Thoughts on a Near Perfect Dog Park

[centrop67]

I've given some serious consideration to purchasing some property to open a private dog park here in South Florida. I know there are some members on here who are against dog parks in general, but the biggest gripe is almost always with the dog owners. A private facility might be a good way to counteract that problem.

I've been thinking about how I would divide the property to provide separate areas for different activities:

1) General area for large dogs
2) General area for small dogs
3)) An agility/SAR training area.
4) 2-6 private runs that can be divided in half when a full run is not necessary.
5) A bathing facility

I will draw this out shortly and post the image, so you can get an idea of how this might look.

I know there's much more that I need to understand, so I am seeking any and all opinions or experience in the following areas:

1) Membership
What would be a fair deposit amount?
What would be fair monthly dues?
What do you think about a member evaluation committee?
One/Two/Three strikes your out and lose your deposit?
What would be a good way to find charter members to draw and enforce the rules?
2) Rules
What are some really good rules to put in place to maintain the peace?
First come, first serve on the private runs, or reserve only?
Hired personnel for rule enforcement or members police themselves?
3) Special Consideration Groups
Would trainers have interest in involvement?
Should I give them a break on dues to help members and help me promote the park?
Law enforcement discount?
Rescue organization events?
4) Local Red Tape
What kind of zoning would a place like this need?
Insurance?
5) General
Lighted?
Hours of operation?
What am I not thinking about?

I really respect the members of this forum, so I am looking forward to any and all advice. Thanks!

[Raven]

Have you looked at (Googled) private dog parks yet to see what others are doing and how (and why)?

I'd also wager that a few owners might be willing to discuss their experiences providing you are not close enough to compete with them.

[LyonsFamily]

Funny, I actually did my senior capstone project on just this in college and also pitched it as an elevator pitch and went all the way to nationals in a college entrepreneur competition (similar to Shark Tank). I got a lot of good, hard feedback from the judges there. My research/work was focusing on an indoor dog park, but that was because of the market and location at the time (I was in downtown Chicago) and it would follow a similar concept.

I can probably give you more answers to specific questions through PMs, but I'll answer your bullet points here the best I can and then follow up with the current business plan I'm implementing at my new place over the next few years.

1. Membership cost was a hard point. I surveyed a ton of lists and I found most owners weren't willing to pay more than $5-$10 per day drop in session. There was a huge need to educate the public about what is better with a private dog park and that related to a lot of marketing and advertising costs. While people complained about regular dog parks, most either still went to them anyway and didn't want to pay for something or they found other resources to go to the majority of the time and would only pay occasionally. Monthly members worked better with packages added in for discounted training and grooming. Crunching the numbers, I couldn't find anyway to completely cover overhead, employees, insurance, and supplies with membership alone. You might have a better option with being outdoor only though, since cost will be lower.

In my final business plan, I came to the conclusion that the best monetization strategy was to rent the space to trainers, 4-H classes, rescues, and individual parties on a time block basis and just offer the dog park to the public outside of those times. Among people surveryed, it seemed having Saturdays and 1-2 nights per week for drop in open park times was sufficient.

2. Temperament testing is an absolute must. I would also provide employees trained in animal behavior that can help supervise and diffuse fights as well as remind owners to clean up after their dogs. Your employees can make or break the business and finding good ones without wasting your profits in salaries may be hard.

3. I touched on this a bit in 1, but yes, special considerations are probably going to be the bulk of your business. I would venture to say that if you could team up with a trainer with established clientele and maybe even an established location, you'd be better off. Usually, trainers aren't teaching classes 10 hours a day/7 days a week, so renting the empty building from them in off periods would be a good, cheap way to start up and see if there's interest. You could always expand to a new location once you got people coming in. When I was in Chicago, I groomed and taught agility at a pet store and once every few weeks we'd have a staffed mixer for clients and their dogs in the training room. We only charged $5 per person, but got lots of food reps to come and gave away treats, toys, and goody bags and people would come back every time.

