Digstown Doggie Day Care Lodge & Spaw

I was impressed after our initial trial day, so our dog Ranger stayed here for a weekend while we were out of town. We dropped him off Thursday morning and a few hours later received a call that he was in a scuffle and had a «scratch» on his ear. We were told he was all patched up and doing fine, and they would keep a close eye on it for the weekend. When we saw him on Sunday evening his ear had fresh blood. In addition to his ear wound, he had sores all over his mouth. We took him to our vet who immediately told us to find a new daycare. We emailed Digstown to inform them of the sores, etc. but never received a reply. 8 months and multiple vet visits later, Ranger’s ear wound still breaks open occasionally when playing… quite the «scratch».

as i type this i hear snoring… since i don’t have a boyfriend at the moment it can only be coming from my dog (a dog who just spent the day no doubt spazzing out at digstown).
i have been coming to digstown for (best guess) almost a year, with most frequently having visits 4x a week over the past few months. like a previous person mentioned, they call if there is an incident or if there is a visible injury (in my dog’s case he practically has no fur and has sensitive skin so he’s always showing scratches). this always makes my heart beat fast as i fear the worst, but that is just me being ridiculous… i know that digstown has my pup’s best interest at heart and they love the big goofy blockhead that he is. they also were phenomenally flexible on the odd occasion i had to leave work late to go pick him up. hugely appreciated.
each day i drop him off and watch him sashay towards the back to go meet up with his friends — not even giving a look back to me as he goes. as they say, actions speak louder than words. oskar blues gives all 4 paws up for this place!

Dog owners are funny people lol … our dog (and we) love the place. Staff seems attentive and when there have been any «incidents» — like our dog roughhousing with another dog or vice versa (which just means they’re being dogs, humans!), they sometimes call with an update that they’ve separated the dogs for a while to let them chill out.
We do day care and overnights — no complaints at all. The best signal is our pup rushing out of the car with his tail wagging to get into the place!

Called to inquire about boarding my dog. Says on their website that if your dog had special needs, they will accommodate. I called and they wouldn’t accommodate my needs. My dog doesn’t do well in daycare after an attack by another dog. Well when I asked if my dog could skip daycare the answer was no. I don’t think that is a very tough request. He just needa boarding, not daycare. I mentioned the special needs portion of their website and that they probably should remove that if they couldn’t even accommodate a dog that didn’t want to attend doggy daycare. The women on the phone didn’t have much to say about that.

Our dogs love Digstown, they go once every week and it makes our lives sooo quiet once they get back!
I do wish they would replace their peat gravel with a softer surface as it took our dogs several months (~6) to develop enough calluses on their paws to the point where they weren’t coming home with large wounds after a full day here. It was concerning enough that we considered, several times, taking them elsewhere. However, they always seemed excited to go and we’re pleased with the outdoor space, the staff, the price, and the location that we continued to take them and keep a close eye on the paws. They now have no issues, but it took some time and a lot of TLC to get to this point.

I didn’t even get a chance to experience their service as I was refused service over the phone. They wouldn’t even let me schedule a trial assessment appointment… they flat out refused me service over the phone without even meeting my dogs. Issue was, one of my dogs has special needs… he has lost most of the functionality of his back legs. But he’s very easy chill and is very content to just hold down his bed all day and observe. But when he does want to get out and about, we have a state of the art wheelchair for him. For a doggy day care that touts that they specialize in catering to special needs, I was confused and very disappointed to be refused service point blank because they wouldn’t consider boarding my special needs dog. The atmosphere the lady described sounds perfect for my dogs, and I kept trying to argue with her and let her know it was a perfect fit, but she just kept apologizing and leaving it at that. For a place that says exactly this (pasted below) on their website, I am very upset that we were REFUSED SERVICE!
From their website:
DOES YOUR DOG HAVE SPECIAL NEEDS? If you pet is on medication, needs to be fed at a specific time or in a certain way, we’ll take care of it and we don’t charge any extra fees! We don’t believe that you should have to pay more for your pet to be cared for in the same loving manner he/​she would be at home!

Tried it out and learned there are far better dog day cares in the areas that have a lower dog to staff ratio.

