Today we’d like to introduce you to Larry Hamilton.
Larry, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I retired as an international operations executive in 2018 when my late wife passed away from brain cancer. In April of 2019, my four kids and I purchase our first Dogtown facility in Sandy, Utah. We purchased Dogtown so that we could make a difference in people and pets’ lives. Our vision is to inspire and motivate our leaders so they provide a safe, enjoyable, and valuable experience for each pet, pet owner, and team member. We purchased our second facility in December 2019 in St George, Utah. Then covid hit and we just focused on survival. Then in November of 2021, we began the process of starting a third location in South Jordan, Utah. It took us a year, but we opened our third location in October 2022. We are now standardizing all our process across all three locations in preparation to open a fourth location in 2024.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Every organization has struggle to adapt to change and learning a new way to operate. We have been focusing to teach our team members on the what, why, and how to react to dog behaviors so they can create a great environment for each dog. We trying to get our team members to understand our vision and principles (Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Respect People, Continuous Improvement, Growth, and Results). We want to create a world-class working environment so people enjoy coming to work each day. We are making progress and our management team is really starting to understand lean and make great improvements.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are the finest luxury pet spa for boarding and daycare in Utah! We offer pet grooming services such as facials, massage, luxury nail treatments, baths, and cuts that make your pet look beautiful. We provide daycare where your pets have an engaging day of fun accompanied with any special treatment you would like at your convenience.
Dogtown lets you take care of all your pet’s needs in one place. No more booking and going to different places to have your pet groomed, trained, and/ or boarded. We take care of that right here during their play day.
At Dogtown safety is our priority, we engage and monitor playtime to ensure all pet guests are feeling safe, pampered, and engaged! Our vision is to provide a safe, enjoyable, and valuable experience for each pet, pet owner, and team member…
We are working very hard to create a positive culture for our team members and our customers. As a company, we have one-on-one coaching sessions to help develop each of our team members. We are striving to have a team environment where everyone lives our values of Safety, Integrity, Respect People, Teamwork, Continuous Improvement, Growth, and Results. We feel that the better we treat our team members, the better they care for your pet.
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I have been on Shingo Institute’s Board of Examiners for over 20 years. I helped three different organizations win the Shingo Prize over the last 25+ years. The Shingo Model™ is known as the best way to create a cultural of excellence within any organization. I spent 10 years flying over 2,000,000+ air miles around the world helping transform organizations.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dogtownpetspa.com
- Instagram: dogtownpetspasandy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dogtownmain/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lp4-dogtown-pet-spa
