Good Question - Why Urban Tails?

With dog daycares and boarding facilities opening up daily in the Houston area, why should you choose us?  It would be too easy to say because we're the best in town so, we can sum it up in a few words -

        Health 
                 Safety
                          Professionalism
                                                  Knowledge
                                                                  Experience
                                                                                  Licensing


You will see throughout our website the words "health" and "safety".  We can not stress enough how important these factors are in choosing a care facility for your loved pet.  We take these issues very, very seriously.

Prior to opening Urban Tails and to ensure that we would be "on top of our game" in operating in the best manner possible, we joined and became very actively involved with our pet care industry trade association, Pet Care Services Association.  Through this organization we learned the processes and procedures necessary to design and operate a safe and healthy facility.  Processes and procedures such as having an emergency preparedness plan in place for things like hurricanes, floods and other potentially disastrous situations.  Rather than having an adversarial relationship with our competitors, we actively interact with them to share information, ideas and assistance as needed.  This is invaluable in daily business and especially so in the event of disasters such as hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

At the time back in 1999, the dog daycare industry was in it's infancy and there was not a lot of information out there on how to safely manage dogs in a group play environment.  Before we opened we also found and joined a yahoo groups list of people who owned dog daycares around the world to learn from their experience how to safely run a dog daycare.  Using the incredible knowledge of this group and some very savvy members specifically as committee members, one of our owners chaired Pet Care Services Associations Dog Daycare Committee to create standards for the daycare industry.  Standards such as having an average of 75 square feet per dog, having staff with the dogs at all times and staff to dog ratios based on staff experience.  This is something that has been needed as daycares began springing up on every corner.  These standards are guidelines on facility design, staff training, staffing and dog management techniques to be used as a roadmap to ensure fun, safe play for the dogs.

As time has progressed, Urban Tails is now considered by it's peers in the pet care industry to be one of the premier facilities in the world for dog daycare.    On January 1, 2007 this same owner, Susan Briggs, assumed the role of Region 8 Director for Pet Care Services Association, the largest pet care industry association in the world, overseeing Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma.  In the fall of 2007 the book she co-authored with Robin Bennett, Off-Leash Dog Play, A Complete Guide to Safety & Fun was published as a resource for the pet industry and pet owners.  She also authored "Community Play - Safely Adding Revenue and Fun" for Pet Care Services Association to educate their members on adding this highly desired service.

At Urban Tails we regularly have staff from other daycare and boarding facilities come to us for training in dog body language, how to temperament test dogs and how to manage them in a cage-free group environment.  We also provide courses for people considering going in to the dog daycare business so they can learn about it before they jump in with both feet.  We have done several seminars for Pet Care Services Association conferences on managing dog daycares and how to temperament test dogs for group play.

Our staff at Urban Tails have structured training programs in dog behavior and group dog management that ensures that they are on their toes and know what they are doing.  They also are encouraged to obtain further education through the programs offered by the Pet Care Services Association in pet care management.  Check out our Staff Profile page for more information on our great team and their certifications.

And then there's licensing. Urban Tails is one of the very few fully licensed dog daycare or cage-free boarding facilities in Houston and the surrounding area.  We are also active members of the Better Business Bureau as well as the Intown Chamber of Commerce.

Have any more questions why you should choose us?  Give us a call or come on by, we can surely come up with some more!