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Urban Out Sitters
Rating Details »
Category: Pet Services
Neighborhoods: Near West Side, West Loop729 W Randolph St
Chicago, IL 60661
(312) 651-7387
- Nearest Transit:
-
Clinton (Pink, Green)
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23 reviews for Urban Out Sitters
My experience with Urban Out Sitters has been great so far. The staff members are very friendly and my dog loves this place. We go to the location in the West Loop. When we pull up near the place, my dog nearly tries to jump out the window to get in. When we walk in the front store, we can give two craps about me and bolts into the back to play. The interactions between my dog and staff members seem very warm and friendly.
My only two wishes is that the doggy camera is back up and working and that they put the dogs in crates at night. My dog is so playful and I sometimes fear that he is running around playing at night when he should be sleeping.
The drop off and pick up hours for day care are very accommodating to someone who works in consulting and frequently has projects that come up at the end of the day. They are very flexible and let me drop off my dog any day without a reservation. The pricing is also fairly reasonable for a daycare and boarding facility in the city.
My dog has come home smelling like pee maybe 3 times out of the 20 or so times that he has been there. He also came home with poop on his back one day too. While it is annoying to have to go home and clean him, it is understandable. He is playing with dogs who pee and poop all day. Sometimes he even steps in his own poop when I am walking him so I understand that he may come home dirty once in a while. He also comes home tired but that is just a sign that he is enjoying himself and playing. He sleeps for hours after long walks so of course he is going to sleep all night after 9 hours of playing. We took our dog to another boarding facility in the area for a long weekend before he went to Urban Outsitters and he came home with stained yellow paws and with a bacteria transmitted through poop. He has never come home sick after Urban Outsitters. We have had a great experience with this place and I am rather surprised to see such negative reviews.
There are a few things that I care deeply about. One of the #1 cares that I have would be my dog. This place disgusts me. There's no other word that I can use.
I gave this place a shot at walking my beloved dog. For one, my past dog walkers (who we no longer use only because I moved) would make it a point to meet the dog first and find out his quirks. This place didn't do that. They get your info and tell you that they'll show up. So it wasn't important for them to know that my dog has a tendency to pick stuff up (regardless of what it is) while outside. Or to make sure that you let me know what he does on his walks (business or not). NOTHING.
Besides that, i still gave them a chance because they seemed so popular. What changed my mind?
Could it be when I would come home to my front door being left unlocked (happened several times)?Could it be when I would come home to find traces of stuff that my dog picked up outside (which he attempted to digest)? Or maybe it was my broken wine glass? Mind you, this glass wasn't in the sink or even near the sink. Tell me, what would a dog walker need with my wine glass? They didn't even bother to leave a note telling me to look out for the broken glass that was lodged in my garbage disposal.
Another issue that I had was that it seemed a different person was coming every other day. At first I had a girl who was just wonderful. It wasn't until the others started showing up that things started happening.
They are by far the worst out there. They're cute advertising and claim to having an upscale dog care service is a joke. Just because you sell designer dog bags doesn't mean that your service is automatically of the same standards.
Comment from Joseph G. of
Urban Out Sitters
10/1/2009
I'm sorry you had such a horrible experience. Although I…
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I used Urban Outsitter's cat sitting service once while I was gone on vacation for a week.
The staff that I interacted with in their store, when setting up my account and dropping off keys, were friendly and helpful. It was evening rush hour and lots of customers were picking up their dogs from daycare. They seemed happy, the dogs seemed happy.
I do know the cat sitter came by because on the first day there was an issue with the key getting stuck in the door and the sitter called me. She had it sorted out before I could even call her back.
I was gone for a week and the litter box was clean and there was food in the bowl when I returned. I don't know if the sitter played with my cat, but he's not the most playful of cats even with me.
I only used their service once because I relocated to another metropolitan area. Perhaps I would have noticed some of the issues other people have written about in their reviews, but from my experience, they offer perfectly decent service, and the rates, while pricy, were competitive.
