I thought I would turn it around and let you know how it looks from the other side. We get lots of praise and occasionally complaints about our business. I’m happy to say it’s mostly praise which certainly makes all of us try to be accommodating and helpful even more so.

Many of you have a business and customers. All of us are customers so we all know how important it is to be treated like a person. The way life is today, there seems to be less and less interaction with people, while more and more talking to machines. Just try to book an airline ticket, deal with a bank and soon you will be doing your own check-out at the grocery stores just like you get your own gas.

I guess these computers streamline life and saves on the manpower, which is necessary but it is frustrating not be able to talk to a person, even if we eventually get used to it.

Here at Skansen Kennel we have of course the same problems as all other businesses do in finding qualified help. It takes many years to learn about dogs, how to feed them, raise them, keep them happy, and well exercised. Just like working in a stable with horses or a llama farm or raising chickens or hogs, it takes years of learning to do an excellent job.

Lucky for me I have a great staff and all of you who call us know how professional, accommodating and friendly “Carrie” our secretary is.

The same is true for all of you who visit. You will meet “Laina” the kennel manager who will guide you, show you the pups. Laina is very helpful, knowledgeable and professional.
For Carrie & Laina to be able to be up front and help you it takes many hard workers to back them up like “Mel” our other secretary who does all our e-mails, registrations, etc.
For the kennel, there are five other employees. They are always working hard to keep the dogs happy. There is lots and lots of cleaning, feeding and grooming, as all of you who have children and dogs already know.
Many of you wonder what happened to myself, the owner and breeder of Skansen Kennel. Quite frankly, this is my story.

My parents told me I was dog crazy from the time I was three years old. At ten years old I started working at dog kennels every summer until I graduated from College. At twenty years old, I came to the USA to work in a kennel where I was unhappy, mostly because of the tremendous distance to my family in Sweden. So, I went to California to visit with my best girlfriend who was an “Au Pair” in Atherton, CA. Mostly by a fluke, I got hired by TWA airlines and thought I would fly as an airline stewardess for six months, see America, then go back to Sweden and continue my quest for a life with dogs. Guess what? I ended up staying with TWA for 26 ½ years! I loved it, saw the whole world, met fascinating people from famous film stars to CEO’s and literally people from all walks of life. I truly loved it, even if it was hard on you physically to change time zones and work in re-circulated air like a pressurized airplane cabin. But I finally got burned out. I wanted to go back to my dogs to be with them, walk them, groom them and be in their company.

I got tired of listening to people complain; why didn’t they get champagne, why wasn’t the steak rare, why was the leg space so small, etc. I couldn’t change the airline business but like all good employees I kept smiling accommodate people, so they would feel better. Honestly, an airlines job is to get you from point A to point B safely. Airlines are not restaurants, serving first class champagne, unless you pay $10,000 and sit in first class!
Now back to the kennel. My job as a breeder is to develop the knowledge which dogs to breed, how to feed the pregnant mothers, then raise the pups, so that you, the customer will get a healthy, happy, beautiful dog that I hope will stay healthy and give great companionship for 10-14 years. To do that our job is to educate you and share our experiences how best to accomplish this.

So, I’m in the background, making audio tapes, videos, writing articles, manuals, traveling around the world judging dogs, learning new things from other breeders and their breeding stock, guiding customers on the phone whose dogs are sick, injured or just ill behaved.

My day starts at 10 am and ends at 2 am. Yes, I work 16 hours of nonstop work. I love every minute of it so don’t misunderstand.

I truly feel my knowledge and experience after doing this for 50+ years can help the puppy buyer a lot. So, I like to share my knowledge with all of you, thru our audios, videos, manuals and newsletters.
I do not have any time or energy left over to greet each puppy buyer and explain which pups are for sale, etc. The truth is I’m burned out in that area too, so I stay away and do what I do best. I let professional and friendly people like Carrie & Laina represent me. I am very grateful to have them and truly appreciate their hard work. I also pray they don’t get burned out. Believe me, a few rotten apples can easily ruin anyone’s day.
Let me give you a recent example. This lady flies to San Francisco to visit Skansen Kennel (plus she had other business in California). Her appointment was for between 10 am to 11 am. She gets lost and doesn’t arrive until 1 pm. We are open 10 am to 2 pm Thursday thru Sunday, which is well advertised. By the way, we have many reasons for this. Monday thru Wednesday we are swamped with work getting pups ready to ship around the world, plus Laina is on her days off or at the airport. Also to be able to do a good job cleaning, feeding, grooming our dogs we have to stay on a strict schedule. The dogs do not want to wait one or two hours to eat because some visitor insists on staying beyond our visiting hours. The dogs’ welfare and happiness always comes first here.
To go back to the visitor who is now two hours late arriving at 1 pm. By the way, if this was the airport the flight would be gone, a doctors appointment and you would have to reschedule, etc. But Laina and the other employees kick in and show her around and at 2 pm, closing time, they ask her to leave. She gets all upset, just thinking of herself and what she wants. The dogs need to eat, be exercised, the employees have their workload too. Why should the employees schedule get upset because she gets lost! But worse she goes behind our back and takes photos of one bucket of water sitting in an area not used, full of green rain water, then she tells others we give dirty water to our dogs. When the fact is that there are fifty buckets of water, all scrubbed weekly and filled up daily, which she choose not to see.

She also complains that she didn’t get a big hug when she arrived and a cup of coffee! It never occurred to me that people expect to get fed or offered drinks as we are not a coffee shop. And we save our hugs for the dogs not for visitors we do not know.

I used her as an example of how a rotten apple can get into the daily operation and ruin it for my employees. Most of our visitors are not only delightful, friendly, understanding but they come back year in and year out. They visit us because they love to see a bunch of happy beautiful dogs running in big open fields, playing, wanting to be petted, etc. They can see the forest and not just a little tree.

I would also like to add that very few kennels are open to visitors. In fact, try and get into a veterinarians, groomers, or boarding kennel. I mean beyond the office. I bet you have never seen where your dog is taken and truly it would be impossible for any professional to let visitors inside his workspace without disrupting the entire operation as well as time lost.

In my business I have learned that often the very best professional, the veterinarian and groomer who does the best job, who truly are dedicated to his profession, often can be short, gruff, perhaps even rude to you but his service and care of my dogs is first class. To me, a phony front and a cup of coffee does not create a truly great dog. However nice it may feel to the visitor.

Again, I have never been offered coffee and a hug when I go to the doctor, dentist, grocery store, catch a flight, etc but I have learned where to go to get safe flights, good care of my teeth and even great groceries and veterinary service. I hope you will appreciate this side of running a kennel. We strive for the best possible environment and care of our dogs. You are welcome to visit by appointment only to see many of these magnificent dogs but please respect our hours. I’m not at the kennel meeting you personally, it would mean 24 hours of work instead of 16 hours as of now. Also, quite honestly I have “gone to the dogs” as they say. The dogs fill my time, the little time I have after my busy workday. That is how it all started. I guess the truth is, I prefer their companionship, my walks with them, etc to anything else. As I am officially retired, I hope you will understand how I choose to spend the last part of my life.

Sylvia