Don’t even think about sending your dog to Citizen Canine over the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays this year. They’ve been booked solid since the end of last summer. But if you love your doggie – and what red-blooded East Bay resident doesn’t? – you might want to consider reserving for a future time. This Cadillac of kennels lives up to its billing as "a luxury hotel for dogs."

Citizen Canine is located on Hegenberger Road, on the way to Oakland International Airport. It rents space from the East Bay SPCA. Larger guests at the luxury resort have their own roomy glass-walled cubicles furnished with cots, bedding and toys. They are fed two or three custom-prepared meals a day and go outside for exercise four times a day, including once with a supervised play group composed of canines of similar size and play style. Smaller guests have bunk cubicles. Members of the same family stay together. All the cubicles have special doors that allow treats to be slipped underneath.

Along with the basic boarding or day care, there are add-ons such as Love Supreme (belly rubs, special cookie treats and plenty of cuddling and petting) Therapeutic Massage (T-touch to calm down nervous nellies, firs-time boarders or dogs experiencing separation anxiety) Private Playtime (endless catch, fetch or tug sessions, or outdoor exercise for dogs who must play alone due to medical conditions or for other reasons) and Agility Training (tire hoop, bar jumps, chute tunnel and so forth).

Citizen Canine is the brainchild of Tina Merrill, 31, a Harvard-educated economics major with a Stanford MBA. Merrill remembers one of her business teachers saying, "Wherever there’s a customer dissatisfaction, there’s a business." As an owner of two dogs herself, Merrill experienced dissatisfaction with the options available to her for care of her pets when she traveled. She spent about a year doing development and construction for her business, and it has now been open for a little over a year.

The business has grown through word of mouth. Merrill recently pulled their advertisement from the Yellow Pages, but keeps her ad in BARK magazine, "more for prestige," she says.

At Citizen Canine, a large staff accommodates the pets’ demands for quality care and quality time. At any given moment, 15 to 20 employees attend to the pooches’ needs. Someone stays with the dogs 24 hours a day. Citizen Canine also offers Sirius puppy training, puppy kindergarten (with report cards) and basic training. All training is done with positive reinforcement. "You have an opportunity with puppies to have a really great dog if you socialize them properly," says Merrill.

Of course with such an exclusive resort, guests must be pre-screened. They are also required to be spayed, neutered and inoculated, especially with Bortadella to prevent kennel cough. Should they happen to bite, they’re expelled from paradise and have to go home. Owners lonesome for the sight of their pets can make an appointment to view them at play via a Webcam in the training room. The huge warehouse-like space is noisy with a cacophony of dog barks, but surprisingly smell-free. Each cubicle is individually vented.

Merrill is one of those rare business owners whose personal dedication to better dog care happens to match the dedication of her potential customer base. East Bay residents are uncommonly devoted to their dogs, and though Citizen Canine’s prices run about double that of a regular kennel, owners say it is worth the price to keep their pets happy and their apartments unchewed. Citizen Canine also offers nutrition classes – anecdotal evidence suggests that a raw food and bone diet may prevent or help certain types of disease – and refers dogs for acupuncture treatments.

"I believe one of the hardest things for dogs in a kennel environment is isolation," says Merrill. "This place looks nice for the owners, but what the dogs get is hands-on care and company."

Merrill was motivated to start her business because, she says, "I believe owning dogs has made me a better, happier person." In her office, which is about the size of the larger boarding cubicles, there are Christmas tree ornaments made from photographs of her father’s and one of her aunt’s dogs.

"Everybody in my family has dogs," Merrill says. "In my family, dogs are treated like children." She pauses for a moment, "actually, slightly above the children."

Oakland Tribune
11/20/01
Susan Lydon