Val & Theresa M.
Lansing, MI
LGBTQ+ safe space 🐶 🛹
Pet care experience
We want to revamp what dog care means to you and your pup! We provide care for your dog in our home with structured overnight stays to develop or keep good habits while playing or co-existing cohesively with other dogs and people. Hyper, calm, scared, shy, reactive dogs all thrive on structure and guidance!
Reviews
Always so sweet and accommodating! I know Max is in good hands and I never have to worry about leaving him!!
Val and Theresa bailed us out when we needed an overnight sitter for a night! Communication was great sending pics periodically of our dogs training with them. I just wish they lived closer to us so we could use them more often!!
We are so grateful to have found V&T for our pup and us! They really take the stress out of leaving him for a few days.
Val and Theresa were absolutely amazing They kept us updated almost everyday which eased our nerves since this was the first time we left him since we got him! They took very good care of him and even introduced him to some dogs which is something we’ve been struggling to do on our own.
About Val & Theresa M.
Communication
Skills
Safety, trust & environment
We look to integrate dogs slowly to any other dog to ensure everyone’s calm state of mind and safety! Our integration process includes: spending one-on-one time with us, pack walks, placework, and shared decompression time. Our house is also separated by gates and barriers so every dog can have their own area - if needed - while still being involved. We do not introduce new dogs to other dogs right away, we like to take the time to get them comfortable in their new environment with new people and prefer to understand your dogs specific body language before potentially overwhelming them with new dogs. Sometimes to get to know or trust them takes a half day, sometimes it takes a whole stay. We just ask every owner to “trust the process” because it does make your dog trust US more! Plus, it reserves our worth over the other dogs doing it this way! We take in new clients as we see fit and like to keep up with structure and training that you’ve established with your dog. Instead of scheduling for meet & greets, we will ask if you want to set up a discounted “trial day” ahead of your originally requested stay, for reasons mentioned above. We can chat before drop off like we would during a meet & greet, but typically we get to know the dogs a lot better during the first day they are with us and can gauge them more accurately, hence a trial day over a meet & greet. The pups can be a lot different when they’re with their parents, which isn’t usually a bad thing. Just different. We feed all dogs separately from each other. We try to send at least one pupdate a day, usually the first day or two will be two-three pupdates. We board more than one family at a time and we host a daycare session at least once a week with past clients looking to work on things or have a safe place to have fun. There is a possibility our frequent visitors will be with us during your pups stay. We partner with local trainers and clients of ours to help work on certain skills or training, and to give their dogs structured & safe social time. Most of our clients & their dogs know each other, and most of our client’s dogs are neutral OR are trained to be neutral (thanks to our “system”) with other dogs.
Home
Information Val & Theresa M. would like to know about your pet
Things to remember when booking with us: WE LOVE GOOD COMMUNICATION! :-) Drop offs and pick ups we request an “ETA” text! “I’m on my way! About 15 minutes” is always super rad. We have preferred timeframes for pick up and drop off Everyday of the week 7a-10:30a, mornings are almost always best for us. Most days* also 4:30p-6:30p *not including Saturdays or holidays. We will almost never pre-plan for midday drop offs. If it’s requested way in advance we will likely ask for flexibility. We can make exceptions for certain situations, just ask! We plan out our whole year in advance so you can count on our availability. Please always pack: Kibble Treats and/or wet food Medication if applicable For overnight stays pack a *clean* bed or blanket No need to pack a crate or food dishes Please send us up to date (UTD) vaccination records. Please continue to send us updated vaccination records every time you take your pup in if you plan to keep with us. Your vet can email us them directly. Rabies, parvo, distemper, hepatitis are all required core vaccines. The last three are usually under a DHP variant combo vaccine. Bordetella, Lyme, Lepto are not required but highly recommended. We trust that every dog parent is keeping up with their dog’s monthly flea/tick/heartworm. We offer nail trims, baths, and sanitary grooms as add on-services. Baths are always de-shed baths that include brushing, drying, and ear cleaning. We will be adding charges for grooming services if pups are delivered to us dirty, stinky, unsanitary, unkept, or in need of a de-shed. We reserve the right to determine the state of uncleanliness. Respectfully if your dog arrives to us clean, they will leave clean. We reserve the right to deny care if your dog is sick (puking is a variant of normalcy in dogs, think gross/infested poop instead!) injured, dying, not UTD on core vaccines or monthly prevention, and/or carrying diseases/pests. We do check for injuries, pests, abnormalities, and cleanliness upon drop off and before heading home. Please also make sure to check your dogs before drop off and when coming back home, especially for ticks and fleas! Can’t have enough set of eyes!! Not every dog likes every dog and it is unrealistic to expect any dog to live up to that expectation. We are very confident and willing to let those know when something is out of our realm of care. Avoid other leashed dogs with your leashed dog by waiting in your vehicle. We do not advocate for on leash greetings and like to carry out any direct contact under our control when on our property. Stay in your vehicle until the coast is clear, please do not form a line or interrupt. Usually clients only run into each other if one or both are running late/early, as we try to schedule this in advance. Under no circumstances are people allowed to enter our home or enter past our gate into our yard. Please help us feel safe & secure in our home by not inviting yourself in. Do not take it upon yourself to trespass into our home or yard, as this is dangerous & weird. Follow us on Instagram! @firstplace dogs. We post cute pictures of your pups and our “time-off” there!
