pet bather

dog daycare attendant

pet groomer

attendant

front desk agent

Wag Hotels

Let me start by saying the job is so fun and easy. Working with the dogs are wonderful, you learn SO much by being in there with them and what other coworkers tell you. You grow attached to the dogs and watch them grow in daycare from shy dogs who don’t care for daycare or boarding to become the life of the yard and enjoy going up to their room. And of course it’s vice versa the dogs become a attached to you and love seeing you and it’s a beautiful feeling especially if you really love dogs. (and cats but not in a daycare setting) It’s truly is an easy job. 

Now the problem is a-lot of things but let me start with the constant turnover. There’s constant turnover because management is so horrible and they hire people who don’t know/should not work with dogs. So there’s always new people and they are NEVER trained right. And then when they end up shadowing someone they’ll shadow someone who does their job wrong because that person also wasn’t trained right. So of course now they don’t do their job right. So now you’ll have to constantly pick up their slack/do their work. Also you’ll have a lot of dogs and you’ll be scheduled to do all the work by yourself or with one extra person.

Management is BIG toxic and not good at their job at all. Management talks to employees any type of way and it’s always real disrespectful. They’ll make you feel like you don’t do your job right and that the job your doing doesn’t matter as much as other employees jobs. They’ll constantly want you to do things that are just not possible and that don’t make any sense and that can be hurtful to the dogs. They don’t have any communication with the employees (unless it bad) they’ll only communicate things among themselves and leads. So when something serious happens only they will know. You won’t even get an email. For example the hotel caught kennel cough (if you don’t know what that is highly recommend googling it) they didn’t let employees know until there where at least 4-7 cases. And you didn’t find out because they sent an email or something you found out because they had to quarantine the dogs who had it and they didn’t want you to interact with those dogs. On top of that they favor certain employees and it’s pretty noticeable who they favor. Cooperate and HR are no better. A person can have multiple complaints on them and neither department does anything. 

Your leads are almost as toxic. They are way nicer but they basically are the same way as management. They’ll never talk to you about anything going on in the hotel either and when do they it’s like in a gossip way. They don’t tell you about your performance or what you could do better. Which is why there are so many lazy employees, they’re lead to believe it’s okay. A lot of employees are lazy and are never told nothing about it but employees who do their job are criticized about every little thing they do. 

The last thing I’ll talk about (there’s so much more) is how if your in the yard with the dogs they constantly forget to do your break and lunches. You can’t leave the yard unless someone else is in there and they’ll just never come or they’ll do it super late and won’t apologize. If you start asking and bugging about your breaks they’ll get mad at you and tell you how they’re getting to it and you need to be patient. If your outside the yard you’ll get your breaks/lunches last minute because your doing the work of three people so it’s either you choose yourself or the dogs. 

Avoid this place unless you find out there’s a management change ! 


** All of these are specific to the San Francisco location. I cannot speak for Oakland, West Sac, or Redwood City branches **

This is the kind of work that is grueling and thankless, but extremely rewarding if you are a pet-parent or wanting a fur-baby of your own and willing to see this as a way of pet-sitting. 

If you are willing to put yourself out there, the senior staff are more than welcome to help you out or teach you new things such as dog body language specifics.

There is definitely a specific kind of work culture here, with crude senses of humor that isn't always PC. So if you are the type to be very strict on HR policies, this place probably isn't for you. Despite the casual dress, allowance of funky hair colors (my hair was silver for a while, then blue), piercings, and tattoos, interactions with clients (owners) are always the most professional.

You will have to handle all kinds of bodily fluids from the animals - urine, fecal matter, bile, blood, etc, so don't wear anything you particularly treasure. You will be doing everything from watching the dogs in playgroups, taking out some dogs for one-on-one time, preparing meals and feeding, cleaning rooms, transporting dogs around the facility, administering medications and treats, to reading to the dogs and holding skype sessions between guests and clients (yes, some owners really like to skype with their dogs).

Some owners are what we called "webcam hawks" - and some of the celebrity clients we had were VERY particular. Many of the rooms are equipped with private webcams that the owners have access to, and if they see ANYTHING amiss they will not be afraid to call Client Services/ the front desk.

The local Board of Directors member is also a huge advocate for this location, as it is sort of the "black sheep" of the Wag family - despite being the most-efficient, having the most experienced and passionate staff, and having the highest volume (occupancy goes well over 300 animals during the holidays), it is often overlooked by the Board and CEO because we have a higher minimum wage than the other locations, therefore labor expenses are higher for us. At least, that was the case when I was working there.

The highlight of the day for me was always cuddling with the animals and bringing them out to their owners at the end of their stay - especially if there are small children in the family. The kids are always hyped to see their puppy, and the dog is always hyped to see them, too.

