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ARRANGING PUPPY SOCIALS
Recently, I listened to a wonderful webinar by Kathy Callahan about early puppy training. One thing that really stood out was that she offers puppy socials on her property for her clients’ puppies, thus allowing her to carefully monitor to be sure it’s a positive experience all around. This is much safer than instructing our puppy clients to find, on their own, other puppies for socialization purposes. Kathy has twice a week meetings for a couple of hours each time. The puppies play together, they meet and play with appropriate adult dogs too, enrichment is provided, etc. It really is ideal!
Much as I wish I could do this on my property, the city I live in expressly prohibits clients and their dogs meeting on my property, not to mention I often won’t have sufficient puppies at once to match together for safe and positive socials. And when I used to teach group puppy classes, I felt the time restriction along with the variety of puppy ages and sizes often made playtime dicey or hard to coordinate.
Do any folks in our CATCH community offer such a wonderful service for young puppies? If so, I’d love to hear how and where you do it. I’d also love to brainstorm with folks for ideas on how to offer this even if we can’t do it on our own property.
@Cyn , you posted about playgroups last year, and @awolfe , I’d loooove to read an update about the private dog park you were planning to build!
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7 Replies
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What timing! I woke up thinking about puppy socials ????, happy thoughts, I’d say. I have found some trainers online through my research that use their own backyards or properties for training and I always assume they are out of the city limits. Zoning issues and allowed uses within zoning are necessary I know, but they are the biggest headache for myself, and others who are trying to provide services/start businesses involving dogs.
My training center and private dog park project is being held up for this exact reason. It’s a whole novella involving my town recently overhauling their entire development code and zoning along with confusion amongst the city planning department and now my new job search. So I have paused for now while I reassess. My property is “in town” near our downtown and by several recycling centers and industrial-zoned businesses. If I had done this project a year ago I would have been golden, but due to the changes in code I have issues now. I will try to summarize.
Dog businesses seem to fall into the “professional services” category, which is allowed in a variety of zonings. However, when property is zoned for residential or abutting residential/transitional zoning problems arise with operating a business of any kind. A new doggie daycare that opened in my town spent three years working through zoning issues and that was before the overhaul. That was zoned for Res-Office I believe (a transitional zoning at that time). My town is high growth with 70k people and the whole MSA area is high growth.
I can request a rezone but it has to adhere to the “future land use map” that is part of the plan for future growth and development.
My options have been:
- Buy property outside of town to avoid any restrictions
- Buy commercial or Industrial 1 zoned property so no issues
- Buy my lot and believe the city about the zoning changes then get bogged down because they were mistaken and now aren’t doing what they said they were going to do (which is change zoning so my development is a little less costly).
Soooo…. With this BOOM town era for my town real estate has $ has increased astoundingly – I am talking commercial type prices have doubled in the past three years. Great. That has priced me out of almost anything close to major roadways/easy access/in town, which was one of my goals. My property is 3 acres and there is no city water or sewer available. For my biz I will have to spend around $130k before I have even started on the building itself. UGH. Well and sewer is another $35k-ish. Throw in the now increasing cost of steel building structures and my costs are well, higher than I’d like for a new business with an unproven model.
This has led be to consider seeing what might change if I build a house there and try that route, but I fear the same requirements for the biz development. So I keep looking outside of the city limits again. Sigh.
It would be, I think, really handy to live on said property with the business. However, I have immediate access to our trail system out my back door and am in no hurry to move. So I have been looking at renting a space as an option, as this would allow me to prove out my biz model and get going with a building. I want to fence my lot but have yet to due to not knowing exactly where the front fence should cross the property. Fencing for the back of the lot (behind where a building would go) is going to cost me around $25k for chain link. I would like to fence something and have an alternative outdoor space to a rented location, if I go that route. Rent here is high, also, so that is not a great option, considering I will be working my “real job” to finance this whole thing so will have limited hours to operate. So I am evaluating new jobs and determining also if now is the time to drop to 30-ish hours/week or stay full-time to get more $ to finance all of this! It’s a quandry!
Part of my idea is to allow others to use my space to help cover costs (like Sniffspot for outside) and networking with trainers for inside. Which then gets into “training club” territory, or operating as a not-for-profit/membership org, which is what many places I’ve found online do. They all seem to be on the outskirts of towns or in industrial areas also.
I have been going out to an agility class with one of my dogs at a couple of places in a town 25 miles away. One is a rural property with acreage and trainer Dr lives there. Town, interstate and paved trail system has grown out that way so its pretty easy access being only 1.5 miles from hwy exit. And there’s a great new park with wooded trails etc between hwy and trainer’s place. She is def outside of the town’s zoning. The other place is a doggie daycare with training and outdoor agility yard. Closer into the town, but was once on the outskirts so would have been grandfathered in, but another daycare just went in next door so I suppose they are in whatever zoning that town allows for those services in. Lucky, and right off a major roadway with easy access to interstate.