Reading all these reviews, I'm confused as to if I take my dog to this same place.
I've been taking my dog here for 3 years or so now.
They took almost a month to integrate my dog into the other dogs. Out of the years (and probably being there over 400 hundred times), he's come home bitten up maybe twice and smelled bad maybe twice.
They're dogs. They fight. There will be scuffles.
My dog loves the employees and pulls me towards the place when we're close. I know they treat him well because of his reaction to them. Even though I now live closer to another facility I'll continue taking him to urban.
Maybe we've just been lucky; however, these are the experiences we've had.
After the latest debacle with The Houndry, we were in search of a new place for doggie daycare and boarding. Unfortunately I had a plane ticket booked to go away for five days and needed to find a place immediately.
I visited the Lakeview location, which seemed nice, but unfortunately boarding has to happen at the Randolph location, which is inconvenient for me, but what could I do?
I dropped her off at the Lakeview location. After she had been there for a day, I called to check on her, spoke to a very nice lady on the phone said she was doing fine, eating all her food, etc.
On Sundays, their pick-up hours are from 8-10AM and 4-6 PM. If you don't pick them up by 10 AM, you are charged for a day of daycare. That's fine with me, I understand that... you have to have some cutoff, right?
Well, I went straight from O'Hare to UOS to pick my baby up... I missed her! I showed up at noon on Sunday to find the doors locked, and no one answering the phone. I understand that they have a designated pick-up time, but I had already paid for an extra day of daycare, just let me get my dog!! If they've already got my money, why do they care if I want to pick her up at noon?
I left a voicemail, called, knocked on the door... no one answered or called back. If someone is allegedly there with the dogs 24 hours a day, why aren't they answering the phone?! I'm not convinced that there actually was someone there, and that is just scary!
When I went BACK at 4:00 to pick her up, I asked the guy working how she had been.... his response was totally bizarre. First he said that he only works the 4-6 pickup shift (again - was anyone with my dog during the day?!), and then he mentioned that she was great and he was surprised she played so well with the other dogs because she's so big. ??? Anyone who knows anything about dogs knows how sweet and gentle great danes are. Of course she played well!
I might take her back to the Lakeview location for daycare, but our search for a new place for boarding continues....
Comment from Joseph G. of
Urban Out Sitters
4/26/2009
Sorry to hear you came when our store was closed. As you…
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Since I live directly across the street from here I walk through the alley way a lot to get to Dominick's and have contemplated on several occasions to take my dog here. I WILL NOT BE TAKING MY DOG HERE NO WAY NO HOW...Im walking past Urban Out Sitters and I hear people yelling at the dogs telling them to SHUT UP!!! SIT DOWN!!! Its a day care right...dogs are going to play and bark...my friend and I looked at each other because the venom in this dude's voice was just unnerving.
Comment from Joseph G. of
Urban Out Sitters
10/1/2009
You should come into our store and say hi so we can give you…
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If I could give this place no stars I would, that should be an option for this place-DON'T BRING YOUR DOG HERE!
Needed to board my dog in Jan 2006, found this place on line and it looked nice-Everyone was nice to me when I dropped him off, yet when I tried calling NO ONE EVER called me back! I was in California, had cell access and no one called me back when I wanted to see how my dog was doing- And when I picked him up came the issues-
As I was waiting for my dog to come out I saw dogs in crates being yelled at and a guy kicked a crate-I was shocked-I just wanted my dog and to get out of there-
In the cab ride home I noticed he had bite marks on his ears, the bites went through his ear! Get home I find bite marks all around his neck, the bottom of his paws were cut up too-At this time I was so upset and felt like a horrible pet owner!
