Green Acres Kennel

Green Acres 2008 Highlights

• Thank you for your patronage throughout the year. It has been a pleasure and a privilege taking care of your pets. 2008 was an eventful year for Green Acres and our staff, with lots of good things happening.

• Pet Care Technicians Tracy, Rachael and Liz passed their exams and were accredited by the Pet Care Services Association (PCSA). Green Acres now has 10 PCSA Certified Pet Care Technicians on staff.

• T rainers Joel and Angela became Certified Pet Dog Trainers (CPDT) after successfully passing the exam administered by the Certification Council for Pet Dog Trainers (CCPDT). Green Acres now as 6 CPDT’s on staff.

• We added two new fenced play yards, off the main yard, for puppies and small dogs.

• Don and Becky earned recertification as CPDT’s.

• Paula had back surgery and our wonderful staff stepped in to fill the gaps during her recovery. Paula is now feeling better than she has in a number of years.

• We installed a new phone and voice mail system in an effort to better serve you.

• Don was invited to give a presentation entitled Trends in Training at a meeting of the Pet Care Services Association in Louisville, KY and at the Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers annual conference in Ottawa. A corresponding article can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/3x7vk2

• Trainers Kate, Becky and Don attended a variety of educational seminars at the CAPPDT conference in Ottawa.

• We added a new food to our offerings called BG, which stands for before grain. It is made by Merrick, a small family-owned business that focuses on producing high quality dry and canned foods. BG comes in multiple varieties for both dogs and cats.

• Kennel Manager Rachel was credentialed as a Certified Advanced Pet Care Technician through the PCSA and began transitioning into her new role at Green Acres as a Groomer.

• We have dropped Hill’s Science Diet, Nutro and Newman’s Own from our food offerings as  we feel there are better choices available from both a quality and cost basis. It is our goal to offer foods that we would feel comfortable feeding our own pets.

• Former Kennel Manager and current Training Manager Kate was promoted to Operations Manager and now manages our animal care, customer service and training staffs. Kate has also added a new Cat, Guido to her family.

• Trainers Angela, Kate, Don, Jessica, Christie and Joel attended a seminar entitled “Stop ‘Whispering’ and Speak Up for Your Dog” with best selling author and dog  behaviorist Jean Donaldson.

• Speakers were installed in all of the kennels and the cattery to provide our guests with pleasant and calming music throughout the day and night.

• Green Acres was voted the regions Best Kennel for the seventh year in a row and Best Pet Store for the second consecutive year.

• Trainer Angela married and became a new dog mom with her puppy Elaine.

• Trainer Becky found the time to give birth to her son, Ben.

• We installed an EcoQuest Laundry Pure system on the kennel washer which has reduced our carbon footprint by allowing us to clean and sanitize the · items we wash without using hot water or detergent.

• Liz, Hilary and Shana joined the Green Acres staff, training as Pet Care Technicians and Customer Service Associates. Shana was only here a short time before she was bitten by the puppy bug and has since added Buddy to her family.

• Our September sale and fall election promotion raised enough funds to allow us to donate 4,300 pounds of cat food to the Eastern Area Agency on Aging Furry Friends Food Bank. This is in addition to all of the pet food that many of you have donated. We will continue to be a drop-off point for this worthy cause throughout the winter.

• We’re currently in the process of installing new kennel management and point-of-sale software that will better equip us to care for your pets. We anticipate switching to this new system in mid-January so bear with us as we learn. We will be asking for an email address as the software will allow us to send you confirmations and reminders of grooming appointments and boarding reservations. As we get the system running we will also start to use email more frequently for announcing special sales to our clients.

Congratulations!

Green Acres is very fortunate to have a wonderful team of hard-working, caring employees! We have instituted a new Staff Champions program where team members are encouraged to positively reinforce other members of the staff for going above and beyond, either through interactions with a client, a pet in our care, or with each other.  Every month we will pick from all of those recognized and reward one team member who has been recognized as well as the person who recognized their good deed. Our Staff Champions for November 2008 are Brenda Merrill and Rachel McLeod.