We recently connected with Jessica Vollrath and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jessica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

We are different than any other boarding and daycare facility in the area. Boarding can be really stressful for dogs and as soon as you pull out your luggage to pack, they know. A lot of people only take their dogs to the vet, groomer or boarding facility and those can all cause anxiety. When dogs are stressed, they won’t eat, they shake, they can get stress diarrhea, or they can become destructive. To help eliminate these things, we REQUIRE dogs do at least 2 days of daycare a month. By doing this, the dogs get used to the facility, the routine, and the staff. They also learn that coming here means fun! Since we’ve switched to doing things this way, we have not had any issues with the dog’s behavior or stress issues. The dogs love coming in the door and usually drag their owners with them. When it is time to leave, they don’t want to go. It makes us so happy to see how much the dogs like being here.

We also offer a Penthouse option for boarding. Some dogs have separation anxiety and don’t like to be alone or put in a suite. Those dogs do great in our Penthouse. It is the room up front where the overnight employees stay. It is set up like a little studio apartment with a couch, tv, dog beds, and a queen size bed. We tried to make it as much like a home as possible. It is definitely a favorite among the clients.

Another thing we do that is different from most, if not all other daycares in our area is the fact that all the dogs “play naked”. We remove all collars, bandannas, and anything else they have on. The main reason is that there have been instances where dogs have died from playing and getting jaws caught in collars. Basically, one dog is getting strangled and the other has the possibility of having their jaw broken. It makes me cringe when I see large groups of dogs playing with collars on. Dogs play with their mouths and biting around the scruff and collar area is just what they do. So for safety, we “play naked”!

Jessica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We started Classy Canines in our home about 8 or 9 years ago. I was only grooming part time at my job and my husband was a stay-at-home dad. A friend needed a place for her dog to go during the day while she worked because her doggie daycare had closed. Then a few friends and family asked if we could dog sit while they were on vacation. We decided to start doing doggie daycare and boarding regularly. In 2020, during the pandemic, the groom shop I was working at closed for good. This left me and 2 other groomers without jobs and all of our clients without a groom shop. So, we hired the 2 other groomers, and they came to the house to work for us. Another blow soon followed when zoning said we couldn’t run a business out of our house. The hunt was on for a location to move Classy Canines. One of our clients ended up being our landlord, he had a building that was only 12 minutes away and the perfect size. We did most of the construction ourselves and opened our doors on March 1, 2021. We now have 5 groomers and there are 8 other employees working in the daycare and boarding areas.

Personally, I’ve been a dog groomer for 25 years+ and worked my way through college grooming dogs. I have a bachelor’s degree in zoology specializing in animal behavior. I have worked at several groom shops, daycares, vets and pet stores since I was 16 years old. Dogs have always been my passion. I have a lot of knowledge about animal nutrition, training, and behavior. I truly believe that is one of the things that sets us apart from the other facilities in the area, passion, experience and knowledge.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

We had never planned to move the business out of our home. A competitor in our township started contacting some of our clients on Facebook and they all told us about it. My husband called them to let them know that we were aware of what they were doing. Two days later, zoning showed up at our door to shut us down. The owner of the other business has a few friends on the board of trustees, so we were forced to move. It was such a stressful time because we didn’t have the capital to move to a commercial location and do all that construction. I honestly thought we were going to have to shut down. I was so frustrated because the world was in the middle of a pandemic, and I was providing jobs to people that would otherwise be on unemployment. One of our clients had a location for us and helped us get it up and running. He is now our landlord, and he is just an incredible person. We did most of the interior work ourselves and had to get contractors for the rest. We had clients giving us gift cards for Home Depot and one set up a Go Fund Me to help with costs. My parents helped us out with a loan also. The community supported us, and we did it!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I answered this question above. We had a little bit of money but most of it came from loans from my parents, a Home Depot credit card, our landlord helped us, and the community came together with a few small donations. It was difficult but we were able to make it happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: classycaninescincy.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/classycaninesboarding
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@classycanines5?lang=en

Image Credits
Heidi Gentis at Hei-Jacked Productions