Renting trainers the space if you want to be the property owner would be a great way to guarantee that your overhead is covered by just a flat rent, without needing to get dog park customers in first.

4. Zoning will depend on your area. If you can find a place in an industrial park, or an area zoned agricultural, it will be a ton easier. Any dogs kept overnight will require a kennel license. Many areas have restrictions for grooming if you offer a groomer or bathing services. You might need a separate septic system for disposal of dog waste and parking is also sometimes a regulated law.

For insurance, you'll want to check with some companies that actually work in the pet care industry. Governors and Kennel Pro would be who I'd start with. You'll have to consider their requirements for shots, cleaning, what happens with certain incidents, or if dogs escape, etc. A lot of places will have breed restrictions and even if they don't at first, a few fights among certain breeds can result in your insurance company banning the breed or dropping you and getting a new company is hard after that. There was a multi million dollar indoor dog park in Texas with investors up the wazoo and they were killed by insurance company breed bans. First pits, then rotties, all shepherds, dobermans, mastiffs, etc. pretty soon the population of owners that actually needed to exercise their dogs was completely gone and rescues and trainers pulled out because of the bias.

5. You'll probably need to bring in running water and lights for facilities and clean up, especially if you're going to have a bathing area. You'll probably need some sort of shelter for that that is able to be locked up at night and you have to provide restrooms for workers and patrons if you serve over a certain capacity. You can offer advertising around the park to help pay for it. There's also the business structure of being in corporation or not and if you want to run it as a 501(c)3 or a for profit company.

OK, now for myself, I've dreamed of having an organized way to exercise dogs and provide proper socialization without a structured training class. I'm currently in the process of all of that and have a 20 step plan. I bought a house and acreage in the country. We're zoned agriculture, with no restrictions on the use or permits required unless I go over 3 dogs per night for overnight or board and train care. I have a business rider on my home owner's insurance. I'll be switching to the kennel pro Platinum package as the facility increases and I start adding overnight care for more than one dog at a time. I found it tremendously easy to have the business at home. There are virtually no restrictions on land use or business fees.

My first step was to build out a grooming/bathing room and that is now done. I'm working on my smaller training room now. While it's useable and I have a few kennels in it, it has a way to go. Those are both in my garage. I do have a bathroom that's attached to the garage to meet that requirement. Our driveway is big enough for cars for now, but it will have to be expanded soon.

The next part of my plan is to build out fencing areas and add a SAR/agility obstacle course (I already have most of the obstacles) as well as some open areas. I plan on renting those out for $10/hour per person and dog at certain times for current or previous customers that have already gone through a class. I'm running all of my classes on a membership program and hope to get grooming and boarding on that too, so I could easily see adding a drop-in dog park punch card to a more premium package that also includes training or other services.

I think I'll make a CGC title requirement for group play, and that'll be limited to only like style dogs that have also been temperament tested by me. We're planning on having 5 separate yards, plus the obstacle course. I don't think I'll ever get rich on the dog park style rentals, but it will provide something for the dog community and it should be an easy lead generator for the other parts of the business. I like the idea of being able to monitor the play groups and suggest further training for certain behaviors that might pop up or provide matches for dogs in they just want a play date. It'll also give clients the opportunity to proof on some things we work on in classes or privates.

I also have a 3000 sq ft barn and though about adding that to the rental part if people are interested, but that's a ways away. I think the biggest benefit of it being on my property is that I can make yard improvements and it's a complete tax write off. My own guys can also enjoy it all they want and bringing in foster dogs is way easier.

[Dutchringgirl]

wow Steph ! Before reading Stephanies post, my first con would be insurance, second would be, why would I pay when I have plenty of parks near by. I agree an indoor park would be great and that is something I would pay to use provided it would be like you are suggesting. Rent would be tough unless you found an old building like one of my old trainers did, but he had plenty of training income to cover that. Then with an old building, you would have to make sure its safe. Then the upkeep and plowing, again another liability and expense. How are the dogs going to enter and leave the building with out having problems in close proximity?

