The Bark Bark Club

Don’t board your pet here! Terrible!! All pet boarding places should be required to have a web cam feature, for piece of mind in their care. This is certainly the case with “Bark Bark”!!! After leaving our 1 ½ year old Boxer here for a few days, we picked him up to find his entire body covered in bites/scratches, some deep. As a puppy who has NEVER ONCE bitten another dog, human or much less the 8lbs cat he lives w/, I find it very hard to believe he instigated any of the harm. Yes, albeit a communal style housing set-up, and dogs-will-be-dogs, we are still EXTREMELY irritated by the employees’ complete lack of care/concern for the pets. This is their 1 job & the 1 job we paid them for. …Not just to put the dog in their open warehouse and forget about him. Upon pick-up, the woman said “oh but we called you about it.” Neither of our phone logs showed their call, and even if they did, why wouldn’t you leave a message, noting that you were taking care of his open wounds?!? Yes this boarding service is cheap. But BEWARE, the staff is inattentive & your pet could come back w/ BOTH physical & some emotional scars! So, unfortunately w/ no web cam & no documentation on their end, it’s a case of our word vs. theirs. Don’t leave your pet here!!! more

This is the best boarding place I have tried in Chicago. Most others either seem really uptight, are uncaring, or have outrageous contract terms (be sure to read what you are signing, people!). I was looking for a place that was close (luckily Bark Bark Club is right around the corner from me), and where the dogs were never left alone. I used to take my dog to the Barking Lot on Irving Park, which was an ok place, but the dogs are left alone at night and on holidays. What if there was a fire? At BB Club, someone stays with the dogs overnight, and if there are only a few dogs reserved for boarding, one of the staff members simply takes the dogs home with her! This is a cage-free boarding environment, so it's not for aggressive dogs. However, my dog doesn't always get along with other dogs, and they said she was perfectly fine. We did have to take a temperment test to see if she could stay there. The rates at BB Club are great - I pay $5 more for a dogsitter to come stay overnight with my dog, and then she doesn't get any attention or stimulation during the day. The staff was very accommodating to us when we had to call multiple times to tell them our flight was delayed and we would not be able to pick our dog up at the scheduled time. They even offered to let us come pick her up several hours after closing, as long as we called to let them know we were coming. What made this place really stand out to me was that about 2 weeks after my dog stayed there, I actually received a hand-written thank you note from the staff thanking me for allowing them to care for my dog. Now THAT shows a well-run, customer-oriented business! Pros: Customer-oriented, cares about the dogs, accommodating, price Cons: Maybe parking, but I didn't drive more