Quinn and a great local company!

Meet Quinn, one of our daycare dogs.  Quinn is a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy and loves to play with all the big dogs!

 

One of the best parts about being a Mom and Pop business is connecting with other local small businesses!  One of our daycare dogs mom's runs her own company, and she gave us a sample of what she makes!  Her company is called A Posh Pantry and she gave us a bag of her Apple Crisp mix.  I just baked it and it and it turned out great!  They have a bunch of other items you can bake!

I hope everyone was able to have some fun with their pooch in the snow today!

Keith

It pays to be our first dog!

I was thinking back to the beginning of April before we opened for business.  I received an email from Bindi's mom saying that "Bindi will be our best customer" and I was really excited to meet Bindi (and her parents who are also from Chicago).  Then on April, 20th which was the first day we opened, Bindi was our first dog in the door.  Bindi has come to daycare almost everyday since then!  When Bindi stays over, we take her home with us, because she has really severe separation anxiety, and has to be with people all the time (Bindi is also Roxy's best friend at the daycare).  So we took Bindi home with us this weekend, and she helped to put up some of our christmas decorations.  We also had fun dressing Bindi and Roxy up with our Christmas tree skirt.

Another random fact about Bindi.  When they adopted her, they were told that she was a German Shepherd / St Bernard.  Heather, our Assistant Manager and Trainer discovered that bindi is an Anatolian Shepherd.  Bindi fits the personality and looks almost exactly of the breed!  I think we might have to do a doggy DNA test to find out if Heather is correct.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Keith

Fergie

I am so sorry that I have not blogged for a few days. As you can imagine we have been pretty busy with our hotel the last few days and I have not had much time to myself. All of the dogs that stayed over Thanksgiving did great!! We even gave them a special Thanksgiving treat ;)

Fergie, a malamute is one of our regular doggy hotel guests. She spent some time outside enjoying the nice weather today.

Trisha, Myself and all of our staff hopes you had a great Thanksgiving!

Keith

Big dog... Big Tub!!

Today Georgia (great dane) had her first full day of doggy daycare.  Her mom asked if we could give her a bath and we did!  She did great and fit perfectly in the tub!  I am so glad that we bought the largest tub that was available!

We have had a few dogs that checked into the Hotel with special Thanksgiving meals.  Bella (rottie) has a special Turducken meal!  

Have a good night.

Keith

Ms. Maddie

Maddie is one of our daycare dogs, that LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to chase and fetch the ball (did I mention that she LOVES to do it?).  Anyway, she can spot a ball 30 feet away and will just stare at it until you throw it.  She loves to run and chase it, but she is also great about sharing the ball with other dogs.  Maddie is really sweet with all of the dogs in the room!

Today we spent the day getting ready for the Thanksgiving rush, making sure everything is in place and ready to go.  All of our suites and luxury suites are full and all the dogs will have a great time.  I am excited to spend "turkey day" with the dogs!

Have a good night.

Keith

Titan

Yep, you guessed it... Another puppy!  Titan is a 3 month old bulldog puppy, and loves to run and play with Cosi (Fench Bulldog puppy).  When Titan is tired he loves to sleep on the beds!

Today was a great day at the daycare with plenty of black dogs.  12 black dogs to be exact!  Bear, Brandy, Spot, Molly, Parker, Griffin, Mister, Penny, Oscar, Whiskey, and more....  It it always fun to remember everyones names, but we always do great at it!

One more thing.  Heather, who is our Assistant Manager and Trainer has been doing a great job!  She just added a new program called "Train and Play", which is when you drop your pooch off for doggy daycare or hotel and she will work 1 on 1 with them.  It is a great idea and we are the only daycare to offer it in the Twin Cities.  If you have questions, you can visit the training page on our website.

Hope you have a great weekend.  We will be busy making sure we have everything ready for the Thanksgiving rush.

