Sue DeMaio on the job.
More people have been buying canines during the past year’s pandemic, and the pooches need training and walking.
Enter Sue DeMaio of the dog training and boarding business Sit Stay Train & Play. She has rented warehouse space for a training and boarding facility at 36 River St. in Fair Haven just west of Ferry, to expand her business.
She described it as a “doggy resort.”
She delivered an introduction to her business plan and a hand to other businesses and dog owners Thursday night at the regular monthly meeting of the Fair Haven Community Management Team (FHCMT).
The gathering was chaired by Diane Ecton and Zoom-facilitated by the corresponding secretary Dave Weinreb; 35 people logged in.
“This is my first step introducing myself to the community, seeing if we’re welcome,” DeMaio said.
DeMaio said she has been in the pet care business for 10 years. The 10,000 square feet of space she has recently leased (in a 40,000-square foot warehouse) will be her first brick-and-mortar address.
Up to now she has worked out of people’s houses, picking up the pooches and walking them for hours in area parks and forest land. She tapped out at 15 dogs.
“Our list has probably grown 25 percent in the pandemic. I get at least two calls a day to get on our day program and hiking program. It’s insane right now,” she said.
That’s one reason she reached out to Paw Haven, another pet care facility that recently opened. “I was interested in pairing up and sending them some of my clients.”
That trend — more animals and more business for her — is national, DeMaio said. When people call her — and she has to decline — they often tell her she’s the third or fourth trainer they’ve reached.
When her facility opens she’ll increase her roster of guests and add five or six more people to her current two employees, she said.
Management team members welcomed the plan. There was interest not only in dogs and the uncaged, at-home “suites” she described for them, but interest in cats as well.
When one of the FHCMT attendees asked about DeMaio’s services for cats, she replied, “Yes, we’re going to have a big cat boarding suite. Not in cages, bigger rooms for them, with lots of enrichment, trees and foliage.”
For the dogs,” she went on, “no kennels or cages, all of the overnight boarding in individual suites, little fireplaces for the dogs.”
In a conversation after the meeting, DeMaio said she hopes the planning and zoning authorities will be as welcoming. Because the business is close to the water, DeMaio needs not only a site plan review at City Plan but a coastal review as well.
From the Board of Zoning Appeals, she will need to provide two variances. One, because the business is not one currently allowed in the zone; and a second, because the ordinance says you can’t have such a business within 500 feet of residences.
Brewery Square apartments are nearby, across Ferry Street. DeMaio is in the process of reaching out to people there and other neighbors.
She’s also pulling together plans for a $100,000 build-out.
“I’ve been in pet care for a decade. Then I managed a large pet resort, and learned a lot about it,” she added by way of explaining the background to her taking this big business step. “We’re really focused on a lot of enrichment. We’re going to have all types of training games and puzzles, a full size pool, waterfall features.
“The biggest thing to separate us from other commercial facilities is the boarding facilities. A lot of these places have kennels with concrete flooring and cages.” That’s a lot easier to manage, she said, but not what she is planning for.
“We’ll have climate controlled suites for boarding, with camera access for the owners, where dogs can spend time with a caregiver, the dogs cage-free. We want to offer a comfortable experience not that much different from the dog’s at home life.”
DeMaio said she must also get approval from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection because the facility and the management of dog waste will take place by the banks of the Quinnipiac River.
That’s a lot of engineering, lawerying, and paperwork before the first dog barks at 36 River St. DeMaio said a previous effort to get approval for such a business in Fairfield did not pan out, after what she described as a major investment of time and money.
In addition to dogs and some cats, DeMaio has a horse and one lizard among her clients.
If all goes well, she hopes to cut the ribbon some time this summer.
I love my dog. I've been lucky to have dogs my entire life. I come home from work ready overloaded with stress and there's my dog providing me with instant respite. ( Not to take anything away from my wife.) I would never tolerate the mistreatment of a dog.
That said; a dog is a dog, not a human. Stop anthropromorphizing your dog. Your dog doesn't care about waterfalls, pools and fireplaces. Your dog's aesthetic and taste are not yours. The proof can be found in what your dog is willing to eat from the gutter and find perfectly delicious. Your dog will be content if it is well fed with dog food, given a warm dry place to sleep and affection. There are people who don't have enough to eat and adequate shelter. Give your dog a good belly rub and then give the excess to the Connecticut Food Bank or Jewish Family Services so they will.