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GRAND FORKS — Genevieve Spicer and Ally Becker met and bonded over a shared interest; what they call “an obsession with dogs.”
“We’ve always loved dogs, but we’ve always wanted to offer better care for dogs (with) really intentional practices, not just throwing them into a room and letting them play, but giving them what they need,” Spicer said.
Spicer is the owner of The Red Hydrant Lounge & Suites at 3180 Gateway Dr. in Grand Forks. The business, which offers boarding and day care for dogs, is set to open July 15 with an open house from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. July 13. Adoptable animals from Turtle Mountain Animal Rescue will also be there.
Spicer met Becker, who will serve as a trainer at The Red Hydrant, about a year ago when Becker was her youngest dog’s trainer.
“He struggled a lot with dog-to-dog interaction, and Ally specializes in aggressive dogs, and that's how I met Ally,” Spicer said. “And I worked with her, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is good. I need her on my team.’”
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Becker worked independently after getting her training certificate and worked at various dog-related businesses before deciding to bet on herself and work independently, when she met Spicer. Becker said Spicer didn’t have to do much convincing to get her on board at The Red Hydrant.
“A lot of my clients that I work with, I love working with them, but it had been a hot minute since (I had) worked with somebody who really took the coaching as well as she did,” Becker said. “And so when we she approached me about it, I was like, ‘I'm a little on the fence.’ And after a couple minutes, it was a no-brainer.”
The two clicked from a business standpoint not long after.
“We were almost interviewing each other without really knowing what the other one was doing waiting for the hole, and when we never got it, we were like, ‘Wow, OK this works,’” Becker said.
The name “The Red Hydrant” came from wanting something dog-related for people to remember the business by, but Spicer’s favorite part is the “Lounge & Suites” tacked onto it. She said she thinks it confuses a lot of people about what the business actually is, but she said it was a very intentional choice.
“I wanted it to be, ‘Well we go out and we have a good time with our friends at a lounge,’ or you stay at a hotel and you look for the suites,” Spicer said. “I wanted that for dogs. I wanted dogs to have a place to come and also have a good time with their friends. So I thought, ‘Yeah, we'll go with (it).’ A few people might be confused, but eventually they'll catch on.”
Also an intentional choice, The Red Hydrant’s building is about 14,000 square feet and, once opened, will have a capacity of more than 100 dogs boarded at a time.
“I've been in probably 12 boarding facilities, and none of them, all the way from the horse gate doors to even just the way the kennels are laid out… It's just going to flow so nicely,” Becker said. “I'm so impressed.”
