‘em up!
This is a nice local owner run operation offering day care and other services for summit county doggies and also visiting «city”/out-of-town dogs in ski season. Just be sure your dog behaves and *plays nice* since all the dogs are pretty much in one group, and they require reservations and all the usual vaccinations/​shots, etc.
It’s a nice, clean, super well-​maintained business where your buddies are supervised during play and socializing. Dogs play indoors and out, ALL day long and then chill out for some nap time — they are never put in any standard kennels!