pet groomer

dog daycare attendant

coach

front desk receptionist

front desk agent

Dogtopia

A lot that is done here is to cut corners and is hidden under the guise of canine knowledge. 

There's no reason 2 people cannot be in the room. One person should be there to control the dogs and the other is purely there for cleanup.It's impossible to read a situation between dogs when you are picking up dog feces or trying to mop up vomit and 1 out of the 7 problematic dogs there that day start a scuffle. 

Too many corrections to dogs have to be done off camera out of fear a touchy customer watching you on the webcam will complain. There are a lot of activities we are pushed to do for the camera's sake to a point where you eventually have to divide your attention from badly trained dogs (who shouldn't even be in a daycare) to blow bubbles at dogs who could careless. 


If you are going into the job with no canine experience, good luck. The training is abysmal, mostly due to there being only a couple "senior" employees (senior there means more than 1 year) and you will be dealing with dogs who require serious professional training. This will be communicated to the customers but never enforced. These dogs will be in your room almost DAILY and sometimes their behaviour deteriorates the longer they're there. 


The end of shift cleaning is the worst part. You're barely trained on how to do it and they hate anyone staying longer than 5 hours. 

The managers always seem to be very surprised by the way you do things when you're doing exactly what you were trained to do. Even worst is when they're upset that you're not following Dogtopia protocol even though no one who's training you is following it. This would be fine in the first week or two but this will likely follow you you're entire time there as the rules are constantly changing and never being communicated properly. 


Overall the company is a mess and the dogs would be worth it if the pay was better and there was better screening on dogs to make the environment less chaotic and stressful for the employee and the dogs in the room. And promotions do not mean raises there. Remember that when they talk about moving you up a few months after you start.

There are two main roles, you're either a Canine Coach(CC) (who later becomes a Rover) or a Front Desk Coordinator(FDC). 

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CCs are trained alongside an experienced Coach and then assigned to rooms which dictates the size of the dogs they will be handling, there's a Gym and Romper for Medium to Big dogs, and a toybox for small ones each with a cap of around 35 dogs, although that cap is usually disregarded for the sake of sales. You are not allowed to leave the room until your Rover comes to cover your room for you, even in the event of an injury, and Rovers are usually busy. CCs are responsible for keeping their rooms as clean as possible, picking up after dogs, cleaning play equipment and crates and later on using vacuums and scrubbers, which are poorly maintained since they're never serviced

You learn valuable information when it comes to dog behaviors, training techniques and dog breeds and you can use that information to improve the energy of your room, the more experience you are the easier it is to handle your dogs. 

Front Desk Coordinators are concerned with client management and sales, your hours are supposedly dictated by the quantity of sales you make and you are the main face that is spoken to regarding whatever goes on within the rooms, in other words, whenever something bad is seen happening in the rooms, you will have to explain why these things are happening. 

Management is a coinflip, you either get a manager that understands the facility, what it needs, is able to handle client and staff requests/ complaints or you get a manager that won't be ideal. 

Workplace culture is largely dictated by coworkers and managers, good relations equals parties, free lunches and a cooperative team. Bad relations usually translates to poor team communication and just makes the job all the more harder. 

tl;dr
The work is a lot, the pay isn't too great, your workplace atmosphere will rely on your manager.

This had been my dream job for a long while. Would be great to have on my application to vet school. Started off with online training and modules which went well. Then the in-room training started. I was told I was doing amazing and that I had potential from other coworkers I trained with after my first few shifts. Management was nice and wanted to know how I was feeling but even with all the praise, they still decided to fire me. The reason being that I was not confident enough with the dogs. It was only my seventh shift in the room and I was still learning the ropes about working there so I believe it was harsh and unfair to fire me that quick. During my tenth shift I was going to have a test in my skills which I was feeling confident in. I was told I was let go from someone I had never met before (Didn't even know her name) and it was right after the best shift I had. It was not a very professional way to handle things I believe. I was told I could have a second chance their next summer but after what happened, I do not think I will give them a chance from me. They also expect you to be able to handle up to 35 dogs by yourself. If dogs are their number one priority, they should have adequate staff to make sure the dogs are happy, not one person in the room with people watching on the cameras. At least 2 people in the rooms with the dogs at all times. Very disappointed in this company after this experience. 

Being a dog lover, and not afraid of hard work, the job itself was fun, rewarding, and not too difficult. The problem with this location is the owner and some of the employees. The owner spends no time trying to ensure that the dogs and staff have a safe place to be. The rooms where the dogs are kept are falling apart and the owner doesn't care and isn't willing to do anything about it. Also, it's fine for one coach to have upwards of 40 dogs, even if there is an empty room because they want to save money. Personally, I don't think it's safe for the dogs because that's just too many for one person to keep track of. Also, the pay here is very low for the amount of responsibility we take on and forget about raises or promotions. If you want benefits, my advice is to nag and nag and nag every day till you get them cause simply asking to be added to the plan and completing the forms doesn't seem to do it. The staff here generally love dogs, even if they don't love to do their jobs or show up when they are supposed to. The managers are great and are doing their best to run a successful business, but it's clear to me they are handcuffed and can't get the owner to pay people better (which would attract better workers and increase worker retention which are both big problems at this location) or ensure the staff have the supplies and resources needed to do the job properly. 

I loved my job at Dogtopia. The management are amazing and it was so much fun, and honestly if it was financially feasible I would go back in a heartbeat, but:

~ Pay is minimum wage. I worked 40+ hours a week and could barely afford my commute
~ the actual labour of the job is, frankly, yucky. I think an excellent improvement to the facilities would be to have a sink or some sort of personal sanitization station in the playroom.
~ there are times when I felt the conditions in the playroom were unsafe, and I feel the situation would be vastly improved by having more than one person in the playroom, or further limiting the number of dogs per coach.
~ the role of sanitation falls solely on the coaches. This feels like a solution for when the business was short staffed that became standard practice to save money.

