Jersey City Unleashed

This will be our second year using JC Unleashed, and they’re the best! The handlers are very gently and caring with our son, and he obviously likes and trusts them all. We drop off our dog 1 – 2 times a week, knowing he is in safe and loving hands. The hours are great, and the big yard with playground sets is exactly what our son needs to dissipate excess energy. Grooming and boarding facilities are excellent too.
When I say «Do you want to go to daycare?», he does this mad and excited twirl on his hind legs, wagging his tail. Our dog is in the right place

I’ve taken my dog there many times for grooming and boarding. I only have good things to say about JCU. Most telling of all is that he jumps up the stairs whenever we get there and he can’t wait to get inside! You can’t beat that for an honest review.

I’ve been using Unleashed for a long time and I’ve never really had a major issue. All the dogs I’ve ever sent there love it. My current dog, Tobi, freaks out she is so excited to go — this is either when they come to pick her up of when I drop her off. And she is a Shiba… she is cold to everything not in the «inner circle». In all the years I’ve been sending my dogs there (and Hoboken before) I think once my Husky had a scratch on her face, which I got a call about, and let’s be honest, she probably deserved it, moreover, that happens in the dog park when I am monitoring her. She was fine, completely fine. Again, I got a call explaining, which was more than I needed. I know how dogs are. The grooming is great, my dog comes home all soft and clean and everyone I’ve ever met there seems to love dogs (maybe more than people! but can you blame them! HAHAHA!). When I email them with a question, or anything, they answer quickly. They send home notes when shots are about to expire. I think this all combines to be being a really great choice to send your dog for care and services. The only thing that would make this more amazing is if there were a Vet, then they could do it all!!!

I never took my pet for daycare however I was taking my dog to Susan for grooming. I called to make an appointment and they told me Susan is no longer there. I asked if they could please tell me where she went because my dog is tiny and only feels comfortable with Susan and they said no and hung up on me. I think if you are in a business that «cares» for animals you would be a bit more understanding about a sensitive situation like this. Susan is now at Dowtown Woody’s Brunswick Ave JC if anyone is searching as I was!

Made an appointment for bath and groom and showed up with my dog and the staff said the groomer just left! Unbelievable. They were able to stop the groomer and she came in and said «sorry I just packed up» can you believe how unprofessional the staff is here and how inconsiderate of the groomer not to take us as we were sending there! Last visit to unleashed for us for sure!

This review is purely for the swimming experience. We do not board or put our dog in the doggie day care. We have a 4 ½ month old English Lab and wanted to introduce him to water. We thought the perfect option was the Saturday or Sunday private swim where you can swim with your dog. We were disappointed with the cleanliness of the pool. It appears the lining hadn’t been scrubbed in ages and if you looked under the stairs you wouldn’t even venture in. The private swim is outside and I was so surprised how hot the floor around the pool was. If you walked around bare foot it would burn your feet. I can’t imagine how my dogs paws felt. We kept directing him into the water because it was way too hot for his paws. We kept putting water on the deck to help reduce the heat. I would recommend them putting a rubber mat around the pool to reduce the heat and how slippery it was. Another thing is my pup picked up a screw laying around the pool. Thankfully I was able to get him to drop it before swallowing. We found another one on the other side of the pool too. They really need to think about their maintenance and cleaning schedule of the pool. We will not be using their pools again.

My dogs get groomed by Andres. He was wonderful. My dogs are always nervous but they are not bad when we picked them up. Hair cuts look great

Dear Mike–
I did speak to a manager several times, and asked her to please not have that specific employee take care of my dogs. This incident occurred in May and she addressed it 3 weeks ago out of nowhere. As far as retaliation i have taken my dogs there for the past month or so and I asked how come they weren’t on the pictures and they told me they had no idea… How do I know if they were really on the playground? If there isn’t any photos of them? And I wasn’t bad mouthing… your employee did in fact scream horrific words to another employee who was coming from your van with his hands full in my presence along with other customers being present.
Lis

I’ve only been there once, but the front desk staff were very nice and accommodating when taking my dog Alex there for a swim session and grooming. The groom was nice, and Alex’s long coat had very little shedding afterwards. He obviously had a good time swimming too as he was OuT when we got home! He was also not nervous or overly hyper when dropping him off or picking him up– he seemed more comfortable there than other places we’ve been.

*****review is for grooming only*****
Maybe he was having an off-​day.
Maybe he was new to the profession.
Maybe he was inexperienced grooming shih tzus…
Whatever the case, $ 60 was not worth the job he performed. Worst cut ever! My dog’s entire face is uneven! I couldn’t tell right away when he brought her out because she was too excited to see me. So unknowingly, I even tipped him $ 15.
One star for the spacious facility.
One star for the friendly staff, including the groomer.

