The Great Escape: How to Prevent it!
The Great Escape!
The Great Escape. A phenomenal movie in its prime! But those words in today’s world of doggy daycare and kennel owners—are pure blasphemy! They’ve kept me awake many a night--often spent sleeping at Sasha’s since we host boarders as well. Beyond the potential for a fire or a mass canine epidemic, I dread most the phone call I received three days ago from an anonymous woman.
“Sasha’s Pet Resort!” I smile.
“Yes, I think one of your dogs is running around outside,”
she says with urgency.
I’m perplexed. We haven’t had an escapee in years! Everything at Sasha’s, I believe, to be escape proof. A quick dog count and I immediately recognize that we appear to be one dog short! I rush out the front door and sure enough, gleefully scampering around the parking lot (adjacent the new road of the light rail station), is our most recent guest, an 11-month-old golden doodle named Theo. Though his breed reads ‘golden’, he more resembles a mini black and white sheep dog. And as I quickly learn, men are his least favorite gender. Even feigning accidental death as I laid down broken in the parking lot--I upped the ante with liver treats dangling from my pleading hands. But I couldn’t attract mosquitos to a barbecue.
“Theo, you’re a poop,” I mumble in surrender, as a woman bystander (after a good 15 minutes of my futile attempts) firmly embraces the wagging fugitive. Undertaking my forensics, I soon learn that this mini-deserter, while appearing to be most pedestrian in nature, has the blood of a champion! Able to leap six-foot walls in a single bound and then traverse them like an Everest sherpa, he has the genes of a mountain goat and the sprint of a thief.
Absolutely amazing. We have triple-prevent doors in Sasha’s main entrance. We’ve determined that in the future, when Theo is visiting, the outer glass door must remain perpetually closed to prevent him from perfecting his Houdini act.
And we have taken other steps over time, to minimize the occurrence of escape. I’m assuming this would be a primary concern of all doggie daycare/boarding owners. There can be no more wretched phone call to make, than the one to a dog’s owner to let them know that their ‘child’ has escaped! It gives me shivers even to ponder it.
Initially, when we opened in 2019, we installed a small external dog run with chain-link fence, adjacent our main building but only accessible from the outdoors. That meant our night wrangler, when taking our guests out to the dog run at night to perform their duties, was to take one dog out at a time via slip leash (at times an unfortunate moniker).
If it was raining (which it does on occasion in Redmond), their task was even greater. And it was at times like this when we did have a couple pups shed their leashes and run for the hills! It was at that point that we decided to install a doggy door connecting our main playroom directly into the doggy run. Now the night wrangler can stay indoors and escort ten dogs all at once to the doggy door. What previously could require an hour of her time could now be accomplished dryly in ten minutes!
Best decision in my five years here! Bar none. Should have installed that from the git go. And ours has flawlessly functioned for over four years now with relatively heavy traffic. Even accommodates a Great Pyrenees who visits us every week now. So yes, we do go to great lengths to help prevent those great escapes!
If you read my previous blog, speaking of great escapes, you’d see I visited SuperZoo in Las Vegas a few weeks back. Held at the Mandalay Bay, it showcased a vast array of new products for our dogs. In tandem, I escaped with $1240 of the casino’s money! One spin of $4 by a non-gambler. Never in a million years!
But beyond my gambling "prowess", I also demonstrated my ability to sniff out some new and promising products, including the patented Good Walker Leashes, a product category which doggie daycares should be most interested in. Designed and perfected by Aly, owner of the Aly’s Puppy Boot Camp in California, her leashes are innovative and thoughtfully conceived.
The primary difference is that her leashes are dual-purpose in terms of function. They serve simultaneously as a slip leash (or a head halter) along with a clip-on to the dog’s collar. Double the safety. Two points of restraint. With unique leverage points, there is far less pull from the dog, helping calm them. I fell in love with these leashes and we have added to both our store and our resort. Look in on our online new leash section for more information. Other than that, I urge you to build or rebuild your doggie daycare facility with prevention of the great escape foremost in mind! Comments? danm@sashaspr.com