The Playful Pup

Stick a fork in me — I’m DONE! I’ve been a loyal customer for close to 5 years and this place has progressively gotten worse. On three separate occasions, my dog has gotten an ear infection, horrible rash on his underbelly and man-​parts area, and kennel cough.
You would’ve thought that would be enough for me to call it quits. But no, I gave them this one last chance and they blew it. I brought my dog’s medication and treats. I even counted them out to eliminate the guessing game for the staff. They did not give him one crumb of his medication and most of his treats were still in the bag. Another ‘norm’ is that my dog comes back smelling like pee and he has doo-​doo stuck to his butt.
Bottom-​line: This place is filthy, the staff is negligent in fulfilling their duties, and my dog will not be returning!

as of april 2016 playful pets has fired all of the employees for no compliance to owners rules and regulation. please check with the business before boarding your pets on the new hires and conditions. thank you.

Don’t be fooled by their rating… they’ve had one «decent» review in the last three years… Keep looking… don’t waste your time even calling them. They are misleading about their pricing and are overpriced for what they offer.
I just moved to the area and called to make a reservation because I had to go out of town on short notice. After discussing what services they offer and their rates, I was confident this would be a good fit and told the person I spoke with that I’d be in the next morning to drop my dogs off and fill out their required paperwork. I showed up and they had no idea I was even coming… no reservation… nothing. Thankfully, so I thought, they had availability so I started the paperwork. After filling out about 10 pages of paperwork per dog, I was all ready to go… and needed to get on the road to head out of town. The young lady behind the counter reviewed the rates with me again… but this time it was going to cost me twice as much as what I had been previously told. Unlike EVERY other dog boarder in the area, apparently this place charges PER CALENDAR DAY instead of PER NIGHT. So, unlike ALL of their peers who charge $ 28 per night, this place charges $ 38 PER DAY… so if you drop off on a Friday and pick up first this Saturday morning… you’re paying $ 76 for the same exact service you’d get somewhere else for $ 28. Needless to say, they didn’t get a penny from me…
Don’t be fooled by this dishonest place. Look somewhere else, you’ll be happy you did. Good chance my next call will be to the BBB.

I had been taking my dog to The Playful Pup for about a year. We often would take her and my neighbor’s dog (let’s just call him Spike) together because they were great pals. My dog LOVED going there. She is about 15 pounds, very friendly but also a very confident dog. My neighbor’s dog, Spike however, is about 12 pounds and very timid. My neighbors were going on vacation and asked us to drop off Spike to the PP in the morning. We debated about whether to just keep him at our house until they got back, but they had already pre-​paid for him to stay for the week. So we took Spike to the PP and the next day, we got the call from my neighbors (on vacation) that Spike was dead. I was DEVASTATED. I had so many questions… How? He was healthy! What the hell happened?!? Apparently he was attacked by multiple large (over 80 pound) dogs. Wait a minute, the large dogs weren’t even supposed to be anywhere NEAR a 12 pound dog… especially unattended! The company insisted that Spike died of «natural causes» well… PETA, the Humane Society and ASPCA quickly stepped in and retrieved the surveillance footage and concluded that that was NOT accurate. On camera showed Spike being brutality attacked and killed. This happened about a year ago (delayed posting for legal reasons) and I’ve since then received a personal message from PP saying that they are now under new management and the previous owners were fired. Well that’s great, kudos… but a dog, a friend, a family member was killed on your watch. To this day, my dog stares out the window and waits patiently for Spike to come outside again. You will never get my business… ever again.

