04/22/2024
It is with deep sadness that we announce the closing of American K-9 Doggie Daycare, Boarding & Training Center.
We started our business 28 years ago literally out of the back of a truck. During our first 12 years we teamed up with five veterinary centers. Each and every weekend we traveled from vet center to vet center conducting obedience and agility classes. We saved all that money with the dream of opening our own training center & doggie daycare. In 2008 we opened our first landed facility on Wood Street in Middletown, Delaware.
During those years we grew with the demand of services. American K-9 Training became American K-9 Doggie DayCare and Training, then adding boarding and eventually grooming services. It’s amazing driving by that first location and seeing how small that building is but somehow, we made it work. We quickly outgrew the Wood Street location and expanded to our next two locations on Patriot Drive. We spent 15 years at our Patriot Drive locations. In the fall of 2020, we were looking at expanding once again. We were negotiating another expansion with a plan to purchase additional kennels so we could grow our boarding services. Then in January of 2021 we were delt two devastating blows. The business negotiations came to a screeching halt due to the beginning of Covid and personally Michael was diagnosed with a 2.5cm brain tumor.
Like many small businesses we took a huge hit to our business from Covid. We diligently, clawed, fought and applied for every dollar we qualified for just to remain operating. We forged ahead with no dogs, writing grants, applying for loans and PPP money to keep the lights on, pay the rent and pay our amazing staff. We truly believed that if we kept working hard, we would turn the corner and make it out of Covid with the hope of our customers returning. Our business, unfortunately, never returned to our pre-covid numbers. Not only did we struggle with income and out of control inflation, staffing has become a struggle.
As if all that wasn’t enough simultaneously, there has been an explosion of giant corporate and residential growth in Middletown. If you drive down Rt 301 and Levels Road you can witness the development. Every farm has been developed into Amazon, Breakthrough Beverage, new hotels, countless corporate development and new strip malls. All of this growth has driven up real-estate prices to the point where a little mom & pop like American K-9 just cannot survive.
Our current 10-year lease is ended and we have been in negotiations with our lease holder to continue into the future. However, the increased prices for rent, payroll, insurance, and all other operating costs has left us with having to make the extremely difficult decision to close our doors.
We want to thank all of our clients for supporting us! We want to thank all of our staff, past and present for your years of hard work and dedication. We have made so many friends and family over our 28 years and will be forever grateful for those relationships.
