This is the front of the building.  The awning is actually blue, we'll have a new picture up soon to show that. This awning was delivered by mistake in green.  We liked the green but we REALLY like the blue awning!

This is our reception lobby and retail area.  As is the rest of the building, it is quite colorful and we really like all the space.  The view on the right is looking straight across the lobby from the freezer for natural dog foods across to the main kibble food area.  The front door would be to your left, the receptionists and check-in desk to your right.  Also to your right, pretty much straight behind this gentleman's derriere, is the glass door to all the animal care areas, i.e. dog daycare, luxury loft boarding (cats & dogs), grooming & exercise areas.  This picure on the left shows from the freezer towards the front door.

This is the long hall leading to all of the critter areas.  On your left, across the short wall, is our Small Tails play room.  This room is for dogs with a lower activity level and typically our smaller dogs as well.   Farther down the hall on your left will be the door to the Happy Tails room.  Happy Tails is our room for the more medium activity level dogs.  Our Body Slammer room will be at the end of the hall to your left.  This room is for the rowdier dogs and typically the really big guys, like our Great Danes and Irish Wolfhound, as well. Check out the dogs playing in all three of these rooms on our Doggy WebCams.

At the end of the hall you can just see the door to our Groom Shop. Coming back up the hall this way, just on the other side of that orange cabinet on the right, is the door to our gym for dogs staying in our Luxury Lofts.  This door also leads to the classroom for our staff and for other programs we have such as when we have people in from other facilities to learn how to operate a dog daycare.  This is also where Go Dog Academy at Urban Tails holds their classes in Pet First Aid/CPR, Pet Massage, Animal Communication, etcetera.  Beyond this area is where our 30 new lofts, new play spaces and swimming pool for the dogs will be going as we begin construction January 2007.  Just past the couch on the right is the door leading to our cattery and then on to the Luxury Loft Suites. 

This is our Small Tails play room. To the right you'll see the green cabinet on the wall. This is the Murphy bed that gets dropped down at night.  Our staff as well as the puppies pile on for a grand old slumber party!  To the left of the green cabinet, in that big orange circle, is the webcam for this room.  In the center of the photo towards the top you can see what we call "the chute".  This is a powder-coated steel mesh entry way from the long hall into the playroom.  All of our rooms have these "chutes", or "dog locks" if you will.  The purpose of these is to give dogs a place to meet and greet all the other dogs on arrival.  Once the excitement dies down and dogs already on the floor wander off, our staff will go over and let the new dog in.  This way the new dog does not enter the floor with everyone all fired up.  This is just one of the things we do for safety with our dogs. This also gives us a minimum of 5 - 6 doors from each of our animal areas, even the cattery, to the outside thereby ensuring that critters can not accidentally get out of the building.  Oh yeah, here's a picture of a couple of our pups waiting for the overnight puppy hugger to hurry up and come go to bed.

This is our Happy Tails play room where the more medium energy level dogs play.  That's Robert you see there with the mop, we do a LOT of mopping! The crates and pens you'll see scattered in all rooms are for a number of reasons.  They give the dogs places to go if they want a break from the activity, kind of like a bedroom.  Dogs also get separated for feeding times so the crates/pens and runs get used then as well.  Also, just like real two legged kids, sometimes a pooch isn't listening to us and needs a time out.  Crates, pens and runs are used to give wayward woofies a short time out.  The flooring you see in each of these rooms is 3/4" rubber to give the dogs cushion for their joints while they are playing and hanging out.

This is our Body Slammers play room.  Sorry for the blurred dogs but we were focusing the shot on the room, not the dogs.  As you can see by the room size and the blurred dogs, they can get quite a head of steam up in this play area.  This room is as large as the other 2 rooms combined at about 2,400 square feet.  The play equipment as well as the potty space is much larger as well.  You don't see these potty spaces in the Small Tails or Happy Tails pictures but they each have one.  We don't train the dogs to use the potty spaces, just praise when they do.  It saves us work and parents get a kick out of seeing their dogs use a specific area, especially when they are lined up for their turn!  The pits contain Purina 2nd Nature Dog Litter and some pine bark to extend the litter life a little.  

This is our groom shop.  The left is the "dry" side where all the scissor/clipper work is done.  The right side is the "wet" side for all the pre-brushing and bathing.  Those yellow tubes come from the Hydrosurge bathing system, a unique piece of equipment that literally massages the skin as it bathes.  This results in a cleaner dog and healthier skin as the blood flow is stimulated.  There's a big shower in the back, behind that wall where you see the chest of drawers.  This is for the big guys naturally.  As you can see, we pride ourselves on having a very clean facility all through and the groom shop, a place where massive amounts of hair gets flying around, is no exception!

This is our cattery.  Each of those vertical cabinets you see is one suite.  There's a door to access the top part of the suite and a door to access the lower part.  The suites are 3'x4'x6' and reputed to be some of the largest cat boarding suites in Houston.  The cats have 4 levels to climb on as well as getting scheduled time out in the living area where they can climb on the cat posts, watch the fish, play in a tunnel or pretty much whatever they want to do.  Only same family cats, if they play nicely together, are exercised in the play room at one time.  Each cat suite has it's own scratch post, litter box, pillow and feeding dishes naturally.

    
 

These are our luxury lofts.  As you can see they are very large at 9'x10' and 8'x8'.  Each Luxury Loft comes complete with a color TV that is turned on at breakfast time and turned off at dinner time so the pups can go to sleep.  Some dogs really do enjoy watching TV however we think the very best benefit to them is during thunderstorms.  We turn the TV volume up and the dogs don't even notice the storm.  This was a nice bonus that we hadn't thought of when we put the televisions in.  As you can see the dogs have plenty of room to sprawl out and even play in their lofts if they want, which believe me, those herding breeds especially do!

These are our brand spanking new Minimalist Lofts.  Completed in 12/07, these lofts are 8x8 or 6x6 and give us an alternative to the fancy schmancy luxury lofts to offer you.  These guys don't have televisions but they are getting piped in music as soon as we finish getting that sorted.  By taking out the hanging plants and televisions, we are able to get the price point lower for you while still offering spacious accomodations for your pups.  These lofts are also nice for dogs wanting a little more quiet than the more central luxury lofts or cage-free sleepovers.  They are also closer to the swimming pool and playground . . . convenient hey?