****They held my dog against my will -- and charged me for it! I waited outside for an hour and was ignored by all staff.****

TL;DR -- as *many* others have noted in THIRTY-ONE OTHER 1 STAR REVIEWS: the entire staff is unreachable, the management is rude, the owner is condescending, threatens legal action, and takes no accountability for poor decisions. The place is very, very crowded, dozens of dogs in a small room. Dogs are ignored, and just pace around all day in a crowded room with no space to play or relax. You can't go back there to see the space, only on live cam which they are suspiciously protective of. My dog came back limping and generally traumatized. I heard him yelping in pain when I went to pick him up.

The owner will probably respond here with some misrepresentation of the facts. Some BS about the rules and me being late. Deflecting responsibility. He will ignore the simple fact that I made a plea for them to wait *3* minutes for me, but was stonewalled and charged an extra night. Then, when I actually showed up early, no one was even there, zero communication, and the owner blamed, threatened, and charged me.

The is the first negative review I've ever written. People in all different industries and services have stuff going on that you just can't know about, 99% of the time I let things slide, no harm no foul, nothing personal. But the management here just made too compelling of a case. It was absurd and personal.

I boarded my dog here for a weekend and after a long day of traveling returned for pick up. I was told they close at 6pm but provide a 15 minute grace period for pickup. I called (no answer, as always here) and emailed ahead that our ETA for pickup was 6:18pm.

*****
I was then told via email that without question, after a 7hr travel day, they would not wait 3 MINUTES for me, my dog would have to be held there against my will for another night, AND I WOULD BE CHARGED FOR IT.
*****

The kicker is, I rushed back from the airport and arrived earlier than expected -- *within the grace period they mentioned* -- and no one is even there!! No one answers the door, no one (ever) answers the phone, and no one answered my emails. I stood outside for an hour trying to get a response from anyone at the company. I was simply ignored.

My dog was in there and we can't even be sure that a human was inside with them. ****In an emergency, no one answered the phone, no one answered the door.****

Then the owner emailed me, blaming me for being late, and refused to release my dog. I simply had no recourse. No one at the door, no one on the phone. Just a cold email from the owner blaming me, claiming he had me on video knocking on the door and **threatening legal action against me** for doing so! For simply trying to get someone's attention! They weren't staffed. They kept my dog for another night. Nothing I could do.

I'm truly shocked that on top of all that they chose to charge me for the extra night + a $3 charge for some of their house food! So petty!

When the owner inevitably comes in to comment here, please keep the above in mind. There are so many options for boarding your dog in the area. Please don't make the mistake we did by going to "Happy Dogs."

Best daycare in Williamsburg hands down. It is my dog's second home and I have piece of mind.

Avoid this place, they have no concept of customer service. I needed to board my Mother's dog who was unexpectedly coming into the city today. I was aware they required an evaluation, so I called to make an appointment whereupon I was told that even if the dog passed, due to their ridiculous and byzantine registration process, they were unable to evaluate and board a dog on the same day. Apparently even though they know whether a dog passes or fails the evaluation immediately, they are so incompetent that they are unable to actually act on this information for at least 24 hours. The way they break the news to you in the, "Aww, it's cute you thought we'd do something that might be convenient for you" way is even more infuriating.

I'm sure Jennifer will pop in any moment and give me some story about how I'm wrong and her registration process is superior and she has a really good reason for this. One thing that's obvious about dealing with this place is the customer is not always, or ever, right--and they make sure to let you know in the most condescending way possible. She knows what's best for you and your dog, best not to question.

After having read down through some of the other reviews and seeing the condescending, holier-than-thou and childish way the owner likes to respond to complaints, I'm very happy not to have subjected my dog to the useless folks here. I'm surprised to see all the positive reviews--the owner must stay hidden in the back and let other employees who are likely more suited to running a business and interacting with people do the front of house. She seems exactly the type that would have such gratuitous and needless bureaucracy and general idiocy as I've described in the review above, likely just as an excuse to be shrill and condescending.

There is one thing she is good at, though, and that's deflecting blame back on the customer when anything goes wrong.