That being said, they do also board cats, and they are kept in a separate boarding area from the canines. However, there are far fewer rooms, and sometimes cattery duty can get really boring if the cat is grumpy or has no desire to be sociable.

I understand & like what the company stands for on its own but they make interesting choices as far as the managers they choose to execute their mission. If you want to move up in the company, unless you get promoted to a managerial position and receive salary, they ask a lot for a laughably modest pay. Especially since being short-staffed at least a few days out of each week really spreads the employees that do show up for work very thin.

 I saw a lot of people get hired, be excited about the job, and then watched them quickly get burned out after repeatedly being called in on all their days off and be running around doing the job of 3 people on their own. Often people would vent to me about feeling a serious lack of support from management for these reasons and more. I didn’t often disagree with them when they did come to me to vent their frustrations. Listening to an observing all of that on a regular basis would take a toll on morale and the management would not be understanding at all of what was going on.

Personally, if I’m being honest,  I’m disgusted with Wag Hotels. When the pandemic hit they furloughed a lot of their employees, and the ones they didn’t furlough had their hours cut in half. At first, that part was understandable given everything going on with Covid. But after several months and extended furloughs, they began laying off the folks that had the higher hourly wages, kept the lower paid employees, and starting hiring new people. After working at the location for several years through the hotel being sold twice - ending up as Wag Hotels - and all sorts of thankless insanity keeping the place afloat (some of us really were invested and genuinely cared about our customers and their pups) between management/new ownership, I got a voicemail from the new general manager, whom I had never met, telling me I had been laid off. 

I called back and suggested to her that if she is going to be making more phone calls to people who had worked there for a long time to lay them off, it might be worth considering waiting for the call back to break the news. She seemed genuinely surprised at my suggestion, which is sad in itself. Years of very literal blood, sweat, and tears there for it to come to an abrupt end through a voicemail. It was kind of devastating at first realizing I’d never see any of the pups again, especially ones we had practically helped raise from puppyhood on, for years. 

Yeah guys, Wag really respects and values their employees! Ha ha. Good luck.

I worked at Wag for over a year in 2019, and at first I really enjoyed it. I liked my managers and my coworkers, the workload was fun and felt fair for my position and training, and the dogs were (mostly) a delight to work with. However, as with many pet hotel jobs, especially at this scale, there was a terrible dog:staff ratio. We were often left alone in a room with 30+ dogs and expected to handle any situtations ourselves until we got a response over radio. 

I was also not happy with their policies for discipline of misbehaving dogs. When I worked there we were expected to use water spray bottles or (in more extreme situations) air horns to disrupt the behavior. If that or a leash time out didn't work we had to remove the dog from the group. This would have been alright if it weren't for the fact that the dogs that weren't in all day play had limited time slots to go outside. It felt unfair and ineffective, especially for the dogs in all day play who got removed for the day and had to spend hours in a boarding room alone. This is not fair to the dog or to the owner who paid for all day play. I also felt our vetting process for which dogs we allowed to return was not nearly strict enough. Overall it felt like corporate only cared about making money rather than quality service and happy employees.

I also really liked two of my three managers when I started the job. However, after those two managers were no longer with Wag things sort of went downhill. It got especially bad after covid restrictions lightened and our dogs started returning.. but our staff did not. I was expected to do the job of 2 or 3 people (including the front desk job which I was not trained for at all) by myself. When I requested my manager not schedule me to do front desk work and instead have another employee with me, he said he would make sure it never happened again. It proceeded to happen 3 more times until I demanded a raise and ultimately made the decision to just move on.

Overall it's not terrible if you don't intend to be there long term. Hopefully it's improved since I was there. 

The good: nice clients, plenty of adorable dogs, like-minded and animal-friendly coworkers

The bad: low pay for the amount of physical labor and general dissatisfaction with the working environment, poor management, and insufficient quality control policies.

One major issue I've experienced working here is that we have constant call outs. I think that there are multiple reasons that we have this endless call out cycle. Most of the employees who work here commute here from far distances. We have new hires who cannot efficiently do the work that is needed of them because we lack quality candidates in hiring. Many new hires complain about being in the yards or claim they are not comfortable with Large dogs. People who work in this hotel must be comfortable handling large dogs. The job of a lead or a supervisor is made that much harder also when there is call out. At this hotel I've had 3 people call out on me in a shift. I've also had workers leaving early or coming in late on my shifts and it gets super frustrating to have that be a normal thing. It produces a lot of burn out for not just me but my peers who are working that day because we are forced to work twice as hard. As if things couldn't get any worse, In the shift notes before or after the 2pm handoff the Pm shift writes shady emails about the previous shift or vice versa. I understand that there is a standard of care we should all be striving to uphold but in cases where it's extremely busy or many call outs it becomes impossible to manage with the manpower we have. There is no need for emails (that go to every employee) "calling out" mistakes made in previous shifts. It doesn't help anyone. Instead have a sit down or in person conversation to correct the mistake and to offer feedback. There are some really great people caring for the dogs here but it is overshadowed by the bad management. Management really doesn't care about you because if they did they would roll up their sleeves and help. Overall not worth it to work here.

