The Dog Shop

I am not sure what is going on with this place… it used to be great, but as several others have pointed out, the smell now is just toxic… you can’t havea dog business smelling like that, you just can’t.
If you’re smell-​imparied, it’s a fairly nice shop… small, but with a nice selection of things for your dog, and with the typical Georgetown price tag and its awesome the deliver. It’s important to support local business, but come on, bleach the floors every once and a while.

I had Suki at the Dog Shop’s kennel out in the Farm in Southern Maryland for the long weekend! Suki the ShihTzu loved it! I just love how tender they were with our sweetie and shy dog! Excellent recommendations — great grooming — and try the tye-​dyeing — Suki looked great with a purple tail!

I guess Washington has a lot of very sensitive noses. I was prepared to be grossed out by the urine smell people mentioned in prior reviews, but when I walked into the store yesterday, I didn’t smell ANYTHING! Nothing! I absolutely LOVE this store! They have the world’s best selection of unique dog treats and toys, just what I needed for my chew crazy puppy, and yes, the food is not supermarket cheap, but hey, isn’t your dog worth it? Mine is.

This is one of those shops that you want to like. They are locally owned and have adorable curb appeal. Unfortunately the smell is revolting, gag inducing, pungent urine. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible but we had a groupon that was about to expire so we stayed and shopped in spite of the smell.
From what I can tell the staff is young and the don’t seem to take their jobs seriously. While I was there a very elderly woman came in to pick up her dog. She was obviously hard of hearing and the salesperson was mumbling and not making eye contact. The customer kept asking the salesgirl to repeat herself and the salesgirl kept getting more and more annoyed with the customer. I felt so bad for the elderly woman and wanted to step in and help because she was so confused and just trying to pick up her dog. I couldn’t believe the salesgirl was being rude to this sweet old lady. My husband and I were shopping together and we were saying things to each other like «I wonder if they have this in a larger size» and «I wonder if this is durable.» We were well within earshot of the staff and nobody bothered to look up or answer our questions. There weren’t busy so I can’t understand why they didn’t attempt to answer our questions.
They had a decent selection of toys and one of the toys we picked up is our dogs new favorite. The displays left something to be desired. There were numerous boxes and piles of packaging laying around. I know it’s a small shop and I don’t mind if boxes are out while they’re restocking but the employees were just standing around and there didn’t appear to be any stocking going on.
I can’t comment of the grooming services. I’ve never used them because I have a problem with the idea of having grooming done at a place that can’t keep itself clean.
I’ll give the shop one more shot. I’m sure it’s a different shopping experience when the owner is around.

I want to love this shop, its adorable, they help dog rescues, they sell nice things, they are super convenient… but the smell is wayy out of hand. The entire store REAKS of dog urine and it is really super gross. You can smell the store walking up the stairs before you enter– its no wonder the door is always open, the employees must be dying!
This is beyond cleaning– the floors need to be ripped up and replaced, and the dog who regularly pees on the floor (the shopkeepers poodle?) needs to be left at home. I certainly hope The Dog Shop owns the building, because if they were my tenants I’d be furious.
Nice (albeit) pricey selection of dog products, food, leases, etc. A few cat things, too! Training prices are much higher than local comps.
Shop elsewhere if you have a nose. [OMG not to mention if you suffer from migraines.]

For grooming, go somewhere else. It doesn’t matter if your dog was the first one there, or if it is the smallest one in the world and will only take 5 minutes to clean and groom, your dog will have to wait until the big ones go. I took my Maltese (she is about 5 pounds) there and she was the very first one to arrive (8:20). We didn’t get her back until 4 in the afternoon and she was caged the entire time there.

My 1 and a half year old baby… I mean, dog… has been toted all over this city with me in search of a decently priced haircut. He weighs 15 pounds and $ 80 (before tip, of course) seemed a little excessive for a hair cut at several other locales. I expected a botique in Georgetown to be boku-​bucks, but The Dog Shop was less expensive than Petsmart and Doggie Style. I am not giving them a 5 star review for one simple reason: after I left the shop I noticed they had not groomed the hair out of his ears as I had requested when I dropped him off, so I had to turn back around and ask them to do it. I will bring him back here from now on and check over his body before I leave.

I highly recommend the groomer here, Jane. We have a goldendoodle and have had a hard time finding a groomer who didn’t make him too poodley and understood what we wanted without charging us $ 100. Jane has done a great job with him and even told me I could bring him back when I wasn’t thrilled about the length of his ears! I brought him back this morning and she fixed them. Best of all we are paying her almost half of what we pay elsewhere for a great cut!

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this shop. As much as I prefer to support local vendors, The Dog Shop really misses the mark:
1) The store reeks of urine. Overwhelming, pungent, disgusting. Seriously, it’s overdue for some big-​time housekeeping. There’s no good excuse for this.
2) The staff are generally apathetic. More often than not, when I have a question, it seems like I’m bothering them. Of my 10 visits to this store, not once did they greet me or my dog in a friendly welcoming way. Pretty lame for a «local, neighborhood» store. Really, Petco is far more personal.
3) Selection is pretty limited. This is okay for a small store, so long as they have some «special» items, prominently displayed, that are hard to find elsewhere. Alas, nothing really special from what I can tell. Given that it all smells like piss anyway, who wants it?
My advice: clean up, cheer up and get some better stuff.

