pet care specialist

dog daycare attendant

front desk agent

pet bather

housekeeper

Red Dog Pet Resort and Spa

Like many other people are saying, the management at this place is not the best. They clearly don’t care about the opinions of the workers who actually work hands on with the dogs each and every day. A decent amount of people they hired were awful towards the dogs, my first few days there I saw people swearing at the dogs and lacking patience with them in a way that I feel should have been addressed immediately by management but wasn’t. There was behavior I witnessed that I’m sure was going on long before I was employed. The facility itself is in need of many repairs ( there are broken drains that dogs can get their foot caught in ) and this has been brought to the managers attention and nothing was done about it at least during my time there.   They have customers paying for all of these activities for their dogs but refuse to hire the amount of staff needed to complete them ( even prior to COVID ), also have customers paying for fetch and then not supplying us out back with tennis balls or any toys that aren’t completely torn to shreds. Same goes for cat activities. Expect us to play laser tag with no laser pointer. They have one tiny first aid kit that has a few bandaids, some burn cream, and a few packets of antibacterial cream - in a place where it is highly likely you will get bit and if you need peroxide to pour on a wound - be prepared to go searching for it. Overall, there are a lot of problems that could probably be fixed if higher management cared and did something about it but even after concerns were sent to the bigs bosses, nothing was done. The only happy thing about this place is getting to work with the dogs and making friends with the few people there who aren’t awful towards the dogs/cats.

I started Red Dog really excited to work and feeling special. I was called the same day I interviewed to be told I was hired and could start immediately. I thought this meant they really liked me, truth is, the turn over rate is so high they just needed people as quickly as possible. It was great to be working so quickly and making money immediately, however, they didn't allow time to properly train me or anyone else they hired. Everyday employees were messing up life threatening medication for animals or prescribed diets. As a 24/7 facility they get some really sick dogs and have employees taking care of them who are not qualified. 

They are understaffed with dogs who are continuously stressed out and a management team who doesn't care so long as they don't have to cover any shifts or work late. If they do happen to cover another shift they refuse to do anything except walk the dogs and feed them leaving other tasks for days until someone gets the chance to do it. (such as dryer and washer lint traps which were covered in inches of dog hair and lint causing back ups.

When I had car trouble and let them know 7 hours in advance, I was told to take an uber to work and that I hadn't given them enough prior notice. (the policy for call off states you need only give 2 hours in advance). 

There is no such thing as break adherence, I was never given a break, even on 9 hour shifts. I also wasn't paid for doing more duties, such as medications, than people in my own department.

If you need a job fast and to be on the clock as soon as possible, this is it. However, the wage (9.50) doesn't make up for the stress dealt with daily.

They often forgot add ons people paid for, left dogs without water and in sections without air conditioning when other sections where the air wasn’t broken were available. They pretend to care but if they cared so much they would pay more attention and make the necessary changes to make sure these things don’t happen. I get that mistakes happen but it was an every day thing here and not with just new people! I’m not saying everyone here is terrible but there are only a few good people that genuinely care about these dogs and truly do their best to make sure they have everything they need. When the lay offs happened, they promised ALL employees their jobs back and then only brought back their favorites, told the others they didn’t have the business to bring them back anymore and then started hiring new people! They say they provide the uniforms and mention nothing of you being charged for them or needing the cheap 5 dollar shirts back (they only give you 2 very cheaply made t shirts) and then charge you 50 dollars for them when you decide to quit. The pay is terrible. The only positive is working with the dogs. I feel bad for them and wouldn’t recommend anyone work here or take their dogs here. If you’re going to go to red dog, drive to Cincinnati! Much better location and actually has their act together!

When I started my job as a pet care specialist at Red Dog Northshore, I was excited as I had worked at other (smaller) dog daycares before and absolutely love animals. It became very clear to me quickly that the only thing this company cares about is getting as many dogs to board/attend daycare as possible even if that means making it an unsafe work environment for staff. There was a huge lack of training and they kind of just throw you into daycare rooms by yourself filled with 40+ dogs which is way too many for one person to look after. Their outdoor play areas for the daycare dogs were unsafe sidewalk concrete material that would get far too hot in the summertime and put dogs at risk for injury, burnt paws, or overheating. They pride themselves in being a dog "resort," but after you see the gross outdoor cages your dogs are put in to relieve themselves, I do not think it should be classified as such. The employees generally do love the dogs and I truly do miss the animals but the management is rude, not flexible, and does not really care about the well-being of their overworked employees. If you are a dog lover and want to work in this industry, I highly reccomend looking at smaller, family-owned daycares that do not have the capacity to hold hundreds of dogs because I am sure you will have a much more pleasant time. 

