The Barking Dog, Ltd.

We boarded are 2 dogs here for the holidays and we’re pleasantly surprised with the facility and friendliness of the staff after reading the previous reviews. Large boarding facility with spacious drop off/​pick up area and very affordable rates. Day care, one-​on-​one play, and other options are available too for an additional fee. My dogs have very opposite personalities and the staff here was able to make both of them comfortable during their stay. Having just looked at this place online before bringing our dogs here as we live in RI, I was pleased to see their website described them accurately. We will be back next year for another dog holiday stay!

We used to bring our Wheaton to It’s a Dog’s World in York Maine and she couldn’t wait to get out of the car to play. They had matched her with a group of dogs that fit her. She was the dog that always wanted to make friends and just keep running and playing. The staff thought she was the sweetest dog — never fighting or growling.
We moved to the Exeter Area and started taking her to The Barking Dog. After a few times, she wouldn’t get out of the car. I also noticed a mark on her chin that looks like she was bit. We think she was attacked there but never heard anything from the staff. She has become a nervous pup and now out of fear attacks other dogs. So we can barely let her play off leash without a problem if there are other dogs in the area such as at the beach, Pierce Island, etc. We have spent a lot of time, money, and energy having her trained to be OK with other dogs and she’s still not there yet.
A co-​worker of mine was near the Barking Dog working on the roads recently. He was watching the dogs during a break and saw four dogs having a Battle Royal in the yard and the staff screaming trying to break it up.
The place is kind of a money machine and there is little personal attention given to the dogs and their differing personalities.
I wouldn’t bring a dog there now if it was free.

Brought our dog here for 4 weeks of in house training in 2014 because we were told the new trainer was very familiar with our breed of dog. We paid upfront $ 1500. We were unhappy by the end of the first week because our dog would be there all day and at pick up time we would get absolutely no feed back on her day or progress. We brought it to the managers attention and she too agreed that we should be getting feedback and were assured we would get feedback for the remainder of her training… Again nothing the 2^nd week. We mentioned it again, nothing… If we did not have a contract we would have discontinued and sought out another training facility. We had also brought it to there attention that she got Guardia, kennel cough and a bladder infection. We are aware that dogs get kennel cough and Guardia even with vaccines but the bladder infection was due to them leaving here in a kennel for too long. Once I realized this is what was happening I would rush to leave work early so I could pick her up so she would not be left in a kennel. One day during the fourth week I picked her up and it took quite a long time for the attendant to bring her out and when she did finally come out she had been washed down because she had defecated in her kennel and it was all over her and she smelled of it terribly and they still did not get it all off and in turn it was all over the back seat of my car. She had never done this in her kennel at our home EVER… Again it was because after training they would put her in a kennel for the rest of the day. It just seem like one thing after another. It’s a very nice looking facility and we were hopeful it would be a place that we would continue to bring her after training. However, we have since found another facility to use as doggy daycare and she loves it and we love it there… They give us a nice progress report of her day everytime without being asked for it.
I want to be fair and add that the end result of the training was successful. Just the treatment and total lack of communication was totally unexceptable. For $ 1500 for four weeks we expected to be informed throughout the process. I don’t think that’s too much to ask?

As good as it gets!
I love bringing my dog here
They are incredible
She lives going for day care or boarding and when she is boarded, she has been given a bath when it’s time to come home
She loves coming and all of the dogs seem happy when we leave and arrive and on their YouTube feeds
It is an incredible facility with a lovely staff

I was bringing my two dogs there, one for about a year, and another for a few months. (just got him in the summer) One of them started getting VERY fearful of other dogs on leashes and of other humans. Not thinking anything of it, she seemed to like going there. Then my second dog started being afraid of people, I asked the manager how he was in daycare, her reply «I’m up front all day I wont know.» Umm… so who’s watching the people watching my dog??? Not even a week later I asked the trainer there what I could do to help him, the MANAGER BUTTS IN and tells the trainer that he hasn’t been playing that much the last few months!!! SO YOUR NOT GOING TO TELL ME THIS!!! Then I really got to thinking, if they have full time boarding, why is no one there at night, what if a tree falls on the building and it catches fire? and your dog is already there, why do you have to pay MORE for him/​her to have daycare too? and if you don’t PAY for at least some one on one time with your dog, ask to see where they go to the bathroom! even dogs at the SPCA get more outdoor time then your dog in just boarding does! AND the owner may want to show up sometime at 6, no one else does! You know almost EVERYTIME I went to drop them off at 6, I had to wait a few minuets for someone to show up! Now if one person comes in at 6:03 and another at 6:07 who’s watching the dogs if that one person is up front! I wish I realized this earlier and did not give them so much of my money! that’s ALL they seem to be about!

Terrible place, gone way down hill. My dog came back with Kennel cough and many wounds from dog bites. Her bed had other dogs hair on it. Think she was crated with other dogs. This place should be shut down. Never go there. I wont again.

Awful. I was bringing my puppy (12 weeks+) there, and because she is an extra large breed, they put her with the bigger dogs. She got bit (a puncture wound). She also was getting Giardia frequently! As soon as I stopped bringing her there she never had diarrhea again. The facility is big and spacious, however I found the staff to be extremely unfriendly and fake. I have since relocated my dog to a smaller facility and she is extremely happy and HEALTHY. I do believe she was crated most of the time at The Barking Dog, especially since she was VERY playful, as all puppies are. If you sign up to have your dog bathed, I sense that your dog is crated for long periods (until you pick up), so they won’t get dirty. Beware, looks can be deceiving. Mom and Pop facilities are the way to go!

While the daycare staff is wonderful, the grooming team is another story. We used to get our dog groomed there and he would freak out every time we went near the grooming side or either of the groomers. We figured that he just didn’t like having to stay still for that long. However a few weeks later, he came home with bloody paws after being groomed. When we called to ask about this, we were told that he hated being in a crate with the blow-​dryer so he would scratch to get out. No apologies. No sincerity. What animal lover doesn’t feel badly that a dog is so desperate to get out of a crate that he has bloody paws?
We changed groomers to Club Canine in Hampton and our dog loves it. But when we take him to daycare at the Barking Dog, he still shakes and hides every time the female groomer comes near him — and not just because she always looks miserable and angry at the world.

Great options for puppy daycare and boarding. Staff seemed friendly and location looked very clean and organized.