Hello to all:) Rumors of the Dog-Eared-Reporter’s mysterious disappearance are greatly exaggerated! I have been quite busy assisting with the details of our new (and much better) way to do dog daycare, and have also been helping with Lucky Dog maintenance. You may notice some of the changes as you look at the dog floors, especially the painting. That has been mostly my job - this brown and white hound is now Wolfhound gray ops: but it is worth it. Our huge playfloor at Lucky Dog Central is now ready for the big day - the delivery of new matting at LD Central will be within a week or two The new matting will be even more cushy - better for running and playing, easier on dog joints and how cool for our training classes! We are all very excited….

Open House! Another reason to be excited! On Saturday Feb 23 from 6-7:30 Lucky Dog Central will have an open house to take you through and show you the changes in the way we run our daycare! (see our “A Better Way to Play” at our website).

Groom room - New rubberized flooring is being installed today at LD Central. We are excited that the improvements there will soon begin

Tonight we begin our transition on the playfloors and tomorrow we begin to slowly introduce the dogs to the new schedule. Our staff will be on hand to answer any questions you might have about the new way to play, but basically here is what you will see:

A large playfloor with toys available to all the dogs on the same floor.
Handlers with complete accessbility to all the dogs, and no barriers
Dogs rotated in their size group (Med/large and small) in 1 1/2 hour play increments
Between play increments, a rest increment with water, bed and, once a day, a “Cookie Kong”
Organized games and fun for the dogs at every rotation

We hope you will join us for our open house on Saturday Feb 23 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. There will be plenty of time to ask questions and there will also be door prizes! See you there!
-DER

On January 18, 2008, Lucky Dog South lost the patriarch of our Lucky Dog South dog family, Gunnar Jenkins. Gunnar had been a regular at our South location since the beginning, and was already an old guy when we met him. His best friend Jennifer remembers him this way.

“When Gunnar was younger he loved to go hiking, roller blading or anything athletic. An escape artist, I spent lots of time trying to get him to stay in the yard! He was so friendly that I used to loan him out to other families to go camping and hiking. Gunnar did not have an aggressive bone in his body, and loved everyone he met.”

Gunnar was still in our play groups until near the very end of his life. He had a kennel we left open between the groups where he could go and rest when the younger dogs got to be too much for him. He always had the same kennel home when he stayed with us. We always new where he was and he would lead us straight to his special spot.

When a splenetic mass took away his ability to visit his favorite place, Lucky Dog, and caused him to become paralyzed, Jennifer could no longer allow him to suffer. On January 18th he was peacefully sent to cross the Rainbow Bridge.
http://www.petloss.com/poems/maingrp/rainbowb.htm

For those of us who loved Gunnar we say farewell, but we will see him again. He is waiting with the dogs from our childhood, and all the other dogs we have known and loved in our lives. It will be a wonderful reunion!

Fox 21 had the good fortune to catch our South location groomer, Cari Rucker, and some friends on camera Wednesday morning! Cari, assisted by friends Oscar, Enoch and Darcy Jo made a great show of instructing the presenter on doggy ear cleaning, bathing, nail and hair clipping! Darcy was very brave when approached with clippers by Fox 21 staff member Meaghan Colllier, and Meaghan ended up doing a great job! I’m not sure I would have been so brave - my big dog ears sometimes get in the way of those clippers and in untrained hands - disaster strikes the world! All’s well that ends well however, and we thank everyone at Fox 21 for their visit (and for having a peek at our doggy daycare too!)

With a new year comes changes and Lucky Dog is no exception. We had to say good-bye to our Central Manager, Sherry Carias and hello to her replacement - Brittany Bates! Congratulations on your promotion Brittany. At our South location we have a shift of management as Manager Julie Paler is transferring to Central to become the Operations Manager. Julie will be helping Debi Ropes-Stevenson, our General Manager, with multiple projects and future improvements for Lucky Dog. Congratulations Julie! In Julie’s place we have Bernard “BJ” Durrance taking the management position at our South location. BJ is teaming up with Christian Shepley as Assistant Manager, and together they make quite an impressive team! We think the changes in this new year will make Lucky Dog an even cooler (or is it more cool?) place to bring your special dog!

With all the upcoming changes I can barely contain my excitement! Watch the diary for announcements to come You will find this year VERY interesting……

The Dog-Eared Reporter

The Dog-Eared Reporter would like to thank all of our friends, human and canine, for a very successful year at Lucky Dog! We would also like to thank our wonderful employees and manangers that did such a great job caring for the MANY! dogs that stayed with us over the holidays!
Good job Team Lucky Dog!

This coming year will surely bring some new surprises at Lucky Dog! One of our major projects is - CATS! Yes, we feel the feline population has gone long enough without a special place of their own to stay when the humans are gone. We are beginning the development of “Lucky Cat” at our south facility! Plans are in the works, and everything is looking great so far. Our cat condos are to be lovingly handmade, and our cat room will be sunny and bright. Each condo will have a viewing screen featuring the things cats love best, to keep them amused! We can hardly wait to get started on this special project. The new cat facility will also feature a kitty retail area featuring quality cat food, toys and other things cats fancy. Our own logo kitty “Meow” will be on the production table soon, but for now you can see a sample of where she will be, and the new color scheme for our cat website at www.bealuckycat.com. The Dog-Eared Reporter, with the help of our LD Central mascots, Olivia and Erin, will keep you up to date on this super special project. I have a feeling there just might be a pictorial record as well!

We would like to let all of our clients know that we now feature Oxyfresh products at both of our locations! Our line of products includes the popular Oral Hygiene Solution to put in your dog or cat’s water to help improve the (ahem) problem of breath that is less than sweet I personally use this product to help improve my doggy kisses and it works great!
Come check out all the other great Oxfresh products available at Lucky Dog!

Well, that is the New Year update….except for one thing….should I even mention it….not sure….well maybe I might just hint. There is a rumor going around that there COULD be a Lucky Dog Three in the early developmental stages…I’m not saying this is true, but rumor has it and sometimes rumors turn out to be true Stay tuned

The Dog Eared Reporter

The Dog-Eared Reporter has been thinking of something clever and cute to write for a Christmas and New Year message this year, without success I was experimenting with the 12 Days of Christmas song using 12 of our more frequent visitors names, but I hate to leave anyone out

I decided to just wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

We are going to see some changes around Lucky Dog in the coming month -all for the better, so watch our website! It’s going to be an exciting year in 2008!

Best wishes to our clients and friends, both human and canine!

The Dog-Eared Reporter

…and his name is “Oliver”! He was walking with his owner and must have REALLY been guarding that bone because he would not come back to her. Oliver was her son’s dog, and she inherited him when a baby came into the family. She already has three dogs and Oliver is about one too many in her home, so..he is up for adoption.

Oliver is a small, short dog. His coat and body look just slightly bigger than a Pekingese, but he does not have a Peke face. He is approximately 5 years old, neutered and loves children and cats. I will have a picture of him up soon. If anyone is interested in Oliver, please call us at Lucky Dog and we will arrange for you to see him. If he does not find a home before Christmas, Lucky Dog is going to foster him in January. Thanks to all of you that were concerned about him!
-The Dog Eared Reporter