The Bau House

Here are the questions:

I noticed you used Bau House to board your own dog, can you give me any info on the place  and the location as this is the only problem we have now, finding somewhere safe and clean for our dog when on vacation etc..  Do they accommodate larger breeds?

and...

My husband and I are living down in Mokpo with our dog, a 50 lb lab mix, and we know that at some point we will need to put her in a kennel whilst we take home leave. I am interested to see that you did this with your dog whilst you were in the US, presumably for a long time (i.e. more than 2 weeks). Overall, would you say your dog had a good experience at Bau House - clean facilities, concerned, alert, caring staff, etc? Our dog is like our child, so we want the best care for her if we are away - would you recommend Bau House?

As you may or may not know, while in the United States for the entire month of December, my wife and I opted not to take our 10-month old lab-mix back with us. Being the amazing dog owners that we are, finding a great place to board our dog was the most important detail that had to be ironed-out. We checked around and looked for sitters on numerous sites (including Animal Rescue Korea), but honestly, all the  takers were greedy assholes. I'm talking like over 800,000 won for a month.

Finally, a friend told us about The Bau House (바우하우스) and we couldn't have been more lucky. It's technically called a 'dog cafe' (poorly chosen considering the consumption of dog meat in Korea), but I'd refer to it as a cafe with dogs. NPR has the a good write-up/interview on it that covers the basics.  There's also a bunch of reviews on Google if you're curious.

First of all, Bau House is located in Hongdae between Hapjeong (합정역) and Sangsu stations (상수역). Naver didn't have a good map, so I made my own. It's not good either.

                                                            South Korea Seoul Mapo-gu Seogyo-dong 405-13 (서울특별시 마포구 서교동 405-13‎)

The environment is good and the overall vibe is really fun. It's a great place to drop your dog off if you're going to dinner in the area or on vacation. There are about twenty or so "Bau House" dogs and the rest are "hotel dogs". The dogs are amazingly friendly and social for such a busy place. Your dog should be the same.

If you're bringing your dog for the day, the cost depends on the size. The price for a small dog (and they eyeball your dog to determine how it's classified) is 12,000 per day; 15,000 for a mid-sized dog and 20,000 for a big dog, but that's not set in stone until they quote the price.

If you are planning a weekend trip, you'll need to call them (they don't speak English well) and arrange a time to drop him off. If you're going away for a week or longer, they're going to want to do an interview-of-sort where they ask you to leave the dog behind for an hour or so to see how he/she interacts with the other dogs. If you'll be leaving your dog for over a month, you get a 20% discount. Not bad.

Do they accommodate larger breeds?

Yes. They have some huge breeds there. As long as your dog is friendly with their dogs and people (their customers), you'll have no problems.

Overall, would you say your dog had a good experience at Bau House - clean facilities, concerned, alert, caring staff, etc?

My dog had a great experience there.  We could contact the staff at any time and they would happily give us an update. On top of that, they even took semi-professional pictures of him and posted them online for us.

One might imagine that a place with so many dogs would be full of piss and shit. Nope. They have tons of staff on hand cleaning pee and poop around the clock. There are two cages, but your dog will not have to stay in them unless he/she has issues eating, drinking or sleeping. My dog was roaming wild the whole time and getting tons of attention and treats from patrons and staff.

Would you recommend Bau House?

In a second. It's easily better than all your other options and my wife and I were so pleased that we're planning on bringing him back for an evening romp or a short weekend so he can socialize with people and, of course, his furry friends. 

Everyone should check this place out.