A typical day
If there is structure established in your pup’s day to day, we strive to keep their structure while they stay in our care. Boundaries, feeding routines, and keeping up with their training are few examples. The rest of it is based on the weather and the dogs we have in our care! We can’t expect any dog to like every dog. We pair playmates with those that match each other’s play styles in a structured play manner. We keep supervision all while the dogs are playing. Playtime will last as long as every dog involved is engaged and interested, sometimes this is ten minutes sometimes an hour! We typically let them get playtime 2-3 times a day. We also like to spend one-on-one time with every dog, again as long as they are engaged and interested. Usually involves: walks, fetch, tug, tag, flirt pole fun, or a run through the agility course! The time spent indoors is passed by working on mental stimulation. We go through your dog’s basic obedience commands sessions, have an indoor agility course, a myriad of enrichment (puzzles, snuffle mats, lickmats, interactive dispensing toys, Kong’s, wobblers), and focus lots on “placework” a great tool for every dog owner to hopefully use at home! We try to find something new and exciting for every dog to adopt in their home life! Owners will receive a quick “how-to” or links towards their dog’s favorite activity or enrichment upon request
Services
Val & Theresa can host
Availability
What do we mean by “structure”? We believe that structure comes from expectations instead of timing. (Ex: instead of viewing structured feeding time to be at a certain time: what does your dog expect around dinner time? At our house, feeding time looks like hand feeding for doing tricks and cues, or in enrichment toys so they can use their brain more to eat!) Structure can also be viewed as sequences (ie: potty training a puppy isn’t at certain times but instead a rotation of crate time, potty time, play and train, repeat Theresa works from home with the occasional need to step out to meet with clients, Val co-owns her tattoo shop and is often gone for only half-days. We are lucky enough to have low demanding jobs, and have found how much we enjoy the community we built taking in other’s pups. Currently we are rebuilding our clientele since most of our loyal clients have moved out of state. Dogs needs are based on The Basic Five: daily exercise, training, socialization, care, and affection. We did the most to provide these things for our dogs and like to share the experience with our clients! We have a large fenced in yard; we mostly feed in “enriching” ways because most dogs like to work for their food; our second garage is a three car garage & is temperature controlled & dedicated to being the dog’s “work-out room” with: amateur agility, a treadmill, a sand dig box, and space to play in case of crappy weather; we have a sanitary potty patch we built ourselves with a natural filtration system underneath; our dog’s bedroom that we share with client’s pups for sleepovers; and woods across the street for your pup to use with us: long line use only, we never take dogs off-leash unless we have worked with you personally for off-leash and/or e-collar skills.
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About Val & Theresa M.
Communication
Skills
Safety, trust & environment
We look to integrate dogs slowly to any other dog to ensure everyone’s calm state of mind and safety! Our integration process includes: spending one-on-one time with us, pack walks, placework, and shared decompression time. Our house is also separated by gates and barriers so every dog can have their own area - if needed - while still being involved. We do not introduce new dogs to other dogs right away, we like to take the time to get them comfortable in their new environment with new people and prefer to understand your dogs specific body language before potentially overwhelming them with new dogs. Sometimes to get to know or trust them takes a half day, sometimes it takes a whole stay. We just ask every owner to “trust the process” because it does make your dog trust US more! Plus, it reserves our worth over the other dogs doing it this way! We take in new clients as we see fit and like to keep up with structure and training that you’ve established with your dog. Instead of scheduling for meet & greets, we will ask if you want to set up a discounted “trial day” ahead of your originally requested stay, for reasons mentioned above. We can chat before drop off like we would during a meet & greet, but typically we get to know the dogs a lot better during the first day they are with us and can gauge them more accurately, hence a trial day over a meet & greet. The pups can be a lot different when they’re with their parents, which isn’t usually a bad thing. Just different. We feed all dogs separately from each other. We try to send at least one pupdate a day, usually the first day or two will be two-three pupdates. We board more than one family at a time and we host a daycare session at least once a week with past clients looking to work on things or have a safe place to have fun. There is a possibility our frequent visitors will be with us during your pups stay. We partner with local trainers and clients of ours to help work on certain skills or training, and to give their dogs structured & safe social time. Most of our clients & their dogs know each other, and most of our client’s dogs are neutral OR are trained to be neutral (thanks to our “system”) with other dogs.
