Hello! My Name is Stef and I have a deep passion for dogs, and the field I am in. My dog's are incredibly important to me. I strive hard every day to provide a safe, happy, healthy and enriching life for them, and one of my goals has always been to start my own daycare and boarding environment, so I could extend the same love and care towards other people's dogs as I do my own. A bit about me and what I provide: I am a reliable and responsible dog care professional. I have almost two decades of experience working in the dog industry. This includes working in several dog daycare and boarding facilities, a daycare and train facility, and a grooming salon. I have worked in every aspect of the industry from hands on with the dogs to managing several corporate daycare facilities. I am a positive-reinforcement based dog trainer, with several years of hands-on training experience. I have my own pack of rescue dogs, who have grown up in the daycare environment. I am canine first-aid certified and I am comfortable in administering any medication, including injectables. In my years working with dogs, I have dealt with thousands of dogs - all different ages, temperaments and breeds. I am also an active volunteer with a dog rescue, and part of the therapy dog program with St. John Ambulance. In 2022, I made the decision to leave the corporate world and take all of the experiences and lessons I have learned over the past two decades to create the home style daycare and boarding environment I have always dreamed of. My goal is to provide a loving, happy, peaceful and safe environment for every dog who comes into my care. I believe in kind, ethical, modern, science-based training methods, and use them with my own dogs and any dog in my care. I believe dogs deserve patience and guidance when teaching them how to exist in our world safely and happily. Like people, each dog is an individual and I treat them as such. Different dogs require different approaches. I have the knowledge and experience to help shy, underconfident pups come out of their shell and blossom. I can determine when a pup is overly excitable or over-confident and needs some help learning how to self-regulate to play safely. I have training and experience in reading a dog's body language, cues, and communication which allows me to manage pack play safely. Above simply being a daycare and boarding provider, my goal when working with the dogs every day is to ensure that each pup has their mental and physical needs met. I achieve this by letting them carry out their natural canine behaviors safely (chewing, foraging, digging, sniffing etc.) along with the ability to run, wrestle and play until their heart's content. I focus heavily on canine enrichment and pride myself with being able to go above and beyond to meet every dog's mental and physical needs. At the end of their stay, they go home happy and fulfilled. I understand that rest/downtime is also important, and open rest periods are incorporated into every dog's day.