Give it up for those who created the movie ‘Secret Life of Pets’ because they were onto something real there.

As I pulled into the Diesel and Blue Headquarters, I was greeted by Whitney Huston’s, ‘I wanna Dance with Somebody’, Diesel and Blue dog, and the smiling face of Owner, Danielle Haase.

Moving to town three years ago, Danielle’s vision of a Doggy Day care stemmed from Diesel, her rescue pup and the results of his anxiety. “It was just off the scale because he had a really tough beginning to life,” said Danielle. “He kept breaking out of my house when I was at my job and he was having a really tough time.

“It made me think, we need a day care for dogs, so I did a survey into the market through spread the word and it seemed to be something of interest, it just fell into place, there was a gap in the marketplace, and I knew what I wanted to do.

“The community have just embraced us.” And it’s not just the community who are reeling with excitement, with 16 taxi pickups of a morning, canines are said to be seen launching themselves off the taxi on arrival and running to the front gate in anticipation as their day begins.

“If you build it, they will come,” Danielle smiled. “Most dogs will run from their front door and jump into the taxi, the contrast is in the afternoon when they are getting dropped home, they are in the car and straight to sleep, we also have dogs who refuse to leave so they have to get carried to the car, and once they are there and they have come to terms with leaving, they are asleep.”

Witnessing first hand the excitement, the barking, the wagging tails, the observant onlookers when a new dog waltz through the doors, it truly is a doggy’s heaven.

“They are crazy when they come in, it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, it doesn’t matter if a dog has been every day and its Friday, they will still come through that gate ready to tear the place down,” Danielle laughed. “In the beginning we have a hard job of settling them down, but by using some calming techniques and putting music on it changes the barking level.

The doggy day care has four sections and one major outdoor section, which the dogs get rotated through during the day, spending a good hour or two in the indoor/outdoor section. Danielle added “They have their equipment in each of their pens where they play, but seriously in the mornings they aren’t interested in who they are with.. they are interested in what’s going on. And once they see it all, then they settle down.”

In the beginning every single dog that came through the door was new and they had to establish their hierarchy, and work out what to do, who’s the boss, what’s the routine, establishing all of the packs and relationships.

“Now,” Danielle said, “It’s easy, a lot of dogs have been coming for 18 months, they’ve had two birthday parties with us, we know all of their parents, they message me all the time and they are just family now.

“It’s my dream, it is, but what’s more enjoyable for me is watching the owners, we’ve had so many dogs who have had some level of anxiety, some level of social challenges, or they weren’t socialised in the first nine months because of lockdown.  My joy really is seeing the owner’s responses to their dogs change. I’ve had so many tell me ‘My dog is a different dog since coming here’.

“It’s also the success of the vision that makes me happy. I’m so proud to have given employment to
long term unemployed through VERTO and OCTEC.

“We’ve managed to create a pretty awesome team. Giving employment to locals who might not otherwise have been employed, they love being here, Josh often says he would sleep here if he could. They come in an hour early for work, we’ve created a place where people are happy, but are hard workers and have the right attitude, so I’m really stoked with that. I’ve always had a dream of running my own business, so I’ve finally nailed that and to think I’m in an area where I’m giving back, it’s a great feeling.

“It’s been a lot of hard work, but it has been worth every single second.”