Nirvana Pet Resort

We take our dog here often. Friendly staff, good facility, convenient location. Would recommend.

I tried to become a new customer for doggy daycare and thought they were ignoring me - then received a pretty rude email days later that they don't “just take dogs in for daycare” haha? … had already moved on by that point anyways.

I see you edited your response to remove the rude remarks and calling me “sir” below. I’m still leaving my response to your original Reply below:

** I’m not a sir - but you wouldn’t have known that because you didn’t even take two seconds to acknowledge or ask me any questions. It’s obvious my business as a customer is not worthwhile to you and you’re assuming I’d only be a one time customer (again you never bothered to ask). I wasn’t even going to leave a review but once I saw other people mentioning your poor attitude I decided to back their story. Good luck to you “sir”:)

Our dog has gone here for daycare and recently grooming. The groomer listened to my requests and he came out looking great. Our dog is always well cared for during daycare and boarding as well and seems to have a great time when we’re away as well.

We did not have a good experience here. The groomer was in a rush, was not professional, and did not try to meet or develop any rapport with us or our dog before attempting to clip her nails.

Also, and most importantly, my dog could have been seriously injured by the groomer here when she used a grooming table with a noose attachment on a dog who was actively resisting her.

Here are the details of our experience:

We came in for a drop-in nail clipping for my Bulldog Petra. We arrived and were greeted and told that it would be a few minutes as the groomer was busy with another dog. We could see that this was the case and it was totally OK, as we were in no rush.

Moments later the groomer came out without finishing the other dog - who was still standing on a grooming table attached with one of those noose apparatuses (I don't know what these are called) - and took our dogs leash to bring her into the other grooming station.

We told her that we had never been here before and we thought she might take a few moments and ask our dog's name, ask us questions about her and/or meet the dog but she just pulled Petra into the station. Our dog didn't like the quickness of a stranger doing this and resisted, pulling back to the entrance.

She then tried to force her in by dragging her and that didn't work (she's a Bulldog!), so she asked if she could pick her up. I said that she's pretty heavy (45 lbs) and doesn't like being picked up so maybe I should do it, but she went ahead with it anyways.

A bunch of resisting and she managed to get her on to the grooming table but pretty quickly Petra squiggled off and headed for the exit (she was on a leash that I was holding).

Now would have been a good time to stop and communicate with us or attempt another approach. I mentioned that she was very food motivated and that might help, but she didn't listen. Instead, the groomer thought it would be a good idea to grab a noose like dog catching thing to drag her back into the stall.

Petra didn't like this but we went along with what she was doing because she was a professional.

She eventually got her on the table (3-4 feet high) and proceeded to put another noose apparatus around her neck to secure her to the table, and tightened it. I asked if that was necessary as I had never seen one of those before. She said yes it was for safety.

Petra was still struggling, and her back end was not secured at all which seemed strange to me. The groomer went straight to trying to clip her nails.

She had no rapport with my dog, and my dog was actively resisting her, but was attached to a table by her neck about 4 feet off the ground. She was panicked and uncomfortable, and could have easily squiggled off the counter in the opposite direction of the groomer and could have hung herself as she would not have been able to prevent that. The table and apparatus were very sturdy so they likely wouldn't have given out.

Luckily in the moment, I could see that this was a potential disaster waiting to happen and I said directly to the groomer "Take that off right now, what if she falls off, she's going to hang herself! ".

She did, and said "This is not going to work today, let's try another time".

It was a very traumatic experience for my dog and for my dog's co-owner, my mother, who was with us as well.

This is a stark contrast to the last time that I had Petra's nails clipped at a place in Oak Bay. The groomer took a couple of moments to meet my dog, ask her name and history (in terms of nail clippings), and chose an appropriate way to proceed.

This ended up with me on one of their chairs holding her on my lap while we both gave her a few treats. The whole procedure took a couple of minutes and my dog was very happy.

I do not enjoy giving a negative review. I find it very stressful writing all of this out in detail, but I can't believe how strange, forceful, and tone deaf (in terms of the needs of my dog) this experience was. I hope that this will prompt the business to examine and change their procedures, and will warn others to look out for this.

Went there for a walk in and no one was at the front! I waited a good 15+ minutes, rang the bell several times to get someones attention, even called out and just ended up leaving cause no one was there!
Edit
I went on a weekday to ask about a nail trim and still the biggest issue was the store was open but no one was there for a good 15+ minutes!

I called Nirvana in a pinch even though I hadn't taken my cat there before, and even from the get-go received a lot of foot-dragging and attitude to take her on. I felt like Nirvana doesn't really like cats in particular, and it was hard to convince them to help me out. Even then, there was a lot of attitude every step of the process. They said they don't want her back because she was hard to get into her crate, which I believe. That being said, I feel like I haven't received welcoming and easy-going service either so I wouldn't go back either.

Anakin loved it! His hair was really smooth and the grooming was fantastic. Thank you so much!

My senior dog loves his time getting pampered at Nirvana and always looks and smells fantastic after his visits

I have been taking my dog there for years tho during Covid I did not. Prior to Covid I was paying for a clean and tidy as I kept my Shitzu long haired and was silky. I was paying 46 upon returning cost went to 61, which was a shock, but on my next visit I chose to give her an actual styled haircut. Short body round face, and longer hair in legs upon coming in I loved the shape but she did a horrible job her paws were not shaped no precision hand cutting. Her legs she just chopped her hair as she said she had some mats, never even took the time to blend it in. Upon getting home I had to fix the mess. Her face right shape but was not blended and as to sizzors the fact the sizzor marks showed everywhere. My mistake trusting she knew how to such a cut, but for 73 dollars and telling me will be 3 hours, I can guarantee she rushed her thru and she did not take 3 hours with her. I am not one to complain but it was a horrible job and I made the decision never to use Nirvana ever again. Wish there was a place to post pics

Friendly, caring staff my lab and myself love going there. They have grooming as well and really care for our fur babies

Daycare pups are happy pups when they go to this resort. You can trust these folks to take excellent care of your furry babies.

My pup summit loves coming here-has been coming since she was a puppy. Always pick her up tired and happy.