I often think back to when I was working in radio and how we were treated by the management and owners of the station.  At the station I worked at in Minneapolis, it was a locally owned station, the owners knew your name and everyone really enjoyed working there and they always had fun events for the staff.  Prior to working in Minneapolis, I worked for the largest group of radio stations in the country.  Working for them did have some benefits, but you were honestly treated like a number and hard work was very rarely rewarded.  We never want to turn into this.  I often think back to when we first opened and we had 4 employees and from day 1 we always tried to make working at PPP fun and rewarding. We have chosen to run our doggy daycare like the station I worked for in Minneapolis.  We really do value all of our employees and love having fun outside of work with everyone.  This summer we put together a PPP kickball team with employees.  Tonight was our second game and we won!  We really do have fun outside of the PPP!

Have a good night.

Keith

Join us at Bubbly Paws Dog Wash at Excelsior and Grand in St Louis Park for a Bubble Bath Party for Underdog Rescue.  All self service baths form 5:30-8pm are $15 and $5 is donated to the rescue.  In addition There will be $5 nail trims and 15% off all retail items.  Click Here for more information and to reserve your space.

Join us at Bubbly Paws Dog Wash at Excelsior and Grand in St Louis Park for a Bubble Bath Party for Retrieve A Golden of Minnesota.  All self service baths form 5:30-8pm are $15 and $5 is donated to the rescue.  In addition There will be $5 nail trims and 15% off all retail items.  Click Here for more information and to reserve your space.

Max the doodle was one of the first doggy daycare dogs to see the new outside play area.

2 years ago we were the first dog daycare to use recycled turf in our outside play area and we LOVE it.  Here are the problems with the other types of surfaces commonly used at doggy daycare:

Pea Sized Gravel – The most common but rocks fly everywhere when dogs run and many dog love to eat the rocks.  Rocks are very dusty and dogs go home really dirty.

Wood chips – They hold smell (think how many dogs go to the bathroom on them everyday).  You can’t clean them because cleaning solution soaks into the wood chips.  Plus they smell really bad when they are wet.

Regular grass – Pretty obvious why this is not a good option.. You can never clean it, dogs get dirty and muddy anytime there is rain or you play with the hose and grass never grows because dogs are always running on it.

We LOVE our recycled turf, it comes from an old sports stadium and fits in well with us trying to be a “green” doggy daycare.  The turf hold up great and we just wanted to freshen up the look of what we had outside.  When the guys were almost done installing the turf, they realized someone had mis-measured, so we did not have enough to do the whole area.  So there is a small corner that is not finished yet.  I guess everyone learned the lesson of Measure 10 times and order 1 time  Not big deal, it should be 100% finished by the end of the week.  I was out there when the dogs first saw the new turf today and they LOVED it.  I am so glad we went with this option 2 years ago because I could not imagine sending home really muddy, or super dirty dogs.

Have a good night.

Keith

Patio season is here and there is nothing more fun that taking you pooch to dinner and drinks. We often take Roxy out to dinner with us and people always ask where some of the best places to go are….  We have started to compile a list of dog friendly patios around the Twin Cities, please feel free to comment with anything we have missed as this is a work in progress.

— ROXY APPROVED PATIO’S —

These are patios that and establishments that we have visited with Roxy and know the staff go the extra mile to cater to the dogs.

Pizzeria Lola - SouthWest Minneapolis

Chang Mai Thai - Uptown Minneapolis

McCoys - St Louis Park (Excelsior and Grand)

Yum Kitchen and Bakery - St Louis Park

Cafe Maude - SouthWest Minneapolis

Sebastian Joe’s - Linden Hills Minneapolis

Bar Abeline - Uptown Minneapolis

Tiger Sushi - Uptown Minneapolis

— CUSTOMER SUGGESTIONS —

These are suggestions customers have given us on our Facebook page.

