April and May Dog of the Month!

~APRIL~
NAME: Coke
BREED: Tibetan Terrier
AGE: 4
FAVORITE THINGS: Play times with the staff!
TRICKS AND TALENTS: Coke has been coming here for 2 years and loves every minute of it! He enjoys playing with the kongs and other toys in playtime as well as hanging with the staff. He is such a cutie and we really enjoy having him in daycare!



~MAY~
NAME: Wally
BREED: Labradoodle
AGE: 2
NICKNAMES: "Doodlebug"
FAVORITE THINGS: playtimes, being pet, the rope toy!
TRICKS AND TALENTS: Wally has been coming to Best Friends for 1 1/2 years now and loves playing in playgroups with his best bud, Rusty! Wally is such a sweetie! He loves to sit pretty, give paw, and wag his tail! He also LOVES to play with the rope toy and get lots of attention from the staff. He is such a good boy!

Pictures Are Finally Here!!

Photos from the St. Patty's Daycare Party are finally here! There are some super cute ones so make sure you take a look! Click Here to See Pictures from our St. Patty's Daycare Party!

St. Pattys Daycare Party Recap!

The St. Pattys Daycare Party was a hit! Thanks to Eric for being our Lucky Leprechaun and taking lots of lucky photos with the pups. Congratulations to the contest winners, Pictures will be posted soon!
Most Festive: Fergus (wheaton terrier)
Kiss Me I'm Irish Contest: Forest (samoyed)
Bark if your Irish: Elvis (Hound)

St Patty's Daycare Party!

Bring your pup to join us for our annual St. Patty's Daycare party on Friday, March 14! There is sure to be lots of fun, games, prizes, and more! Don't let your pup miss out!




ALSO: PICTURES FROM OUR VALENTINES DAYCARE PARTY!

Valentines Daycare Party Pictures are finally here! See how much fun we had!

Click Here to See Pictures from our Valentines Daycare Party!

Party Pictures!

Valentines Daycare Party Pictures are finally here!

Click Here to See Pictures from our Valentines Daycare Party!

Valentines Party Recap!

The Valentines Daycare Party was a Hit! We all had so much fun and we know your pups did too! Congratulations to the Valentines Daycare Contest Winners, pictures will be posted soon!


Best Cuddler 1 - Kramer (golden retriever)
Best Cuddler 2 - Coke (Tibetan terrier)
Most Festive - Jax (collie mix)
Best Hugs - Tango (visla)
Best Kiss 1 - Fergus (Wheaton terrier)
Best Kiss 2 - Zoe (wire haired dachshund)
Cutest Couple 1 - Lexi & Finley (Samoyed & Lab)
Cutest Couple 2 - Ocala & Rusty (lab mix)

Valentines Daycare Party!!

Valentines Day is around the corner and Best Friends Windy City is hosting its annual Valentines Daycare Party. Bring your pup in on February 14th to join us for fun, games, prizes, and more!!!

Brr!

Another Chicago winter is setting in at Windy City! The weather may be bitterly cold outside, but that isn't stopping everybody from traveling for the holidays, so our rooms are filling up quickly! We'd like to remind you that if you plan to board your pet(s) over the holidays, please give us a call ASAP as we already have a waiting list in effect for some dates!

We've held several fun events at our center, namely our Responsible Dog Ownership Day and or Halloween Costume Spooktacular! We had fantastic turn-outs for both events, and we got lots of great photos! Stay tuned for slideshows from both! We'll also be adding photos and bios of our most recent Employees of the Month and Dogs of the Month!

And of course, coming up this Friday, December 14th is our annual Holiday Daycare Party! All the usual games, prizes, and costumes if you've got 'em! Woof!

Boo!

Autumn is upon us. The leaves are changing, the temperature is dropping, it's getting VERY windy, and Best Friends Windy City is decorating the center for Halloween! We're all so wild about the holidays, and so excited to "dress the center up" for the festivities! We're also planning our Halloween Spook-tacular daycare party, and a Halloween-themed meetup group!


The daycare party will be on Halloween, October 31st, and will feature costume contests, the ever-popular "bobbing for hot dogs" and other fun games! The meetup will happen at our center, 1628 N. Elston Ave., on Saturday, October 20, at 11:30 A.M. It will feature all the same stuff, and we expect it to run until about 12:30-ish. You see, we love dogs. That should be obvious. But maybe even more than we love dogs, we love dogs in costumes! So, please throw us a bone (pun intended!) and bring your dog in a costume (or not in a costume) to one or both of these events so that he or she can have a good time and maybe win some goodies! Thanks! For more information about the meetup, or to RSVP, please click here.

