Canines cruise on Cache Valley’s pup bus
Move over, school buses — Cache Valley’s newest ride is all about the paws. ARETE Canine Purpose, dog training company in Newton, has created an opportunity for dogs throughout the valley to get out of the house during the day with their pup bus. The pup bus has multiple stops within the valley where people can drop off their dogs to go to doggy day care.
The bus runs on Mondays and Wednesdays, with pickup between 7-9 a.m. and drop off between 5-7 p.m.
Bryan Hansen, owner of ARETE, said the idea for the pup bus came from a social media post he saw.
“One of my clients sent me a video of a dog bus going around in Alaska. They would pick up the dogs, have a lot of fun and then drop them off after,” Hansen said. “It was kind of like this big play date for the dogs. We had the facility for it— we had the process for it — all we needed was a bus.”
After Hansen found one that would work and was a good price, he decided to buy the bus and see if they could make it work. He said they received phenomenal support from Cache County and were able to fill the bus and create a demand for it.
Morgann Sears, kennel tech at ARETE, said she thought this was a cute idea to help dogs to get good exposure and have fun at doggy day care.
“There are some people who maybe don’t have the ability to drive all the way to our facility in Newton — they might have work or something else,” Sears said. “So, it can be really convenient for them to have somebody who can come pick their dogs up. On top of that, I think the idea of putting your dog on the school bus to go to daycare, to me, seems like a super fun opportunity.”
Hansen said this program is also beneficial and enjoyable for him and other workers at the facility.
“The hardest part about training is once you’re done, you miss the dogs,” Hansen said. “It’s so fun to see them go from scared, nervous or overexcitable to a really well-behaved dog. After you’re done though, you don’t get to see them anymore. So, it was fun to create a process where we can see the dogs more often and have more fun with them.”
Hansen said they have a lot of long-term goals for the pup bus, one of them being to be able to run it Monday through Friday.
“We really just want to see more people engage with the daycare, as well as give dogs a space to be during the day,” said Hansen.
Sears also said they want to create a great experience for the dogs.
“A lot of dogs are bored at home and need something to do during the day, and our daycare helps give them a new experience,” Sears said.
The pup bus program takes many precautions in order to ensure the safety of the dogs they transport on their bus to doggy daycare.
Hansen said they always have two people on the bus: the bus driver and an assistant. This allows the bus driver to focus on getting the dogs to the daycare safely, and the assistant can focus on taking care of any issues that arise with the dogs and make sure all of them are secured with seat belts.
Those interested in signing up for the pup bus or dog training can visit ARETE’s website arete.dog.