Post by Peggy Moran's School for Dogs.

Now Accepting Dog Boarding School Reservations for the Holidays!

With my kennel building adventure coming to a conclusion (at last!), we will soon be ready to accept happy campers for boarding and training services.

We will have seven indoor/outdoor suites, and also a private bedroom suite attached to my office for tiny dogs and those with special care needs. In order to offer the ultimate in personalized attention to your dog, we will only accept a total of eight campers at any given time.

I thought it might be a good idea to offer the opportunity for anyone with holiday, vacation, business trip, or other travel plans to make early reservations, since we are operating on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you know your dates, let me know! I am already booking well into next year, but plenty of spaces are still available.

As for rates, we charge $72.00/ day ($500.00/ week), for full service care, play, cuddles, and customized one-on-one training. We offer a round-trip chauffeuring service, and also offer follow-up in-home training. We charge $60.00/ day ($420.00/ week) for a second dog coming for the same dates. If you send three or more dogs all at the same time, the second dog rate applies to the rest of them, as well. Sorry I cannot give a better break, but it is a lot of work (and I'm charging less than I charge for a one hour private lesson to give your dog 24 hours of my dedicated care and attention).

If you need routine boarding without training, our rate is $48.00/ day/ dog regardless of the number of dogs you send. Your dog will still get lots of love, attention, and playtime, just no individualized training.

You are welcome to come out for a visit anytime. Just give me a call to make sure I'll be available when you plan to come.

Saving Maisy

By now you probably all know, things with the store in Bolingbrook did not work out, so while the final stages of kennel building proceed at our place in the country, we are back at the house in Lemont for training. That means a lot of driving back and forth, but soon this will all be behind us.

Meanwhile, while out in Manteno earlier this month, one of my builders told me he'd seen a stray dog in "pretty bad shape" on his way to my place. Being an animal lover, once he told me about the dog I had to go looking for him/ her. Here are some excerpts from our first day together (click play, then pause and let it load for a while, for best viewing quality):

Countdown to Dog School Moving Day!

Big changes are coming, and preparations are keeping me very busy. Most of you know I am living in Manteno part time, switching off with Dave who stays in Lemont while I am at our farm. Once our new kennels are built, we will hopefully sell our Lemont home and live out here full time. In order to continue to offer my training services in the Chicago suburban area, on May first I am moving my training business into a storefront in Bolingbrook on Boughton Road, subletting space from a dog grooming boutique called Bella's.

Despite the excitement about new opportunities, I'm feeling a little nervous about the whole thing. I am not used to sharing space. It will be weird, and will take some getting used to!

And despite our Lemont house being a "knock down/ handyman special", I am going to miss the familiarity of the old place and especially the ease of walking from bed to work. Luckily life on our little farm is so wonderful I won't spend much time looking back.

As part of all of my planning, I've been designing and ordering signs for the store; but I have not been sure how to decorate inside. I can't get too creative, because I have to stay within the style boundaries of my new host, the owner of Bella's. The place has a sort of upscale boutique feel (yeah, that sounds like me...not even a little!).

I had the thought it would be nice to feature photos of my students' dogs. I'd want all the pictures to match in some manner, and I was thinking about those photos on canvas, that wrap around a base so they don't need a frame. If any of you want to donate an image of your dogs, past or present, to our decor, feel free to create a canvas photo of your dog, any size, which I will proudly display. If you do so, please be sure to use a high-quality image so it maintains its resolution, and I'd prefer portrait style photos. You can get these things made at either Walgreens or Walmart, and there are also some discount companies online. Don't feel obligated, but if you want to do it I'd love to feature some of my star students on the walls!

See you soon at our Grand Opening; stay tuned for more details :)

My dogs practicing stay:

Fima Practicing Off-Lead Training

Here is a video of one of my boarding school students, a French bulldog puppy named Fima, practicing his lessons with me after two weeks of boarded training. What a happy, cooperative dog!

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Finally, Back to School!

Thanks to all of you, for your patience while we waited out "Outbreak 2014".

I am going to do a deep cleaning of the training room tomorrow, in preparation of reopening on Wednesday. Please do remain alert to possible cold symptoms in your dogs, such as sniffles, runny noses, eye discharge, and of course coughing, and if you notice any of these, please do not bring your dogs back to school yet! Also, it bears repeating: if your dogs ever have any health issues at all, such as loose stool, vomiting, etc., please keep them home for at least 48 hours so we can be sure classmates remains healthy.