Diggstown Review —
I’m would actually give Diggstown an overall review of 1.5 stars. I would say that their daycare services are about a 3 star rating and their boarding/​overnight services are about a 1 star rating.
We’ve been taking our two dogs to Diggstown for a little over a year now and I think that the daycare services they provide are fine. We haven’t had any issues with them as far as daycare is concerned, so I would recommend them to a friend or family member who is looking for a place to take their pup for the day, but I’m not sure it is a place I would rave about. Our pups come home tired and seem fairly happy with their stay, but the other reviews I have read make me a little more hesitant to bring my dogs back. I do like that you can only drop off and pick up your dogs at certain times, but I think this process for them can be improved a bit because those times are very chaotic and not very well managed.
We have boarded our dogs here twice so far and have had issues each time. The first time we boarded our pups, we were told that you could only drop off in the morning and pick up in the evening. We later found out this was not the case when we went in to pick them up we were charged an additional day for daycare. We argued with them and had the additional day refunded, but between the manager and the other staff it felt like no one actually knew what the policies on dropping off and picking up.
The second time we boarded our pups, we left them for a longer period of time (4 nights/​5days). And after this experience, I wouldn’t recommend them long term (more than 1 night) stays. Day care is included in the boarding fee, but the problem is that there are no breaks giving to the dogs that are staying multiple days. We recently took our dogs to stay for 4 nights/​5 days while we were out of town. One of my dogs came home limping when I took them out for their nightly walk. When I looked at her paws, she had VERY swollen and red pads. This issue was so bad that we ended up having to take her into the vet a few days later to have her checked for an infection, which she had. The whole event ended up being costly and avoidable since Diggstown clams to do «Paw Checks» every hour. However, they don’t do anything about a dog’s paws if they find they were irritated in any way. No breaks are automatically given, you have to request them, but you don’t know to requests breaks until you have an injured pup. I called to ask them if anything had happened during her stay when I noticed her limping (because no one bothered to say anything when we picked them up!) and was told that the Paw Check sheet said her paws were only slight red and irritated. I called the day after we had to take her into the vet and was told an entirely different story. I’m not really sure what is going on here, but I’m probably never going back to find out.
Bottom line, if you need a place for daycare, this place is fine. But unless you want to make an extra trip to your vet, I wouldn’t leave your four-​legged friends here for longer than 1 day.

We had a great experience with Digstown! Knowing my in-​laws couldn’t take our little pup when we were going out of town to a wedding, we did a trial day. I was a terribly nervous mom at drop-​off… My husband picked her up at the end of the day and man was she beat! They gave him a FULL rundown on everything she did and he was very impressed by the detail. Not only was she sleepy when she came home but we noticed that her manners have improved with other dogs. We can teach her the human relations but she needs to be socialized to learn how to interact with other dogs, and she has been missing that! She was fabulous and so was Digstown.
We left for our trip to early to drop her off so my mother-​in-​law did the drop off. She was very impressed with the facility too. I called at least once a day while we were gone and they often put me on hold to go in the back and check on her so I got a good and detailed report about what she was doing. She also was on some meds during that time and they gave her her pill just like they were supposed to. They used enough food that i believe they followed my detailed instructions. She had a blast for four days. They said she even got other dogs to play that aren’t usually players. :) They also said that she played so hard for three days that by the fourth she just wanted to hang with the staff and so she napped in the office. :)
We picked her up clean, happy and tired. They even made accommodations so we could pick her up early since we had another wedding that day. One final thing, staying at Digstown taught her how to sleep in her bed and out of the crate. It was great to have them do that for us so we didn’t have to deal with the transition! Worked perfectly!
One thing I wish they had were cameras… I would like to spy on her during the day! :) All around, great experience and blocks from our house! Whooo!

Don’t take your dog here! My dog is a picky eater, and I left very specific instructions about how to mix his food when I boarded him here for the week. Not only has my dog clearly lost weight since I dropped him off, he was absolutely ravenous when I got home. He inhaled his entire bowl of food and then a second bowl. I couldn’t believe how hungry he was. All the food I sent him with was gone, but they obviously didn’t care whether he ate his food or not. They didn’t even bother to call me when he hadn’t eaten his food. If they would have called to tell me my dog wasn’t eating, I would have given them additional instructions about mixing more of the canned food in. I don’t know what kind of daycare they’re running over there, but if your dog is a picky eater, don’t board him there unless you want him to starve while you’re gone!!! A bunch of kids are running the place with no supervision whatsoever.