Then the fun began, he couldn't eat, if he tried he would puke or sh*t it out once we got outside, the poo was bad, very bad-
We thought maybe he was upset from being boarded so we didn't instantly take him to the vet-We've had him since he was 7 weeks old and he was 6 at the time, I know my dog-
Finally we decided to take him to the vet when it had been a couple of days-Get him to the vet and he had a yeast infection on his paws, bacteria something in his stomach and was diagnosed with IBS-This all happened at Urban Outsitters-
Now he was perfectly fine when we left him, had been on the same food for years-Shots up to date, a super gentle and mild dog-
I put in a complaint with the Better Business Bureau but since I waited so long they wouldn't help me out and the owner of the place was an ass-
He admitted his place was new and he didn't even seperate the dogs, so there were little dogs that were attacking my dog and no one noticed! And I was never told or shown my dog would be kept in a crate-
This place sucks so bad it should be shut down-And if you the owner are reading this I tell everyone I know about how horrible my dog was treated while there for 3 days-Because of you my dog experienced trauma, I had lots of vet bills that your sorry ass should have paid for-
UPDATE: 10-1-09
Owner tries to tell me I am LYING! When I picked my dog up, waiting at the counter I saw dogs in crates, a man kick a dog in the crate and yelled shut up-At that point I just wanted my dog and wanted to get home-When we were in the cab that is when I felt the bites, wich were pretty bad-
When I got home I called the place and I was told that the place was new, didn't seperate dogs and still working on things-That is when I filed with the BBB, but b/c I waited a week and the owner was horrible nothing happened-Why on earth would I make up some elaborate story on how my dog was treated? Since 2006 I take him to PetsHotels where he comes back unharmed, never sick and the people are always available to talk and will go check on him-I am very upset this owner tried to call me out on this board-My dog was on medication for a couple weeks, had to be put on special i/d dog food from the vet just to help mend his stomach to what happened to him there-When your dog comes back with pierced ears from dog bites, a neck full of bites, bloody paws, puking...the place is not good-
http://www.bbb.org/chi...
Comment from Joseph G. of
Urban Out Sitters
10/1/2009
Wow, sounds like a horrible experience. I truly don't…
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I have to change my review. I closed my original review with the following "I don't know that I'll ever find the perfect boarding experience, but if it's out there, let me know..." I found it...and I will not be taking my dog back to Urban Outsitters. I now have a wonderful experience elsewhere to compare, and well, Urban Outsitters just doesn't have what another place has...
It's NOT normal for my dog to be insanely tired, lethargic, etc. for more than a week after boarding. It's NOT normal for my phone calls to go unreturned and it's NOT normal for unused food/treats to be thrown out. It's NOT normal to not be shown the boarding facilities and it's not normal for my dog to stink up to high heaven of urine and filth....
They're OK on cat care. Not great... though, I've nothing to compare them with. We'll consider using them for cat care, but our dog WILL NOT be going back... there are much MUCH MUUUUCH better places in the West Loop area. I went into this rather uneducated, I thought that cage-free was the way to go... it's not. No way, not at all. Wouldn't you rather your dog get a good night sleep...at a place he can bring his own bed to, his own toys, etc.? Where the staff goes above and beyond to notice that your dog isn't eating...needs a break... needs a time out or a nap... your pup certainly DOES NOT get that at Urban Outsitters. But that kind of service IS out there.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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9/5/2007
Just picked up my 'doodle from Urban Outsitters this morning! He was there for 5 nights and 4 full… Read more »
We took our dog here about a year ago to board her for a week.
When we came to pick her up, the woman who was working there was extremely passive aggressive with us. I can't recall the entirety of the conversation, but we felt like she hated dealing with customers. This woman wanted to be left alone and our presence was entirely unwelcome.
Hi there. Notice this money I'm about to give you for taking care of my dog? You should be happy to collect it. You should present me with an attitude that will promote happiness regardless of how you feel that day if you ever wish to have customers again.
Our dog came out of this place reeking of urine. She is a very clean dog normally and does **NOT** urinate on herself, ever. I can only speculate as to why this happened.
Maybe another dog peed on her?
Maybe a dog peed, no one cleaned it up and then my dog sat in it?
Maybe our dog wasn't taken to a place where she could pee so she peed on herself?
