ALBURTIS, Pa. — Fifteen years after opening its doors to Lehigh Valley pet owners, Cold Nose Lodge is expanding its footprint.
The dog training, daycare and boarding facility said it will add a larger store front, dedicated training and feeding rooms, an expanded grooming room and additional office space.
A groundbreaking party will kick off at noon June 26 at the facility on West Penn Avenue in the borough.
The official groundbreaking will be at 12:30 p.m.
- Cold Nose Lodge in Alburtis is expanding
- A groundbreaking will take place at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, June 26
- Owner Rayne Reitnauer said plans for the expansion have been in the works for about five years
The space will let the center provide a wider variety of nutritional and enrichment items and treats, and a dedicated training room for classes, seminars and other dog training services.
In a phone call Wednesday, owner Rayne Reitnauer said she was happy to have plans for the expansion back on track after a long pause.
“We had plans almost all ready to roll and we were expecting to be submitting for permitting,” Reitnauer said. “And that's when the [coronavirus] shutdown happened.
"And I had been frustrated that things always took longer than I had expected, and then was feeling so thankful that everything had taken longer than I had expected. Because my goal had been to be breaking ground by March 2020.”
‘We were turning people away’
Reitnauer said the expansion was planned based on need, with waves of new clients seeking services.
“We were getting to the point where we were turning people away, and we wanted to be able to have more clients," she said. "We had started discussions, I think, that very end of 2018, or very early 2019.”
Then, the pandemic hit.
“Obviously, we had only three boarders the entire month of April 2020,” Reitnauer said. “So there certainly was no reason to have any additional space. And we were wondering if we're going to be able to keep what we already had.
"Now, we'll be able to have Saturday morning classes, and that’s the one that I'm most excited about having. And then to be able to do some seminars and training for people on just general dog nutrition or enrichment or the focus of our business, those are the topics I want to hit the most."Cold Nose Lodge owner Rayne Reitnauer
“So then fast forward, we finally started to feel a little bit more comfortable and got the plans going again, but scaled back a bit. We rearranged some stuff inside the existing footprint to make it more efficient.
"We were still able to add some additional boarding capability and created a different layout for our playroom, so we were able to add a third playroom.
“But now this additional space is the part that we can't expand without adding to the footprint."
She said the addition of a dedicated training room will be a big plus, because Cold Nose now is stuck holding training classes when daycare is not in session.
It’s an issue that’s been “very limiting,” with multiple classes getting a pretty late start time, she said.
“Now, we'll be able to have Saturday morning classes, and that’s the one that I'm most excited about having,” she said.
"And then to be able to do some seminars and training for people on just general dog nutrition or enrichment or the focus of our business, those are the topics I want to hit the most."
She said the numbers finally support having the increased expenses for the business, just as the groundbreaking is set.
The 'pandemic puppy boom'
More than 23 million households — or nearly 1 in 5 nationwide – adopted a pet during the pandemic, according to the ASPCA, in what became known as the “pandemic puppy boom.”
But as dog owners eventually adjusted to a return to normal, their pups did not. Many struggled with separation anxiety and had other behavioral challenges, and doggy day cares and boarding centers reported months-long waiting lists.
Reitnauer said those issues landed wonderful dogs back in shelters — a situation that could have been avoided with proper dog training and adequate exercise.
She used the story of one dog, Scout, who had a happy ending because of training at Cold Nose Lodge.
“Her name is now Scout, but she was Skeet," Reitnauer said. "And she was through [one of our rescue partners], PA Caring Hearts, and came to us as a puppy.
“I think it was right at her bitey phase, kind of like a little gremlin coming in adorable, but really didn’t know boundaries.”
Because Skeet came from a shelter, she wasn’t getting proper exercise and had no base for training. But at Cold Nose Lodge, she had all the basics of training by the time a family came to meet her, Reitnauer said.
“A new client of ours came in to do their introduction appointment, which is the first visit before any dog can do daycare. And they met Skeet as part of that visit and fell in love, and then the next week they took her on a trial and have now officially adopted her,” Reitnauer said.
But the dog’s chances dramatically improved by getting out of the shelter and into trust-based training.
“Even if they had noticed her [at a shelter], she would have presented herself horribly, just wanting to bite on their hands," she said. "And she just really had so much energy to burn off that she didn't know how to appropriately do it.
"So luckily, a rescue pulled her because I don't know that she would have ever been adopted otherwise. So she got to have this nice transition with us."
PA Caring Hearts will join the groundbreaking party, Reitnauer said, and donations of dog food or money toward veterinary bills will also be collected during the event.