I agree with Deena’s review (in the other Digstown entry on Unilocal) about customer service, and I wish I would have seen this review before I started taking our dog there. Our one year old puppy had been going there for about a month and we had no reason to suspect that things weren’t going well. Every time we pick up our puppy from daycare, we ask how things went, and every time, they’ve said he’s had fun and had a good day. We decided to board him there for the first time last weekend when we went out of town for four days. Then we get a phone call at 6:30 in the morning while we’re over 1200 miles away from home telling us that our dog had injured himself while he was muzzled. Apparently he was getting into dogs’ faces in the morning and a little too rambunctious, so they thought muzzling him would calm him down. On the contrary, he probably freaked out and tried to get the muzzle off, so he ended up scratching himself on the nose. Or who knows how long the muzzle was left on and it was rubbing against his nose. The whole area on top of his nose is pink and the fur has rubbed off. When I asked why I wasn’t told about the muzzle when it was needed, they said, «Oh, it’s in the fine print in the boarding contract. You basically said we could use it when you signed the contract.» I’m unhappy with the fact that we were never contacted when there was a problem, and even more disgusted that no one ever provided an accurate update of our dog’s time at daycare. I told them that other daycares use time-​out, and apparently NOW they’re telling me that they have tried time-​out in the past and he was scratching at the door and barking. There was never any indication that he was too rambunctious for other dogs in daycare. If I would have even suspected that he would have had problems at Digstown while we were gone, I never would have considered boarding him there while we were out of town, but I would have made other arrangements with a house sitter. Why was I hearing it for the first time AFTER they had already tried timeout several times? There is absolutely no communication from the staff or between staff members. When my husband arrives to pick up our dog, it’s so chaotic. Even when he asks about how the dog did, they just tell him that things went great and the dog had a great day, even though they might be experiencing behavior problems early in the morning when his energy level is highest. We are new clients, and we ask how things went to see if things are going well for our dog at a new facility. Aside from lack of communication to us, the morning manager, Jack, hadn’t even left a note for the afternoon assistant manager to tell her he had to wake us up in Portland because our puppy was muzzled and got injured. When we picked up the dog, the assistant manager didn’t even have any clue that there had ever been a problem with our puppy. Finally she went to the back to ask around, and she said he’d had timeouts in the past.
One has to wonder why there are no webcams anywhere in the facility. Many daycares in this price range have webcams in every room so you can view your dog from work anytime. It’s not too much to ask for the price they charge. They’re also very sensitive about people peeping over the fence – there’s a sign that says it bothers the dogs, but perhaps the fear behind people watching is that there are dogs running around with muzzles on. There’s no way of telling how many dogs have had to wear a muzzle for being too rambunctious and no way of telling how long it’s been left on. All I know is, the top of my dog’s nose is rubbed raw. In Denver’s intense heat, it is really inhumane to muzzle a dog so he can’t have access to water.
The other daycare we took him to, City Bark, had an awesome staff. We never would have left if we hadn’t temporarily moved to Stapleton, as we are in between houses right now. The City Bark staff uses timeout and spray bottles, and they will tell you as much as you want to hear about your dog. We knew we had a rambunctious little puppy, and the City Bark staff will occasionally give him naps (timeout) when he doesn’t listen. They also use spray bottles for bad behavior rather than muzzles.
Digstown is just not the right place for us. Our dog is our baby, and if they can’t even give accurate updates about our dog until something escalates and our dog gets injured while we are over 1200 miles away, how can I trust them to take care of him? Forget it. There are several great daycares out there and Digstown is not one of them.

I visited this daycare over the weekend, only to find there was no one manning the front desk as i waited for 15 minutes. I finally had to call and have someone meet me in their own office.
The daycare looked fine, they were cleaning and the temperature was pleasant. However, it was very boring and dull.
I did plan to try them out with my newest puppy, a Bernese mountain dog mix, who is considered a large breed and therefore the vet recommended he not be neutered until 8months old due to growth during these few months. The daycare has a policy of all dogs being neutered by 6months because of mounting and aggression which is understandable.
However, my puppy who just turned 5months has learned the art of mounting, as all other dogs do once in awhile, and management told me that they would have me pick him up if he were to start mounting other dogs (a PUPPY) and he wouldn’t be allowed back until he was neutered.
I’ve owned many dogs and have always taken them to daycare, without a neutering issue at the puppy stages. I decided to give them a try since they are close to my home in stapleton, but it seems they have a huge issue with PUPPIES mounting, so i will take the time and money to travel elsewhere, a place where my puppy can learn and grow comfortably since their staff cannot control NORMAL dog/​puppy behavior.
Disappointed!

i haven’t actually used their doggie daycare services. and won’t. i was completely unimpressed during our visit there. The staff was curt. The gate in the front office wasn’t closed. If someone was entering the lobby when a dog was brought out, the pup could literally run out the door. And Montview is a busy road. One woman asked to see where her dog has been that day and was told no. Although its closest to work, the people and their practices didn’t instill any sense that they’d be good with my little girl.

