‘Suite’ life for pampered pooches (and cats)
During stay, dogs and cats experience top-notch accommodation and care at Top Dog Pet Resort
Polo, a white long-coat Chihuahua and resident canine at the newly opened Top Dog Pet Resort, was having something of an existential experience as he intently took in a hunting-dog training program on DOGTV. “He’s watching a bird dog retrieve,” said the kennel’s owner, Sharon Newcomb, a longtime American Kennel Club-certified dog trainer and judge at prestigious dog shows around the world including the renowned Westminster Kennel Club show in Madison Square Garden.
Polo, himself no slouch at dog shows, recently took home top honors at AKC dog shows in Albuquerque and central Florida.
Newcomb, who grew up as a “dog nut” beginning with tending to her father’s bird dogs at an Alabama Army base, recently opened Top Dog Pet Resort, something of an Airbnb for dogs and cats in south Santa Fe, at 27694 West Frontage Road.
The 2.7 acre facility was designed by Newcomb and her husband, David, a retired architect. “It took him 12 years to put this kennel together,” she said. “We couldn’t find a property. After being married to a kennel person, dog nut, he felt he could design the world’s best kennel. So here we sit.”
Top Dog occupies the previous site of Paw Prints kennel, which the Newcombs bulldozed to build Top Dog.
Newcomb said the dog-minded Santa Fe community has “needed a really safe, wonderful, clean way to keep dogs.”
She insists Top Dog offers dog lovers a kennel experience they will find at few, if any other, pet boarding facilities in Santa Fe.
Clients, she said, have told her they appreciate the attention their pets get, especially the individual running paths and exercise areas so their dogs aren’t forced to fend for themselves in a pack environment. And perhaps most notably, the “inside-outside” aspect of the kennel in which the dogs can come and go from their “suites” generally as they please. The dogs do not need to be leashed for walks.
“We do a holistic approach,” Newcomb said.
And the dogs are fed the best kibble and humangrade raw food. “We are very into condition. When you bring me your dog, I want to give it back to you in better shape than when you brought it.”
Newcomb noted that the kennel avoids using pesticides and taps into a well water system to avoid the risk of chemicals from the city’s system.
There are several large exercise paddocks where a dog can play with one or maybe two other canine guests. “We don’t do day care with big dog packs,” Newcomb said. “Those packs are not very stable. We do individual exercise. One size does not fit all in this kennel.”
Newcomb said that unlike many kennels, Top Dog takes special precautions when it comes to cleaning.
“We don’t hose,” she said. “This kennel is cleaned just like I clean my house We vacuum it. We hand-scrub it. There is never a firehose. Your dog is never going to be wet here.”
Newcomb said the runs and exercise areas are made of limestone, which creates “its own little septic system so the runs stay fresh and clean all the time.” Top Dog is the only such limestone ken-
nel in the state, she said.
Every dog has its outside patio. There are five large exercise paddocks and a dog park. Two managers live on the property and the facility is triple-fenced. A fence surrounds the entire kennel, all the exercise areas and runs are fenced and each inside suite are enclosed.
The entire facility, which can accommodate about 60 dogs and 12 cats, also is air-conditioned and heated.
Newcomb also noted the two separate runs for what she called the “fragile egg” dogs.
“There is very often a special-needs dog in the kennel,” Newcomb said, noting that she has always felt it important to have an area devoted to those dogs that need more intensive TLC such as special diets, and attention to aging and health issues, or high-anxiety pooches that may need extra tending and reassurance during high-stress events such as thunderstorms.
All dogs get a wellness check. And grooming services are available and range anywhere from $30 to $130 depending on what is needed.
Boarding services run $50 a day for a 25-squarefoot cage and an outside patio — doubles are available.
A full “cat-ery” is in the works. Felines, Newcomb said, “are kind of like their own little people. … You have to be respectful of their space and you can’t push them around or make them do anything they don’t want to do. You don’t reason with a cat, you listen and be respectful.”
Top Dog’s staff includes five employees plus the two on-site managers.
This is Newcomb’s second kennel operation. She ran a similar boarding service in Voorhees, N.J., for more than 40 years, and two daughters own kennels in Naples, Fla., and Clear Lake, Texas.