A DOGS LIFE in Cambuslang, Glasgow

My 16 week old puppy went to A Dogs Life while i went away on holiday this summer (2014). While on holiday I texted Martina for an update and failed to get a reply, two days later I sent another text and since I had failed to receive a message back I then emailed her. It took 10 days before a short reply was sent saying that the dog was fine. When I returned home and picked my dog up from Martina's home my dog was extremely underweight and I was really alarmed at this. When I got home and the dog began settling back into life at home it became clear that she wasn't well as she was having terrible tummy problems, being sick and having an upset tummy. I texted Martina to ask was she not well while in her care and did the dog get anyone else's food, as she is on a diet of Lilly Kitchen and not used to the usual supermarket pet food. My dog was so ill I had to take her to an emergency vet appointment and the vet advised she was extremely under weight for her age, she was given antibiotics and was put on a white pasta/white chicken diet for a week. Martina never replied and to this day I am still very angry that more care was not taken with my dog. The vet confirmed that any reputable dog sitter/walker should have taken her to the vet had she been ill for more than two days as this situation could have been life threatening for a pup.

I would not recommend A Dogs Life to anyone. In hindsight when I went to view the house I was not allowed to go ay further than the living room and all the other doors to the rooms where closed. When exiting the property I could see a large pack of dogs in the back garden and there were 4 people carriers full of dog cages parked at the house. They say that all the dogs in day care and home boarding are returned to the house, so I can only think that the kitchen hide dogs in crates and the dogs allowed out are rotated. When I picked up my dog I was also not given back any of the food that she had during her stay, which is really expensive, Nor did Martina confirm that it had all been used. Martina also advised that my dog had had a few accidents in her crate at night and her bedding was returned dirty. My dog has NEVER had any accidents in her crate.

To conclude I think A Dogs Life are a terrible company who fail to give you updates (which they promised they would) and who do not look after your dog properly. Please do not leave your dog in their care.

We have used A Dog's Life a few times now but on the last occasion we left our dog for a week and when we came back our dog had 2 very bad eye infections and Martina did not return our text message about what happened (very hard to get hold of on the phone so text is usually effective). We immediately went to the vet and he said one of the eyes had an ulcer and he prescribed antibiotics and eye drops and told us to come back in 3 days to check progress. On the way back on the 3rd day, the left eye on our dog ruptured and the vet referred us to an emergency appointment with the University of Glasgow Small Animal Hospital. Eye specialist George Peplinski told us the bad news that the rupture was in the centre of the eye and was too big and the best thing to do was remove the eye and concentrate on protecting the other eye. We were devastated. Martina did not respond to our questions about what happened and will never use A Dog's Life again.

I left my 2 dogs here last May and when they were picked up the were both very underweight will all ribs and spine showing i was really upset. At the time it was the first time i had left my dogs so thought it was maybe seperation anxiety but i have since left my dogs with other companies and they have been fine. My male dog was very quiet and strange for a week after we got him back and was covered in strange scabs as if he had been scratched by another dog. I was abroad so my mum spent 3 days phoning Martina afternoon and night and couldn't get ahold of anybody to see if my dogs had settled in ok when we had been promised they would keep in contact with my mum and let her know how the dogs were. I would never use A dogs life again and would certainly warn anybody else from leaving their dogs with them.