I’m going to go with 4 stars right now with the right to update with future doggie visits.
Let me introduce my dog to you, her name is Anja (An-​ya) and she is a white Shepherd husky mix and she is currently 95 pounds, on a diet at the moment.
I was looking for a place that could provide both doggie daycare and boarding options for some of my future trips back to the East Coast. This place is within a mile of my apartment and the perfect location for me in Stapleton. I called ahead of time and asked about vaccinations required to make sure my girl was all up to date. Once I was ready to try them out I called the morning of (last minute) and asked if I could bring Anja that day. They were very accommodating and said of course.
When I arrived, I was greeted with a friendly smile and asked to fill out new doggie paperwork. Honestly if I had a child this would be the «First Day of School» packet. Questions about her, her size, if she was friendly with all dogs no matter the size, how she was with people, if they could give her treats and so on. Once done they took her back and I looked on like an emotional mother leaving her baby and wondering if she would be alright. Since it was her first day, they promised to call with an update on she was doing in the afternoon.
I received a call promptly around 11:30 telling me that she was little shy and checking things out, not really playing but observing. They said she was doing well. If you knew my dog you would know that she can be very shy at first especially without her Mom helping her along. The bonus about Digstown is that I can pick her up between 4:00 and 7:30 at night which gives me enough time to get some stuff done after work without feeling guilty of leaving my baby at home. Also, second bonus is that first day or test day is free to see how your doggie does. Love that!
I’m very pleased thus far with the customer service I’ve received and way my baby has been treated. She is coming home tired and happy, just how she likes it.
I bought a package, which reduces the price per day to $ 25, for the potential of up to 12 – 13 hours of doggie play time in a day. The prices go down the more visits you buy at a time. I think that’s pretty good for any dog owner that wants the best for their pup.
I will provide an update after her first boarding experience. So far, great doggie daycare facility for our furry friends.

We’ve been taking our dog Boone to Digstown since the opening day as well. He’s a complete spaz and wreaks havoc at all the local dog parks, so we were worried he’d be expelled in no time. After a short breaking in period and lots of TLC from the staff, he found his home away from home. We know he’s made a lot of friends there. Very professional and courteous crew who all care a great deal about the residents. After a while you’ll need to blindfold your dog when you drive him there, or he’ll make a mess of your car as you’re pulling up! Highly recommended.

I unfortunately never reviewed Digstown 4 years ago when we had a negative experience but my second experience was clearly so bad that I have now decided to write one.
We left our dog for her first overnight stay when she was 5 months old. Being Stapleton residents, we were excited to support a small business that was conveniently located in our neighborhood. We returned from our trip to find our normally very excited/​very eager puppy limping toward us on three legs with one eye swollen shut… When we asked the Digstown staff what had happened to her, they gave us blank stares and said they didn’t know. That perhaps her paws were «sore» from playing on the gravel. We ended up having to take her to the vet, after hours, and found out she had a raging infection that started in one of her paws and ended up in the lymph nodes of her arm.
I know things happen. Dogs play hard. What I don’t understand is: (1) why were we never called and informed of what happened? (2) why did the staff have no clue what happened, even though they advertise having a «low» staff to dog ratio? (3) why did the OWNER take absolutely no responsibility for the negligence of his staff members and proceed to blame us for «not supporting small business»? We chose to find another doggy daycare.
Recently, we had heard that Digstown was under new ownership, so we decided to give them another try. I called to make a daycare reservation for her this week. One of the staff member called me back and left a message saying that they had room and to bring her the next morning. The same staff member called back three minutes later to say that she had made a mistake and that our dog couldn’t come after all. No explanation. My husband called the next day to find out what happened and was told a manager had to call him back… When they finally got back to him, the manager was over the top rude and defensive right off the bat. He stated that there was a «negative» incident four year ago, that our dog had been «blacklisted», and that they did not want our business.
So much for second chances… if I had the choice, I would give Digstown negative stars, but since that’s not an option, one star will have to do. As a small business owner, it makes me sad to see that businesses like this are actually in business.

