Roxy supervising the Doggie Den dogs.
Yesterday I had so much fun at doggy daycare and it involved the 2 ladies in my life (Trycia and Roxy). We were all in the Doggie Den supervising some of the daycare dogs playing and Roxy was helping us. Those of you that know her from the lobby know that she like the calm mellow dogs that come in (not the super excited ones that can’t wait to get into the play areas). Roxy does not normally go in the rooms everyday, but her and Trycia are a package deal and they always have to be together. So Roxy was hanging out and helping us supervise everyone. Hope everyone has a good weekend!
Keith
Jack brought treats for all the daycare dogs on his last day!
Today was a sad day for all of us at Pampered Pooch Playground. Jack the Boston Terrier had his last day of doggy daycare before he moved to Indianapolis! We always hate to see our dogs move away and Jack was no exception. When Jack’s mom dropped him off for doggy daycare, she broke the news to us. We quickly started talking about how Jack was one of our first doggy daycare dogs 4 years ago when we opened! Oh Jack, we are gaining to miss his crazy “noises” he makes when he plays with things and his little wiggle when he comes through the front door.
Hope everyone has a good night!
The dogs of the Ruff House know how to play hard at doggy daycare, then how to nap!
The dogs in the Ruff House play hard and then it seems like the whole room gets tired at one time! We call this our group nap time. So many doggy daycares do a caged nap time, when every dog goes in a cage for 2 hours and they call this “nap time”. I can honestly tell you that it not a nap time and most of the dogs end up barking for the 2 hours (we tried this when we opened), and the barking was loud enough to stress me out, and the other dogs. So we found a way to have these group nap times, and the dogs do great with it! Resting is also a large part of doggy daycare because you don’t want a tired cranky dog when you pick them up, you just want a tired dog!
Have a good weekend!
Keith
Schatzie and Hendrix were some of the first dogs in the remodeled Waggers Way.
Wow, what a difference a week makes in our doggy daycare makeover. Our Waggers Way room is now being used, and I think all the dogs LOVE it. You will notice the webcams are now in the middle of the room so you can see about 90% of the room and the new energy efficient lighting has made the room much brighter and the new paint color on the walls and the lighter floor has made the dogs stand out better on the webcams. I was laughing yesterday when I first logged on to the cameras because Brent (one of our staff) was wearing a black hoodie and he looked like a shadow on the cameras. We love these changes! Now That Waggers Way has been almost completed (there are just some ceiling tiles to be placed), the Ruff House has started getting the facelift. We keep putting pressure on the construction guys to be finished by Friday and I think this will be achieved.
So excited to show everything off!
Keith
Cowboy the Rottweiler Puppy
Today was a big day when it comes to our construction. The majority of the work in Waggers Way has been completed and they will be starting in the Ruff House tomorrow. So we will have all of the big dogs in Waggers Way starting tomorrow and I spent 5 hours this afternoon putting everything back together in the room. The construction guys cleaned everything when they were done, but I wanted to go through with the shop vac and make sure they picked up everything. We have a Rottweiler puppy named Cowboy, who is known to eat just about everything at home and wanted to make sure he would not find anything on the floor. So the entire time I was cleaning, I kept thinking to my self “we have to Cowboy proof everything”. We are so very excited with how everything has been going. The new webcams are up and running in waggers way, you can see about 90% of the whole room and you should be able to see all the dogs. I am excited to see how the dogs react to the new digs tomorrow.
Have a great night, and I know we always say this, but thanks for putting up with our construction 
Keith
Roxy shows off the remodeling progress of our Doggy Daycare room
Wow, Lots has changed in Waggers Way doggy daycare room in the past few days. Sunday, the final touches were finished on the floor, and this morning we were able to walk on it. At 7:30 this morning, the painting started. Wow, does it look fresh and new! Tomorrow, the work on the ceiling starts. We took Roxy in the room and she really liked the floor. When we first opened, rubber flooring was the industry standard and the best that was out there. After almost 4 years, the standards have changed, and rubber flooring is a great option, but not the best (in my opinion) which is why we have decided to update it. We are putting down a rubberized epoxy which is 5 times easier to clean and the dogs really love it! m This room looks so empty with everything moved out of it. Crazy!! If all goes well this doggy daycare room should be up and running by Friday, then we will start the Ruff House.
Thanks again for being so understanding with us during this time, construction is always hard, but we try to make it as easy on everyone as possible.
Keith
Leyla was the first nail trim of 2012.. I did her nail trim at 9am on January 1st.
The new year is here and Pampered Pooch Playground is rocking. This week all the talk is about our remodeling that is starting later this week. Everyone is very excited for the updates and we really try to take our employees opinions into account when we change things. As an owner, sometimes it is easy to sit back and say “deal with it”, but we don’t work that way and those words would never leave my mouth. If there is something we can do to make the job easier, we will change and adapt to make things easier for our staff. I think it really helps that Trycia and Myself are very involved in the dog daycare everyday (we don’t just sit in an office), but know what really goes on. For example, tonight, the person that does our cleaning was sick, so who filled in?? I did!! Some of the staff did think it was kinda funny that the owner was cleaning, but it is a task that needs to be done. I actually had fun doing it (I had don’t done it for a few months).
We are excited to get the ball rolling on 2012 and continue to provide the best possible care and exercise for your pooch!
I think we will make the slogan for the year….. 2012… The year of the pooch!
Have a good night.
Keith
Nap time in the Ruff Hosue
I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of our wonderful customers and staff for a wonderful 2011. I know we say this every year, but Trycia and I never expected Pampered Pooch Playground to be as successful as it is. We really appreciate everyone that has made PPP what it is today! In 2011 we remodeled our dog grooming, bathing, and food prep areas and added a new floor to the Ruff House. I LOVE change and keeping things fresh and new and in the next few weeks you will see more changes taking place. We strive to be the best possible dog daycare in the Twin Cities.
Thursday night, I was doing our closing shift because one of our employees was sick. The entire shift, when I was in the room, I kept thinking about when we first opened 4 years ago and how far it has come! I still remember when we had 3 dogs each day and can name our first 20 dogs (and most still come).
have a happy and healthy 2012!
Keith
I was all a twitter when I saw the new version of Pooch Vision in my update list.
We just released the latest version of “Pooch Vision” which is our app for the iPhone. This being the 4th version, we think is is the best yet. We have made it possible to pay for doggy daycare and soon you will be able to check your pooch out before you even walk into our building (we are waiting on an update to our software for this and have been pushing the company for this feature for 2 years). We are all about making life easy for you, but also connecting you to your pooch. The whole purpose for the iPhone app is to allow you to watch your dog while they are playing at doggy daycare. Webcams provide a great sense of security and let you know how we operate. You can also read our blog, make reservations, and keep up on the latest dog events in Minneapolis.
In January we will be doing some remodeling in the 2 big dog rooms, and we will be adding more webcams, so watching your pooch will be even more fun! Many daycares have contacted me asking “why would you have an iPhone app and webcams”… My response has always been “why the heck not”… Our app might not be as cool as the Starbucks app where you can pay at register by letting them scan your phone, but we are getting closer and closer to that! We are still one of the few dog daycares in the country that have their own iPhone app which is a free download.
Those that don’t have an iPhone, we also have “Pooch Vision” available for the droid and blackberry.
Have a great night!
Keith