Can you monitor all that play to see who is picking up poop and playing nice?

From what Stephanie describes, it would be more like a trainer allowing his own people to use the area, then they know who is there and they know the dogs. Even then, no one can 100% predict an outcome of a bunch of dogs together.

[LyonsFamily]

Sorry it was so long.

[centrop67]

Wow - good stuff Stephanie.

I knew this was going to be the right place to get info, and I would love to here from more DSForum members.

For me, the idea arose out of the fact that it's impossible to find a good area for off-leash training and exercise for Radar. I would absolutely pay for the privilege. I have even posted ads on Craigslist to trade property use for fishing trips (I used to be professional guide) and/or money with no takers.

I see that convincing owners to pay for something like this is going to be problematic. Given the nature of the weather here, I probably don't need an indoor facility, and I hadn't even considered it.

I did identify what I thought was a perfect piece of land for sale. A 3-acre site that is zoned agricultural that's already completely fenced (8ft) around the outer border. I've even considered just buying it for personal use, but thought there has to be more people out there like me. So, I could somehow turn it into at least a break-even if not profitable venture.

I have had mixed reactions on the idea with other people I have discussed this with - about 50-50 on whether they would pay when there's free parks available.

I have searched for private parks, and it looks like there's one in Tampa and one in Jacksonville - those would be the closest.

I would definitely want to find a partner with training or veterinary credentials.

BTW I am really in the research stage. I would love to make this happen, but we'll see.

[Stacy_R]

I would love to have a place to take Tyson where there are responsible dog owners and I would pay a membership fee.

[Asha]

I completely agree with Stacy. If I knew there were other responsible owners I would totally pay a fee. I like the idea of separate play groups for like temperament dogs. Great ideas! You guys are amazing!

[Dutchringgirl]

Who would decide what temperament dog went where? The owners?

[centrop67]

Thanks Stacy and Emily for the feedback. I knew there were other people who would consider paying.

Lisa - that's the million dollar question. I suppose we could have an evaluation period. Do you think asking a new potential member to put a colored ribbon identifying the dog as under evaluation is overboard? If I went the CGC route, I could probably never have Radar in my general area (BTW - the private areas could be rented to just about anyone.)

I've drawn up what I was thinking as how I would partition the land on the site I picked out.

Feedback please.

[Dutchringgirl]

I dont think asking somone to put a ribbon on their dog is over board, but that wont guarantee that other dogs will stay away and other owners will abide by that. Dog owners are not as bright as their dogs. ]

I see a walkway for 3a and 4a but what about 2a? or can you get to that from the other side?

[Stacy_R]

I get the whole CGC thing, but that would disqualify many dogs depending on who the evaluator was. I know 4 trainers who are CGC evaluators and they are all different. I saw one trainer pass a dog that I wouldn't even pass (this dog went up the leash at a handler and had 4 tries at supervised separation).
I like the ribbon idea. And if they are signing a membership contract, then you can certainly put language in there addressing the purpose of the ribbons.

[centrop67]

I see a walkway for 3a and 4a but what about 2a? or can you get to that from the other side?

The 2a entrance is at the top of the walkway to the left of the SAR/Agility area entrance. One thing I wanted is to have entrances far from each other, but this is on spot I had problems with. The detail's not there, but most entrances would be double-gated. And, the walkway would actually have two double-gates, one for entering and one for leaving.

BTW - in case it's not clear 2, 3, 4, and 5 would normally encompass a and b, but could be partitioned if less space is needed or more private areas are needed.

Dog owners are not as bright as their dogs.

That's the answer! We make the owners wear the ribbons, and evaluate them.

[Stacy_R]

Dog owners are not as bright as their dogs.

That's the answer! We make the owners wear the ribbons, and evaluate them.

OMG....I just spit out my coffee!!!

[Dutchringgirl]

Dog owners are not as bright as their dogs.

That's the answer! We make the owners wear the ribbons, and evaluate them.

OMG....I just spit out my coffee!!!

My job is done.