In other news, our Dog Day Festival was a success! Turn-out was great, and everybody had a good time! Lake Shore Animal Shelter brought some of their adoptable pets out to meet the crowds; Canine Good Citizen testing, training demonstrations and games were going on, and we got lots of photos! We'll be posting those within the next few days, so stay tuned!

Also within the next few days, we will add updates on our August Employee of the Month, our September and October Dogs of the Month, and some trainer biographies, so keep an eye out for those! Thanks!

Summer's almost over!

The past month or so has been a whirlwind of fun at Windy City! First things first - let's get caught up on some dogs of the month and employees of the month! For the month of July, our Employee of the Month was our Lead ACT, Dan! Dan's hometown is Chicago, and he has been working at Windy City for two years. He's got a cat named Brandy, and his favorite breed is the Shiba Inu. Congratulations, Dan! Our Dog of the Month for July was Ocala! She's a 10 year old lab/pit bull mix, and she has been coming to daycare at Windy City for several years! Some of her favorite things are her family, biscuits, belly rubs and puppies! She tries to act as "supervisor" for her play groups - always keeping a watchful eye on everybody else. (photo coming soon) For the month of August, our Employee of the Month was Mariel! Mariel is your happy blogmaster and a member of our Customer Service team! Her hometown is also Chicago, and she's been working at Windy City for nearly two years! She's got a dog named Pie 'oh' Pah, 6 cats (Nicky, Molly, Dice, Daphne, Ernest and Louis), and her favorite breed is the Chow Chow. Congratulations, Mariel! Last but definitely not least, our Dog of the Month for August was Jax! Jax is an 8 year old Border Collie mix, and he has also been coming to daycare at Windy City for a couple of years! Some of his favorite things are cuddling belly-up, being carried (it's not easy - he's not a small boy!), biscuits, and toys that "talk"! His vertical leap is intimidating, and he also knows how to open doors. Smart cookie! (photo soon)

In other news, we had a couple of important events! The first was Dog's Night Out, at the Galleria Marchetti on August 9th. Dog's Night Out was a black-tie event to benefit the Lake Shore Animal Shelter. There were dogs and fancy clothes and, of course, food galore! Our very own center manager, Bruce, assistant manager, Nicolette, and trainer Stacey Hawk were in attendance!

A couple of weeks later, Windy City hosted our Agility for Dummies event, right here in the main training ring! Agility trainer Stacey Hawk of Hawk City K9 showed everybody the ropes, and everybody had a fantastic time! We apologize - we weren't able to get many photos that were clear enough to post, and even the ones we have are sort of blurry. Everybody was running fast! (mouse over photo for caption)

We also celebrated some important birthdays since our last post! Daycare dogs Fergus C. and Grayson N. spent their special days here at Best Friends Windy City! Grayson's birthday came complete with a festive doggy cake by Galloping Gourmutts (we've gotta say - that cake was awesome)! We put on some party hats, ate some goodies and everybody had a great time! (photos soon)

While we're on the subject of daycare dogs, something a little more serious: The Best Friends Windy City staff is all pulling for Chloe G., as she is undergoing chemotherapy. Our thoughts are with her and her family at this tough time. She's a trooper, though - we all hope to see her back at daycare very soon!

Now, we'd like to announce our September event: our Dog Day Festival, a free event in observance of the American Kennel Club's Responsible Dog Ownership Day! This year's Dog Day Festival will be held right here at Best Friends Windy City, 1628 N. Elston Ave., on Saturday, September 29th from 11:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. Bring your dog - there will be plenty of doggy games, practice agility runs, and canine contests! Consult with our trainers for behavioral advice, get some information on pet health from Animal Medical Center, enter our raffle, and view some of Lake Shore Animal Shelter's adoptable dogs! Last year's event was big fun, so don't miss out! Please, feel free to call 773-384-5959 for more information!


Also, we'd like to mention that our October daycare party will, of course, be a Halloween-themed party! This year, the 31st falls on a Wednesday, so dress up your pooch, bring him or her to daycare and he or she can participate in our costume contest! See you there!

To wrap things up, we hope that everybody is making the most of the last days of summer! Oh, and all of our retail items, except for food and Frontline, are 50% off until September 26th! That means treats, beds, crates, toys, rawhides, leashes, collars and lots more are all 50% OFF!!! We are preparing to do inventory - we're offering huge deals on great stuff so that we don't have to count so many things!