YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – For Katie Costello, the Canine Campus Training and Wellness Center is more than a business.
“It’s my passion,” she says of the Hubbard, Ohio, dog training and daycare operation she started in 2016. “I think it is a passion thing to do anything with animals… At any level, I think it comes down to passion.”
The Canine Campus offers dog training and day care. Another Canine Campus facility that provided dog boarding and daycare in Howland is closing March 31 after a group of neighbors filed a lawsuit, complaining of barking dogs.
Costello started her career with animals as a veterinary technician.
“I fell in love with the behavior end of things, and all of my continuing ed then became behavior stuff,” she says. That’s fearful dogs, dogs that exhibit pseudo-aggression and even dogs that hate having their nails clipped.
She worked at a few businesses, training dogs while she was still employed as a vet tech, but decided to pursue training full time.
Passion and love of animals is behind several Mahoning and Shenango Valley businesses that cater to pets and their owners.
Dani Edgerton started A Place for Paws about 25 years ago as a doggie daycare. It now includes four businesses: the original daycare and training location on Nuff Drive in Columbiana, Paws on Main in Columbiana, Paws Dog Wash in Cornersburg, and a raw food processing plant in Canfield.
Paws on Main sells pet supplies, including a chew bar of more than 100 natural and sustainably sourced chew treats.
Paws Dog Wash is a grooming salon that includes a section where dog owners may bathe their own pets.
Edgerton has been around dogs her whole life, training and entering dog shows. While she started in business, taking over her parents’ picture-framing business, she wanted to spend more time with her canine friends.
She majored in art and loves it but says a dog business is probably what she should have been doing all along.
“I think right now, pet businesses, it’s one of those things that’s on top of the world right now,” Edgerton says. “It has been for the last couple years. Covid, where it diminished other industries, certainly didn’t diminish ours. As a matter of fact, it raised it up.”
PET SPENDING
Numbers back up her view. The American Veterinary Medical Association last November reported 59.8 million dog-owning households in 2024 and 42.1 million households that own cats.
While that association also cited a dip in spending on pets, MarketWatch reports that Americans spent an average of $876 per year on their pets in 2023.
Women spent more, $743 annually, than men, who spent $388, according to the report. And spending was higher in the Midwest, where pet owners spent an average of $1,160 in 2023.
Besides training, veterinary care, daycare and food, pet parents spend their hard-earned dollars on boarding, grooming, treats, toys, bedding, kennels and crates and a lot more.
Jennifer Kutsch, owner of Wags ’n Wiggles Resort, a dog and cat boarding and grooming facility in Canfield, says working with people’s pets is rewarding, but it won’t make you rich.
She always loved dogs and considered starting a boarding facility for years. She couldn’t find one in the area that provided what she believes is best for the four-legged family members.
Finally, in May 2005, she opened Wags ’n Wiggles in memory of her black labrador retriever, Bubba. It’s monitored 24 hours a day and is behind her home. She is usually on site and never turns off her phone in case clients need to reach her.
The facility is heated and air conditioned with high ceilings, ceiling fans, skylights and 30 covered indoor/outdoor runs as well as 28 that are indoor.
“I was traumatized when we had to board [pets] when we grew up,” Kutsch says of facilities she saw as a child. “And that’s why I painted my floor. That’s why it’s not dark out there. I would not want to look at the color of concrete all day. If I’m not going to stay in it, I wouldn’t expect the dogs to stay in it.”
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Kutsch loves her job and builds relationships with each pet. On a recent afternoon, she visited each kennel, introducing and talking to each dog, explaining their individual needs.
“I’m not gonna lie, that barking actually reduces my stress…,” Kutsch says. “They’re talking to you. Who cares if they’re loud? Oh gosh, that they’re excited to see you – like I said, it’s someone else’s dog that loves you. That’s an honor.”
Amanda Liguori-Makis opened Hometown Hound, 18 W. Broad St., Newton Falls, in December 2023.
“We are kind of a little hodgepodge of things, but it’s mostly pet items, like we have a big selection of raw treats,” she says. “And we have toys for dogs, cats and a couple things for small animals too.”
The store also sells pet-related items including shirts and cups and some home decor.
“We are currently working on the attached garage behind the building to start doing hydrotherapy services, and that should be ready to start in the next two months,” she says.
Hydrotherapy is good for senior dogs with arthritis and overweight dogs, Liguori-Makis explains. But it’s also useful for puppies, allowing them to play without harming their still-forming joints.
“So, the pool creates a weightless exercise kind of arena for them,” she notes.
Liguori-Makis discovered hydrotherapy for dogs for her elderly beagle, Max. She enrolled in classes, studied and earned her certification.
She plans longer hours for her business once the hydrotherapy services start.
“We’re only open on the weekends right now because both my husband and I work full time during the week,” she says. “Once the pool is open, the goal is for me to be there full-time.”
The store will host a fundraiser April 6 for F5RS Rabbit Rescue & Sanctuary. Children may come in to get their photos taken with the live bunnies from noon to 3 p.m. An Easter basket raffle is also part of the event with proceeds going to the rescue.
BURIAL SERVICES
Most people outlive their pets, so owning one means eventually saying goodbye.
Hillcrest-Flynn Pet Funeral Home & Crematory in Hermitage, Pa., provides burial and cremation services.
Director Matthew Record believes compassion is key. Every pet is important and it’s crucial to allow grieving pet parents to talk about their lost loved ones, he says.
“And I just think it’s the people we deal with here that have the lucky dogs and lucky kitties, because they have people that love them,” Record notes. “It’s kind of like a celebration to me, of the animals that have found a good life.”
His two rescue bichon frisés, Penny Lane and Sidney Crosby, provide additional emotional support. Sidney cuddles on the laps of the grieving while Penny entertains, Record says.
Hillcrest-Flynn works with area veterinary clinics, picking up animals for cremation. Memorial items include urns, pawprint frames, jewelry and keepsake stones. Private cremation includes a clipping of the pet’s fur, a clay pawprint impression, cremation certificate, grief support literature and $20 credit toward the purchase of an urn.
It also provides pet funeral/memorial services and pet burial. Some people choose to be buried with their pets in the people and pet garden.
It’s not all sadness at the facility though. During the evening and weekend, Hillcrest-Flynn’s chapel is used for dog training by DogSmartz Unleashed based in Poland.
“So, there’s puppies in the building, and there’s a dog park so it’s kind of like the full spectrum,” Record offers.
DOG DAYCARE
The Canine Campus provides obedience training, agility and training for dogs with fear or reactivity as well as for service and therapy dogs, Costello, the owner, says.
Cameras at the daycare will go live April 1 and owners will be able to log in and watch their dogs. Also on April 1, owners may drop off their dogs – room permitting – any day rather than having to adhere to the same schedule each week.
“It’s almost exclusively free [rein] daycare, where they’re not in a kennel or tethered down,” Costello says.
Pictured at top: Katie Costello, owner of the Canine Campus Training and Wellness Center in Hubbard, sits with Cookie, a mini Australian shepherd that attends daycare.