A Pleasant Dog – Help us get our new City Dog and People Training facility off the ground in GR!
Grand Rapids, Michigan is growing, and so is its population of dogs living downtown. But until A Pleasant Dog came along, there were no dog trainers downtown to meet the needs of urban pooches and their owners. We’ve expanded so much since our launch two years ago, we now need our own space. And we found it! We’ve got the lease, now we need your help to make it a reality. We’ll be turning an old barber shop and vacant lot on historic Wealthy Street into a community gathering space and dog training facility.
What We Need & What You Get
We need $15,000 to outfit the building and get started. That figure includes:
We’re not asking for handouts. Your donation will get you:
We don’t just train dogs, we train and help people too. A Pleasant Dog donates our time regularly to the community through school outreach programs, free dog safety training, help to rescue organizations and shelters, and more. Our new home will help us do more.
In addition to all of the foregoing, we also train service dogs to help people. This building will help us train more service dogs for people per year, making a difference for disabled people.
Risks & Challenges
We’ve already beat the odds with our growth. Most trainers close up shop within a year of opening, but we’ve added two additional trainers to our team, an intern, and an admin person this year. And we still can’t meet the demand.
There are some logistics to figure out still. We’ll have to add an additional full time employee, which kinda scares us. We’ve gone from operating as a d/b/a for Jenn Gavin, an individual, to an LLC with a tax id and grown up panties. But we’re confident we can do it. Jenn previously managed law firms before becoming a dog trainer, and our admin, Gwen, successfully launched a business so successful, she sold it and retired early!
We have a plan to grow slowly and mindfully. We can do it!
Don’t have any money to pitch in? You can still help Grand Rapids Get Pleasant by sharing our campaign with your friends. Make some noise using the Indiegogo share tools!