Pampered Pooch Playground

We off to a great start!

2009-01-05T16:38:00.003-06:00

You can tell that the world has returned to normal after the holidays, and it is great to be back to normal. One of the dogs that comes to daycare everyday is Boogey who is also known as "that big white dog in the little dog play room". Boogey enjoyed his break, but he was really happy to see me again!

What else is going on? Well, we are working an doing some minor remodeling in the next few weeks. These should be some exciting changes, but we are not exactly sure what we will be doing yet, but when we know I will clue you in. Also, Ash who has been one of our employees since July or August (I can't remember how long it has been), will now be the assistant manager on Sunday and Mondays.

Have a good night.

Keith

Tiny Tails Day

2009-01-04T18:54:00.003-06:00

Today we had our first Tiny Tails Social Club of 2009. This is a great way for smaller dogs (20 pounds or less) to get together and play in our training room. Ash, one of our staff members supervised the play group and all the dogs had so much fun. We do this every Sunday at 1pm and we ask that you make a reservation.

Henry is the dog that is in the picture. Ash tells me that Henry did great and had so much fun playing! Most of our holiday dogs have gone home now, so that will mean that we have more room for the daycare dogs. We limit the number of dogs that come in the play areas because we want to make sure each dog has enough room to play and to rest. You can alwas call 952-922-8183 to see if there is space for daycare, or make a reservation online.

Have a good night.

Keith

Are you bored at work today?

2009-01-02T11:59:00.003-06:00

I know everyone slacks at work on Fridays, and really who is working today? I have been swamped doing year end paperwork for the daycare, and I found out that I get more done at home than when I am with the dogs. It is just too tempting to put things off and go play with all the dogs.
So I started to look up Pampered Pooch Playground on the internet, and was shocked that we had a few reviews on Google. That is really cool! Then I started to think that it would be great to have more.... Help us out and write an honest rating of Pampered Pooch Playground on Google. Click Here to go to our reviews page. Be open, Be Honest ;)

Maybe if I get all the stuff done, I will do another blog with a fun game or something else you can waste time with.

Happy Friday!

Keith

A Cute Video to start the day

2009-01-02T08:05:00.005-06:00

We have a bunch of bulldogs that come to the daycare on a regular basis (Boss, Titan, Bryan and others). This morning I was watching the Today show and saw the cutest video. Click Here to watch it. Maybe one day, one of our bulldogs can do that!

Stay warm, it is cold outside today!

Keith

Happy 2K9

2009-01-01T16:16:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone had a happy and safe New Years eve. We had a bunch of hotel guests last night, and Trisha and I came in early to play with the dogs today! Gus, a shih tzu puppy has been with us for about 5 nights. His dad is one of the Gopher football coaches and they had to travel to the bowl game. We kept petting Gus for good luck in the game, but we lost. Oh well, Gus did great with all the dogs and had so much fun. I am so sad to see him go home today!

Oh, we added some new pictures to the photo album for January. I guess we don't waste any time!

Have a good day!

Keith

Shhhhh.... Dogs Napping!

2008-12-30T17:08:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I was blogging about our group nap time and today someone asked what it looked like. Foster, Bailey and Trixy all enjoyed a nap today! This afternoon all the dogs enjoyed watching the snow fall outside and they love to run and play in it, Especially Princess Lea!

We sent out an email to everyone on our email list today.
- Tiny Tails Social Club - Starts this Sunday at 1pm. Click Here for details.
- Save $10 - Heather just announced her next round of training classes. Click here to save $10 on your next class. (who said the price of everything is going up.. hehe)
- Stay Warm- We now brew Caribou Coffee in the lobby starting at 7am. Enjoy!

Loki

2008-12-29T13:21:00.002-06:00

Loki is one of the dogs that has been hanging out in the smaller dog play room the past few days! Loki is a sweetie and plays so well with everyone and he loves to eat lunch everyday! He knows when it is lunch time, and he starts to do a little dance!

I am writing this blog as all the dogs are napping. When it is nap time, I try to stay out of the play areas because a new face can rile up the dogs and then they start to play again. We have found that our group nap time has been working great and all of the dogs really like it. I think it is much better than putting all the dogs in a cage for a nap!

