PetSmart Doggie Day Camp

My dog checked in today for the second time in two weeks. For today, while I was late due to traffic - I arrived at 10:45am to wait behind another person checking in. After being helped by 11am, my dogs paperwork from her first visit was lost , so I completed it again. I was told she would go in a kennel and then be brought into the doggie camp room. Sadly, she was never brought into the room when I picked her up at 1:45pm. Even when she checked in while the employee was kind a dog brush was used to check her body which she doesn’t like the groomer and started to shake. Upon checkout the employee said she didn’t get dog play and I could do nothing about it. Sad to pay 25 dollars for up to 4 hours to have your dog in a kennel and pacing for the entire time. Could be an off day but this isn’t the experience we desire.

Looked clean overall. They weren’t able to take my dog due to understandable reasons.

I just learned today that Petsmart will punish your dog by spraying water at them if they mount (if you understand proper canine behavior, you understand that you can easily redirect this with a treat or a toy and then move them out) or follow a dog (which is not a dangerous thing at all and only indicates that the dog doesn’t know how to engage in polite play). They also stated that the only reason why they don’t spray water at a dog when your dog snaps at another one (I.e. doesn’t make contact with a dog, just bites air) is because they don’t want it to break out into a fight. If you punish a dog when they are doing what is right and communicating a warning correctly, then eventually they will learn that their warning means nothing and will just bite right away. In other words, Petsmart, at least in this location, doesn’t know what they are doing, has zero education in behavior, and isn’t applying the correct principles. When asked if they separate big and small dogs, I was told that it depends on their temperament and if they have a sibling as well. That is NOT proper protocol. The staff claims that all Petsmart stores follow this, and while it may be true that this is the company’s policy, I have never actually been to a store that followed through with these harmful procedures. I have been to at least 5 different doggie day camps, depending on where we were at that day, and none of them have ever done this either. Granted I have never been to a SoCal Petsmart so it could just be a SoCal Petsmart thing. I would just be cautious. The only reason why I gave 2 stars is because the staff were at least kind and polite. It seems like it is rather the company that is engaging in these harmful practices.