You've often heard that a dog is man's best friend, but, the other side of that coin is that a person can also be a dog's best friend. Jim Wright, owner of Brigadoon Kennels along with his wife Elizabeth, specialize in teaching each of the former to be the best friend of each of the latter. Radiating a true love of dogs and a passion for his career, Jim enlightened us about the changes taking place at Brigadoon Kennels with these words;
I have a degree in manufacturing engineering and was working at a local manufacturing facility. My wife Elizabeth and I had purchased a house and got our first dog, and, shortly thereafter, we got a second dog. Before long, we started fostering dogs through the Humane Society and I started volunteering there. Pretty soon, my dogs were getting in the way of my engineering career, or, maybe my engineering career was getting in the way of my dogs. The more interested I became in dogs, the more I became interested in their behavior. A friend suggested that I might enjoy owning a kennel, and, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.
This kennel caught my eye because of it's location and the reputation it had in the area for compassionate training featuring positive reinforcement rather that compulsory training with the associated choke collars. It took about a year to work out the details before we could take over, and, it was quite a challenge, but, it's also been a lot of fun! Now, I can't imagine doing anything else. I meet up to fifty dogs a day and I love them all. I'm having a blast!
Before we purchased the kennel, it was known as Goldenbrook Kennels for eighteen years, but, we decided to rename it Brigadoon Kennels. Elizabeth and I had seen the play Brigadoon which is about two gentlemen from New York who go grouse hunting in the Highlands of Scotland. They stumble upon this mystical city called Brigadoon that only shows up once every one hundred years. It's a magical city where nothing bad ever happens and the hunters just stumbled upon it during a fog. When my wife had an job interview in Wooster, we were driving through some serious fog past all these farms, woods, and fields, when, all of a sudden, the fog clears and we saw Walmart, Loewe's, and the entire city of Wooster. We immediately thought, "Hey, it's just like Brigadoon!", so we began to refer to Wooster as our Brigadoon.
Brigadoon Kennels was opened in May 2003 and offers a retail area where we sell high end foods and we offer boarding, training, full grooming services, and a doggie daycare where you can drop off your dog in the morning and pick him up after work. It is a great for the owner of the puppy who needs to run off energy. We have two large dog parks, each about an acre in size that people can rent for off leash training or just playing Frisbee in the security of a fenced in area. It is a big advantage for people living in condos or those who want to start working their dog off leash. Our home is right in front of the kennel so we live on-site. It's very convenient in cold weather to be able check on the heat, check on dogs, or, if one dog is not adapting to boarding as we may like, I can peek in on them. It is a big benefit to live on-site.
Brigadoon Kennels provides boarding service by the day. All of our kennel runs are both indoor and outdoor. Each dog has their private, outdoor area where they can go to the bathroom whenever they wish. All of the indoor areas are heated to keep the dogs warm.
We run a puppy daycare and are working on developing a routine for the daycare. The dogs will be in the outside, fenced in area until about 9 a.m. when they will come inside until 11:00 a.m. When they are inside, they can play together in our training room which is sixty feet by forty feet and gives them plenty of room to play. The group will never be larger than ten dogs per day which is a manageable size for us to control. Between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 .p.m, we give the dogs an opportunity to go back into the kennel by themselves where they can get some water, or, if their owner brought lunch, they can eat and digest their food in comfort and privacy. Some dogs are okay with others eating from their bowl and others aren't, so, by having them eat alone, we make sure lunch time is a calm time and we don't experience food possession issues. Then, from 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m., they can play again.
Safety is a big issue with us and is why we are cautious about letting new dogs into the group. We test each new dog by placing them with with my dog, Hooch, who is very easy going, or, one of our day care dogs who has been doing this for about two and a half years. These dogs are called socializers which means that nothing fazes them. They're very easy going and love to play with other dogs, but, if the new dog doesn't want to play or is aggressive, they just walk away. They're invaluable assets to the daycare group and can help filter out undesirable dogs.
We offer training classes for puppies and adult dogs. All dogs have to be under one year of age for the puppy class and we want to make sure that every puppy has no negative experiences. Sharon Porter and I do our puppy classes, and, when the training's done properly, you'll rarely have to give your puppy a correction. I work with Lisa Gates in training the adult dogs and we're very adamant about training being a positive experience for both the dog and the trainer. We try to make the training as much fun as possible and use an ample supply of treats as rewards and positive reinforcement.
Our retail space is about thirty feet by twenty-five feet and it's stocked with high end foods from the Natura company as well as Eagle Pack. Natura makes three brands of foods, Innova, California Natural, and Healthwise. The Innova is probably one of the best dog foods in the world and all of the ingredients are fit for human consumption. It's close to as cooking for your dog as you can get. The California Natural is geared toward dogs with allergies and is a very clean, simple food. The ingredients are limited to either chicken or lamb, rice, and sunflower seed oil. This is a food for dogs who have allergies to wheat, additives, or preservatives. We also have a dog food called Karma which is 95% organic and is great for people who feed their dogs a raw diet. Karma contains no pesticides or additives and is the first dog food to be USDA certified organic. We also sell cat food and board and groom cats, as well. We've recently begun renting crates to pet owners who want to "try before they buy."
We're very cautious when introducing new dogs to our fenced in areas and our daycare. They're not meant for every dog, just for healthy, well-adjusted socialized dogs who do not exhibit dog aggression issues. If we see any type of aggression, we reserve the right to remove the aggressor from the group. Our dogs are a very elite group and we offer everyone a free first day trial to see if their dog will work with our group. If they don't qualify, it doesn't mean the dog is bad, it just means they weren't meant for a daycare situation or our daycare group. For the safety and well being of everyone involved, handlers and their dogs, it is something we approach very cautiously and seriously.
When you have a best friend who holds a special place in your heart (and has four legs and a tail), treat them to the best by taking them to Brigadoon Kennels to visit with Jim, his staff, and a special group of little friends who are eager to play. While you're there, don't forget to tell them that The Advocate sent you!
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