Dirty Dogz Dayspa & Daycare

Rebecca Spence

I will never go back. I brought my corgi puppy here for his first visit, asking ONLY for his nails and paw pads to be trimmed. When asked about shedding, I specifically said I wasn’t worried about this and that a bath and blowdry ONLY at most would be fine. The staff acknowledged the request, and were extremely friendly and easy to work with.

At time of pickup, I didn’t pay too much attention to the actual length or texture of his coat, just a quick glance to see that my dog was well and made small chat with the woman who handed me my dog (different than whom I checked him in with). During this chat, it came to my attention that a furminator (deshedding tool) had been used on my dog. Although I was pretty upset to hear this, I didn’t really notice the damage done until I was home.

Once home, we soon realised that his top coat had been stripped, exposing his undercoat, which is odd as a furminator is to loosen the bottom coat, so it was clear the person using this tool did not have the correct training and overbrushed our dog.

As I work in Sydney and hadn’t been home, I called the groomer (3.5 days after the original appt) on Saturday morning during business hours to get an explanation of the treament that had been provided.

The women on the phone were helpful and asked that I send them a photo on Facebook which I did, and agreed to call me later. A couple of hours later, one of the two owners Facebook messaged me, saying that no wrong action had been done, they had followed the request stating that the appearance was simply from blowdrying and a light brush and that no blame could be taken, closing the matter.

I was upset as I had requested a phone call from the very beginning, but the owner refused to call me back. I mentioned that I felt my dog had been “butchered” (upset and emotional), this led to them calling me abusive, which I was far from. After several Facebook messages back and forth, the owner finally agreed to call me. When speaking to him, it was clear that the he had not spoken to the specific groomer and had zero context of what had actually been done to my dog, which contradicts their first message confirming that the treatment followed my request and that no blame could be taken.

When asking what further he could do for me, I mentioned a refund would be appreciated. He then asked, what type of refund, 50% or 100% implying I only cared about money when really we only care about our dog. Frustrated, I ended the call and said I’d come to visit in person so that they could see the damage. I also followed up with screenshots from the Facebook corgi community in which I had shared the incident for advice (I did not disclose their business name), other corgi owners were equally upset by what had happened.

The next day, the business came back to me having now spoken to the groomer and admitted fault, acknowledging that a furminator and slicker had been used, blaming human error and offered a full refund. Two days later, to claim my refund & explain myself in person (no longer on Facebook chat & call), I visited the groomer where I was able to speak to both owners, where lack of responsibility continued blaming the weekend, & personal priorities as the reason for lack of care.

Yes, they provided a refund & an apology, but their lack of professionalism is what outstanded me. They should have taken the time to investigate the situation prior to pushing the blame on me. I’m sure they had the best of intentions and are dog lovers and care for many pups, but personally, this was a really traumatic experience.

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Nic Mitch

Lifesaver! My pup refuses to let me near her paws but the girls at Dirty Dogz we’re fantastic and I was in and out in 5mins. Couldn’t ask for more 😁

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Mark