Puzzles, bubbles and story time fetch fun at Sterling K-9 Retreat enrichment day care
Peanut-butter scented bubbles, story time, off-leash play, morning and evening walks.
That’s what canines receive, and more, at the recently opened Sterling K-9 Retreat, 2535 W. Schrock Road in Westerville.
Business partners Reilly Goodman and Janika King opened what they call an enrichment-based day care, boarding and grooming operation Aug. 1 followed by a ribbon cutting Aug. 26.
It’s open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“We’re doing it differently,” Goodman said. “In the biz, they call it day care 2.0.
Instead of being in a room all day with a bunch of dogs, in most cases, too many dogs with nothing to do, here, every hour, we have an activity.”
One of the favorites is the peanut-butter scented bubble hour from 2 to 3 p.m., when a bubble machine shoots out the scented blobs.
“They absolutely love it,” Goodman said. “Another one is the enrichment hour, which we have puzzles.”
He said another way Sterling K-9 is different is its canine grass.
“This turf is kind of like football turf, but football turf is domed,” Goodman said. “So this is a little more pricey, so the water goes straight through. It doesn’t puddle.”
In dog language, he said, going back to the herd mentality and wolves, the canines go out on an adventure, finds something that smells, rolls in it and returns home so the family can smell the adventures.
“This is the solution we have,” Goodman said. “Canine grass was invented four years ago. You leave here clean, you don’t smell. You shouldn’t come out of day care or boarding and have to give them a bath afterwards.”
King said she and Goodman met on a Facebook group last year.
“I’ve been doing this out of my home for about four years,” she said. “We outgrew my home. I met Reilly last year. I was talking about how I wanted a business partner. He said he owned a barber shop in Michigan and such and had been in the dog industry for a while.”
King said there’s an evaluation process for the day care.
“We ask questions, like if your dog has played with other dogs,” she said. “We want to make it a good environment for the other dogs and the staff who are here.”
For the boarding aspect of the business, she said, there’s small and large suites, with a purple memory foam dog bed available for extra comfort.
“They go in here at nap time,” King said. “And the boarding dogs have their assigned suite. They have their food, their toys and all of that.”
For those canines that might not be up-to-date on vaccines or need a lift to and from doggie day care, Sterling K-9 has partnered with Puppy Dash LLC, a puppy transportation service.
Armani Phillips, Puppy Dash owner and 2020 Gahanna Lincoln High School alumna, said she and her grandmother, Sherry Ellington, started the business.
“We do puppy transportation services to the vet, grooming, day care,” she said. “That’s where we come in to help. We do local, regional and national transportation. Anywhere in Columbus and Ohio, up to eight hours. Anything further than that, we do air transportation. We partner with American Airlines.”
A recent Google review of Sterling K-9 from Nichole McMullen said, “Awesome local facility. Grooming was phenomenal. And the day care can't be beat! You can tell the owners live for the pups! Staff is wonderful.”
Janet Tressler-Davis, president and CEO of the Westerville Area Chamber of Commerce, said several new businesses have recently opened in the community.
“We are fortunate these businesses and the hundreds of others throughout the area have chosen greater Westerville to grow and, in some cases, start their business,” she said.
“Businesses are passionate about their products and services, and it is fun to see their dreams come to fruition when their doors open. These businesses are creating jobs and adding to the quality of life in our community.”
@ThisWeekMarla
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Puzzles, bubbles and story time fetch fun at Sterling K-9 Retreat enrichment day care
