Life, the city | Doggieville: A Resort for Dogs

It is a place where there is a daycare, a hotel, a shop and a café, but also a swimming pool, a spa and an indoor park. But if you want to reserve, you do it for your… dog!

Doggieville, on Saint-Patrick Street, on the banks of the Lachine Canal, prides itself on being “the first luxury resort for dogs in Canada.” One thing is certain, the animals are treated with care with staff on site 24 hours a day.

Originally from Ecuador, owner Tatiana Custode opened Doggieville in 2019. It took four years of work to restore the heritage building, part of the Crane Canada manufacturing complex, built 100 years earlier and saved from a fire in 2011 .

Originally, horses were kept there which were used to deliver plumbing products, she says. “I like the idea that 100 years later it’s still a place for animals. »

When Tatiana Custode moved to Montreal with her dog Ruby – who is no longer – around ten years ago, she noticed that the weather was not always conducive to outdoor walks.

Quickly, the lover of all things canine has thought bigger: a hotel, a grooming salon, a café and even a swimming pool, which makes it easier to train animals or recover after an injury. “In a luxury hotel, there is always a swimming pool! “, she said, laughing.

There is also an established chef behind the restaurant’s menu, the great brunch specialist Arnaud Glay, of Passé compound.

Interior designer by trade, Tatiana Custode has good taste, and this is evident when we visit Doggieville (also located very close to Muzo, another dog hotel that we have already talked about in The Press). When we arrived, all the dogs were outside.

Like any good resort, there is calming music and activities every day, including bubble chasing on Wednesdays. The day after our visit, there was even a Halloween costume day!

Doggieville has 18 employees. The daycare is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The daily rate is $55. As for the hotel, prices vary from $70 to $90 per night. Smaller animals can have “condos”, and larger ones, “suites”. “I didn’t want the dogs to have sad cages,” says Tatiana Custode.

“Here is heaven for dogs,” says employee Dylan Church. For someone who starts their shift at 6:30 a.m., “it’s a dream job”… Which keeps them very active!

“I don’t have children, but I have lots of dogs,” says Tatiana Custode. Ruby is no longer in her life, but today she is inseparable from Chloé, another Bichon Frize. “My sister saved Chloé from the streets in Ecuador,” she explains.

Her manager Puneet Sidhu says she shares the same dream with her, that of making animals simply happy. “When the doggies are here, they are like our babies,” he assures.