March 6, 2017 By Hannah Wulkan
A new doggy daycare center with a focus on socializing dogs with one another will open up in Long Island City later this week.
Daycare and boarding facility Happy Dogs will open its fourth location in the City on the ground floor of 5-04 50th Avenue on Friday, offering dog socialization and care seven days per week with space for about 100 dogs at a time.
Happy Dogs is unique in its methods, owner Jennifer Cheng explained. The facility allows all the dogs to mingle in a pack as they would in the wild, and does not use any cages or isolation tactics.
“This is how dogs are supposed to interact with one another,” Cheng said. “It’s amazing how they gravitate toward one another based on their temperament, energy, and personality.”
She added that all dogs are carefully screened to ensure they are up to date on vaccinations and are spayed and neutered, allowing them to interact safely and naturally under the watchful eye of her staff.
Happy Dogs will offer day care for dogs seven days per week and dog bathing services. It also will offer overnight boarding, during which staff is on-site all night, allowing dogs to roam freely rather than be caged.
Another amenity available to dog “parents” is a camera that broadcasts a live feed of the daycare to allow owners to check in on their dogs from their phones or computers, Cheng said.
Cheng started her business in Williamsburg in 2012, having left corporate law in search of something more fulfilling. She began her business, and saw it grow rapidly over the following years.
Happy Dogs now has two locations in Williamsburg and one in Manhattan, and when it came time to expand again, Chang said she chose to open in LIC because it is a “booming area.”
She said that she had quite a few previous clients move to Long Island City who asked her to open a new location in the neighborhood, and upon investigating further, she found a great space and decided to expand her business in to a third borough.
The four locations are staffed by a group of 45 employees that rotate through the various branches, and are all trained in dog behavior and how to handle a pack of dogs.
The daycare will officially celebrate its grand opening next Monday, and will offer 20 percent off of all pricing packages through the end of May.
Happy Dogs will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. It has a variety of payment options for dog owners, including monthly subscriptions for a certain number of days per week or punch cards for a certain number of total visits.
A-la-carte daycare runs $37 per day, boarding runs $59 per night, including daycare for all days but the day the dog is picked up, baths run from $25 to $85 depending on the size and mannerisms of the dog, and pickup and drop off of dogs runs between $5 to $10, depending on how close the owner lives to the facility.
Owners that purchase subscriptions or punch cards also receive discounts on boarding, bathing and pickup and drop off.
For more information visit http://happydogsnyc.com/long-island-city/.
Featured Events
5 Comments
Don’t own a dog but love them. Problem in LI City is not dogs but bad dog owners. Can you please preach good neighbor policies so dogs don’t destroy landscaping or poop or pee in the middle of sidewalks or quite literally right on “Please curb your dog” signs. There is fresh dog poop on our sidewalks every day.
At least it’s fresh Mark!
Sorry, that was James Edstrom leaving another comment. Pass the baggie.
Welcome…I so glad to hear that.. We have so many dogs in LIC….I want to wish you the best…
I would love to know if you need volunteer or you’re hiring Part-time.20 hours…..You can E-mail me…I love animals… I used to work at a pet shop for five years…
They should do well. There certainly are enough dogs in LIC.