The Barkmont

My dog has been spending time at The Barkmont since 2021 (about 2.5 years) - primarily daycare, with a few stints of multi-day boarding. That's a lot of time, and by now we've established a huge amount of trust in the staff & owners. Whenever there's an issue (and these are inevitable since dogs can be so unpredictable), the people at The Barkmont have responded appropriately and been available for a discussion when it's needed. I love the cameras that let us see how our dog is doing throughout the day, and I appreciate how thoughtful they are in ensuring that the dogs are doing well with each other.

My only word of caution to a new patron is that their online reservation system has a lot of "additional services" on offer, which makes it seem like you can set up a spa day for your dog by clicking a few buttons (and paying the associated fees). In pracice, though, the staff are typically prepared to do routine things during a given day, and may not be able to trim nails & perform training. Those things might be available on some days, but it is probably worth talking to the staff to ensure that it will be feasible on a given day. This is not a major issue, but caused us a bit of confusion initially.

I had a pretty bad experience hear with my dog serviced June 2023. We needed to find an alternative as our usual daycare was booked for when we needed to board our day. In order to board, the require the standard evaluation.

They use the typical Gingr app all the other dog daycamp & boarding companies use in the Bay Area; scheduling is fairly easy.

Parking is okay. They have a drop off section but it's very small so you have to find street parking which was limited during our pick up and drop off.

The front door was not in use, we're not told that. We had to figure out ourselves that they had a back door. We rang the bell and took about a minute for us to get assistance. Someone came to the door and requested for some time -- seems pretty understaffed. After 3 minutes, we were helped. The staff took our dog, didn't ask for our dogs name, and was gonna take him back. We had to interrupt him as we had questions being our first time.

We were disappointed that we were not given a tour and no expectations were given; we had to come with our questions: how long is camp, when is last pick up, what's the process, etc.

We scheduled our dog to come in at 12p (earliest availability on Gingr App). 2 hours later we were given a call to pick up our dog. Apparently he didn't not pass his evaluation with the reason "he was scratching against the wall and seemed anxious". He was placed in a crate for the rest of the day until we picked him up. That was such a big surprise to us because we've taken our dog to 4 other daycare/boarding places and always passes with flying colors!

We picked him up and asked for more info. We were instructed to email the manager for more feedback. Also they charged us for evaluation! The 4 other places he's passed never charged for first day, they were always complimentary evaluations with all day play. We were charged $60 for 2 hours of "anxious play" and crate time.

I don't recommended. Our dog does exceptionally well and loves Happy Hound in West Oakland, I highly recommend!

My dog Ollie absolutely loves the Barkmont. He can't wait to get in the door at the facility. The staff are wonderful. They are nice, caring, responsible and knowledgeable.

Kirk, one of the owners has been very helpful.

Would recommend to any pet owner - who needs a safe facility for day care and/or boarding their beloved pet.

Our dog Bruce has been here for boarding but today Bruce and his brother went. I just want to first shout out the owner, Kirk, as he really took the time to understand Bowie's anxiety and lack of socialization. Today, even though things went rough the first meeting, they made sure to give him a slow introduction and meet dogs!

Great communication from staff here. My dogs are currently knocked out as they are tired from their day.

Happy dog, happy dog parents!

LOVE the Barkmont! So community oriented, helpful, and honest even when things aren't perfect! Nova has been there since she was old enough at 4 months and looooves the staff so much she ditches me for them when we see them in public! Kirk and Amanda are so professional and care about their business and I wholeheartedly appreciate their dedication!

Unfortunately, Lana V. and Nina Z's reviews are absolutely correct. We can't speak for regular daycare for fully vaccinated dogs, but The Barkmont's puppy program is completely falsely advertised on their website. Do not be drawn in by the lower price tag, as what you pay for is what you get. DO NOT take your puppy here.

Our 10 week old pup was taken out of his crate for only 8 minutes, 10 minutes, and 13 minutes, each time throughout the day, when we were told that they would be let out for at LEAST 20-30 minutes. He was also in his crate for 3 hours in the morning, when we were told it would be 1.5-2 hours max. We had to call them multiple times to ask what was going on, and they said "oops, they were going to let him out now." They also made several other excuses about the one other puppy that was there not being friendly with him, but we saw him in the afternoon playing just fine with them during the short durations that they were both out (have video evidence of this).

There was one staff member in particular that was on her phone for pretty much the entire time she was in there (screenshot below, we also have video evidence of this for several minutes), and barely supervised.

We also never saw the "training" that is advertised on their site, which included a long list of several desensitization/socialization line items. Our puppy came home at the exact same energy level he was when he went, which go figure, it's because he was only let out for less than 30 minutes total for the entire day.

I really implore The Barkmont owners to do a much stricter audit of their staff and set strict timers for how long the puppies are out for this "program". If you cannot give puppies the socialization they need, then why offer it? We have since taken our business somewhere else that gives us way more peace of mind and lives up to their word.

I love the Barkmont! I feel safe when my dog is here. They keep a very close eye on all the pups so everyone is happy and I can even check in on the camera. When the cameras are off I can always call to make sure everything is ok. My dog loves it here and everyone is super friendly and helpful. 5/5 paws!

I hate writing this review because I want to support local businesses in the area, but the Barkmont is currently extremely understaffed and based on interactions with the staff doesn't seem like a great place for young puppies.

TLDR: their puppy socialization program is a barren room where they take the pups out for 10 minutes a time and leave them unattended for up to several minutes, they don't take accountability for mistakes, and a man (the owner?) told me if he did something to hurt my puppy or make her sick, he'd apologize and "if she died there, he'd apologize even more". I'm not taking my 4 month old puppy back.

