Dog Thrive Gambrills

08/13/2021

Unfortunately due to construction now needing to continue tomorrow, we will have to be closed for daycare tomorrow at our Gambrills location.

All boarding drop off and pick-ups will still be normal hours (Sat 9:30am - 5:00 pm & Sun 10:00am - 4:00pm.
We understand this inconvenience, but we'd rather close on a weekend vs weekday, and safety always has to be our top priority.

Staff is still full and normal, we just have limited space due to construction improving the facility tomorrow.

Soon we will have additional suites, larger boarding area, expanded more space, awesome new playground equipment for the pups (ramps, risers, tunnels, and more), an additional second large outside play yard that will be climate controlled and covered (so dogs can go outside to play/use restroom rain, snow, or shine constantly), and many other improvements.

We appreciate your patience and understanding at this time.

Thank you,
Matthew

PS, make sure to go add The Pup Camp if you haven't yet to stay more up to date as we don't use this page any more.

08/06/2021

Friendly reminder to add us over at The Pup Camp for all updates, etc!

Another friendly reminder our Saturday hours are now 9:30-5:00 starting tomorrow.

Thanks everyone!

07/28/2021

With more construction and a busy boarding weekend we will be closed this weekend for daycare.

Safety is always our top goal - and we want to make sure with current construction going on to improve the facility for the pups - as well as give all the boarding dogs the best care possible we feel this is the best option.

We are officially turning Dog Thrive into the Pup Camp on Monday so we appreciate your understanding on this matter.

All boarding dogs will still be able to come in and drop off/be picked up this weekend.

07/23/2021

If we raised daycare prices $2/day but we included insurance up to $500 if your dog had any injury/etc - would you be okay with that? This insurance would be us immediately paying the vet day of any incident.

Btw, we haven’t had any major issues between dogs in awhile (go staff and go great dogs!), but we are just thinking of ways to improve and give people more peace of mind. Just trying to think of ideas to make people more comfortable when leaving their pup at daycare - or when they are away for boarding.

Just thinking.... if someone boarded for 7 nights with us on a vacation, would $14 more total for peace of mind knowing any injury caused by another dog, jumping off a ramp and landing weird, etc they’d be taken care of?

This is just an idea, but I did want to hear your thoughts. I have no plans on raising daycare prices at all btw (I know a lot of you have been concerned and asking about it), so I was wondering if a $2 insurance thing would be worth it or if it’s a good idea?

07/16/2021

Tomorrow we will be doing imporovements to our facility. Improving play rooms, painting lobby, re-doing the lobby, and much more.

Although we will be open, if you do not need to use us for daycare tomorrow, we'd appreciate if your pups could stay home. We have a very busy boarding weekend ahead of us - and now that contractors can come in tomorrow it would help us out a lot.

If you need to use us, of course you can still come in and daycare hours will be normal.

This is the first step of many improvements. Most of them are for way more fun for the pups (additional yard being built with shelter so dogs can go outside in the yard for fresh air in rain or snow and now get wet or dirty, awesome new playground equipment (ramps, risers, tunnels, and much more), additional safety measures for each room, top end cots so dogs can relax more comfortably (and not have to lay on a floor which can be stinky after a full day of dogs playing/rolling around on it), more additional suites, added 24/7 staff, etc.

Thank you for being patient with us and being such great customers. It's never good business to say "keep your dogs home and don't bring them if you can!", but we promise this will be well worth it and we are getting better than ever.

For all the boarding dogs this weekend - no worries! We still are completely staffed up extra this weekend, will have all the rooms open normally, and they'll still receive full days of open daycare/play/supervision.

Thank you so much for all your support with this!

07/03/2021

Juicebox is very happy to have Rottweiler puppy Sage boarding here at Dog Thrive. They became cuddle buddies almost immediately.

Our cage free boarding has staff present 24/7 every single night! Whether your pup likes to be in a crate, their own private room, or cage free like these two - we can accommodate to now give them best boarding experience ever!

07/03/2021

We will have extra/additional overnight staff for the boarding pups this weekend. If there’s fireworks nearby and any dogs are uncomfortable, we will move them to one of our more quiet areas and be there for them.

Stay safe and have fun this weekend!