I have worked here for a short time, however my experience had been very good. There is a warm culture where you are reforged by the managers as a valid person and not a work horse. You do have to be proactive, have initiative and attention to detail is integral to bring compliant and effective here (so if you are lazy or like dogs and not doing work you will find stress here as you get in your own way). 

I see avant salaries on here and wish mine were that high, but I think it's important to put time in a company for them to also invest in you. Putting entitlement away, I work at the front desk reception and everything we experience had the managers at our backs to support us and nothing is unmanageable. I feel like I thrive here and I happily support the company. 

It has good focus, everything seems very fair and those that work hard and offer their time to the company get rewarded. It's definitely worth employment if you are a worker that works well in a environment that needs you to be adaptable, organized, diligent and focused. 

They aren't going to just pay you to play with animals...It's and actual job so keep that in mind before you apply. 

I have zero complaints. I have worked many places and most of the complaint that happens internally is due to immaturity in the employees. This job is truly great and worth any effort you supply to be off service to the guests and the clients.

When I first started working here the job wasn’t so, so bad. After about a month, I realized how unorganized the company was, and still is. Corporate seems to not have worked with animals themselves before judging by how often the handling rules change. The manager is lazy and a micromanager, but the assistant manager is pretty helpful and hands on. If you are an Animal Care Attendant, you’ll basically being doing everything behind the scenes; Constantly being in daycare all day everyday, may be randomly scheduled to do baths for a few days with or without bathing experience, cleaning entire rows of rooms. You may get lucky and get to take a few dogs or cats out for individual human interaction, but those are basically designated for senior staff it seems like. You may be scheduled to work every single holiday and only Thanksgiving and Christmas are paid holidays (you can’t request time off for any days around the holidays. If you can’t work around the holidays, you’re out of a job.) Someone always calls out so there’s usually always room for extra hours and overtime.

You have to consistently step outside of your job description!
You don’t get paid enough for all the stress you will have to deal with.
You consistently have to work on your 10 min breaks  or won’t get a 10 min break at all and lunches due to understaffing and stress of finishing daily activities. 
Management changes every year due to corporate never training their managers adequately and throughly.
They constantly hire outside the company with no experience in the pet industry so our managers tend to fail while upon hiring and then corporate blames the new hire manager. The company is going broke so you can forget about a yearly raise or any growth on the company. They will string you along about a promotion just to get you to work harder (hence working outside of job description) just to never follow through with what they promised or will leave you guessing. They have treated their senior employees as they are disposable even after all the years and holidays they gave up with their families to keep the company running and happy. They complain about labor but put 35 dogs per handler which in my opinion isn’t even doable. That means that handler is watching over 35 dogs while doing everything else. Workplace can be very toxic and high school type of vibe. Lots of gossip. 


Working here can be incredibly frustrating due to a lack of proper training and constantly changing policies. New hires are thrown into their roles with minimal guidance, which leads to confusion, mistakes, and unnecessary stress. Policies are inconsistent—what’s acceptable one day may be discouraged the next, and WHO gets reprimanded is unpredictable.

The high turnover is no surprise; burnout is rampant due to short staffing and constant sick call outs daily. Animal care also suffers because of this , which is hard to watch and even harder to try to support and play catch up with so many tasks that need to be done in a short timeframe. LOTS of turnover in all positions —management and corporate included too. It’s disheartening to watch so many people leave simply because the environment makes it nearly impossible to succeed. While some coworkers are great and genuinely try to help, the overall culture feels unstable and reactive rather than supportive and growth-oriented. 

If you value clear communication, consistent expectations, and sustainable workloads, this may not be the right place for you.

Having been here for years, I can say that there are definitive ups and downs in this fast paced environment. Since the clientele is constantly changing, you really need to adapt fast and be very patient with things changing on a day to day basis. Beyond that, the work is not easy. People here are very helpful when you truly need the help, but each day comes attached with some sort of small issue that could have been easily avoided with past effort. That being said, the staff generally seems to truly care for the animals - even if it may not look that way to some. Appearances can be very deceiving in the animal world. 

The longest surviving issue that has plagued this company for years is communication. Rather, lack of communication to save face for the company. Not talking to clients about issues, not asking/caring about someone's opinion, finding issues between coworkers, handling altercations, most of it could be avoided with simple things - but these things will likely always remain. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Pet bather 34 salaries reported	$19.44 per hour
Dog daycare attendant 49 salaries reported	$18.24 per hour
Pet groomer 20 salaries reported	$60,000 per year
Attendant 27 salaries reported	$19.61 per hour
Front desk agent 23 salaries reported	$17.90 per hour

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