This is the time of the year when working parents source the best camps to send their children; facilities at which they know their offspring will be safe and will learn some type of useful skill.
Households now have the option of leaving their young dogs at K9 day school, a doggie day-care service offered by Superior Kennel K9s.
“A lot of facilities offer day-care for pets, but K9 day school is more structured for dogs. So, people who want their dog to learn but don’t want their dog to stay overnight, now have the opportunity to drop off their dog during the day.”
Trainer Shaquille Gaskin told Business Guardian owners can drop off their dogs on mornings during the week, and pick them up on afternoons. But they will not be spending the day just sleeping or running around.
“The dogs will learn basic obedience, and on Saturdays owners can come in and get to work with the dogs one-on-one and understand what the dog has been learning during the week. So it’s basically like a summer camp for dogs.”
Gaskin said the K9 day school is among the newest initiative of Superior Kennel. The business has been operating since 2018, offering a range of other dog-related services.
“We offer boarding, where the dogs stay at our location when their owners travel. Then we do board and train, where the dogs would stay at the facility for at least four weeks to do obedience, protection and behavioural modification training. We also do rehabilitation of dogs. We used to breed dogs but we don’t do that anymore.”
Before it transitioned into a full-fledged business, Gaskin said he was just a dog lover who took care of them as a hobby. At the time he owned a Rottweiler that was very aggressive to people and cars.
“I thought to myself, ‘I would love to walk my dog, but I can’t because she would probably bite somebody.’ And you know back then they already were watching certain types of dogs as dangerous dogs.”
He decided to learn how to “fix” her, and became certified in training dogs through the Kennel Clubs, an organisation that focusses on maintaining breed standards, recording purebred pedigrees and promoting responsible dog ownership.
“From there, I became very hands-on and continued learning techniques from online courses from credible dog trainers who offer courses for dog trainers, such as Nate Schoemer, Robert Cabral and Shield K9.”
The 24-year-old said he started taking in dogs from people who were migrating, and any dog he came across that needed rehabilitating.
“My friend Samuel Roberts and I used to do this together. Sometimes we fell so much in love with the dogs, we’d end up keeping them. At one point, I had like 20-something dogs.”
They made use of the services at the Mount Hope Veterinarian Clinic to keep vet expenses down, and they bred and sold pups to help offset the cost of feeding and housing the dogs.
When the hobby turned into a business, Gaskin said, he operated out of the big backyard of his family home. He refurbished donated kennels until the business was doing well enough to build its own kennels.
“We continued reinvesting in the business, and built a really nice place for the dogs. From there, we just kept building until eventually I had to move to a bigger facility.”
The kennel is currently located at Belle Smythe Street, Woodbrook, but will soon be relocating to a bigger facility on De Verteuil Street.
“At the moment, at our current location, I can at facilitate 20 dogs. At the new location that we’re going to, I can facilitate 30 dogs.”
At the start, he explained, the sale of the puppies he bred funded the cost of operation. He estimates the start-up cost at almost $100,000.
“We factored in getting good quality dogs, the maintenance of the dog; I’m talking about dog food, vet bills, any kind of equipment.”
In addition, they had to invest in specialised equipment such as training vests and sleeves, and proper footwear.
“Now our expenses are a little higher because we have to rent a facility, and then we have to outfit the facility. Then there’s a maintenance of the facility and then there’s staff.
“At the start we kind of used to work for free because of our love for it. But as we are expanding and we have more dogs, obviously we need to hire some willing and able personnel to do the job.”
Currently, staff includes Gaskin, an assistant vet, and assistant trainer and cleaner.
Gaskin has worked hard to build credibility over the years. He said that, coupled with the content he puts out on social media and the consistency of it, attracts a lot of clients to Superior, which is good for business.
“Once you build that capacity and once you stay consistent, the clients would come. There are a lot of dog lovers who always want better for their dogs. And sometimes, it’s not that they’re not willing to spend the money. It’s just that it didn’t have the avenue to spend the money. Once you market yourself properly and put yourself in the right position and speak to the right people, they will come.”
He said boarding, for example, is something that a lot of people are always looking for, especially when they’re travelling.
“People really don’t like to leave their dogs at home alone.”
Gaskin said while Superior Kennel’s main operation remains training and rehabilitation, it will continue to introduce other initiatives as it grows; initiatives such as the K9 day school and retailing branded merch such as pet bowls and toys.
