Pampered Pooch Playground and Bubbly Paws Dog Wash are proud to present the 1st annual Home For Life Rescue - The Fast and the Furry 8K and 5K9 at Harriet Island on Saturday, May 26th 2012. Click Here for more information and to register.
Winter Boots and Building Community
Hello, everyone. I’m excited to be a new part of the Pampered Pooch Playground team. Several times a month, I will be here, talking about one of my favorite topics—my first baby (I mean dog), Leo. Granted, my Goldendoodle may not be your favorite pet, but I’ll bet that all of us can agree that we love and want the best for our dogs. With that in mind, my ultimate goal is to help build community among the parents of the pooches of the PPP and to help make this a place where we can share information and advice about caring for our canine friends.
Who am I? I am an enthusiastic fan and loyal customer of Pampered Pooch Playground and Bubbly Paws. My name is Birgitta Hughes, and as I mentioned, I am the proud “mom” of my dog, Leo. He is sweet, fun, and will be two in February. 
My husband, Allen, who has a passion for brushing our doodle every night, and I have been married over five years, and we have a nine-month-old son, Rhys (pronounced Reese). We moved to the Twin Cities from Boston over two years ago for my husband’s job at Best Buy headquarters. Before Boston, I was born and raised in California. In case you were wondering, I really like it here—even the winters! I love how active people are, regardless of the season. And truly, this is a beautiful place to live.
As the temperature drops and the snow comes, it’s time to start thinking about winter gear for Leo. I bought my first winter coat just four years ago, so all things winter remain new to me. Last year Leo loved the snow! Running through the snow and sticking his nose into it were two of his favorite activities. Because he enjoyed being outside so much, we bought booties to protect his paws from the elements. It took him a little while to get used to walking with them, but ultimately he adapted and was able to walk in a normal manner.
Booties worked for Leo last year, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything as we prepare for the winter months ahead. After checking with Leo’s vet at Glen Lake Animal Hospital and Roxy’s (Keith and Trycia’s dog) vet at Lake Harriet Veterinary, I learned that we must be extra diligent about checking the state of our dog’s paws after each walk. Salt, melting solvents, and snow accumulation between doggy toes can cause cracking of the skin. Each time you come in from a walk, clean out the snow that is stuck between your dog’s toes to limit any irritation. If you enjoy walking your dog during the winter and your dog can handle them, booties are an excellent solution. In fact, Bubbly Paws offers some great booties in a variety of styles and range of sizes.
Before I leave you today, I’d like to share a little video of the first time Leo wore his booties. After a couple times, he got the hang of it, and we enjoyed many walks with him in his “pawtectors.” Hopefully, he’ll get the hang of it again this year, too.
How do you protect your dog from the winter elements? We’d love to hear your ideas and advice!
Dog Park Mess!
Most of my mornings are spent at the Dog Daycare and afternoons are normally spent at Bubbly Paws Dog Wash. So today I stopped out to the Dog Wash this afternoon to drop off some new sweaters and doggy holiday gifts… This big dog walks in and looks like a dalmation mix, I kept looking at the dog and thought he looked like a dog i knew. … Then I really started to look at the dog and realized it was Linus who comes to the PPP and he was all muddy from the dog park! HA! Seriously, he must have had a good time because he looked like he got into a fight with a mud puddle! Linus will be at doggy daycare tomorrow and will be looking all fresh and clean!
Today at the PPP we added a bunch of new collars, and did some organizational work in our prep area.
Have a great night!
Keith
Groupon and other offers
Jack takes a nap after playing fetch in the Canine Cove today.
This past Saturday, I had a very intersting conversation with a customer at Bubbly Paws. They had asked if I knew of any good dog daycares in the area. Naturally, I told him about Pampered Pooch Playground and the services and setup we have. He was very impressed, since he stopped into another place and was not very impressed. I told he he could stop in anytime and get a true feel for the place. He then asked if we were going to offer a Groupon or Crowd Cut anytime soon. Then I told him why we don’t do these types of deals simply because we can’t control the types of dogs that come in. If someone buys a %50 Groupon we have to honor it, regardless of how the dog does in daycare. I know of a daycare that this happened to, and they got a bunch of dogs that were very aggressive in daycare and this is not a risk that we are willing to take. He was very impressed by this, and stopped in today to check it out.
I personally love Groupon’s and we have done them at the dog wash (since the customer is the one bathing), but for a daycare were you don’t know what type of dog will be coming and how well it will be have is kinda freaky to me. As always we have to watch out for the safety of the entire group of dogs.