Home
Information Val & Theresa M. would like to know about your pet
Things to remember when booking with us: WE LOVE GOOD COMMUNICATION! :-) Drop offs and pick ups we request an “ETA” text! “I’m on my way! About 15 minutes” is always super rad. We have preferred timeframes for pick up and drop off Everyday of the week 7a-10:30a, mornings are almost always best for us. Most days* also 4:30p-6:30p *not including Saturdays or holidays. We will almost never pre-plan for midday drop offs. If it’s requested way in advance we will likely ask for flexibility. We can make exceptions for certain situations, just ask! We plan out our whole year in advance so you can count on our availability. Please always pack: Kibble Treats and/or wet food Medication if applicable For overnight stays pack a *clean* bed or blanket No need to pack a crate or food dishes Please send us up to date (UTD) vaccination records. Please continue to send us updated vaccination records every time you take your pup in if you plan to keep with us. Your vet can email us them directly. Rabies, parvo, distemper, hepatitis are all required core vaccines. The last three are usually under a DHP variant combo vaccine. Bordetella, Lyme, Lepto are not required but highly recommended. We trust that every dog parent is keeping up with their dog’s monthly flea/tick/heartworm. We offer nail trims, baths, and sanitary grooms as add on-services. Baths are always de-shed baths that include brushing, drying, and ear cleaning. We will be adding charges for grooming services if pups are delivered to us dirty, stinky, unsanitary, unkept, or in need of a de-shed. We reserve the right to determine the state of uncleanliness. Respectfully if your dog arrives to us clean, they will leave clean. We reserve the right to deny care if your dog is sick (puking is a variant of normalcy in dogs, think gross/infested poop instead!) injured, dying, not UTD on core vaccines or monthly prevention, and/or carrying diseases/pests. We do check for injuries, pests, abnormalities, and cleanliness upon drop off and before heading home. Please also make sure to check your dogs before drop off and when coming back home, especially for ticks and fleas! Can’t have enough set of eyes!! Not every dog likes every dog and it is unrealistic to expect any dog to live up to that expectation. We are very confident and willing to let those know when something is out of our realm of care. Avoid other leashed dogs with your leashed dog by waiting in your vehicle. We do not advocate for on leash greetings and like to carry out any direct contact under our control when on our property. Stay in your vehicle until the coast is clear, please do not form a line or interrupt. Usually clients only run into each other if one or both are running late/early, as we try to schedule this in advance. Under no circumstances are people allowed to enter our home or enter past our gate into our yard. Please help us feel safe & secure in our home by not inviting yourself in. Do not take it upon yourself to trespass into our home or yard, as this is dangerous & weird. Follow us on Instagram! @firstplace dogs. We post cute pictures of your pups and our “time-off” there!
A typical day
If there is structure established in your pup’s day to day, we strive to keep their structure while they stay in our care. Boundaries, feeding routines, and keeping up with their training are few examples. The rest of it is based on the weather and the dogs we have in our care! We can’t expect any dog to like every dog. We pair playmates with those that match each other’s play styles in a structured play manner. We keep supervision all while the dogs are playing. Playtime will last as long as every dog involved is engaged and interested, sometimes this is ten minutes sometimes an hour! We typically let them get playtime 2-3 times a day. We also like to spend one-on-one time with every dog, again as long as they are engaged and interested. Usually involves: walks, fetch, tug, tag, flirt pole fun, or a run through the agility course! The time spent indoors is passed by working on mental stimulation. We go through your dog’s basic obedience commands sessions, have an indoor agility course, a myriad of enrichment (puzzles, snuffle mats, lickmats, interactive dispensing toys, Kong’s, wobblers), and focus lots on “placework” a great tool for every dog owner to hopefully use at home! We try to find something new and exciting for every dog to adopt in their home life! Owners will receive a quick “how-to” or links towards their dog’s favorite activity or enrichment upon request
Location
Lansing, MI
Pets
Val & Theresa M.
Lansing, MI