We are officially re-opening PLAYtrain® Doggie Daycare on Wednesdays (hooray!) and we’re feeling refreshed, revived, and ready to PLAY! Thank you to our loyal clients for supporting our JM team while we took this important “paws” in our schedule.
As of October 13, 2021 you can now bring your pooches to PLAYtrain® on Wednesdays, with one exception: the first Wednesday of each month will remain closed, reserved as a Paw Print Principle Day.
When we decided this past July to temporarily close PLAYtrain® Doggie Daycare on Wednesdays, our goal was to give our JM team time to reconnect with our Paw Print Principles in order to do our best for you and your fur-babies.
Wondering what we've been up to these past few Wednesdays, while your pooch stayed home from PLAYtrain®?
Here's the inside scoop on how we used this time to get back to our Paw Print Principles, and why we’re reserving one day per month to continue this endeavor!
Interviewing, Training, and Onboarding
It's no secret that businesses are struggling to get the staffing they need, and we are not immune to that. Part of our goal in pausing PLAYtrain® Doggie Daycare on Wednesdays was to focus on getting our staffing numbers up, without overwhelming our amazing staff who have been working hard every single day.
Thanks to these weekly closures, we've been able to bring in more working interviews and focus on training and onboarding new hires.
It takes time to train any new employee on daily tasks and processes, and this is even more true when the care of animals is involved. We put a lot of effort into training our staff because the safety and comfort of your pets are our top priority!
In the few past weeks, we’ve been able to hire new team members and spend much-needed time onboarding them to our standards and procedures for animal care. Please remember to be kind to our team members at the Resort and Clinic; you never know when you may be interacting with someone who is still in training!
Deep Cleaning and Maintenance
Our JM Pet Resort team has made good use of the extra time to conduct deep cleaning, repairs, and maintenance around the Resort to keep our facility in top shape for your pets.
While cleaning up after the animals is part of our regular day-to-day (multiple times per day!), our team has rolled up their sleeves on Wednesdays to do a deeper, more thorough cleaning of our human work areas and our FUR-iends play spaces - including offices, laundry rooms, storage sheds, PLAYtrain® Park and more.
With fewer dogs in the facility on Wednesdays, our maintenance team has been able to tackle much-needed improvements and repairs without disrupting the pets at the Resort. This includes repairs, improving drainage in areas that we hose down regularly, and making sure the Resort has plenty of fire safety tools at its disposal. We’ve also installed brand new outdoor potty pens to give pups a comfortable space to get some fresh air and relieve themselves. These seemingly small improvements can make a big difference.
Safety and Processes
In addition to training new hires, we are also continuously training our existing team members on safety processes and best practices for animal care. Our team leaders were able to use this time to refresh internal documentation and implement our latest safety and preparedness policies.
This included a company-wide Fire Safety Day to train all employees on our emergency evacuation plan. We were able to spend one entire Wednesday reviewing this plan with our whole team, participate in fire extinguisher training, and conduct a full-scale fire drill to practice safely evacuating pets from the building.
Moving Forward: The First Wednesday of Each Month, PLAYtrain® Will Be Closed for a Paw Print Day
We are incredibly grateful to our clients for supporting us in temporarily closing PLAYtrain® Doggie Daycare on Wednesdays for 11 weeks in a row to give our staff time to reconnect to our Paw Print Principles.
These days were so successful that moving forward, we have decided to save the first Wednesday of each month as a Paw Print Principle Day for our staff - allowing our team time for deep cleaning, maintenance, employee training, and other important tasks to keep the Resort running at its best.
PLAYtrain® will remain closed just once a month - on the first Wednesday of each month only. We are resuming our normal PLAYtrain® hours of operation on all other Wednesdays.
To go one step further in supporting our staff, we will also be closing the front desk at our Resort and Clinic for a lunch hour, every Monday-Thursday from 1-2pm. During this hour, all calls will be directed to voicemail, and we will respond to calls and questions promptly when our Client Care Representatives return from lunch. Our Premium Retail Store will still be open during these times, and you will still be able to come in to drop off or pick up your fur-baby.
Now, go give your pooch the good news!