Have a good afternoon!

Keith

New Artwork

2008-12-28T15:13:00.002-06:00

Today was another action packed day with all of the dogs. We had about 5 customers call yesterday saying that their flight was canceled! I felt bad for all of those people, and all the dogs had to stay over an extra night, and we gave them an extra treat!! Everyone was so behaved and the morning flew past! We hung up some new artwork in the lobby, which is a photo that was taken by Sarah Beth Photography. That name might ring a bell because she was also the person taking the pictures at our Halloween party. She was nice enough to loan us that picture for the lobby, and a few more (that will be up soon) that will line the hallways to the training room. She is a great photographer!

There were so many of the overnight Hotel dogs that were going home today and we were so busy giving all of them a bath (oh, did I mention that when a dog stays 5 or more nights we give them a free bath??). Embry, Riley, and Lucy all had fun playing today!

Hopefully everyone is able to enjoy some nice weather today.

Keith

Louie and Ella

2008-12-26T16:32:00.002-06:00

Louie and Ella are 2 regular faces at Pampered Pooch Playground Doggy Daycare, and every now and then they will spend the night in the hotel. Ella is still a puppy, and Louie loves to watch over her and keep her out of trouble. Louie and Ella spend most of their time in the small dog playroom and they both play so well with all the dogs! Ella was adopted from Pet Haven. Their mom, Jessie, does some really cool paintings, make sure you check out her website.

Have a good night.

Christmas with the pooches

2008-12-25T20:58:00.002-06:00

This morning Trisha and I drive back nice and early from Wisconsin so we could spend the afternoon with the dogs! (Our staff did a wonderful job taking care of everything while we were away). All the dogs had a great day today playing and some of them even had special holiday meals and treats. Bella (on the right) and Herschel (left) had lots of fun playing today!

We hope everyone had a great holiday!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T13:17:00.003-06:00

We decided to dress up Trisha's mom's dog for the party tonight. Bonnie is a toy poodle and dachshund mix.

Ok, enough of the sappy holiday letters and stuff like that! Trisha and I just want to thank everyone for a great 2008 and we are so glad that we have gotten to meet so many great dogs (and customers).

Have a great Holiday and we will be back at the daycare tomorrow to party with the dogs!!

Keith

A fun winter day

2008-12-23T14:29:00.002-06:00

Trisha and I are in Wisconsin visiting her family until Christmas Day (we are driving back at 8am on Christmas so we can play with the dogs in the afternoon). We are very lucky to be able to trust the daycare to our wonderful staff and we check in all the time ;) We got about 4 inches of snow here last night, and Roxy has been having a blast running and playing in it.

Have a great afternoon!

Keith

I was a slacker today!

2008-12-19T17:58:00.003-06:00

I took today off from playing with the dogs, but that does not mean that I was not doing things. Over the last few days we have been taping some of the dogs playing and having fun! Check out the video below!

Other than that, I was able to finish all of my holiday shopping and I am gearing up for a really busy week at the daycare! We are completely full for daycare. We do limit the number of dogs we allow in the play area, to make sure that each dog gets enough attention and has plenty of room to run and play!

Have a great weekend!

Keith

It's Nap Time

2008-12-18T13:13:00.002-06:00

Whoa, Look, I am blogging during the day! The dogs just got done with a nap time. Rather than putting all the doggies in cages for naps (this creates stress and barking), we let them nap in the playrooms with everyone. Today Bear (black lab) and Zenyatta (greyhound) took a nap together. Bear has become quite the casanova, he always snuggles up next to a different dog each day.

Another question we had today was how do you know the heat is working and the dogs are warm overnight?? The whole building is always monitored by ADT Security for everything. They also have 4 temperature sensors in the building. If it ever drops below our "safe" level, we get a call right away. Today I checked to make sure one of them was working, and it worked just great. So now everyone can sleep well at night knowing it was warm and cozy where the dogs are.

Have a good afternoon!

Keith

A warm start to the day!

