Lilly, the Basset Hound, has been coming to the Pampered Pooch Playground for over 3 years, and enjoys hanging out in the Canine Cove. Summer is one of her favorite months because she gets to sunbath in our outdoor play area, and play with the sprinkler. One of Lilly’s talents is “show me your belly”, where she rolls over on her back with her feet up in the air (check out our photo gallery for a picture of Lilly doing this). Lilly is also a regular in the PPP hotel and her parents love to watch her on the luxury suite webcam. Each day when Lilly comes in her dad gives her a carrot before she gets to go see all of her friends! We love Lilly and glad she is part of the PPP family!
Lilly
The PPP Kickball Team
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
Wednesday, September 26th – Bubble Bath Party
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.
Wednesday, August 29th – Bubble Bath Party
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.
Wednesday, June 6th – Wine and Wag
Eat. Drink. Save Dogs from 6-9pm at Darby’s in the North Loop of Minneapolis. The proceeds from ticket sales help provide much-needed medical attention to the dogs of Homeward Bound Rescue (a no-kill shelter). This tail wagging event will include: 5 courses of gourmet appetizers paired with wine from Flirt and Josh Cellars Fruit and cheese skewers Thai chicken skewers Assorted slider sandwiches (fish and meat) Veggie focaccia pizza Cake Live music by Michael Wright Raffle One entry with ticket purchase, additional tickets available for $5 Gourmet treats for your dog Favor bags with goodies & special offers for you and your pooch. For more information and tickets click here. Pampered Pooch Playground and Bubbly Paws Dog Wash have been sponsoring this event for the past 4 years!
Friday, May 11th – Spring Photo Session
Join Modern Life Photo in our training room on Friday, May 11th for a spring photo session with your pooch. Click Here for more details and to reserve your space.
AAA Magazine
Pampered Pooch Playground was featured in the AAA Living magazine as one of the “Must Visit” dog places in Minneapolis. 
Dog Friendly Patios
Summer is patio season in Minneapolis and we have put together a list of some of our favorite dog friendly restaurants and bars in the Twin Cities. Click Here to see the list.
The Outdoor Oops… Well Kinda!
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
Dog Friendly Patios
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