You're not payed a reasonable wage for the amount of stress you are expected to undergo in a typical shift. Management largely only cares about padding the company's wallets and refuses to provide the tools or the people necessary to allow you to succeed in your given position but you are expected to fulfill all your duty's and more. There is a counter-culture where you are expected to stay in your own lane and not assist others in need of help in the different job sectors, but at the same time you are expected to know how to work in any field that needs help. The facility is largely ran off of emotion and people are let go depending on how good of a day management is having. 

The above and more provide an unsafe place for our clienteles animals and I do not and would not recommend allowing your dogs to stay at such a place.

I worked the overnight shift and it was fairly easy. No one really telling you what to do since I worked alone and you could do the nightly list at your own leisure. What was annoying was waiting for the person to come in for the 6am shift and sometimes they would be late or wouldn’t come at all so I’m waking up managers and supervisors at that time trying to get someone to relive me. And sometimes the afternoon shift people didn’t try to help start walks early if there were a lot of dogs and I was taking out 40+ dogs by myself which would take almost 2 hours. It was an okay place to work at with decent pay for someone in high school or just graduated from college who wants a little experience. If the business is slow, they will send people home or they will start to cut hours. While I was there, full time people went from 40+ hours a week to 25. The turnover rate is extremely high there, especially for the night shift 

The management at Red Dog do not respect the Pet Care Specialists that keep the business running smoothly. Since they are grossly understaffed, they wait to post the schedule within 2 weeks of the current date so that (per company policy) they are not responsible for accommodating potential conflicts their employees may have. For me, this became an issue of being scheduled for 40hrs instead of part time (20hrs), when I had clearly communicated my need for cutting back to part time--multiple times. When I confronted management, I was met with hostility and complete dismissal of my previously set boundaries. They were clearly unable to cut my hours and exploited company policies in order to make finding cover MY problem instead of theirs. The overnight pay is nice, but I was working with 100+ dogs completely alone some nights (not sure how this is safe when the dogs are high strung and stressed). 

This is a fast paced job, with a lot of domestic animal husbandry work including but not limited to feeding, walking, and giving medicine to the guests, cleaning up after the animals, checking for lumps, bumps, bruises, cuts, matted hair, fleas, cleaning potty yards, cleaning rooms at the end of the guest's stay, general cleaning of the facility, dishes, and laundry. Management is great! They do their best to tell you how much they appreciate what you do for them. The people I work with are all so friendly and helpful. The hardest part of the job is that some days, you are constantly moving with little down time and there is always something that needs to be done. The most enjoyable part of the job is providing personal play times with the dogs and taking them out to a yard to play.

This place was a joke with the worst being the management hires ppl with mental health disorders and then uses it against them. The upper management shifts blame and focus so they look like there on top of there game. Dogs are not taken care of properly and without water sometimes bc of poor employees.  Management cares more about extra curricular activities then the actual care and well-being of their animals. Front desk staff is not allowed breaks unless ask for. It's overworked and underpaid and would be great if they paid a living wage and actually cared about their animals. They charge money for services that sometimes do got get performed because of lack of employees. When I left I couldn't even get information in how to obtain my 401k I paid into.

I worked overnight for the pay and made a huge mistake in doing so. The hours were long and often you'd be by yourself with a ton of dogs to oversee. Management often asked a lot of  me in that time and were hard to reach if anything went wrong. People would get fired for asking for more help on overnights and we were often complained to when we couldn't meet the ridiculous workload. There was only about a day's worth of training on dog behaviors and how to handle the animals in your care. You might as well pray if you have to walk a dog that is hard to handle, because getting help from someone with enough experience was barely obtainable. The managers will be kind to you at first and try to make you feel welcome, but the amount of workload that's expected is way too much for how little they're willing to pay. Working here will surely stress you out.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Pet care specialist 80 salaries reported	$16.66 per hour
Dog daycare attendant 74 salaries reported	$15.16 per hour
Front desk agent 20 salaries reported	$16.13 per hour
Pet bather 9 salaries reported	$15.33 per hour
Housekeeper 8 salaries reported	$12.88 per hour

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