Weekly Recap – Friday, April 5, 2013

We’ve had a wonderful week of shirtsleeve weather and warm sunshine interspersed with some wild, cold and wet spring winds – yes, it’s springtime, and it’s certainly keeping us all entertained.

Pooch of the Month – Congratulations, Davenport

And the winner is … Davenport … by a LANDSLIDE!

Congratulations to him and his human, Erin, a very astute campaigner.

Thanks to Mark Smolenski of Thialfi Photography, whose fine photographic work was on full display this month, and will be featured again for May’s Pooch of the Month.

Note: While Mark will return to Scampers from time to time, his visits will be less frequent. If you’d like professional quality shots of your furry friends, let us know and we’ll let you know when he plans to set up his studio again.


Every once in a while we come across a dog-oriented joke that we just have to share.

This one’s today’s…

Watch for the updates of our framed Friday Funny in our reception area.

We’ll also make sure they’re posted on our Facebook page so you can share them with your friends.

Health Alert – Giardia
We have become aware recently of a new outbreak of giardia among a few of Scampers frequent campers. Giardia is passed from one dog to another usually via contact with or consumption of feces. It is an intestinal infection caused by a parasite that makes its way to the intestines after ingestion.

Symptoms are broad ranged and can sometimes include acute, transient, intermittent or chronic diarrhea that often presents with a very pungent odor, and has a great deal of mucous or may be foamy.

This parasite loves a wet environment (like the Pacific Northwest), so if you are frequenting parks where dogs can congregate and there is any standing water, or the water table is high, as a ubiquitous contaminate, dogs could be exposed to giardia simply by licking their wet paws or drinking from puddles where contamination exists.

Things to be aware of:
• If your pooch delivers excrement as described above, please get a sample to your vet for testing quickly and keep your dog at home until you have clearance from your vet for a daycare environment.
• Giardia is treatable with antibiotics, but dogs who are ill cannot attend daycare until the veterinarian has re-tested them to ensure the treatment has been wholly effective. A copy of the clear test result or vet note indicating a negative test should accompany your next reservation with us.
• We now require a clear fecal exam every six months for all pooches who have been identified as “poop eaters”. Without this safeguard, we risk the health of all of our Scampers Campers.
Please remember to ask your veterinarian when it is suitable to bring your dog back to the daycare environment following any infectious condition. Our overall group’s safety rests in us knowing that our clients are exhibiting responsible dog ownership by ensuring their dogs are healthy when they come to our facility.

Scampers Boarding – We’re filling up, frequently!
Scampers has been hosting a houseful of boarding dogs, recently.

We’ve found our visitors to be quite content and relaxed during their stays. They are in a familiar environment, with familiar people, and surrounded daily by all their favorite playmates.

Our busiest times are typically during the holiday weekends and our suites do fill up.

We are full or nearly full every weekend this month, with lots of overnighting pooches during the weekdays as well, so be sure to get your reservations and deposits in early. Note: Your reservation cannot be confirmed until your deposit has been received.

Also note that there is a premium charge for July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Years Day.

Click here to download a Boarding Request Form.

What’s Your Scampers Story?
Does your dog know when it’s a Scampers day? Does he start jumping in circles at the mention of “school”? At the end of a day of Scampers romping and roving, does your dog conk out in his food bowl, or the back seat of your car?

We’ve been hearing some fun Scampers stories lately, and we’d love to add them to our website’s About Scampers section, where we have a collection of our customers’ comments and stories. We haven’t updated that in quite a long time, and it needs some fresh material.

Drop us a quick email with your story, and we’ll feature it on our About page, and maybe also on our Facebook page.

Pooch Need a Spruce-Up?
Cut-N-Run’s groomer-in-chief, Chris Sugarbaker, is planning his next visit for this Tuesday, April 16th.

If you’re pooch is due for a spruce-up, keep in mind that Chris’ schedule often fills up, so claim time for your pooch ASAP.

K9 Nose Work Classes at Scampers
Dogs have an incredible sense of smell and an inborn desire to hunt. The sport of K9 Nose Work is designed to develop the natural scenting abilities of your dog by using their passion for hunting and their love of toys, food and exercise.

It’s a great class for your dog to have fun, build confidence, and burn lots of mental and physical energy and you get to find out just how good your dog’s nose is.

Vicki Francks, owner of Cascade Canines is offering K9 Nose Work Classes using Scampers facility.

If you’d like some information on the next round of classes, give Vicki a call at 206-849-7643. More information is also available as Scampers front desk.

Pawlogic News
Cathy Madson of Pawlogic Dog Training holds group classes at Scampers location.

Cathy offers classes including Basic Obedience, Continuing Obedience and Real Life Training, and Introduction to Obedience for Puppies.

For more information or to register your dog in any of the classes, call 425 443 5280 to book classes for your pooch with Cathy.

Watch for more exciting information on new classes in our upcoming newsletters.

Scampers Hours
We are learning that many of our customers lead very active lives that start very early in the morning and run into the evening.

When we drive up to open up shop first thing in the morning, we usually find several cars waiting in our parking lot, with very excited dogs who are anxiously awaiting our arrival and would dearly love to come in along with us, even though the bulk our morning staff doesn’t arrive until 7 a.m.

We ask your patience, though, as our pre-opening staff have boarding dogs to feed, water bowls to set out, along with a myriad of other preparatory tasks.

Note: From time to time, we may set up a pre-opening hour appointment, so you may see one of us bring a dog in early. In those cases, we have arranged for a staffer to handle the appointment.

For our later pickup families, please keep in mind that our premises is used for training events after hours, so it is important that all daycare pooches have departed by 7 p.m., so our evening staff can finish their end-of-day tasks.

Heard ’round the water bowl
We’re excited to be adding new personalities each week. Our frequent campers are doing their best to make them feel welcome. Here’s some of the gossip heard ’round the water bowl:
“Oh, Lucy, what fun you must be having with your adorable new little sister! Zoe was having so much fun playing with the “Littles” this morning, but she’ll be growing into the bigger dog groups very quickly, and she’ll be playing with the Big Dogs soon.”

“Bailey W was a fun addition to the Little Dog group, too. He’s a very playful fellow with such a welcoming way.”

“The most comfortable newbie this week is probably Perry. It was like he’d been coming to Scampers all his life – and everybody’s his friend already.”

“We’re looking forward to seeing our new friends again very soon, and, of course, to meeting more new friends in the coming weeks.”

Please Remember to Reserve Ahead!
Our drop in space has become very limited. Occasionally, we’ve had to place a sign on our door to say we had maxed out our current capacity for our staffing levels.

Please remember to reserve ahead via email or phone to be sure we have space for your pooch.

We’d hate to have to turn anyone away, but we maintain our dogs to wranglers ratios as a matter of safety.

As always, if you have a particular attendance pattern you’d like to claim, please let us know what that is if you haven’t already done so.

Wishing you all a wonderful, fun-filled weekend.

Very best regards,

Linda Olsen and Stina Hughes
Scampers Daycamp for Dogs

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