QKDogs Focuses on the Canines

Canterbury, CT – Fulfill a dog’s needs and it will be forever loyal.
 
That’s the mantra of Jennifer Broome, owner of the long-established and highly esteemed QKDogs, a 100-acre kennel facility in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut.
 
An experienced dog handler and teacher, Broome founded her kennel in 2001 and recently rebranded and renamed it QKDogs, with the launch of an informative, attractive and easy-to-maneuver website that spells out all the services and particulars.
 
Broome and her staff of 25 do it all, from boarding and training to grooming, exercising, rehabilitating, and shuttling dogs.
 
There is a new 6,500-square-foot “Lodge” at Quinebaug Kennels with separate wings for different-sized dogs and bright and spacious indoor and outdoor runs, radiant floor heating inside and out, large exercise yards with secure fencing, an aqua therapy center, grooming services, retail shop, and more.
 
At QKDogs, the focus is always on the canine.
 
“For us, a tired, trained dog is a quiet dog and a happy dog,” said Broome, of her kennel’s philosophy of keeping dogs active and engaged with other four-footed friends while boarding at QKDogs.
 
They team up dogs and bunk them together, for socialization. “They are pack animals and they don’t want to be left alone,” said Broome, who has cared for canines since she was a girl growing up in Toms River, N.J., where she ran a pet-sitting and dog walking business. Now, a published author and certified professional, Broome is recognized as an expert on raising. breeding and training dogs.
 
She earned a degree in wildlife biology and management from the University of Rhode Island and worked in that field for a time, but always trained and cared for dogs on the side. In the 1990s, she began breeding and training Labradors, and as others watched her successes and sought out her expertise and services, her reputation in the field grew. She opened her first kennel in Rhode Island, but soon realized dogs were more than a part-time avocation, they were her passion.
 
Fast forward to 2000, when Broome bought the farm in Canterbury and moved her kennel there. Later, she bought an adjacent property and expanded QKDogs to 100 acres and a range of affordable, but high-end canine services, including boarding, day care, grooming, obedience and gun dog training, puppy camp, rehabilitation services, and more.
 
The kennel runs a door-to-door shuttle, transporting dogs throughout New England and New York and New Jersey in safe, clean and comfortable vans. The service is so popular there are already three weekly round-trip runs to New York City.
 
And there is an aqua spa, aptly named AquaPaws, which puts a dog on a treadmill in a small pool for workouts, where current and water temperature may be adjusted and the buoyancy combined with other conditions helps increase flexibility, improve circulation and ease canine pain.
 
Boarding is a central component at QKDogs. Canines that lodge at the kennel receive exceptional care including more than ample exercise and play time, socialization, and VIP dining. Every dog’s meals are individually prepared. And the visitors are housed according to age and size, to provide comfort and security. Every run has a door to get outside, and there are opportunities for group play yards, or harnessed jaunts down wooded trails alongside an ATV.
 
QKDogs is no ordinary kennel. Broome and her husband and work partner, Jason Smith, have invested funds, as well as sweat equity, to build a better kennel. Throughout the years they have reinvested profits into their business to enhance the facility and the lives of dogs, doing much of the manual labor themselves.With the latest renovations, they brought in a kennel architect specialist from Florida as a consultant on the project to ensure perfection.
 
At the same time, Broome has continued her training attending multiple symposiums and continuing education classes each year. She is a breeder of merit status with the American Kennel Club and a Pro Staff Dog Trainer for Cabela’s for the past nine years, traveling around the country to clinics and dog demonstrations.
 
She is known and respected for her obedience training with all breeds of dogs, from basic to advanced problems. She’s also recognized and sought out to help train hunting dogs.
 
Broome owns seven dogs herself, and takes individual time daily with each of them.
 
With dog ownership comes responsibility and accountability, said Broome, and at QKDogs, she and her staff can help facilitate that.
 
“I love finding the niches, what dogs were born and bred to do, and filling them,” she said, adding, it doesn’t matter what the breed, but rather, “providing dogs with what they want which is exercise, structure and discipline.”
 
A mentor once told Broome that “good dogs get to go places,” and she agrees. Working with dogs, she is able to help them adapt to structure and rules, and allow their owners to take them out in public.
 
“We teach owners how to make their dogs accountable,” she said. 
 
And that, and much more, is what they do at QKDogs, a premiere training, boarding and dog care facility. Visit the website and find detailed information on the services, the credentials of the owner, trainers, groomer and other staff, and learn about the QK campus, its retail shop, and all it has to offer. 
 
Visit the website at qkdogs.com, call the office at (860) 546-2116, or send an email to contact@qkdogs.com. Quinebaug Kennels is located in Northeast Connecticut, in the town of Canterbury, at 265 North Society Road.