We had to travel to California and stay for 2 months in a temporary place that was pet free. Thus we decided to leave our cat at Jersey City Unleashed until we found a new apartment that was pet friendly. It could take 3 weeks up to 2 months.
Unfortunately it took 2 months, but Jersey City Unleashed took good care of our cat during this period. We were able to see her every day trough the Pet Cam and that was amazing. I went back to Jersey City after some time and I could visit her and check that everything was in place.
My cat is an indoor cat, and it can take a few days for her to befriend another cat and stop growling.
She’s very unused to other cats. So, what happened is that she got crazy when we first left her at Unleashed, because it was smelling lots of other cats (although we can’t smell it), and since it has cats coming in and out every day, she doesn’t have enough time to befriend any cat. We suffered for leaving her there, because it was stressing her out a lot, but the Staff of Unleashed was very careful and friendly, and they played with her and took good care of her during this time.
For a few days there were no other cats at the hotel, so our cat could use the entire room to play and explore. But later other cats came in and she had to spend more time in the small «sleeping» room.
Our cat now came to California and it took almost 3 days till she figured out she was alone and far from other cats, and at her own place!
So, if you have an indoor cat which is not used to other cats at all, try to not leave he/​she there for too long.
Anyways, this place was a better solution than we expected. I recommend it.

I have a small dog and have been taking him to day care once a week over the summer. Unleashed has a a few pluses and minuses for small dog care.
Pluses:
–The outdoor venue is great. It is a huge outdoor space, which is great for the dogs to run around in.
–The majority of the staff seemed good. A few of the staff are truly great, and give the dogs lots of care and affection, and only one or two don’t really seem engaged at all.
–My dog seems to really enjoy coming here.
Negatives:
–They have way too many large excited dogs in with the small dog group. Its extremely unsafe if you have a very small dog. They shouldn’t have ANY large dogs with the small dogs, except maybe or two older docile dogs. (It also inhibits the smaller dogs play when there are large dogs running around.)
–The is no pet cam for the indoor area., so whenever they are inside you cant see them, which is a lot of the time.
I will most likely not purchase any additional sessions after the summer since they allow so many large dogs into the small dog area, and there is no camera for their indoor area. A shame, since the venue is so good. If you have a large dog then this place is a better option than for small dogs.

Read these lengthy reviews… people don’t spend this much effort writing about their experiences unless they really take their pets seriously and want to warn you!
I hate to say it, but we’ve given this place a few tries and we come away frustrated all but one time (a pool party for another dog, so maybe related to preferential treatment?).
The first time we scouted them via phone and were guaranteed our large dog would be let out with the group. That didn’t happen because of a «new rule» about his size. Why did no one tell us when we dropped him off overnight for the test run… and then they charged us full price for it! (Babar is no threat, quite the opposite, actually)
THEN, we were told that the rules were changed again, so we went back and left him overnight. I don’t know what happened, but he did not look happy and chipper like the pther dogs did during pick-​up. Did something happen? Is this just his personality? He doesn’t do this when he stays over for doggy slumber parties.
So, fast forward to a hosted doggy pool party. It was great. We were there for 2 hours, we had sodas and got in the pool with our dogs. We had so much fun that we wanted to do it again a few weeks from then. I made the appointment and left my contact info. No one called… so I emailed their site to let them know that Babar and his friends were expecting to have a pool party when I’d scheduled it. I received a message apologizing because Unleashed would need to reschedule. I explained that it was our going away pool party and we would be out of state after that weekend. To their credit, they «moved some things around» and were going to accommodate our party at about the same time. Then, apparently, the powers that be told the weather forecasters to be super frivolous about rain estimates, so we got another call saying that it was cancelled. Needless to say, there was no rain on our doggy pool party day.
Pointers for dealing with your customers: ALWAYS get back to them about wanting to set-​up services. Also, it’s JERSEY CITY, it never rains when it should and always rains when it shouldn’t. Try adopting a policy of allowing the dogs to arrive for the pool events in optimism and then providing rain-​checks when rain does, indeed, ruin the fun. Fire the staff with complaints and keep some of the staff that have been really good to the community.