I dropped my dog off Friday July 31^st to be groomed. I was asked specifically what I wanted done. It was my first time having this done here so I asked what were my choices? I told the receptionist that I wanted my dog shampooed, hair cut/​trimmed but not shaved. I also specified I wanted the hair in my dogs ears removed and his nails clipped. I also wanted the anal glands cleaned too. I specifically asked for my dogs facial hair to be trimmed too. So I leave my dog there and in about 20 minutes I get a phone call from the supervisor asking me again what I want done to my dog. I should have known then that these people didnt have a clue as to what they were doing. When I got the call to come pick my dog up there were a lot of things wrong the only thing I could see that they did to my dog was shampooed, nails trimmed and his body hair on the top trimmed. His legs, nor the fur in between his toes were trimmed and the hair in his ears was trimmed but not plucked out like it should and his face/​beard was not trimmed. I was so disappointed I just paid the 50.00 dollars and didnt argue about all the things they did not do. I have just vowed not to EVER go back there for grooming services. I am writing this to say if you go here for grooming make sure that you are very specific about what you want them to do to your dog. I am going to go back to PetSmart Grooming because at least when they finish grooming my dog he looks like he has had something done to him other than just having a bath.

First let me say, I waited quite a while to write this review. I had such a great initial experience with Playful Pul and I didn’t want to leave a negative review because I was upset. So here’s my balanced review. I also have to say, because it has been so long, they may have improved since my last experience with them.
I used Playful Pup for quite some time, almost from the very start. Initially I loved it there and so did my dog. My dog went for daily daycare and overnight boarding.
Its a small business, the owner was initially there daily until the business grew and she hired a manager to take over the day to day activities. Things went downhill fairly quickly afterwards.
#1 — The turnover rate for the staff became pretty high and more and more the newly hired staff was ruder and ruder. They even hired one girl who was afraid of dogs. What?!
#2 — I over heard the staff complain about my dog. I ignored it but I started to question if I should leave my dog with people who didn’t like her.
#3 — My dog came home after 3 nights there with a huge engorged tick on her. I called to complain and the manager called back to apologize, but I still stopped taking her for daily daycare.
#4 — Last straw. I booked overnight boarding for Thanksgiving week 2013.
Typically — after you book the stay, the staff reviews your dog’s shot records and someone tells you if they need anything. They didn’t do that, in advance, this time, and 1 vaccine that they require every 6 months expired. I didn’t know because, its a yearly shot so the vet didn’t notify me about it. (Most boarding places require it every 6 months, that’s not atypical.)
My dog needing a shot is no biggie, the fact that they didn’t check ahead of time was the problem. So what’s a mature 20 year old to do in this situation? Lie. The staff told me they couldn’t find my appointment and that the dog couldn’t stay because she didn’t have up to date records. After a few minutes of arguing, I left. How did I know they lied you ask? I called the vet to see if they could squeeze her in but they couldn’t. Then… wait for it… the vet said the boarding facility called a couple of hours before-​hand. I had to take my dog with me, luckily, I was driving and luckily I was staying with family. But that could have easily meant my trip was cancelled.
I called to complain but they didn’t pass my complaint on. No one ever called back and that was my last experience with them.
I hope that the business has gotten better but I’ll never find out.
1 star for my initial love of this place.
2^nd star because this was over a year ago. It’s a good chance that the staff that I’m complaining about doesn’t even work there anymore.

I had my dog boarded here for a little more than a week while I was on vacation. I appreciated the preliminary paperwork that allowed the business to learn more about my dog’s personality, behavior, health and diet. The facility itself is big (looks like they bought a few adjacent store fronts and connected them) and there were plenty of other dogs there for my dog to interact with.
MOST IMPORTANTLY– when I returned to pickup my dog he was healthy. My only issue was that he seemed to have a slightly upset stomach (kinda loose BMs) and I noticed that he had more dry food and treats than he should have when I returned. I could only assume they didnt strictly following the feeding requirements I provided because I measured and counted quantities when I packed. I will make it a point to emphasize that next time. All in all, I was very satisfied with the experience and I would use them again.

After a few phone calls and stopping by to see the area I have been consistently pleased with the service their staff have provided. We have a Cane Corso and a Presa Canario who are both rescues. The corso has a very strong personality and the staff have been so helpful in answering all our questions about the kennel free environment. Just picked the pups up after their assessment day and the only reason I’m giving 4 instead of 5 is their prong collars weren’t put on correctly which can hurt them, but I just won’t bring those collars in again.

So glad Playful Pup is open in White Plains! What a beautiful facility, and great people. I love my groomer, Jo. Your dog will have fun and be well cared for.