Entrepreneur Adds Festive Flair to Doggy Daycare

(Chaddie Kumpe Platt, co-owner of Dog Party USA in Springdale is this issue’s guest writer in “First Person”.)

Back in third and fourth grade, our teacher asked us to write essays about what we wanted to be when we grew up. Years later, I was getting ready to go into the Peace Corps and I’d consolidated all of my worldly belongings.

I found those essays, and each year I’d written that I wanted to be a dog farmer. You get to a certain point, and you just have to make the leap and do what you always wanted to do.

Finding the perfect spot was key. Originally, I’d looked in south Fayetteville, but that’s just not the direction things were growing.

When my husband Charlie and I were driving around looking for property, they must have put the sign out that day, because we saw it and immediately made an offer. Our 2-acre spot on Highway 112 is ideal — it’s centrally located and close to Interstate 540.

We opened in late 2005, and it’s amazing how much the area around us has grown.

Our revenue has also grown. It increased really fast from 2006 to 2007, and so far this year, our net profits have already surpassed what we made during all of last year.

We’re very reasonably priced. Our rate of $20 a day — which is all-inclusive — is cheap, compared to a lot of other similar places around the country. There are discounts available if people have multiple dogs, and we also offer discounts for rescued animals.

Doggy daycare is $15 a day, haircuts run between $35 and $60 and baths cost between $10 and $18, all depending on the size of the dog. A seven-week basic obedience course taught by our trainer Denise is $105 and five weeks of puppy preschool is $65.

My mom Priscilla is my partner in the business and my brother Ron is our manager. Mom was a teacher for 38 years, so she has the patience of Job.

We all just love dogs. I think of them as my clients, each with their own unique personalities and characteristics.

— Interviewed by Robert Bell