A job like this one is definitely not for everyone and definitely a lot of chaos management (sometimes it feels like herding cats, or I guess dogs.) but if you like it it is one of the most fun, rewarding things you'll ever do with an excellent management staff and an adequately civil store culture. I don't think most people will be cut out for Dogtopia, or any doggy daycare job really, but if you truely, genuinely love dogs this will be a perfect fit for you.

I have been here since it opened and yes in the beginning it could be a very stressful negative place to work. Our old General Manager would make us work with aggressive dogs and not listen to Canine Coach concerns about safety of staff or dogs. We lost a lot of good staff before he left. Current GM is great and always tries to accommodate staff and dogs needs when possible! As long as you follow the training and there is a lot lol. You will do fine. It is a lot of work as you are on your feet watching, interacting or cleaning all day but very rewarding. We currently have a great and communicative team! Not for everyone as you need to manage a large amount of dogs as calmly as possible on your own. You will get jumped on, scratched and bruised at times and occasionally mouthed it's part of the job when working with lots of energetic pups lol. Must be communicative, patient, dedicated, flexible, dependable, compassionate, and a hard worker. You are not just playing with dogs!

Now that I am working at a functioning dog daycare, I am in disbelief about my experience. The interview was simple - questions and time in the rooms. The manager was friendly, talked about a family like environment and even a stocked kitchen! I was so excited to start. 
Only one room had access to running water - not great for changing mop buckets or washing hands after you get feces on your hands (You will get feces on you). I was made to feel guilty when asking for a washroom or lunch break. The manager was often in a bad mood, fine whatever, but don’t take it out on your employees. The company training videos showed walkie-talkies and constant communication with all other employees. We were given phones that were often on low battery. And good luck trying to get anyone to answer. One room just didn’t have a phone. I had to wait by the door until someone walked by to ask for help after I was bitten and bleeding. I was told to wait a moment because they were grabbing another dog. Pet owners would often call and complain about their pet not being in view of the camera enough or not playing enough or whatever. Boarding dogs were kept in the same room with no fresh air or sunlight, sometimes for weeks. There was no limit on dogs in the room - just get as many in there as you can so you can take all that money!!! I’m so mad just thinking about this place.

When I started it was fantastic, everything was up to standard other than the fact that the dog to staff ratio was around 45:1 most of the time, but it was an overall enjoyable place to work. After COVID, some management left and it went downhill from there, and management now focuses more on grooming than the business, and is extremely hands off. It takes them upwards of 3 months to answer basic questions about benefits, vacation time, etc, & don’t always get your breaks. You’ll be asked to do the front staffs duties while they sit and chat at the desk for 2 hours, even if you’re in the middle of a task yourself. If you speak up for yourself or get on ‘managements bad side’ they’ll ignore you, even when you’re in the playroom with the dogs in situations that can potentially escalate. Management plays favourites, and the most senior staff get special treatment such as hour long breaks, and the most set schedule. Speaking of schedules, you get them weekly here, pretty much 2 days before the week starts, and each week your shifts are different, so don’t expect to have any social life. Although the daycare itself is great, with webcams and proper cleaning protocols, it feels like it’s front staff vs back staff, and it makes for a frustrating work environment. 

I really wanted to love this job because the dogs are amazing — it’s so easy to get attached to them, and that part was genuinely fulfilling. But unfortunately, the way things are run made it really hard to stay. Training and pay didn’t feel nearly enough for the responsibilities we had. After about 10 days, you're expected to handle groups of up to 40 dogs by yourself, which can be super overwhelming, especially when some of the dogs have serious behavioral issues.

There is in-house training for the dogs, but in my experience, it didn’t do much for the more challenging cases. Those dogs probably need more professional help, which made daily work stressful. Calling in sick wasn’t really an option either — even when I was very sick, I was pressured to come in because getting a shift covered was tough and calling out wasn’t looked at kindly.

Management at the location I worked at seemed really overworked, which made it hard for them to fully support the team. The job is physically and mentally demanding, and the pay just didn’t match the level of responsibility. Most new hires didn’t make it through training, which I think says a lot.

Working with the dogs was the best part, hands down. I just wish the company offered better support and conditions for the people doing the work.

The condescending nature of the way you’re spoken to is enough to absolutely destroy your mental health. What starts out as a pretty exciting and often overwhelming and stressful little career quickly turns into an absolute high school nightmare filled with immature women. It’s incredibly rewarding working with dogs and it’s very easy to become invested in the work. It’s hard not to care about the dogs. It’s truly pathetic how they present themselves to the public and then turn around and treat the staff like the waste the dogs leave behind. On top of putting older and smaller dogs in dangerous situations. Putting 50+ dogs in a chaotic room completely ignoring the dogs that are absolutely terrified because “they need those numbers”. Everything rolls downhill so whatever problem the front end is having, and they’re always having problems with the blatant disorganization due to absolute archaic methods of recording anything and treating people on top of the incredibly incompetent staff they regard as “front end management”. Certain staff members will be reprimanded for something while others can do the same thing and be presented with a blind eye. Understand that you are not good enough before you start as that’s how you will be treated.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Pet groomer 10 salaries reported	$23.76 per hour
Dog daycare attendant 16 salaries reported	$18.27 per hour
Coach 10 salaries reported	$17.88 per hour
Front desk receptionist 6 salaries reported	$18.08 per hour
Front desk agent 4 salaries reported	$18.20 per hour

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