I can really elaborate, ha! I think I will get settled on a new job by next week and can then figure out next steps. I don’t see myself financing a $650k+ building just yet… the building may shrink to more like 2-3k sf but still have equipment, flooring etc. I have found a few properties that already have a building… ideal!!! close by but out of city limits, but again, prices are so high that I am looking at something like $600-800k for a property like that, or go further out of town which becomes a further drive for people. I also have to consider the two runners I acquired and where their running might lead them should they get out without supervision – an added issue.
I have found a pretty perfect space to rent less than a mile from my house. 3k sq ft, $3k rent a month. My biz model suggests I could make it at least break even in my limited operating hours, but is seems like a waste to have a space doing nothing all day while I slave away on a computer to pay for it. Also it seems like paying for someone else’s building instead of my own…. But it would help prove that my business model will work here. I have studied Zoom Room franchises closely, and that is the idea I would loosely follow.
That being said, puppies are small and puppy play pens and things like that are moveable, so perhaps finding a space that you could rent cheaply would work without too much cost involved, maybe even someone you know outside city limits, a smaller retail or warehouse space, or just an outdoor park that would allow this use, etc. Petco and the likes do their classes in their stores so it almost can’t be a worse environment than that, as for distractions, etc.
I have a lot to consider and really would love to find like-minded folks to help with my plan. I am also trying to get more involved with the burgeoning dog sports community around here as they could be prime users of my lot, but most are currently in that town 25 miles away. I want to promote other activities/sports, not just training. I am going to attend, hopefully, a scent training workshop in Sep and get a certification for that. What happens after obedience to keep dogs and humans happy and engaged, what helps shelter dogs in their limited environments… these are things I will be focusing on in the next year +. I am also planning to attend at least one in person Catch workshop to get lots of hands on behavior/training exposure and see how the shelter externship fits in with my schedule.
I LOVE the idea of the puppy socials and training because it’s so important and they are just so darn cute. I also think this would be a prime $ source for my biz plan, so this is definitely #1 on my offerings I want to provide. I just have to figure out how, where and when, haha!!
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WOW, @awolfe , you sure have been deep in research and planning. I hope one day it will all gel for you and that your future business will be wildly successful!
Also love that you’ll be pursuing certification for scent work. That sport has so many wonderful applications and seems to be incredibly popular.Looking forward to future updates from you.
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Thank you! It sounds like you have had some good experience with puppy play group planning that would be useful when I get there. I will need all the help I can get!!
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Amy, You have clearly put a LOT of thought and energy into your options here! It’s impressive and I’m sure you’ll find your way through it all. I know a trainer who financed a million dollar plus enterprise by selling “lifetime memberships” to some high rollers in her area. She signed a deal with them that she’d prioritize their dog needs and basically pre-sold huge training packages. It got her what she needed in a few months. Maybe something like that could work if you already have an established clientele?
Also, you mentioned getting more into shelter work. I saw that Ferdie Yau is teaching a seminar TOMORROW at Maddie’s Fund Behavior Plans to Reduce Hyperarousal in Shelter Dogs: The Impact of Setup and Choice. March 2024 Maddie’s Monthly Behavior Connection. I thought you might be interested. Maddie’s events are free, so there’s an easy win!
So far as puppy socials… what a win for all involved. One thing I miss about teaching in person is all the puppy playgroups I used to run! I do hope you are able to find a way. As part of my puppy class packages, I included monthly “field trips” where we went together to a place and practiced life skills – for a whole year. It was a great add-on and helped me help them take their puppies to next level work through the crazy adolescent period. That naturally morphed into a weekly summertime drop in adventure-style class… we had a blast! @awolfe
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https://maddiesfund-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_m94_cttbQpihXlKlrkBiIQ#/registration
maddiesfund-org.zoom.us
Join us on the fourth Thursday of every month as we talk about dog and cat behavior - supporting pets in our community and animal shelters. Each month, we hear from speakers about topics of interest to our group, such … Continue reading
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Thank you so much for this! I will definitely join that tomorrow. That’s an amazing story about raising funds for a facility! Since I am just starting out I do not have a client base yet, and my plan all started with wanting a facility I could use for my own dogs and has morphed into a new life phase plan involving offering the same option to other dog people. I am including a membership option in my biz models but it’s more of an annual or monthly amount but would allow for drop in classes, sports/activities involvement and controlled group doggy socials where a limited group of similar dogs can play together while their humans socialize also. I need to get more training under my belt so I can hit up some folks and give them the lifetime deal! I appreciate the ideas!
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Sounds great, Amy, I’m sure you’ll find your way! Let us know how the seminar goes today, and keep us posted on your upcoming plans too!
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