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Racquel Martinez, right, who helps her son run Humble Paws in Colorado Springs, walks down a row of kennels at the facility this month. Many of the kennels were empty, and reservations for boarding were very low this holiday season because rates of an unknown canine respiratory illness have been elevated in several states, including Colorado.
Evan Ridgway and his Great Dane Todd cross Bear Creek at Bear Creek Dog Park in December of 2023.
Laurinda and Dave Flaks pose in 2017 with their dogs, from left, Ryder, Abbey and Cooper outside Bam Paws.
“CiCi” explores the indoor play area Monday, April 24, 2017 at Bam Paws. Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette
Dogs greet one another and play at Bear Creek Dog Park on Dec. 22.
Racquel Martinez, right, who helps her son run Humble Paws in Colorado Springs, walks down a row of kennels at the facility this month. Many of the kennels were empty, and reservations for boarding were very low this holiday season because rates of an unknown canine respiratory illness have been elevated in several states, including Colorado.
Dogs greet one another and play at Bear Creek Dog Park on Dec. 22.
As the world found out during the COVID-19 pandemic, infectious illness can be hard on businesses that rely on in-person clients. Now that cases of an unknown canine respiratory illness have been seen in several states including Colorado, the same is true of in-person dog businesses that rely on owners trusting their dogs in public facilities.
The strain has become too much for BamPaws Stay and Play, a dog boarding and daycare facility in Colorado Springs that opened in 2017. Owner Laurinda Flaks said the business would be closing soon after multiple cancellations and slow business over this holiday season, which should be the busiest boarding time of the year.
Laurinda and Dave Flaks pose in 2017 with their dogs, from left, Ryder, Abbey and Cooper outside Bam Paws.
“We don’t know how long this is going to last,” she said of the reaction over the illness, which was first reported in Oregon in the summer. Since then more than a dozen states have reported higher-than-normal rates of a respiratory illness that can develop into life-threatening pneumonia in some cases. Colorado’s Front Range has seen more than twice the cases of respiratory illness since September compared to the same period last year, according to Colorado State University.
Veterinarians have cautioned against allowing dogs to interact with each other at dog parks or during stays at boarding facilities and daycares to limit infection, according to previous Gazette reporting.
Flaks said her facility started seeing slower business for boarding near the start of November when the respiratory illness started gaining attention in Colorado. Over Thanksgiving, usually the busiest time of the year for boarding, BamPaws saw under 20 reservations when the facility usually had 50. The facility overall is at 30% capacity and has seen at least 8 cancellation for Christmas.
“We should be full now, but we are not,” she said.
Flaks said she does not blame owners following their best judgement, but that she sees the reaction to the illness as inflated. She said that BamPaws has not had any outbreak so far, and that the facility takes precautions to limit the possibility of contagion through screening and cleaning procedures.
Other facilities have similarly seen lower numbers in boarding and daycare since the beginning of the outbreak. Racquel Martinez at Humble Paws said that their reservations for Christmas are currently at 9, when the facility is usually at full capacity closer to 20 dogs. She said that the business was still doing well thanks to a separate dog training program.
Evan Ridgway and his Great Dane Todd cross Bear Creek at Bear Creek Dog Park in December of 2023.
Humble Paws has also not seen an outbreak and takes precautions including taking dogs out separately for walks at the facility’s fenced outdoor space. She said they have suspended neighborhood walks for the dogs.
Doug Johnson with Sunrise Pet Care, a business with two separate kennel facilities, a private dog park and grooming services, said that facilities were at capacity over the holidays but were being extra cautious with cleaning. He said that because the kennels had individual runs for each dog the chances of infection were lower. Out of over 300 dogs at his facilities, he said only one showed signs of respiratory illness over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Johnson said some customers are still calling to cancel grooming appointments and that attendance at the dog park has been low.
“There seems to be a big scare,” he said.
A less conventional canine business has also seen some impact in the past month. Pub Dog, a restaurant and bar plus dog park, has seen slowing business thanks to the respiratory illness and the usual holiday downturn.
“We definitely got a double whammy,” said assistant general manager Cheyenne Childress.
A former veterinary technician, Childress said Pub Dog has been following veterinarian advice to keep communal toys and water bowls away for now. She said the restaurant requires full vaccines for all dogs including puppies and implements a three step process with alcohol-based cleaners to sanitize water bowls and other dog items each night.
She said that the extra measures have helped “tremendously” to increase customer confidence, adding that the restaurant had not yet seen a case.
The state of the outbreak in Colorado Springs has not changed in the past month, according to Dr. Lindsey Ganzer at North Springs Veterinary Referral Center. She said that her hospital has seen about 90 cases since the illness started being reported in the area. She said that the hospital has typically seen one to three cases per day, with no spikes around the holidays as feared.
The specific cause of the uptick in respiratory illness this year has still not been discovered. Ganzer said she was sending samples to three different laboratories across the country to try to isolate a cause.
“CiCi” explores the indoor play area Monday, April 24, 2017 at Bam Paws. Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette
Nonprofit dog facilities around town have also so far avoided outbreaks. A spokesperson with the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region confirmed that the organization’s two shelter facilities have not seen any cases. Neither has smaller Colorado Springs shelter No Hound Unhomed, though that facility is functioning at a lower capacity and only recently began accepting new intakes after a pause.
In the meantime, Flaks said the uncertainty is too much for a business with thin margins to cover overhead on the boarding facility, staff salaries and loans still being paid off from COVID-19 assistance.
“It’s been pretty devastating,” Flaks said.
A report that was recently released by Roommates.com sought to determine which cities around the United States were the most ‘pet friendly.’ In order to determine their ranking, the publication considered ‘pet acceptance rates’ at local rental properties.
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