Canine ‘resort’ caters to pet-happy clientele

It’s a dog’s life, all right, but you can only wish that you were living the life of Riley, a West Highland terrier who attends day care at a posh new Oakland Kennel.

The terrier pup receives daily personal obedience training and a peanut butter filled treat every afternoon. Of course, if he’s tired he can always retire to his private, ventilated suite.
Room service please?

It was only a matter of time before someone in the per-crazed Bay Area came up with the idea for a deluxe dog hotel, and it’s fitting that a Harvard and Stanford business school graduate capitalized on a market niche.

Citizen Canine, on Hegenberger Road near Oakland International Airport, is the Bay Area’s first five-star kennel for the all-too-precious pets of devoted Bay Area pet owners on the go.

"I wanted to get into a down-to-earth business that made sense to me," said Tina Merrill, a dog lover who spent a year at a pet-related dot-com before starting her own business.

"I wanted to create a place where people could leave their pets and not feel guilty about it," she added.
With a premium rate of $50 a day, the only thing left to feel guilty about is the cost, which is comparable to a nearby Motel 6, the hotel chain whose slogan is "We’ll leave a light on for you."

At Citizen Canine, they’ll turn down the bed and tuck in your pooch if that’s what you want.
"I’ve had people come in with 20 page typed instructions about the care of their dog," said Merrill.
In one case, Merrill and her staff coordinated the wardrobe of a dog who arrived with six sweaters, one for each day he would be staying. The owner called daily to make sure the dog was wearing the right one, Merrill said.

For the standard fee of $38 per night, Merrill’s guests sleep in private rooms with glass walls and doors and in beds with dog bone shaped pillows and matching fleece blankets.

The premium treatment includes a choice of agility or obedience training. In addition, you can drop your dog for the day while you go to work, for $32 to $35.

And if dog owners are suffering from a form of separation anxiety, help is but a click away. Visit your animal by going to the center’s website, www.citizencanine.net, and watching it frolic in a supervised doggie playroom via a web cam.

Joe Albe and his wife Amy visit their Olde English Bulldogge, Indi, via the internet while back East for Thanksgiving.

"We just wanted to see her while we were away and it was a nice touch," said Albe, 31, a computer information technology manager from Oakland.

Albe called the facility "more resort than kennel."

Indeed, the business plan was aimed at "people who would hire a dogsitter, but are uncomfortable with leaving their pet in a kennel," said Amanda Merrill, Tina’s sister and colleague.

But, like any exclusive operation, there is a screening process to weed out misbehaved or dangerously aggressive animals. The kennel requires its guests to possess the social skills needed to mingle with the other guests.

Anti-social animals that are admitted are walked separately and, for a fee, receive socialization lessons from trainer Gina Pharris, a graduate of the San Francisco SPCA’s Academy for Dog Trainers.

"Play groups, interaction, exercise are the keys," Tina Merrill said.

Merrill spent a year researching the idea and visiting kennels around the country before renovating the 4,500-square foot warehouse.

This is an idea that might not fly in the middle of the country, where dogs are dogs and people are people, but in the Bay Area, the business has taken flight among well-off single people, and couples without children who have elevated their dogs to human status.

It must be working. There was but one vacancy at the 44-room doggie hotel, which has both single and double rooms, over the Thanksgiving weekend.

It’s not surprising that such a service would thrive in the Bay Area, home to several dog parks, including those in Berkeley, Oakland and the East Bay Regional Park District, and a growing number of businesses dedicated to dogs.

Small shops like Sol Companion, a general store and grooming shop for dogs opened last fall in Oakland are proliferating, and Bark magazine, headquartered in Emeryville, is a monthly dog magazine with a national circulation.

For pet owners like Shelly Meny, 27, of Alameda, no indulgence is too great. She and her husband board their prized pooch, Riley, two days a week at Citizen Canine rather than leaving him home alone.

"We both work a long way from home and are gone almost 12 hours a day," she said. "We thought that was kinda mean to little Riley."

For their pet, its another day in doggie heaven. Please pass another peanut-butter treat.

San Francisco Chronicle
11/30/2000
Chip Johnson