Whatever the cause, the drive back to our home was nearly unbearable because she smelled so bad.
Way to not care about the dogs you are boarding, guys.
On the day we brought our dog to be boarded we also brought a blanket and squeaker toy. The woman who brought us our dog on the way out told us she never saw either of these things. She had no idea where they were. She said she'd call us if they turned up.
Guess who never called back.
Ms. Lucy used to go to Urban Outsitters 3 times a week for daycare. She would come home pooped and basically sleep for the next day. Which is awesome, considering she has more energy than someone with ADD drinking Red Bull with a small side of crack.
And Lucy is a handful, I will admit that. She doesn't really listen unless you speak very sternly to her, she is used to you or you are male. So its hard to have patience with her if you arent familiar with her behavior. The staff here never once complained about her and in fact gave me some tips on how to care for her and modify her behavior.
I chose to take her out of day care because it got a little pricey, and because she was running around with other dogs all day she always smelled like a goat. And sometimes after being there she would forget the small amount of manners she does have and jump all over you. However I do board her here and she loves it. In fact if you mention the word "daycare" to her she runs to the front door and jumps like a nut.
I recommend the daycare and the boarding facilities here, and I would definitely have a conversation with the owner or manager before you board your dog to go over your pets personality and behavior. Oh and they have really cute boutique toys and treats at their Randolph location!
I agree with the review that the place reeked when you come in to the main location to sign the paperwork and the employees are very sloppily dressed. I know you are dealing with dogs, but a ripped stained t-shirt does not scream professional to me.
The location around the corner which is where the little dogs stays is pictured on the website, but looks nothing like the picture. The couches are stained and beat up and the floors are a mess along with the rest of the chewed up furniture. I found the employee there sitting at a table not even paying attention to the dogs.
They do not integrate the dogs slowly and instead just throw them in with 30 other dogs who all at unison come bounding toward him trying to sniff, paw and lick at him. My dog jumped over the gate they set up (which was not high enough to safely prevent a dog from running out the door- thank god I was still there to catch him before he did) since he was so freaked out. I thought he would get over it, but $120 dollars and 2 days later when I picked him up he was still scared and shaking.
They are supposed to according to the website give you a report card regarding your dogs walks, behavior and what he did while you were gone. I received none of this. Overall I was not at all impressed and felt like the website mispresented what in reality you get from this place. I will try out a new dog sitting place next time.
I love taking FeeBee to Urban Out Sitters. She loves going. The staff is wonderful. Added bonus is the rooftop deck. I get to play on one, why can't she? She comes home happy and tired and when I bring her back she is excited as we get there and in the door. The staff is wonderful, the location is great and facilities are terrific. I know she is safe and well cared for whether I leave her overnite or for day care.
Barbara T. and FeeBee
We took our chihuahua and sheltie here when we went to Vegas for the weekend back in the spring. I was really excited to drop them off but was disappointed but the state of the reception area - note to the owners you should really clean up that front room because it is the first impression that we get, duh.
I was a little nervous because we had to then walk the dogs across Randolph St. to drop them off at the small dog area for the daily boarding - they were then escorted back across the street for nightly boarding. But when we picked them up they were in one piece but slept for days and both had colds. I think they must have played the entire time they were there so I most def wouldn't recommend taking your animals there for an extended period of time.
Like one of the other reviewers I was very surprised that our brand new bag of food came back practically empty from two nights of boarding. They must throw away uneaten portions of food or that is the only explanation I can think of...
Anyways I def say try it if you have a dog that loves other dogs but not for an extended period of time.
xoxo
I've used them twice for cat watching while I was out of town. They were very friendly on the phone and the first time around everything went really well. I left them a note about where food was and some helpful instructions. Each visit, the person left a little note about my cat and it was great! That way, I knew they'd been there. The second time, I had to go drop the keys off at the downtown location and phew it smelled bad in there. I used to work in a kennel and it didn't smell like that unless you left the crap sitting out. So that's kind of a bad indication. Luckily, I don't have a dog. The second time they watched my cat, they didn't leave any notes so I really had no way to know if they actually came or not. I am assuming they did because my cat didn't die but it was still nice that they left the notes the first time.
