By Rosemary McCoy

To help meet the demand of pampering pet owners who are spending more money than ever on their dogs, two kennels in the Sioux Falls area are expanding and a third is opening.

The Resort by SDK

The owners of Smoken Dakota Kennels west of Sioux Falls have expanded with a second location south of the city.

Teri Jo and Shane Olean bought Top Dog Resort at 27246 Highway 115 and renamed it The Resort by SDK.

The Oleans had been planning to build an upscale kennel on the north side of Tea but jumped at the opportunity to take over an existing business. The resort offers boarding and day-care services.

“When they come here, it’s like going to camp,” Teri Jo Olean said. “They’re not going to just sit in a kennel and get food and water. … We make fresh-baked biscuits daily and read them nightly bedtime stories.”

Owners can choose additional spa services for their dogs like a micro-bubble bath with a massage, a sugar scrub facial or a pedicure.

For day care, some dogs come once or twice a week, and some are dropped off every day, she said. The rate is $25 a day, with discounts for punch cards and consecutive stays. Boarding costs range from $35 to $45 a night, depending on the size of the dog.

The daytime and overnight guests are evaluated before they play with other dogs and are grouped by size, age and temperament to romp in the indoor and outdoor yards.

“We want to make sure everybody has an awesome experience,” she said.

The dogs will gravitate toward certain friends just like day-care kids do, Olean said. Some dogs who are released into the play area will wait by the door until their friends join them. One or two staff members on the team of 10 supervise the dogs and join in the fun. Outside, the dogs can climb on wooden platforms and splash in a kiddie pool. There are shady areas in the grass where they can rest and watch the action, too. Olean said expansion plans include an actual outdoor pool.

Inside, the dogs have raised beds in their kennels. The rooms are temperature-controlled, and music plays in the background.

The original kennel features a training center, and The Resort is planning to add one, too. The Oleans have been training and competing with retrievers for almost three decades but also offer a range of obedience classes for all breeds. Each week, 10 classes are in session, she said.

The focus of the resort is on the experience, Olean said. Dogs should return home happy, tired out from playing and eager to return.

Paws for a Cause Pet Resort

A new kennel will offer luxury services for dogs and cats with a charitable focus.

Paws for a Cause Pet Resort is expected to open by the end of the year or early next year at 7121 S. Cliff Ave. in a new $2.1 million facility that will feature VIP suites with webcams and TVs, and an outdoor pool shaped like a dog bone.

Owner Jeanine Hoff Lubben was a stay-at-home mom with a background in business management and marketing who started looking for more to do in 2014.

“I knew God had something on my heart for me to do, but I didn’t’ know what it was,” she said. Lubben attended LeaderCast that year and learned about a company whose purpose was creating funds and giving money away. She said she knew that was her path. “I didn’t want a traditional job. … I wanted to create something for a bigger purpose.”

Opening a kennel popped into her head during a taxi ride. She started doing research and toured sites in Omaha and the Twin Cities, even job shadowing so she could learn about daily operations. She hired a manager who has 15 years of experience in the industry before starting the design process.

Earlier this summer, dirt work started for the 10,100-square-foot kennel on a 1-acre lot that’s north of 85th Street. Lubben plans to offer 77 kennels in addition to the VIP suites. The building will have a specialized air-ventilation system, epoxy floors and sanitation seals so urine doesn’t leak between the kennels.

Dogs will get to play in indoor and outdoor recreation areas.

“We’ll do a meet-and-greet for new customers just to see how the dog does, introducing it to our own dogs first to see how they interact with other dogs.”

For dogs that don’t play well in group settings, Paws for a Cause will offer individual care, she said.

The cat room will have 10 units. “It’s easier to leave them at home (than a dog), but there are fewer places that offer that option,” said Lubben, whose family has one cat and two dogs.

In addition to boarding and day-care services, Paws for a Cause will have an on-site groomer. Glamour Paws will continue to run its mobile service but also do work at the kennel.

She expects to open with a staff of 10 and has been getting interest since creating the business’ Facebook page in April.

Lubben said she hasn’t set the boarding and day-care rates yet, “but we’re trying to be really competitive with the other resorts in town.”

The business will give a set amount of its income to three charities: Sioux Falls-based Mission Haiti; Partners Worldwide, which provides microloans to people in third-world countries to help them create sustaining income, and a quarterly rotating spot for local organizations.

She and her husband, Vince, who is one of the owners of Wireless World, have a blended family of five boys, and they are excited about the new business, she said.

“I like that I’m showing them that business doesn’t have to be for the sole purpose of turning a profit,” she said.

Wireless World sends employees on mission trips through Mission Haiti, and she’s hoping to do the same for Paws for a Cause staff.

“I just want to be a blessing to our employees, the pets and the organizations we serve.”

Dog Days

A southern Sioux Falls kennel is expanding. Three sisters – Victoria, Karrie and Nikki Schroeder — opened Dog Days four years ago in part of a building at 4060 S. Grange Ave. Falls Church was the other tenant in building, but it moved out July 1, and Dog Days is taking over the entire space, more than doubling in size.

While the focus of the kennel has been providing day care and boarding services for up to 100 dogs, the new space will specialize in caring for dogs with special needs, whether that’s medical care or pets that are timid or anti-social and do better with smaller groups or one-on-one attention.

The new area will turn former classrooms and offices into 10 to 15 semi-private rooms that might hold four kennels for the special needs dogs. There will be a similar number of suites that would work well, for example, for an owner that has several dogs. The expansion will have its own outdoor play area, and the former worship area will be used as an indoor play area. Sioux Falls doesn’t have an indoor community dog park, Schroeder said, so Dog Days might open that to the public in the winter for a fee.

In addition to the Schroeders, 20 staff members help care for the dogs. Dog Days has a full-time manager, and a part-time manager who provides supervision until 10 p.m., she said. With the expansion, the kennel has added another full-time manager who previously worked there and Schroeder said she expects to add at least 10 employees.

“We believe in providing a clean and safe facility,” she said. “Our employees are an important part, too. The dog owners need to be able to trust the people who are caring for their family members.”

Half of Dog Days clients use the boarding services and the other half use the day-care services, Schroeder said.

“Some owners bring their dog for one day so they have a tired and happy dog at night, and others come two or three times a week.”

Rates are $13 for a half-day and $20 for a full day, with discounts for punch cards. Boarding fees range from $25 to $40 a night, depending on the size of the dog.

Renovation work to prepare the space for dogs will begin soon, and the new space will be open before the holidays, Schroeder said. Dog Days will host an open house so that dog owners can see the space and learn about the services.

Schroeder said the sisters have been thinking about the type of services they wanted to add ever since they opened because the demand is there.

“People are pampering their pets way more than they were in the past. … The pet industry is growing like crazy.”