This service is to be avoided at all costs!!!
I left my dog to the care of this service for 10 days while I was in FL on vacation. At day-​8 my Florida vacation was interrupted with a phone call from JC Unleashed (Laura) informing me that my dog was involved in an altercation with another dog, leading to injuries to both dogs! I explained that my dog had never been in a fight, and that I needed to see for myself. Checking video footage confirmed that the animals were left with inadequate supervision, with 2 people tasked with 40 dogs crowded into the same general space. But that didn’t stop them from calling me to tell me that I should pay for the other dog’s $ 900 dollar medical expense since in their opinion, my dog initiated the altercation! No mention was made to the marks visible on my dog’s head and neck. And this delightful experience only cost me $ 600+ dollars!
As a result of this experience my dog has been acting very erratically since his stay with JC Unleashed. Concerns with my dog’s behavior, primarily loss of appetite, and
sleeping difficulty have led me to seek professional dog counseling at an additional cost to my expense.
I posted my complaints on JC Unleashed’s Facebook page, but I have noticed that my review was removed from public view. I have notified my Bank to withhold payment and urge anyone reading this to seek another location for your pet.

Understaffed and undertrained…
I took my puppy to Jersey City Unleashed for approximately 8 months, if I had any other options, it would not have lasted this long.
First issue happened within the first month. First instance of carelessness/​understaffing, etc. My dog was playing so much and running around like crazy that his nails were grinding on the pavement outside. I asked if they could do anything and they went ahead and put a rubber boot called «PAWZ» on his foot. As most dogs would do, he was able to get the boot off because it simply annoyed him. After watching this all on the webcam, I was falsely told that a staff member removed the boot and put it on the staircase and that my dog reached through the rails and ate it. I witnessed him first hand on webcam dead center of the camera eat it. 2 – 3 days later a big whoopee cushion sized object came out in his poop and sure enough PAWZ was written on it. Thankfully something this big passed through his system or else this could have been costly, even fatal. I was not made aware that the boot could have been eaten, nor was any other dog owner for that matter. It was completely disregarded by the staff and was not known until my dog pooped it out days later.
Next issue, my dog gets a hold of citronella spray that was on the ground. They use citronella spray to break up dog fights. My dog gets a hold of it and punctures the can, throwing up all over the place.
Other similar issues occurred where my dog would grab things and run with him, his form of getting people to play with him. Keep in mind there are 25 – 30 dogs outside with only 2 people there to watch them.
Furthermore — my dog was given the label of «poop eater» by JC Unleashed. I was told that he would have to go out after the other dogs did their business, which is fine… but does it really take an hour and a half for all the dogs to take dumps… NO. I brought this to the attention of a staff member and they totally agreed, so why was he still being put out an hour and a half later? Especially when they clearly state that playtime is from 9 – 12, and they are brought in at 11:15am…giving my dog only 45 minute of playtime in morning and afternoon.
Ultimately, my dog got in a minor tussle with another dog and I was given an ultimatum to get a trainer for him or he could not participate in play sessions. We did so at $ 175 for the meeting. A meeting in which JC Unleashed utilized the service that I PAID FOR to get pointers on how to work with other dogs. JC Unleashed agreed to help my dog with suggestions that the trainer had for them. This lasted about 3 days… I watched throughout the week after the trainer came and he was doing very well… including Friday where I watched til the very end to where he was brought in for the evening. Monday rolls around and my dog isn’t outside so I call over and they tell me that he is not allowed to play anymore outside because on Friday my dog grabbed something, a staff member chased him, hit his head on something and had to get staples in his head. I have to say to myself why am I hearing about this now, and why was he outside until the end of the play session in the afternoon that i watched until he was brought inside, with no sign of this happening. It is my honest opinion that this story was fabricated by JC Unleashed and I’ll stand by this.
All of these incidents are avoidable with staff that is attentive in the dog runs. There is no chance in hell my dog is the only dog that would want to grab things, eat things, etc. (When the first incident happened, the GM’s excuse was «Dogs like to grab things, eat things — one time we had a dog eat a washcloth…» Really??? How can a staff be trusted with our dogs knowing that they will be able to grab things? How hard is it to be so attentive and not leave things around for dogs to pick up and run with?!
I consider this a blessing in disguise, my dog now has a daycare where he can run freely on grass (where they belong!), and they applaud a dog that just wants to be a puppy and have fun — but in a safe manner with an excellent, attentive, experienced/​well-​trained staff.
I encourage everyone to weigh their options before considering Jersey City Unleashed. If you have an issue I wouldn’t advise taking it to the owner who couldn’t even take the time to answer an email of mine when the last issue occurred. I arrived there on my dog’s last day there to pick him up and told the staff to let the owner know i wanted to talk to him and he ran out of there minutes before i arrived. You aren’t a CEO of a fortune 500 company where you can hide behind your cronies while they do the work, you are the owner of a freakin’ dog daycare and the concerns of your customers should be addressed if they wish to speak with you, not with a GM that is quick to blame me for the incidents that occurred.