If I could give them 3.5 stars I would but that smell of crap in the one location really made me sick so I can't give them 4.
Let me start this review by saying that it is my impression that Asia, our dog, always received adequate care from Urban Outsitters and that if you ever feel like your pet is not receiving adequate care shame on you for not removing that animal immediately.
So let us get to why I removed Asia and will probably not send her back. It is clear that Urban's only advantage is price because their customer service for the most part is terrible. They do seem to have the most competitive prices in town. If you drop your dog off and pick them up, most of this doesn't apply. Joe, the owner, is very nice and generally accommodating, however, the majority of his employees are "Space Cadets" and it seems that the whole operation there is total Overwhelmed.
I have had the Driver come to my house to pick up my dog without a leash, which made me wonder how this person would have gotten my 100+ lb dog to the van had I not been home to let them borrow one. P.S. I had to call and ask for them to return it too, they forgot it when they dropped her off. My neighbor let me know he saw the driver chasing Asia around the van one day on our street when she got away from him while he was dropping her off. No big deal, it is possible for that to happen I guess, but given the body of other evidence it probably happens often. The last straw was the driver wandering around the hallway of our building in the afternoon, without our dog, looking for our front door key that she lost. No call to explain, no apology. Just wandering around but we did get a phone call 10 mins. before the next pick up asking how they would get here. Don't get excited Shady People, they found the key some place else. (See Asia's Picture for who would greet you when you arrive anyway, should have named the b*tch ADT)
She did come home stinking from time to time. Sometimes like pee but she is a dog, around other dogs all day. Who knows what happens? They seem to have people constantly monitoring the animals, which is good and better then I can say for other places.
If they could get their act together service wise things would definitely be different there. As I said, if you drop off and pick up your pet most of these issues don't matter.
Care is as expected, Service is for the dogs.
RrL
P.S. Central Bark up north is Asia's new/old location. Bonnie and the gang is the best.
They have no phone etiquette at all! I called them and tried to get more info from them on day care and boarding, but the lady was really impatient and she said "I'm not going to waste 15 minutes on you" then hung up on me! WTF?
We used Urban Out Sitters for in-home cat care for two years. I had no reason to question the quality of service until two months ago, when we arrived home and found our cat with no food. A check of our condo building's log books indicated that nobody had visited her for two of the four days that we had booked and paid for.
The owner, Joe, sounded surprised when we called. He was unable to offer an explanation for failing to show up - and he himself was supposed to be the one to drop by our home! He promised a refund.
Getting the refund was an ordeal, obtaining an explanation for why nobody came was impossible. Joe himself just said, "I don't know why I didn't visit those two days." Period. End of story. The refund required five phone calls, two e-mails, and one live visit. Joe was unresponsive - I needed to appeal to the manager to ask on my behalf for the refund. Twice. What does it say when you have to move DOWN the chain of command to get help?
Service over the past two years has been generally okay, but uneven and dependent upon who does the visit. Sometimes you can tell that someone actually spent time with our cat, other times it was as if the absolute minimum of service was performed.
This company, essentially, is unreliable. The issue is not one of money, but of a failure to provide any kind of peace of mind. Since this happened, I question how many other times our cat was left uncared for. I need a pet-sitting service that I know will show up.
I would also be a little suspicious of the fact that of the five positive reviews here, one is from the owner himself and two are from people who don't actually use the service.
this service sux. do not use it. Cat sitters do not show up as paid for. luckily, I was able to reschedule my return and provide my poor cat with water and food. I would not use them again. ever. If there is a way to post negative stars, that's what should be posted. I repeat... DO NOT TRUST THEM TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR ANIMAL
I give this place ZERO stars, in fact, I joined this site just to prevent other dog owners from ever making the mistake of sending their pets here.