2008-12-17T18:04:00.003-06:00

We have a new feature in the lobby area for our early morning customers. We will now have a self service coffee bar in the lobby weekdays from 7am-9am (or later if the employees are moving slow) and weekends from 9am-11am. We will be brewing the Caribou Coffee Blend (one of my personal favorites, which is almost as good as Dunkin' Doughnuts) and will provide the "to-go" cups, or bring your own mug and fill it up! All this will be provided free, but there will be a suggested donation of $1 per cup and all the proceeds will go to Pet Haven. You don't have to donate each time, you can do it however you like. I really hope that everyone likes this service and it helps you start your morning :)

Flethcher (in the picture) was one of the early morning guests through the door today. Fletcher loves to run and chase all the dogs around the room! He is a great guy and we are so glad that he loves to come play!

Oh... Just a quick reminder about our holiday hours:
Christmas Eve - Regular Hours, all overnight guests need to be checked in by 3pm.
Christmas Day - Closed for drop off or pick up
New Years Eve - Regular Hours
New Years Day - 9am-6pm
(Reservations for daycare will be reuired for the week of christmas)

Oh, if you are one of our Facebook Friends, we would love for you to upload some of your dog's holiday pictures to our page.

One more thing.... We have a new foster dog from Pet Haven. He is a great guy, and with a little training would be a great addition to any family. You can read more about Decey by Clicking Here.
Have a good night.

Keith

Yes, it is still cold!

2008-12-16T19:48:00.002-06:00

Today was another really busy day at the daycare! Duke and Ruby were one of the first daycare dogs to come in today. Their mom thanked us for the bath we gave them yesterday and said that they smelled so good! I thought that was kinda strange since we did not give them a bath! This was the 2nd person in 3 weeks to say the same thing. Maybe we should market our smell in a bottle for dogs. The strange thing is some daycares spray the dog with good smelling stuff before they leave, and we decided not to do that. We thought it was kinda cheesy and it is almost as if you are trying to cover up the real smell or something.

Yesterday I talked about this really cool new thing we just ordered for the small dog room. Well I have an update to this. We ordered the same thing for the big dogs as well. We did not want them to feel left out! It should arrive in about 2 weeks, and should be up and running in about 3 weeks. I can't wait! Details soon!

Grimmace, who is in the picture is one of our newer daycare dogs. He spent the day today playing with the smaller dogs including Titan, Bryan, Cosi and Eloise.

Have a good night, I need to get back to my last minute holiday shopping online. Do you have any good gift ideas? Let me know!

Keith

Lucy is all ready for the holidays!

2008-12-15T19:53:00.002-06:00

Lucy was so excited to show off her new holiday outfit today! She was a hit among all the dogs! It was a cold day outside, but all the dogs stayed nice and warm inside. One of our customers came in today after standing at the dog park for 20 minutes, then they decided it was time to come and let the dog play inside today.

Today I ordered something new for the small dog area. We should have it in about 2 weeks, and all the dogs will love it!

Stay inside and stay warm!

Keith

Have I lost it?

2008-12-13T20:14:00.002-06:00

For some reason I am really in the Holiday Spirit today. Maybe it was because the Boxer Rescue was doing pictures with Santa at the daycare today, but who knows what started it! Trisha and I were eating dinner and we started messing around on YouTube and came across one of her favorite Holiday songs. You can watch the video below:

Now when you call the daycare, you will get some festive holiday music when you are on hold. That must really make you want to call.... ;)

Those of you from the Chicago area will remember this oldie but goodie that always played on WGN TV.

Have a good weekend!

Keith

Jaxon

2008-12-12T17:22:00.004-06:00

Jaxon is one our newest additions to Doggy Daycare. He loves to play in the smaller dog room and he is always so happy to come through the front door. We love this guy (actually, we love every dog).

Today, I installed a bubble machiene in the big dog room. All the dogs had fun trying to chase and pop the bubbles. I will have a video online very soon!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. If you are looking for something to do tomorrow, the Minnesota Boxer Rescue will be doing pictures with Santa in our training room from 11am-3pm.