This place is a great, very welcoming to dogs and always treats mine to one of their homemade cheese biscuits. The people are friendly and I love their self-​dog washing service. It’s in their basement and they provide all the supplies and clean up plus it’s a lot less than a regular groomer. They also have a very good selection of organic dog treats and the upstairs is cute with toys and boutique items.

Jane, the Owner, did an excellent job grooming my Brussels Griffon and Chow. Prices are reasonable and my girls were ready in 5 hours. Highly recommend Jane to anyone.

I have to take my review down one star due to a couple of recent hiccups in service. I’m a regular customer at the The Dog Shop, as they deliver food to my door most often the same day that I order-​which is terrific. However the last time I ordered, my food hadn’t arrived by late evening. Tiger was hungry, and I was getting anxious so I called and they did come through and deliver by 9pm. Then a couple of days ago, I ordered again and this time the food was delivered on time. However I was charged for 2 bags (that Canidae isn’t cheap!) when I ordered (and received) only one… And no apology or explanation when I brought the mistake to their attention the next morning over the phone.
So, the Dog Shop is still a great resource for all things dog. But just double check your receipts!

As a dog owner I just adore this fabulous store. The employees are wonderful and are always very friendly, going out of their way to help. My favorite thing about the store is something I just found out last month… They deliver pet food FOR FREE in the DC area. How amazing is that?! I called yesterday and had a large bag waiting for me in the lobby last night. That’s what I call great customer service :)
This store has everything you could possibly need for your pup. Additionally they offer training, grooming and other services that I have yet to try. Luckily my pup is very well trained already (not thanks to me!)… but I do know people in my neighborhood that rave about the services.

When walking down this block, my dog drags me to two places… 1^st is Patisserie Poupon where he gets a croissant eaten out back on the porch, and the next stop is always The Dog Shop. The service here has been consistently friendly and helpful over the years. Occasionally a clerk will make a point of playing with him while I shop. We both like that. The selection is excellent. There are two levels of doggie goodies and they even have a cat room upstairs.
There’s a dog washing tub in the basement with a special soap-​containing shower nozzle for do-​it-​yourselfers. (I have not used their grooming service so can’t assess that, but that’s because I trust no one with my pup.) They have homemade doggie cookies at the counter to top it all off.
Oh — ya — there’s a nice seating area with a water bowl outside if you want to hang with your pooch… and they host adoption events here as well.

When I adopted my dog Zoe, I needed a bit (ok a lot) of guidance and found Jane, the owner of Dog Shop, to be extremely helpful.
Instead of trying to sell me items that were not needed, she would be honest with me, telling me that certain items weren’t necessary for my dog and also gave me advice with some issues that I was having with Zoe.
Two years later, I still frequent the Dog Shop for shopping, grooming and am also on their listserv that includes monthly emails about events (some are free!) as well as specials. Also, I find that the prices here to be quite reasonable and even cheaper than some of the chain pet stores in the area.

Hands down the most comprehensive dog supply shop in DC. The owner is very friendly and knowledgeable on foods which I appreciate. They carry a huge variety of foods and toys. They also deliver. Make sure you venture beyond the first room, they have lots of food in the back and upstairs they have beds, grooming supplies, all kinds of stuff. Some of the other staff need to up their customer service skills and be a little friendlier, but their service is okay. I drive across town to go there because they always have what I want, they are much more consistent on their stock than Wagtime or Doggie Style.

The store is small and may be overpriced (I’m not sure), but I feel obligated to give them a good rating because they were really helpful when I stopped by. In addition, after describing my picky dog who dislikes most dog food AND dog treats, they sent me home with a whole bag of treats for FREE! Plus, she said in the future if my dog doesn’t like something, I can always bring it back. That seems like really great service for a small store.
I probably won’t frequent this establishment since it’s out of the way from where I live, but they seem like friendly neighborhood– oriented people and I recommend them highly.
Update: My dog loved the treats we got for free! Just makes me like them more…

These guys are great. They work with a local rescue group that I volunteer for. It’s right in the heart of Georgetown so it’s great to be able to get stuff for your pet wiithout getting in your car and driving all the way to the burbs.
It’s not a pet supermarket like PetCo or Petsmart, but they have everything you would need.

While I love the Dog Shop for everything they stock, I do not recommend their grooming services. I brought my dog for grooming and he came out with a very choppy cut! The groomer did not clean up his stains although he did smell really nice.

Yay for an awesome dog store in Georgetown! I can walk the pup over, and they pretty much have everything he and I would ever need! A wide variety of food (they will even deliver to your house), a billion toys and treats, leashes, beds, grooming tools, and anything else you and your puppy could dream up (and if they don’t have it, they will order it for you!)
The owners are great– very helpful and knowledgeable, and they definitely love dogs. Dog spot also has great training classes– they will take the pup all day for two weeks– as well as grooming for a great price. Around $ 45 for wash, nail clip, ear cleaning etc. I also think the prices are pretty reasonable– as I’ve seen some of the same toys on sale at petco for nearly the same price.