Welcome to Woofingtons: Dartmouth social enterprise opens doggy daycare

A new doggy daycare at a Dartmouth, N.S., social enterprise is benefiting both participants and pooches.

LakeCity Works helps people living with mental illness build on their strengths and access work experience – and its latest venture has gone to the dogs.

“We’ve been around for 40 years and we’ve been offering a variety of services throughout that time, starting with our woodshop, which is what we’re mostly known for, but moving towards supportive employment roles for our participants living with mental illness,” says programming director Tim Vassallo.

The organization recently opened a doggy daycare called “Woofingtons of LakeCity.”

“(It) offers supportive employment roles for 10 of our participants in a setting working with small dogs under 30 pounds and offering them the opportunity to develop skills and to work with dogs on a daily basis,” Vassallo says.

LakeCity participant Aimee Corbin says she normally works reception, but enjoys coming into the doggy daycare because of the pooches.

“We work with mental health – people who have different forms of mental health issues,” she says. “And what is a better way to help your mental health than with dogs?”

Aimee Corbin is pictured with three small dogs at Woofingtons of LakeCity.

Vassallo says Woofingtons has been going “very well” so far.

“We’ve been building up a clientele of small dogs, and it’s really becoming something that everybody’s excited about here,” he says.

The doggy daycare has plenty of things to keep the four-legged clients entertained.

“We come in, we play with them, we interact with them, we take them out back, let them run all over the place,” Corbin says. “It has a little grass where they can go to the washroom, they got tires they can play with; we even have a child’s house that the dogs love. They got fresh air – they just love it.”

Dogs are pictured at Woofingtons of LakeCity doggy daycare in Dartmouth, N.S.

Corbin adds not only does the daycare help out the dogs and the LakeCity participants, but the people who drop off their dogs, too.

“It’s like a win-win-win situation for everybody,” she says.

Anyone interested in taking their dog to Woofingtons of LakeCity can drop by and schedule an assessment.

“If you want to come in before your dog is assessed to have a look at what we have, make contact with us,” Vassallo says. “We can definitely do a tour, give people an opportunity to see the doggy daycare in action.”

With files from CTV's Carl Pomeroy.

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