We boarded our dog here last winter for a week. When he came home, he was exhausted, and stunk like a sewer. A few days later, he was still lethargic and started peeing all over the house, which he never does. We took him to the vet, and turns out he had a terrible bacterial bladder infection, brought on by UNSANITARY CONDITIONS at the kennel. After giant mega doses of an antibiotic, he finally recovered, but I will NEVER EVER send my dog here again.
A coworker used them for pet sitting and nobody ever showed up to walk their puggles! And one day, the pet sitter showed up as they were getting home from work, though they were supposed to come at noon!
This place charges an arm and a leg, and is basically like a concentration camp for dogs. DO NOT BOARD YOUR PET HERE.
Avoid this place like the plague! We used them for the first and last time about 1.5 years ago. Our calm, quiet, and clean greyhound was returned to us 24 hrs later stressed out and wreaking of sh*t. This is a dog that avoids mud, puddles, and any other form of dirt.
The employees showed little concern regarding his condition and suggested we take it up with the management on Monday. We received a half-hearted apology and a quick dismissal. Don't trust this business.
The bottom line on this place is they know dogs! The location in the loop is fantastic, Lakeview, not so much. The tile floor isn't for every dog and it seemed to get too crowded for the size. But my experience with Urban Outsitters is that your dog is in great hands.
Do not use this service.
We used Urban Outsitters probably 12 times in the last 9 months, and always had great luck with one employee who was fantastic. She came for a meet and greet before our trip, then made the effort to call from our home upon her visits to let us know she had come, and to let us know how our kitty was doing
The last time we used UOS, we learned that our favorite employee had left the company, but since we had had such a great experience with her, we decided it would be okay to let someone else from the company take care of our kitty this time.
HUGE mistake. Turns out the employee we had been working with was the only responsible person at the company and without her there, our kitty didn't get the care we had requested and paid for.
I had emailed with and spoken with an employee prior to my trip, and was assured that our cat would be visited once a day in the morning, at which time they would feed her breakfast and dinner. This was especially important, I told them, because I was going to feed her at 6am the day of my departure and unless she was fed the next morning, she would be going very long without food. I also asked that the person visiting her call me upon the visit so I knew when she was being fed.
After not hearing anything by 1pm on the first day of service I called and spoke to Joesph (the owner) who informed me that there was no way to know if anyone had already been to our house and if not, when they would go there. He also told me that even though I had been told on the phone and via email that she would get morning visits, they aren't able to make such promises. When I expressed concern because I knew my cat was sitting at home staring at her empty bowl as she does every morning before she's fed, Joseph proceeded to become defensive, interrupting me and eventually actually yelling at me. He even suggested that we end the service right then and there, which would mean that my poor cat would go the next 3 days without food or clean litter. He also told me he (angrily) that he would give me a full refund for the service, of which I received only 1/3, and even then only after calling him because the refund hadn't come through 2 weeks after the service dates. If this is the person running the place, it explains a few things about how horrible the service is.
Bottom line is that this is a company that is literally just a company. They do not care about the pets for which they provide service and I have heard from people even outside of this site that they do not even always provide the service you've paid for.
THERE'S A REASON THE ONLY POSITIVE REVIEW IS BY JOSEPH...YES, THAT WOULD BE THE AGGRESSIVE AND UNPROFESSIONAL OWNER HIMSELF.
I have used them for cat sitting for a couple of years. I don't know why. I have suspected a few times that they are not actually showing up for all their paid appointments. There is some evidence that they have come by, but even more evidence that they didn't show up for all the scheduled appointments - e.g., litter box is completely full and has not been changed, the garbage has only a couple of empty cans of food, when if they had actually shown up for every appointment, there would have been more empty cans, the cats look really hungry when I return from my trip, the dry food bowl is empty (my cats don't eat all the way down to the bottom of the bowl usually) and more little bits of evidence. Anyway, I was horrified just now to see all the bad reviews they got from Yelp. Maybe they're okay, but I'm not taking a chance anymore. I'm looking for someone else.
