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The Bone Adventure

Is this your company?

I would recommend working elsewhere. Another dog daycare, another dog handling job—just ANYWHERE else. - Supervisor Dog Handler The Bone Adventure Employee Review

1.0
24 Apr 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are people at this job that genuinely care about dogs and fellow employees’ well-being, and they will do what little they can against all odds to at least make the environment less toxic and inept. These people are far and few, considering our workplace hasn’t even been able to regain the approximate 1/3 of employees lost in 2020 (COVID) and 2021 when the business was fully operational, but they DO exist.

Cons

TL;DR •CEO’s greed & lack of care for employees •management’s incompetence & inability to hire people who can do their jobs correctly; nepotism, which has resulted in some of the worst supervisors being hired •lack of knowledge (or care?) of basic California workers’ rights standards •poor training standards If there is one thing I feel obligated to convey to the people who find this review, it is that this facility is a huge red flag. Find a job that will actually take care of you—or at least a job that is much less of a headache than this one. If you feel the information above shows you all you need to know, feel free to continue job-hunting. If you feel I haven’t explained myself enough, continue scrolling. ————————————— The CEO has had a hard time maintaining the business since COVID. I would be able to empathize with that, were it not for her reportedly yelling at some of us employees who have addressed genuine issues at the facility such as potential hazards and facility cleanliness standards. Some of our hours have been cut coincidentally after continuously addressing certain issues at the facility regarding individuals who have not been able to complete tasks even the new employees have completed with ease. MAKE OF THAT WHAT YOU WILL… Likewise, I would even have more care and understanding of the management’s struggles since they practically run the place, but I often question their decisions. There are employees who, despite their struggles and despite not reaping any deserved rewards for their labor, continue to be proactive in their roles as handlers & supervisors by addressing issues and finishing constantly unfinished jobs like cleaning out dirty dens and changing dirty bed sheets that had not been changed in a full week. In my experience, most of these people have been denied promotions until they shut their mouths, and a majority of the people who HAVE been promoted lately are either people who had barely worked here for one year or people who are more than happy to turn a blind eye to the issues that plague this facility. And even if I did feel comfortable with being diplomatic and explaining these issues to management… what are they going to do?? I asked the head manager how they clean the pools and he didn’t even know! I thought the managers were supposed to be the leading examples of the workplace, NOT the exception to the general workplace standards. Speaking of being the exception to the general workplace standards, why are handlers who have been constantly noted as being too aggressive towards dogs by supervisors and other handlers alike being promoted to supervisor and manager positions? This is part of why many of the employees have left the company. We no longer want any part of this, because professionally addressing these issues directly to the supervisors and to management has been a completely pointless endeavor. Aside from the general chaos during actual work hours, management does not seem to understand basic California standards for workers’ rights, despite posters of those laws being posted all around our facility for all to see. Calling out sick is probably the most annoying thing ever. I have had the head manager verbally spar with me for 5 minutes just because I had food poisoning, because I was constantly expelling fecal material and projecting vomit from my body and could not conceivably work that day. At that point, I’d assume any reasonable person would agree I’m not having a great day and would leave it at that. If you get hired to work at The Bone Adventure, do not take the overnight shifts. At the time of writing this, they are 16-hour shifts that go from 4:00PM one day to 8:00AM the next day where you will clean the facility and supervise the dogs until the next morning. The reason why I say don’t take those shifts is because they do not pay overtime, you won’t get any recognition of you actually do your tasks correctly, and you will likely be asked to do more shifts. To top that off, if you do the math of what they say you will earn hourly from the overnight shifts, you will only be making approximately $1200 more for the year. You would have to do overnight shifts for a whole year to make that money, and you will still likely be passed up for a promotion by someone who had barely graduated high school, walked on to the job, did mediocre work, and kissed up to management with little insight or skill on how to work effectively. Even if you decide to only start work as a dog handler, do not expect good training. For the passed year or so, I couldn’t say how many of the newer employees have walked up to me and asked me what they’re even supposed to do because management won’t even properly train the new people—and they wonder why more dog fights break out and why very little gets done in the facility, aside from constantly rewarding incompetent people-pleasers. They will ask you, Potential New Employee, to “shadow” someone. That means they will ask you to walk around the facility to listen to a very basic explanation on how the facility operates, where everything is, and what people do. And after that, they will drop you in the yard with a minimalist explanation of the actual job description, and people will get mad at you if you didn’t know how to do your job right away. But management will likely ask you to do your training modules at home, because it makes the training more convenient for them, instead of… Y’know… ACTUALLY training you how to do your job. It pains me to give such a long and detailed review of this facility, since this job really did have the potential to be great. Unfortunately for me, and for you, the Reader, that is not the case. This place is crumbling, and the employees here are pushing back against management. I get the impression that the CEO would rather continue to run the business into the ground instead of holding herself and her managers accountable for their actions (or lack thereof).

Explore other reviews about The Bone Adventure

5.0
23 Mar 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Dogs ofc it was stressful sometimes but they know how to cheer you up

Cons

None really it was a pretty fun environment however they hire people who don’t know much about dogs/ dog behavior and it can be frustrating to work with other employees

3.0
4 May 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-the dogs!! you will get attached, especially to the "regular" clients -the swim club was my favorite part of this job, if there's ever an opportunity to become a pool Handler I highly recommend it! It's nice to get some time out of the yard with a smaller group of dogs, especially in the hotter months since it's a mostly outdoor facility -the team: I met some amazing people at that job that I'm still friends with after leaving

Cons

-the facility holds far too many dogs for the amount of staff in each yard. Speaking from experience, this has caused a lot of chaos with safety concerns to both the animals and staff -they use chemicals in their sanitizer that have constantly left the skin of staff & the dogs raw/irritated, not sure if OSHA safe in that regard, as well as several others. -leadership will more likely than not make you feel overworked and underappreciated, particularly upper management. -my dog of 15 years passed and they didn't even offer me bereavement leave!!! -they will give you room to advance and try different roles within the company, but the pay is quite awful. All roles within the company deserve a much higher rate than they get. -the CEO is a penny pincher who would do anything to keep her clients coming back but do nothing to retain her own staff!! the place is a constant revolving door.

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