I lived in Stapleton for about two years. We frequently were out of town and needed a place to watch our older dog while we were gone. Since Digstown was close, we gave it a try.
They gave us a tour of the facility. They had three runs, one for large dogs, one for small dogs, and one for special dogs. They had a low staff to dog ratio and gave each dog their own place to sleep at night. We really liked that they had a separate space for small dogs. Our pup was a new addition to the family and we could tell already that he was not much a fan of other dogs, especially big ones.
Our dog LOVED it! He is a small dog that likes to cuddle and prefers humans to other dogs. The Digstown people were very accommodating to our dog and gave him the special attention that he wanted/​needed. They often commented on how much they loved having him there and gave us silly (but cute) report cards with every visit.
When we would pack our bags to go out of town, Andre’ (our dog) would get so excited. When we dropped him off, he would not even stick around to say goodbye. He was off to go hang out with the Digstown staffers.
I never felt guilty dropping my dog off here. I knew he would have a great time and would be well cared for. We have moved out of state now and I am on the hunt for a place like Digstown!

I’ve brought my dogs here twice just for doggie daycare. I’ve never had a problem with the staff, when I drop them off they know their names and seem genuinely happy to see my dogs.
My dogs came home exhausted and happy. I even asked them to bath the girls, they were clean fluffy and were wearing bandanas when I picked them up. They even noticed that my dogs ears were a little dirty, and mentioned it to me.
I will continue to bring my dogs here. They love the pool and the attention they get. I also appreciate that my dogs don’t stink like kennel and they spend the majority of the day outside, unlike other day care’s that don’t have a pool and/​or outdoor space.

I’m no longer a customer of Digstown. The past two times I’ve boarded my Min Pins, the staff did not follow my very specific, written instructions. When called out on it, they didn’t care, or offer any sort of restitution. Poor customer service, young/​incompetent workers, and a «who cares» attitude have really turned me off. To boot, my two dogs have come home shell-​shocked. I will not return, and can’t recommend this place.
STILL on the hunt for excellent small (and middle-​aged/​calm) dog daycare/​boarding.

Yes, the facility is new but I think that this is more impressive to us humans and not our dogs. For this, I give them a star.
We recently left our pup there for 5 days (so hard — the first time we’ve been away from her for that long) and are not impressed. They seemed indifferent to special instructions and when I called, I got generic answers like, «Oh yeah, she’s fine.» When I asked if she has been given her medication, the girl responded confusingly, «What medication.» Never mind that I had left explicit instructions for them. It seems to me that most of their staff are 18 years old or less and, as I have said, indifferent.
When I arrived that day to pick her up I noticed that there was still an extra baggie of food (labeled for that day. Yes, I put each meal in zip lock bags and labeled them with the date and AM or PM). When I asked why she wasn’t fed this morning, the young lady stared at me blankly. «Oh, she did,» she said. «Um, okay. Why is this bag of food still here?» I asked. Still puzzled, she excused herself and disappeared into the back. She returned after 5 minutes and said that my dod «just didn’t eat this morning.» Not wanting to continue, I left. Trust me — — my puppy would never skip a meal. I am convinced that they just forgot and didn’t want to tell me so. This all makes me wonder if other meals were missed — — and if my dog really got her eye drops — — or if they really payed attention to her.
As I drove off I realized that I had forgotten to get her bed that I brought (otherwise, the dogs sleep on cold concrete floors). I came back in and asked if she would get it for me. «We don’t have a bed for her,» she said. I explained that I brought it in when we arrived last week and surely it was an oversight. «Are you sure you didn’t take it when you left with your other stuff?» she asked.
Are you kidding me? Y E S I am sure. Are you sure that you are really a doggie daycare or did you just decide to ride the wave of the ever-​growing pet industry in Denver?
Needless to say, she was starving when she got home. .. and absolutely exhausted. Not in the normal, «Oh my god — — I played my ass off at day care today.» This was worse. She obviously didn’t receive the mid-​day naps I asked them to give her. BTW, this place does NOT give mid-​day naps like most other day care facilities. They say that they will IF you ask (which I did) but I really don’t think they do/​will. This is probably because it takes more work…
Perhaps people like Digstown for day care. Hell, I chose this place because of the two positive reviews — — even though my gut said to go with another place. I should have listened. My choice was a resounding mistake.
We are not the kind of freaky dog owners who think that our dog is really a human being — — or anything like that. But when we cannot be there for her, we expect that the place we hire will take good care of her. DO NOT LOOK TO DIGSTOWN FOR THIS KIND OF CARE. I hate to sound like such a complainer! I just want other folks to know about my experience.