Pawsitive Steps Blog

Hi Everyone,

In January of this year our lease expired at our facility at 3444 Opie Crescent. We have been continuing doing business on a month to month basis while evaluating Pawsitive Steps business plan for the future. Although the present facility has served us well over the past 5 ½ years, it as been quite expensive to maintain. We have found that the overhead generated by this facility is too great to continue. Also in light of the recent decline in our economy our client numbers have been somewhat reduced. The facility we presently run is just too large and more than we need to carry out the business that Pawsitive Steps want meant to do.

We began looking for a suitable facility that would be smaller in size, have a lesser cost and still satisfy the basic needs of Pawsitive Steps. We finally found one that met these needs and are presently finalizing negotiations for a lease agreement.

The facility that were are dealing on is a combination of 12E & 12F at 1839 1^st Ave. If this sounds familiar it is because they are the 2 units adjacent to where Top Dog is now located. We have looked into a number of facilities but this one offers what we were looking for at a lease rate that was practical. We will be starting the transition in July and be fully operational by September. The facility is 50 x 85 feet so roughly the same size as the large training room we have now. Classes running in July will remain running at the centre in the small room while we move the flooring in the big room over to the other building.

As a result of the downsizing of Pawsitive Steps we will be making some changes to our current schedule of classes and to the program overall. We will keep everyone posted on these changes via the web site.

We will be making the transition through out the month of July starting with a large garage sale on July 1^st at the centre. We need to sell some of our agility equipment as well as some of the furniture etc in the building as we won't have the room to "collect" extra stuff. If you currently have a crate at the building we ask that you please come and pick it up so that it doesn't get sold in the garage sale!!!

The renovations in the new building will be minimal compared to the last time we had to renovate, but we will need help moving the flooring into the new building. That will be a big job and we will need as many people as we can get so if you can spare an hour here or there (and/or a spouse) please let us know! We will supply food and drinks for everyone who helps out with those mats as well as Pawsitive Steps Gift certificates for anyone who comes out to help with any of the renovations! Rob will be doing some demolition in the new building so if anyone is interested in ripping down walls ( good stress reliever!! ) come on out! We will post a reno "schedule" on the web site as well.

We are looking forward to this new facility allowing all of us the continued opportunity to maintain a high level of training over the coming years. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us.

Kim and Rob