Urban dogs have it made at classy doggie daycare

by Allan Classen

The Northwest Examiner, February 2000

Urban professionals no longer have to feel guilty about leaving their pooch home alone all day. Doggie daycare, one of the hottest new urban lifestyle trends, has come to Old Town.

Urban Fauna opened at Northwest Sixth and Flanders just before Christmas.

Canine owners shell out $20 a day or $350 a month to give their pets a safe, supervised place to play, which daycare owner Suzanne Losh said is cheap compared to the damage a disgruntled dog can inflict on a leather sofa in an afternoon.

"It's a huge trend nationally," said Losh. "Doggie daycare is taking off right now."

Losh comes from San Francisco, where a humane society-run day care had a waiting list of 200. She contacted similar facilities around the country and found all had waiting lists. Several other daycares have recently opened in the metropolitan area, but this is the first one in Portland's west side.

Urban Fauna is nearing its capacity of 25 dogs. Losh carefully screens pets to ensure that they are healthy and will mix congenially with the other animals. Dogs are separated into two play areas to keep older and smaller animals from being overwhelmed.

Phyllis Ardolino tends her charges at Urban Fauna

Phyllis Ardolino, like Losh a former veterinary technician, is with the dogs all day, playing with them on the nursery-school-like equipment. reading stories, singing songs and absorbing innumerable face licks and other signs of affection. Another employee walks the dogs to the nearby Park Blocks twice a day.

Several customers said they couldn't wait for Urban Fauna to open.

Virginia Bruce said her l0-month-old vizsla, Rufus, "was eating my house. He didn't like being left…I had to consider whether I could keep him."

Rufus had eaten huge holes in Bruce's sofa and drug pieces of wood into the house.

She no longer has to contend with a sad face when she leaves for work. "He just about rips my arms off getting in there," she said. "He has a ball… It's wonderful." Bruce credits Urban Fauna's dedicated, dog-loving staff with making the place so special.

Freda Walker's chow mix, Contessa is another enthusiastic customer. 'I sometimes take her in even when I hadn't planned to just because she counts on it," Walker said. "She's so excited when she thinks she's going to school.

Walker no longer has to walk Contessa on raining evenings after work--she gets more than her quota of excise during the day. "She plays and romps and just loves it," she said. "Talk about a dog's life. It's good to be a pet these days."

Tasha, a bichon frise owned by Debra Peterson, is another satisfied client. "When I take her to Urban fauna, she jumps against the door, She can't wait to get in," said Peterson. "She comes home so tired: she goes right to sleep. She doesn't even eat her dinner."

Losh believes many dogs take on bad habits, such as chewing, barking, digging and other neurotic behavior, when young because they feel abandoned. "In the long run, daycares are going to save animals by preventing them from developing bad habits that make people get rid of them," 'she said.

In addition to daycare six days a week, Urban Fauna offers dog training, grooming and the finest chew bones, toys, leashes and dog products.

"We have unique and higher-quality items not available at usual stores," she said. These include outdoor gear, water bottles and backpacks made by the same companies that make Eddie Bauer products. They also have custom beds, some covered with leopard skin fabrics. Many pet owners "don't want an ugly plaid cedar sack next to the nice furnishings in their loft'' she explained.

Many of her customers come from the adjacent Pearl and River Districts, but the largest share are commuters who work downtown.

Urban Fauna also has products for cats, hamsters and other pets in the spacious 5,600~Squarefoot store. But dogs are the focus.

For the past seven years, Losh has had Suzanne's Sterling Silver, a jewelry shop in the Skidmore Fountain Building. She also had a second store briefly at Northwest 23rd and Hoyt. She plans to move the jewelry business into a gallery loft inside Urban Fauna soon.