The Dog Stop - Gulf Breeze, FL - Gulf Breeze, Florida

Nathan Statham

My wife and I dropped off our fur baby Barry for daycare so we could spend a few hours at the zoo. No appointment needed! It was nice being able to check and see Barry online and watch him play with the other pups. Really gives you peace of mind if you get a little separation anxiety leaving your pet for the day. The staff were incredibly friendly, professional and knowledgeable of their services. Seems like a great place if you want to spend the day at the beach since they’re just a few minutes away from Pensacola Beach. We’re looking forward to boarding him soon for a few days. We know he’ll be in great hands! PS. Your dog will be very tired when he comes home 🙂

Kaelin

Stopped in for their open house. Owner & staff were very friendly & thorough during the tour. Prices are really fair. Dogs seem to have a lot of play/interaction time.
I will definitely consider boarding my furbaby there.

S B

Friendly staff, no appointment needed (after initial onboarding), dogs seem to love it. Doesn’t always smell great walking in though and I’ve had to avoid some stray poop at least twice (probably more a reflection on the dog owners than the staff though), but overall good place to let your pups socialize and play.

patricia b

I’m so thankful for Dog Stop. My dog loves it. A great place for socialization and for him to get out any pent up energy. The staff are awesome!!! I recommend this place highly, your dog will be very happy!

Karely Morales

Very professional staff. I took three dogs for full day daycare service, one of them did not do well the second day, but the personnel at the dog stop handle the situation very well and communicated everything with me instead of trying to push the situation and force my dog to stay. They understood he was struggling and was very stressed and called me to picked them up. This tells me that they care more about the well being of the dog instead of collecting money for the service. Great place that cares for the furry ones!

K Saty

To preface this review I would like to say I’m only giving this establishment 2 stars based on the employees. They were kind, helpful and genuinely seemed like nice people.

However, my first experience here was seriously lacking in professionalism and put my puppy in a dangerous position. What he experienced at 4 months old during his temp test has now set the precedent for his future interactions with other dogs.

This is what happened:

We called ahead and confirmed that a temp test could be performed today so we could possibly introduce our puppy to daycare and start desensitizing him to new dogs and social interactions.

I let the staff know multiple times (by phone and upon arrival) this would be his FIRST interaction with another dog. I asked on the phone how the process was performed and was told they would put him in a small dog room (he’s a pom puppy and only 3.5 lbs) and introduced to another small dog of similar size and calm nature to see how he react. Both would be leashed. Then depending on how he reacted they would slowly add in more dogs and gauge his response. None of this happened.

We were understandably not allowed to watch the test in person, so we watched on the dog camera for the toy room. From the time he left our care till we were able to pull up the camera feed was about 5 minutes. Within that time we saw our 3.5 lbs puppy unleashed in a room with 4 other unleashed dogs chasing him down around the room. These 4 other dogs were double in his size and extremely active puppies. The largest was a grey hound that dove at my dog and chased him around the trainers legs before they picked him up and left the room. The grey hound continued to jump and try to reach my dog in the trainers arms until they left the room.

From my perspective they had ZERO control of the situation. Once my dog was returned to me he was absolutely terrified and shaking. This is completely unprofessional and a dangerous precedent to set for testing the dogs that come into your care. Their solution was to come back in 2 months, rather than conduct an appropriate temp test. Unleashing him in a room with 4 other high energy larger dogs is not a temp test.

I would like to ask this to the business:
What training do your handlers receive to be capable of properly performing these temp tests?
What accreditations do they hold to be certified to do this?
Where is this showcased as I do not see it anywhere on your website?

This visit has set my young puppy up for failure when it should have been success. I trusted your establishment based on your outstanding reviews to take care of my animal. You did not and he was in danger. If I was in the room, I would have immediately stopped the test and taken my puppy back.

To everyone reading this I offer a word of caution before you choose this location and to the management I welcome a discussion on this matter. Thank you.

Edit/update:

In response to management’s reply I have lowered my review to a one star. They clearly do not care to address issues as they did not even read my review in its entirety.

To management: a few of your details are wrong. Let me set the record straight on a few things within your response.

First, my dog is a he not a she.
Second, I clearly stated a grey hound puppy not Great Dane.
Third, you are incorrect in your assessment of what happened. I witnessed this live with my spouse through your dog web camera feed. You may review your own feed to see what we saw.

Please consider rereading my earlier review to get a better account of what happened today. I appreciate your advice and will keep that in mind for training with him. Have a nice evening.

Courtney A

I absolutely love this place! We were on vacation and noticed a lot of beaches don’t allow dogs. We were worried about leaving my Belgian Malinois at our rental but found this place, dropped her off for a day! I was able to get pictures and call any time to check on her, I would definitely take her back when I come back in the area! Thank you for loving my baby!

Walt Harris

Our golden was scheduled for 4 nights of boarding while we were traveling out of country. We paid in advance for 4 nights. We get a voice mail on day three to pick our dog up due to kennel cough. Plus he had been throwing up for two days. Picked our dog up that night and no one at dog stop could tell us any details of our pets problems. Now we have a $40+ credit that we can not get back. "Must be used instore, but only on certain services". Will never use this place again.