Psycho Suzi’s - Northeast Minneapolis

Happy Gnome - St Paul

The Loop - Downtown Minneapolis

Park Tavern - St Louis Park

Wilde Roast - Northeast Minneapolis

Barbette - Uptown Minneapolis

Burger Jones - Lake Calhoun

Herkimer - Uptown Minneapolis

Lyndale Tap House - Uptown Minneapolis

Tryg’s - Lake Calhoun

Vic’s Bar and Grill - Victoria

Loring Kitchen and Bar - Dinkytown Minneapolis

Tin Fish - Lake Calhoun

Toast Wine Bar - North Loop Minneapolis

Urban Eatery - Lake Calhoun

Mill Valley Kitchen - St Louis Park

Birchwood Cafe - Seward Neighborhood

Town Hall Brewery - West Bank Minneapolis

Lucia’s - Uptown Minneapolis

Joe’s Garage - Loring Park Minneapolis

Tosca Trattoria - Linden Hills Minneapolis

Bob’s Java Hut - Uptown Minneapolis

 Naviya’s Thai Brasserie – Linden Hills Minneapolis

Please note that we posted this on April Fools Day…..

Starting Monday, April 9th, Pampered Pooch Playground will expand and begin offering baby daycare in our canine cove.  But, this is no typical baby daycare, they will be interacting with the dogs in the canine cove.  What can be better than 10 dogs and 10 babies all having fun in the same room.  We will be lowering the webcams so you can see the happy expressions on all the babies faces when they are crawling around with all the dogs.  Once a baby reaches 1 year old they will be able to interact with the dogs in the Ruff House.  One final change will be our name… It will now become “Pampered Pooch and Baby Playground”.  Prices for baby daycare will be the same rate as our dog daycare rates.  Within the next 60 days, we hope to expand our baby daycare into baby overnight care.  You can make your reservations for baby daycare by clicking here.  Feel free to contact us with any questions.

Roxy checks out Sunset Hill Stoneware

This past weekend Trycia and I were in Wisconsin visiting her family and boy did we have lots of fun.  My brother-in-law owns Sunset Hill Stoneware, a pottery company and they are in the process of moving into a new shop.  This move has been in the works for over a year and each time we visit, we always go and check out the update.  They are moving into a huge new shop with all brand new equipment and I am so excited for them.  This past weekend, we brought Roxy and Roman (their dog) to the new shop and they had lots of fun running and playing while we checked everything out.  All of their pottery is hand thrown and they have done work for some pretty big accounts.  Almost all of you have seen their work, and probably don’t even know it.  The mug on our front desk with the Pampered Pooch Playground logo was hand thrown and given to us as a grand opening gift 4 years ago!  Once we got done touring their new shop, we also had a preview of the new website that is being launched and we gave our feedback.  I really love helping other small businesses out (especially ones owned by family).  Oh yea, check them out on Facebook!

Have a good night.

Keith

We have been warning all of our customers that that the Flea and Tick season is going to be a big one this year.  We require all of our doggy daycare and hotel dogs to be on prevention from April-October, but this spring, it might not be a bad idea to start early.  FOX 9 did a great story on how to protect your pooch!

Warm Weather Brings Fleas, Ticks Out Early: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

Chego loves to play outside at doggy daycare!

Today, I jsut took the 3rd call from one of those 1/2 price deal companies… You might have heard of them, their name starts with a G and ends in PON.  Anyway, the guy said that we shoudl offer a deal (this is the 4th time in a month they have called us).  I just wanted to touch on why we have never offered any type of deal for any of our services at Pampered Pooch Playground.  Basically when you sell a deal you have to honor it.  So if the dog is not a good fit for our doggy daycare we still have to allow them to come until the special runs out.  This means we would have dogs that are a bad fit for daycare in the group.  The other reason is that they take over 60% of the sale of the offer.  So in a nut shell, we always put the safety of your dog ahead of everything else

Have a good day!

Keith

Kinnick is the largest of all the Bernese Mountain Dogs that come to our doggy daycare weighing in at about 120 pounds.  One way you can tell him apart is by his trademark poofy hair on his head.  Kinnick has been coming to us since he was a puppy and is now almost 3 years old!  It is often asked, “what is up with the name Kinnick”?  His mom went to college at the University of Iowa, and the football stadium is called Kinnick Stadium.  He might be a huge dog, but he loves hanging out with the smaller dogs in Waggers Way or the Canine Cove.  Kinnick is also a regular face at Bubbly Paws and pulls his mom to the door for his nightly treat!