06/25/2021

Our owner Matthew Stewart will be MATCHING up to $2500 for each tee, tank, or donation over the next 10 days supporting A Matter of Hope

AMOH is a non-profit that focuses on raising awarensss and research towards Cholangiocarcinoma and other rare cancers.

AMOH was started by Matthew’s friend Christina Sgambato in 2020 in honor of her husband Matthew Sgambato, who battled Cholangicocarcinoma for 11 months before his passing way too early on December 24th, 2019. What she is doing with AMOH is amazing, inspirational, and we are proud to support such a great foundation.

Please purchase a tee, tank, or make any donation and Matthew Stewart will match for the next 10 days up to $2,500.

More info here: https://amatterofhope.org/

Buy a tee or tank to support here: https://www.customink.com/fundraising/mohope2021/orders/products/new

17 years, over 100 million custom t-shirts, 99% happy customers! Custom Ink is the t-shirt printing expert for your team, school, company, or any occasion.

06/24/2021

Every year or so kennel cough goes around.

Although other places have had it worse than us, it’s still a good idea to be informed.

If your dog is sick, please leave them home.

If your dog gets sick and you believe it was at our facility, please let us know so we can make sure we take all necessary precautions.

Just like a normal child in daycare, sometimes dogs can get sick. Usually it’s minor and it’s more common in younger dogs still building up their immune system, and the bortadella vaccination is awesome, but just like a flu shot it doesn’t guarantee your dog can’t get sick.

We’ve never had a kennel cough situation be anything more than antibiotics in our history, but we just wanted to let you all know that every boarding/daycare facility deals with this from time to time, and with our 24/7 staff now, deep cleaning of every room daily, etc - we take every measure possible to prevent things like this as much possible.

FYI - we are not having any serious outbreak problem right now. A few cases have happened over the past 2 1/2 weeks, and we few we’ve managed it best we can, but we just wanted to be honest/share this info with all of you.

06/20/2021

Dog Thrive is looking to hire a marketing director.

Job responsibilities include:

* Daily postings on social media for this location and The Pup Camp in Severna Park.

* emailing/calling all new clients with dogs that recently visited to help improve customer service constantly

* planning and running weekly events for the dogs in daycare

* planning and running monthly events for all our wonderful customers.

* post blogs and send out email blasts letting customers know what all is happening at our locations

* be in charge of networking & partnerships in our community

* work with our website team with Google/other paid promotions

* communicating with customers to make sure we are meeting their wants, needs, and doing what we can to make our place the best possible place for dogs

This is a full-time job & someone must be comfortable with dogs. If interested in the marketing director position please email [email protected] & we will be in contact.

06/19/2021

Tonight we start 24/7 staff full-time.

Upcoming weeks:

* Brand new yard doubling in size that will be covered so dogs can go outside and use the restroom in a grassy yard without having to worry about rain or snow! This is Maryland, and weather can be tricky, so hopefully this helps keep dogs even more sanitary and give them even better restroom habits.

* brand new playground equipment!

* 24/7 staff will now have overnight reports sent to your email every other night letting your pup know how they’re doing. If you brought treats or have special needs you requested - now you can now chat with our overnight staff on email. Our overnight staff are specificaly there for you to help with all boarding needs (and just always be there for the dogs).

* wash and dry options will now be available for a low cost. If you drop your dog off for daycare OR have your dog in boarding, we can now guarantee your dog can be washed/dryed for you at pick up starting July 1st.

* all our employees have been given a raise to at least $15 hour and $15/hr will be mandatory for all new employees as well.

* we will be doing WEEKLY daycare events again (picture days, water days, other event days, etc) to keep your dog excited and not bored when in daycare.

* free clean up station up front. Wipes, towels, waterless shampoo, depdorizers, etc will all be free of charge. If you pick up your dog, feel free to use any of these items so your dog can go in your car smelling wonderful after a busy day at daycare.

* improved boarding and daycare policies for staff.

* improved daily organization amd communication policies for staff.

* Redoing daycare rooms with new fencing/extra areas for dogs to have fun and be safer in daycare.

* way more parties and get togethers for our customers!

Thanks everyone for all your support - but now it’s time to get even better all ways around. 2020 may of been the worst year ever for us, but 2021 will have all these things in place to make it the best year for all the pups, customers, and employees.

- Matthew