Everyone is here is awesome. The staff is great and they take great care of your pets. I’ve boarded my cat and dog here multiple times and it’s really nice to have a place where you don’t have to worry about them. They even put the cat and dog together every day for me for a period of time because I have the rare cat and dog who love playing together even more than with their own kind! You can watch your pets on the camera whenever you want and you can get daily updated pictures on their Facebook page so you can see how your pets are doing. I highly recommened

Avoid the cat hotel if you have another alternative. My cat stayed for five nights recently. Weeks before I went to check this place out and it was clear that the emphasis is on dogs, and that both dogs and their owners seem cared for and happy. The cat hotel seemed worse for wear, but a safe environment with cat trees planted in front of some big windows. The person who helped me confessed she was not a «cat person» but swore that almost all other employees owned cats. My vet told me that he hadn’t heard anything about the place, and that my cat would probably be terrified for the first day and then relax and be fine.
Minutes after arriving my cat crawled behind one of the sofas; he came out only long enough to move to a hiding place behind the other sofa. The place had a strange smell, a mix of animal and disinfectant. (And the ladies room near the cat hotel stinks of dog!) The smell would be enough to give a cat anxiety. The first «room» we checked out stunk of cat pee, although I am not sure if it was the room or the actual plastic litter pan. I sniffed the other rooms and reluctantly chose one that merely smelled of stale lysol.
They promised that they would take pictures daily and post them to their facebook page. Although doggie day-​care shots were posted daily, no photos of my cat were posted until day four of five, and that was only because I kept complaining. Oh… and you can only complain if you can get them on the phone! Most of the time, you get an answering machine saying that they are away from the desk or dealing with another customer, instructing you to leave a message. And then of course, you have to leave about three messages to get one call back.
When I arrived to pick him up he was curled in a ball behind the sofa terrified. Although I’d paid extra for «play» session (I suggested they brush him, as he finds that comforting), I can’t imagine they actually did as that would require him not hiding. At home I found that he smelled of disinfectant and weighed almost ½ less than when he arrived.
Having said all this, I might use them again if I have no alternatives. My main concern is that I don’t trust that they are reporting the truth. My cat has urinary tract issues, and if there’s a problem with his litter box behavior, I need to know that his caretakers will catch it. I don’t have that kind of confidence in these people when it comes to cat care.

This place is the ULTIMATE doggy resort and spa for your furry 4 legged friend! I walked in and it made me feel like staying! They have 2 huge indoor and outdoor pools for your pooch and a huge gymnasium where all the doggie play! They also do grooming and sometimes there is a vet in hand. I highly recommend this place if u need a boarding or just a day where you pup can get exhausted and play!

My boyfriend and I decided to try out Unleashed for our cat because the Petsmart PetsHotel in Seacacus is far away from Hoboken. We toured the facility with the owner and thought it was a good fit. On the tour, we mentioned our cat needs to receive medication daily. Everything seemed like a good fit so we booked his stay. A week later, our reservation was not in the computer when I went to drop him off. It tuned out not to be a problem and just resulted in filling out the paperwork again. I was told about the Petcam during the tour but never received the password during check in. We were charged $ 3 a day for the staff to administer his medication. We weren’t told about this fee when we toured the facility and mentioned the medication. We weren’t told of the fee when we dropped our pet off with the medication. The fee is also not listed on the website.

This place is great! My puppy Willie loves coming here for daycare & my partner & I love bringing him! The facility is very clean with incredibly spacious & separate runs for large & small dogs, huge indoor AND outdoor spaces FOR BOTH! My partner & I were very impressed by the layout of the facility, brand new, plexi-​front kennels that seem state of the art (again in varying sizes) & even a swimming pool, where our pooch can take swimming breaks and/​or we can swim with him!
The staff are very positive and helpful, especially Ashley, the Assistant Manager who always takes extra time to answer my questions about my puppy’s day! And during the day I can either view the webcam and/​or visit their Facebook page to see images of my puppy at play! (My partner got teary-​eyed the first day we looked at our puppy’s pics on the Facebook page; he was having SUCH a good time & it showed!)
Lastly, we REALLY love their longer hours of operation! Weekdays we can pick our dog up as late as 9pm, which can be really helpful on those occasional late work days in the city!
We’re really glad they’re here & feel totally safe leaving our «little treasure» in their hands!
Revision: I’ve amended my rating from 5stars to 4stars (still excellent rating) because the play times at Jersey City Unleashed are only in two 2.5hour blocks during the day (from 9 – 11:30am & 2:30−5pm … while I appreciate the structure, I would love for my high-​energy puppy to get longer play time) and I’ve noticed that the prices are a bit higher here than at Hoboken Unleashed, which makes me wonder why I wouldn’t just drive him to the other, cheaper location.