I signed my pup up for the Barkmont's "Puppy Socialization" program which per their website is a program where puppies would be socialized and exposed to things like people with grocery bags, desensitization CDs, moving objects like skateboards and vacuums, handling, and a training program.

Like it says in Lana V.'s review in actuality, the puppies get put out in a barren room with one bed, a water bowl, and sometimes a toy like a ball. The staff would take my puppy out of her kennel for 10-15 minutes at a time, and then she's kenneled again for an hour plus. For half of her visits, she didn't have another puppy to play with which is no fault of the facility. The staff would let her out and just pet her for 10 minutes, throw a ball around, talk on the phone without paying attention to her, or take selfies with her. I don't expect constant attention, but I do expect more when she's only out for such short periods. Supposedly she got one ten minute training session a day, which I caught on camera once in one of her earliest sessions. They didn't always provide a report card at the end of the day.

Not an ideal situation and not what they advertise, but I figured there was no harm in dropping her off there once or twice a month when I absolutely had to have her out of the house for a few hours.

Today I had a really upsetting experience and won't be bringing her back. When I dropped her off in the morning, I told the woman who took her to please keep an eye on her as she eats poop. She said that wouldn't be a problem.

When I tuned in to the puppy room webcam in the morning, I saw a large adult dog there that had defecated in the room and was left alone. He spent 15-20 minutes tracking it around the room before someone came back in and spot-cleaned it. They didn't mop the whole room before letting my puppy back out.

The next time I tuned in I noticed a woman let her out and immediately left the room and her unsupervised. Unsurprisingly, she went to the bathroom and managed to eat all of it. I called in, and got the woman from the morning on the phone. She ran back in and apologized for what happened and that she had to run to the front to answer the phone. I was ready to go pick her up right then, but she said that they'd do a better job of keeping an eye on her so it wouldn't happen again. I believed her and decided to pick her up at the end of the day instead.

When I tuned back in late afternoon, I noticed that she had been left in the room alone, again. She went to the bathroom again (this time she had an upset stomach) and I was horrified to see her eating it, like last time. I called back in and spoke with a gentleman who gave me an excuse and said it was no big deal.

We talked in person when I picked her up and he was just combative, telling me that I should use a product so she doesn't eat her poop, and that "no one is perfect" without taking any sort of accountability. It was excuse after excuse -- they're busy for Thanksgiving, eating poop doesn't hurt the puppies, that it doesn't happen all the time, and if I don't like it to take her somewhere else.

He wrapped up the conversation by letting me know that eating poop isn't dangerous for puppies (that's true about their own poop, but they had adult dogs defecating in the same room that day). If it made her sick or hurt her, he'd apologize. Then he said -- "if she died here, I'd apologize even more". That cold-hearted statement left me completely dumbfounded, and I had nothing else to add to the conversation.

My point was that if they aren't able to accommodate my pup and what seemed like a reasonable request, they should have let me know from the get-go and I wouldn't have left her, instead of making several reassurances that they would keep a closer eye on her. I understand that it's the pandemic and everyone is having a hard time hiring, but if you're not able to have enough staff on hand to provide the service as listed, just close the program for the time being.

Maybe this place is fine for adult dogs (even though the times I tuned in to the adult dog rooms about half the time there was no human supervising), but they aren't able to provide puppies with constant supervision without leaving them alone in the room for minutes at a time and don't take accountability for not following through on assurances.

The Barkmont is the best. We have been taking our dogs here for years and they love it. The staff clearly loves the dogs and take such good care of them. We highly recommend them for daycare and boarding!

[ Before Covid Review ]

This is a long overdue review for this dog boarding facility/doggy daycare. My fiance and I were looking for a daycare for our husky, Kaya to go to and get all her energy out while we were both working and we luckily found this place.

Prior before letting your dog into their daycare, they do want to do an assessment to make sure that your dog would be a good fit for their facility. This assessment I thought was great because they take your dog in for a couple hours and really see, is the dog shy? Should he/she be in the small dog or big dog group? Active or chill group? Is your dog a trouble maker? You guys get the deal. We brought our dog Kaya in when she was a couple months old, I want to say she was 5-7 months old and they really gave us insight into how she is as a dog.

We were also able to get a tour of the facility beforehand to see how they operate and what is great is that unlike other doggy daycares, they have a maximum amount of animals in each group. We went to a previous daycare where there were 40 dogs in one room and only 1-2 attendants which made us really uncomfortable. At the Barkmont, expect only 10-12 dogs in each group and there is usually 2 people watching over.

Not only do they offer daycare, but they also offer: training, boarding, and grooming. If you do daycare, you can drop off as early as 7am and pick up as late as 7pm; however, weekend time does change. If you board your animal there, they do have 24/7 staffing so your puppy is not alone during the night. If you're a doggy mom like me who wonders how my pup is doing, they have cameras for each area of their daycare so you can watch your dog play with other dogs.

While we have had two incidents where our dog was attacked by other dogs, I will say that the owners of Barkmont took responsibility, informed us of the attack, actually dealt with the situation (either they separate the dogs from each other from that point on or even where the dog is not allowed back in), and even took our dog Kaya to a hospital to get treated- in the end I do trust Barkmont with our dog Kaya.

With Covid happening right now, my fiance is able to work from home, but I can promise you guys that our dog Kaya does miss her doggy friends and human friends at the Barkmont. We hope to bring her back soon and let her enjoy being with her friends.

If you want a doggy daycare where you want to feel that your dog is in safe hands, this is the place for you. I've been to a lot of daycare facilities and this is the only place I trust with my dog. They have responsible employees, owners and the owners really ensure that all staff gets proper training. Come here if you want a great daycare!