Keith

Bear and Otis

The other day I was in the big dog playroom and captured this cute picture of Bear (black lab) and Otis (great dane puppy) napping together.  Both dogs come everyday and they know how to rest. With the cold weather here, and snow in the forecast I just ordered some doggy friendly ice melt for the daycare.  We will also be selling this if you would like it for home use.  Remember, salt is not good for a doggie's paws.

The Halloween pictures are now in.  I also just added a bunch of pictures to our photo gallery.

Have a good night.

Keith

One tired pooch!

Remy, who is a boxer was at Daycare yesterday, and when Remy's mom came in this morning she said that Remy was so tired from playing yesterday that he fell asleep on the elevator up to the 9th floor.  How funny is that?  Yes, we let the dogs play hard, but we also make sure they get plenty of rest!  Remy is a certified therapy dog and is one really behaved boxer!

Today Trisha and I had a photo shoot with Sarah Beth and she took some pretty cool pictures, we can't wait to see them!  Sarah also told us about mod-dog.com which is a local artists website they blogged about her.

Have a good night.

Keith

Sad, but good news!

I just received news that Drake (3 legged American Bulldog), our foster dog just found himself a foster home. This is great news for him, but sad because I will not be seeing him everyday! Drake is the sweetest dog and really plays so well with everyone. There are times when Drake and I would have lunch together, And he would eat a bone while I ate my food. That is the hardest part about fostering a dog is getting attached to them. Drake is still available for adoption through Pet Haven. One of our other foster dogs, Lacey (Rottweiler / Shepard) is still available as well. We will have another foster dog soon, and I am sure I will get attached again ;)

Have a good sunday!

Keith

Everyone loves the new beds!

I went into the daycare this morning and played with all the dogs in the smaller dog room. We just put in new beds for napping on, and Jack (Pug), Cosi (French Bulldog) and Wellington (Wheaton/Schnauzer) really like them! Since they are such a hit we might add more soon!

Today we had a bunch of dogs come in to do their evaluations so they can be ready for their hotel stay over Thanksgiving. We are almost full, so if you have not made your reservation, please do so very soon!

Have a great weekend. Tonight Trisha and I are headed to one of our favorite places to eat, Pop!

Keith

Love is in the air

Bear (black lab) and Roxy (chocolate lab) were caught cuddling on Friday afternoon? This went on for about 20 minutes and it was so cute! Is there a relationship starting? We are not sure, but we will have more details soon!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Keith

New Beds!

Today I had fun putting the new beds together for the small dogs.  After I put all the parts together we brought them out into the play area and Cosi was the first one to lay on them.  All the dogs loved them!!  These are great beds, and really easy to clean and sanitize each night.

Hope you have a good night.

Keith

Ranger

Ranger is another one of our newer daycare and hotel dogs. Ranger is a Cockapoo and has lots of energy and loves to play with the puppies.

We finally got our new beds in for the small dog play area. They should be ready to use tomorrow. You might notice our big blue overhead door. I spent an hour painting it today in the cold. It does not look too bad, but it will be better tomorrow since all i had was a roller and no paintbrush. So stand by and it will look good soon.

Just a quick reminder, there is Doga this weekend. Visit the K9 Connections website to sign up. If you enter discount code "PPP" at checkout you will save $3. Our Spa is also open this weekend if you need any grooming done.

Have a good night.

keith

Small Dog and Puppy Play Time

Britt is one of our newer daycare dogs, and she has a great personality and plays great with all of the smaller dogs. One of our customers had a great idea and soon we will have some new beds for the small dogs to lay on.

We would like to start offering small dog and puppy playtime. Basically a time when you can play with your dog, and others that are the same size or age. We would like to know what day works best for everyone. Take our online poll and vote.

What are you doing Thursday?

