Meet Ashley Ladd | Pet Care Provider

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashley Ladd and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Starting a pet care business started as a by-product of working at two very busy veterinary hospitals with attached boarding and daycare facilities, one in Arizona and one here in Colorado. Inevitably, we would fill up over a holiday and so I started out by boarding dogs for clients when we didn’t have availability in the kennel. Then I would get dogs that didn’t do well in a traditional boarding setup and it grew from there. I took the leap to making it a full fledged business when I bought my first home in 2012 and went through the state-licensing process that was required at the time. When my son was born in 2014 I decided to stay home with him and focus on growing my business to be my sole income. My goal was to provide a niche service for clients while also having the time to focus on my son when he was younger, and it worked!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I started out as a kennel technician in a large boarding facility, a job that consists mostly of scooping poop and cleaning kennels between mealtimes. People that think it’s just playing with dogs all day have obviously never seen how much poop is produced! Getting to where I am now, a successful home-based dog boarding facility as well as drop-in visit pet care in client homes, took almost a decade. I try very hard to make sure that the dogs staying with us are comfortable and relaxed, even though their owners are gone. I think the small-scale and individual focus I offer set me apart from other pet care providers in my area. Many of my clients feel like family. They’ve watched my son grow up, have seen me grow through divorce and remarriage, and their dogs become loved members of my family as well.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My husband and I love to explore area breweries, so we would definitely hit up Verboten in Loveland, then go up to Fort Collins for patio drinks at Zwei Brewing and dinner in Old Town, probably at Jax or Music City Hot Chicken. Driving up to Estes is always fun for out-of-towners and we love that Denver and shows at Red Rocks are also accessible. With any luck, it would be Corn Roast Festival weekend in Loveland so we could finish off an amazing trip with that!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
At my first kennel job in Arizona, our daycare manager, Zach Karr taught me so much about dog behavior and interaction. He also entrusted me with one of his best boarding clients when he moved. Because of him, I realized there were so many possibilities in the pet care industry. Here in Colorado I was lucky enough to get hired at the premiere boarding facility at the time. Ashley Foster managed the facility and she continued my education in dog behavior, focused on gentle handling and was a model for how to run a successful business.

Website: www.covalentpetcare.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovalentPetCare

Image Credits
Allison Mae Photography (dog walking photo)