Dogtown Training and Daycare
Movin’ On Up and Movin’ In
By Joy and Brian Pape
A few months ago, Brian ran into our apartment and excitingly said, “Joy, guess who’s moving in next door?” “Who?” I wondered. He answered with the enthusiasm one has when finding the best gift for a person (like Joy), “Dogtown!”
We ran to the building at 178 Christopher Street, near West Street, which was under construction. We left a Village View newspaper and a message for the owner. We looked online and saw a Dogtown, a restaurant in Rochester specializing in hot dogs; that’s not what we were hoping for.
About two months later we received an email from Colin Hunter, the owner and co-founder of Dogtown, a full service dog daycare opening soon. We set up a time to meet at Dogtown, and while waiting outside for Colin, a gentleman and his dog walked up to us. He introduced himself as Greg Sgammato, the co-founder of Dogtown, and Xena, his dog who’s as friendly as he is. Then came Colin and a dog he was training. They invited us in and here’s what we learned.
The building developer thought they would be done by now—that’s New York construction though. They are “working like dogs—opening soon” according to their web site dogtownnyc.co. (this is not dogtownny.com in Southold, NY or Calverton, NY; they are not affiliated).
Colin, who is from Scotland, began working with dogs in Park Slope, Brooklyn in 2014. By 2018, this grew into his dog-centered business called Colin Hunter Dogs in Manhattan. His wife, Julie, is from Queens and the two of them run ultramarathon distances – as a hobby and with dogs. They now have an apartment in SoHo and a country home for dog boarding in Sullivan County, NY.
In 2022, Dogtown West Village was established with Colin as CEO and Greg as co-founder. Greg grew up in Connecticut with cats. During the pandemic, he got a rescue dog from a Connecticut group that specializes in Pitbull and Pitbull mixes. He now lives in the West Village with his dog which once had behavior problems and was almost ‘a lost cause.’ Greg tried other trainers before a neighbor recommended Colin who changed his and Xena’s lives for the good and they teamed up.
With a staff of nine, they began looking for physical space for growth. When this new commercial site came on the market, they were able to design it with finishes and layouts to meet their needs. Behind the large showroom windows facing Christopher Street, the small-dog run is sculpted like a skateboard park and is finished in resilient and seamless hygienic flooring surfaces for easy maintenance. Inside the double-door-entrance is the lobby reception area with displays of merchandise and windows looking into the dog run and the grooming area. Down the hallway, the lower level is almost entirely devoted to the large dog run, also seamlessly covered in the same hygienic material. The lighting will be programmed for circadian rhythm mimicking daylight patterns.
The new location will offer Doggy daycare, overnight dog boarding, dog grooming, dog walking, positive-reinforcement dog training, and a variety classes for proper dog socialization. At some point, they would like to offer dog running. The services can be customized.
Here’s more from the Dogtown West Village website.
“All these years we have maintained sights of our initial purpose—to ensure that NYC dog parents have people that they can rely on to care for their animals.
“Our goal is to be the highlight of your dog’s day while you are busy, and our crew of dog lovers is hand selected and trained to do just that. We have a full crew so that we can accommodate last minute requests because we know that things come up!”
Hopefully, Dogtown West Village will be opening soon. Stay tuned and check out dogtownnyc.co and ColinHunterDogs.com.