So there you have it… Why we don’t do deals at the PPP.
Hope you have a good night!
Keith
Random PPP facts
Barley was one of the first Springers that attended doggy daycare.
A local rescue asked for some random facts about Pampered Pooch Playground and Bubbly Paws. So I put them together, and thought I would share them with you….
- The first dog to come to Pampered Pooch Playground was a german shepherd / st. bernard mix named Bindi, who quickly became Roxy’s BFF! Bindi was waiting at 6:45am the first day we opened and came every day for 2 years and still randomly pops in.
- The slogan of Bubbly Paws Dog Wash “Our Soap Is Dope” was created over a text message conversation with Sarah Beth Photography while we were at Pizzeria Lola (super dog friendly) eating and drinking.
- The first boxer to come to Pampered Pooch Playground 4 years ago when we opened was a rescue from Minnesota Boxer Rescue (Pickler).
- Before opening Pampered Pooch Playground Keith worked in radio for 11 years (chicago, des moines, cincinnati and minneapolis). He produced the Moon and Staci show on KS95 for 4 years. Both Moon and Staci were in our wedding party.
- The idea for Bubbly Paws Dog Wash came from a customer of Pampered Pooch Playground who complained that there was no place where he could bathe his dog.
- Pampered Pooch Playground was the first doggy daycare to have an iPhone, Droid and Blackberry app where customers can watch their dogs play.
- A large part of the Pampered Pooch Playground and Bubbly Paws business model is to give back to local dog rescues!
There ya go..
Have a good night.
Keith
Roman comes to visit
This weekend Trycia’s sister was in town with her family and they brought their 2 year old black lab, Roman. Roman is a regular face at a doggy daycare in Wisconsin, and this weekend he checked out Pampered Pooch Playground. He had so much fun playing with all of the high energy dogs in the Ruff House. He gives the PPP 2 paws up! Roman might be the most ball obcessed lab that I have ever met!
Today, we took their family to Bubbly Paws to give roman a bath, and made a super cute video.
One tired Ruff House Pooch!
Norman is one of the golden retrievers that really enjoys going to doggy daycare. This past Wednesday he spent the whole day playing in the Ruff House and outside with the hose and water. He played super hard! Wednesday night, we had a fund raiser at Bubbly Paws, and guess who showed up….. Norman! He was so tired from a long day at doggy daycare, that he decided to lay down for his bath! He is such a sweet guy!
Have a good weekend!
Keith
FOX 9 at Bubbly Paws
Yesterday was a pretty cool day for Bubbly Paws because FOX 9 News stopped out to take a tour and talk about the block party that is going on Saturday from 1-5pm. Watch the video below and you can see Roxy the super star on it!
Baths, Baths and More Baths
Lewis the doodle was one of the dogs that got a bath on Sunday Morning.
OK, I am in a bit of a goofy mood and decided it would be really funny to title this blog post like the one I just put up on the Bubbly Paws page. Not sure if it is funny to anyone else, but I laughed!
Anyway, this was a big few weeks at Pampered Pooch Playground. Spring break is always a really busy time for us and it pretty much came to an end this weekend. One of the benefits of having your dog spend the night in our dog hotel is a free bath after 5 nights and everyone loves getting a fresh dog when they come to pick them up. I went in early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to help our staff with baths since there were so many dogs going home both days! I really enjoy doing baths and it was lots of fun!
I have to give a special PPP shout out to our awesome staff. They handled our spring break craziness and did a wonderful job. I always say that we have an amazing crew and I am so proud of all of them! Thanks everyone!
Barley goes to the groomer
One of the nice things about owning 2 pet related businesses is that they work together very well. Barley, wanted grooming, and Tami was not available today at the PPP, so we were able to fit him in at Bubbly Paws Dog Wash. Barley played in doggy daycare until 11am today, then we drove him over for his spa services.. He quickly made friends with Kallie who works there, she played with him until it was time for his grooming, and then when he was done, we took him back to the PPP to play with his friends at doggy daycare. Barley had fun with his field trip today! I love when we are able to work together like this!
Those of you that are our friends on Facebook will notice the new picture I put up of Cash. Cash is a Golden Retriever / Newfoundland puppy that belongs to Keri, one of our employees. I thought it would be fun to put up a weekly picture so everyone can see how much he has grown! He is now a ball of energy!
Have a great night!
Keith
