Great Dog opened our doors to Seattle’s canine community in February 2001.  Since then we have grown to be more than just a dog daycare.  At Great Dog you will find a culture that places an emphasis on your pet’s experience.  Our mission to enrich the lives of dogs and the people who love them.  We provide a wide array of opportunities for dogs of all sizes, shapes, and temperaments.  Great Dog offers a large dog daycare that emphasizes making the most of each dog’s day.  We enrich each dogs lives through a series of cognitive projects (group and individual), canine education activities using positive methods and some dogs even get a “job” to do such as assist our Dog Enthusiasts (staff) with various activities.   

In Oct 2004, Great Dog launched a private 4-acre Adventure Park excursion to help satisfy our more active dogs.  Some dogs just need to feel the dirt and twigs beneath their paws.  Many of our staff, our Dog Enthusiasts, are trained in massage and have advanced training and handling skills including clicker training techniques.  In our commitment to safety, all of our enthusiasts are Red Cross First Aid certified. We provide our staff with on-going mentorship by long-time and well-respected dog trainers who are dedicated to consistently helping our team provided the best environment for our canine clients.

In our fourth year, our canine education was expanded to include specialty classes, therapy animal programs, aggression classes and extensive puppy and social cognitive program.  Great Dog launched our Savvy Dog(tm) curriculum seeking to advance good dogs into great citizens.   Great Dog Shoppe was recognized by national industry's Pet Product News as Retailer of the Year.

In 2006, Great Dog successfully spearheaded the zoning changes with the City of Seattle.  By implementing the dog daycare industry's first association of local dog daycares, we were able to lobby our city council to recognize that our services are necessary for urban growth and expansion.  Great Dog was applauded by Seattle's Mayor as a winner of the 2006 Mayor's Small Business Award.  And for the Winter Holidays -- Great Dog launched our overnight care (OPC) program.  Our OPC is a cage free, play and care program.  Our team expanded our services to include home care for dogs and cats.  Doing it "the right way" all of our staff are licensed, bonded and pet first aid certified.

The years 2007-2008 brought us relationships worldwide with hosting John Rogerson in residency.  We continued to hone our dog-people relationship building programs in both our daycare and our Canine Education department.  Three of our senior instructors received their certification status from the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.  The grooming team grew to three groomers and we expanded our building to give them a spot of their very own.  Not to be outdone, the retail shoppe redecorated and the best change was  moving the food to the main floor.  What a difference!  Keeping faith and hope for change, in December 2008, in the midst of the recession, we opened our Small Dog and Pooch Parlor at the south end of the building.  This gave us a dedicated space for not only our small dogs, but the shy and senior set get their own couches. 

Our dedication to a great experience is extended to our shoppe and our staff of professional groomers and bathers.  We compromise nothing to insure that your favorite companion has the best possible experience.  We continue to be innovative, care about our community and the business we run.