By Admin on November 3, 2010 in Business
Scampers Daycamp for Dogs, located on 124th Street in Totem Lake, is the latest business opening to focus on your “best friends”.
Co-owners Stina Hughes and Linda Olsen, a sister act whose love for their own dogs drove them to start the business, celebrated their “soft” opening on Monday, October 25th.
There is a very large population density of dogs in greater Seattle’s eastside region, and while Seattle itself has many excellent dog daycare facilities, those already on the eastside thus far offer plenty of acreage but not as much convenience. Locating a large facility on 124th Street, between I-405 and Willows allows Scampers to serve the communities of Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond as well as workers commuting to and from Microsoft, Nintendo, Evergreen Hospital and so many other employers in the vicinity.
With a neighboring wetland, one major challenge the city posed the Scampers owners was to protect the water table and limit the impact on the water treatment systems. To comply, the ladies contracted In Harmony Sustainable Landscapes to install a proper Rain Garden. Now, “dirty” water and storm runoff goes through a landscaped depression that is filled with varying substrates, designed to filter it prior to it reaching the storm water system and the neighboring wetland.
Other green features include the recycled rubber flooring installed throughout the indoor area and locating a full-spectrum, one-stage cleanser/disinfectant that is fully biodegradable. The Scampers team also uses biodegradable bags for removal of solid waste rather than adding more plastic to the landfills.
Beyond researching green options, the sisters spent an extended period with an animal behaviorist in Oregon, learning the science and art of dog pack management first hand. “We would not have dared enter into this business without as complete an understanding as we could gain of how dogs behave in a pack,” Hughes explains.
“Until you have explored how dogs’ brains truly work, no one can be confident of how to anticipate, assess and minimize a high state of arousal – when a dog goes beyond their cognitive brain function to their limbic state” adds Olsen. “Safety for our staff as well as every dog entrusted to our care is our utmost concern,” says Hughes, “it is one of the reasons that all Scampers campers are temperament tested before joining our pack.”
“We’re very excited to have finally opened our doors. We’re meeting some truly wonderful dogs and their owners,” says Olsen. “The owners get the peace of mind of knowing their dogs are lovingly cared for while they work or run errands and the dogs simply get to: ‘Play all day. Go home happy’ – to borrow from our tag line.”
Scampers Daycamp for Dogs
12532 124th Street NE
Kirkland, WA 98034
T 425-821-9100