Stay warm!

Keith

we've gone bulldog crazy!

2008-12-11T15:13:00.002-06:00

Not 1, Not 2, but 3 English Bulldogs, 1 French Bulldog and 1 American Bulldog were all in the building today! Titan (an English Puppy), Bryan (a full grown English and the one in the picture), Cosi (the French Puppy) Zoie (an English who was in to have a play date with Drake, our foster dog) and Drake (who is our foster dog through Pet Haven). That is a bunch of bulldogs, but everyone of them was so well behaved and played great! Titan and Bryan, who look like they could be brothers spent the morning playing with eachother. Zoie came in for an hour to have a meet-n-greet play date with Drake. They hit it off great and Drake will be going to their house this weekend to make sure he is a good fit for them! We will be really sad to see him go, but are so happy he will be going to a great home!

Other news... I was talking to Britt's owner yesterday and had a great idea for an addition to the lobby area. It will be added in the next few weeks. I can't tell you what it is yet until we work out all the details, but it might be cool!

Stay warm!

Keith

A snowy start to the day!

2008-12-09T18:40:00.002-06:00

Today started with shoveling the snow outside the daycare. We do have a service that plows and shovels, but we like to make sure that it is nice and clean. All the bigger dogs loved going outside and playing in the snow today and it was hard to get them to come inside! We had Georga (who is a Great Dane) come in and play today. Right after she came into the place area, she ran to Otis, who is also a great Dane! It looked like they were kissing a few times as well. Is this young love? We are not sure, but we will keep you updated!

Pollock who is in the picture is one of the puppies that loves to come to daycare! Yesterday he was caught sleeping next to one of the water bowls!

Have a good night!

Keith

A Snowy Sunday

2008-12-07T16:04:00.002-06:00

You have to love the snow, but you have to be careful what you use to melt the ice when you have dogs around. Dogs pads are very sensitive, and regular salt ice melt is very hard on them! There is special doggy safe ice melt, and that is what we use outside the daycare and we also have it available in our retail area. It works just as well as regular ice melt.

Anyway, today we took Roxy on a long walk in the snow. We put her on a 15 foot flexi-leash and she loves to run around. When we came back inside, I added some new pictures to our December photo gallery.

Koko is the dog in the picture, and is one of our regular daycare and hotel guests! He loves to wear his sweater!

Have a good rest of the weekend!

Keith

Ember is 2 years and 2 days old!

2008-12-05T16:31:00.002-06:00

Today, I was on a mission to get a picture of Ember! It took about 20 minutes, but I was finally able to do it! The problem was that Ember kept wanting to play and would never sit still for more than 2 seconds! So finally, we got a picture of her ;)

I gave Ruby, our foster dog a bath today so she is all ready and looking pretty for her adoption event tomorrow! She loves the water, just not the air dryer we used to fluff up her hair! When it was all said and done, she is one good looking pooch! She is available for adoption through Pet Haven. Speaking of Pet Haven, they have a great holiday gift idea! Click Here to find out more!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Keith

You ask...We Do!

2008-12-03T18:20:00.002-06:00

One of our customers wanted us to enlarge the webcam pictures on the website because she was confused as to which dog was hers. So I sat down on my MacBook Pro and learned how to make the webcams stream larger! The picture is so big, the dogs look lifesize (well almost).

Seriously though, we are all about change and if you ever have any suggestions let us know.

Sasha is one of our regualr daycare dogs that loves to run and play with all the small dogs.

Our boy is back!

2008-12-02T18:29:00.002-06:00

Drake, one of our foster dogs came back to spend some time with us us over Thanksgiving! Drake is a 3 legged American Bulldog and up for adoption through Pet Haven. Drake is such a lover, and I can see him becoming a certified therapy dog one day. He only has 3 legs, but that does not stop him, he loves to play, but he is also very good at resting. All of our staff have become very attached to Drake! We also have another foster dog from Pet Haven, Ruby. She is a black lab mix that loves to run and play and chase the ball. If you know anyone looking for a dog, both of these dogs are great!

Hope you have a good night!

Keith