I am in Chicago for a few days visiting my family, but Trisha is still at the daycare making sure things go smooth! I just received an email from one of our friends and clients at the daycare. Jessie Marianiello is having a gallery opening this Thursday, Nov. 13th - "Rescued: The Dogs of Pet Haven. " As many of you know we foster 1 dog for Pet Haven and we try to support them in anyway we can. Here are the details:

WHEN: 11/13/08, 7:30 pm.
WHERE: Cuppa Java
400 Penn Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55405
More information is on Jessie's website.

Webcam Update

Today was a rainy, but busy day at the daycare. Both play areas were pretty busy, and we were almost to our limit of dogs. Just a quick reminder to make reservations or call ahead if the weather looks gloomy because we fill up pretty fast. We want to make sure each dog gets enough attention and that we have enough staff on hand. All the dogs had so much fun playing and the highlight of my day was giving Bella (in the picture) her bath. Bella is an ex-show dog and you can tell she loves to be groomed! She just stood in the tub like a pro!! Bella is going home today and I am really going to miss her! One of Bella's friends, Keilee, is celebrating her 1st birthday today! Keilee is also a Rottweiler and the 2 of them love to stick together! Keilee also won our Woof-n-Treat costume contest!

This afternoon I made a small change to the webcam page. When you click the link for the front playroom webcam both of the cameras will load on the same page. There will be a few more updates soon!

Have a good night and stay dry!

Keith

Roxy is a Aunt!

Great News.. One of Roxy's (our dog) sisters just had 7 puppies!! Trisha and I received the news yesterday and are so excited to meet the new puppies! We are having a party for all of Roxy's brothers and sisters next weekend at the daycare, we do this a few times each year and it is always so much fun to get all the dogs together and see all the personalities of the dogs. If you ever want to have a birthday party in our training room, let us know!

Have a great night!

Keith

A Great Day!

Today started out slower until about 8:30am when there was a non-stop rush of dogs stopping in for daycare. I think everyone was out early to vote, and everyone was running late. Anyway, Jasime and Darla (in the white) and Sid (in the black) had so much fun running around with the smaller and more laid back group of dogs.

This afternoon was the first day of Heather Hime, our new Full Time Assistant Manager. She will be at the daycare every Tuesday-Saturday in the afternoons. Heather is also our trainer and we are so excited to have her on board! If you ever have any training questions, just ask her!

Have a good night.

Keith

Hello to Mexico!

We are always talking about some of our daycare and boarding dogs, so tonight I thought it would be fun to talk about one of our employee's dogs. Toast is a rat terror who belongs to Ash, our employee. Toast loves to run and play with the bigger and smaller dogs, and he is also featured on the front of our brochure.

One of the comments on a previous blog post came from Bella's (a really sweet Rottweiler) parents who are in sunny and warm Mexico (they picked a great time to go since it was 70 in Minneapolis today). They talked about how much fun it was to see Bella running around playing with her friends while they are on vacation. I tried to get a good picture of Bella running and playing today, but by camera phone does not do good with movement. So I will try again to get another picture of Bella playing tomorrow. She is a really sweet dog who has perfected "sitting pretty".

Today, some of the day was spent cleaning and re-arranging the main play area. We moved some of the hotel suites and changed a few things around, and with the new configuration, the dogs also have more room to play! I also moved one of the webcams, so hopefully you will like the change. Please let me know if you have any feedback.

Have a good night, and don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Keith

The Fall Benefit

Last night Trisha and I attended the Pet Haven Fall Benefit. It was a great event that was held at the Double Tree in St Louis Park. The highlight of the night was the dog fashion show that was hosted by my good friend, and ex-coworker Staci Matthews of KS95. Drake, our foster dog was in the show and everyone loved him. Drake is a great dog and plays great with all of the dogs at the daycare. For those of you that don't know, we always foster a dog for pet haven for free until a foster or forever home is found for the dog. Drake is our 3rd foster dog from Pet Haven and I love working with this great group of people. This photo was taken by Sarah Beth Photography.

Happy Sunday!

Keith