Bubble baths are part of the routine. Meals are prepared to order. A typical day might include a nap, a training lesson and a facial.
Beyond the windows, a cheerful pack races through fenced play yards while employees monitor the action from offices overlooking the property. The visitors are dogs, and this is their version of a country vacation.
On a bright afternoon at Far Fetched Acres in New York’s Hudson Valley, one enthusiastic pup worked with a trainer as other dogs socialized in carefully matched playgroups.
The retreat’s custom-built, 10,000-square-foot postmodern barn is filled with lavender-scented air. Every guest gets a private cubby stocked with food, medication, toys and detailed care instructions supplied by its owners.
The meals are equally individualized. In addition to food brought from home, the camp offers unusual treats including rabbit fur and dried mackerel.
Set across 127 acres, the property gives urban dogs plenty of space to run, play and roll around in the dirt. Before they return home, each one gets a much-needed bath.
Forget the doghouse. New York’s most indulged canines are booking stays at rural retreats where chauffeurs, chef-style meals, personal trainers and luxury spa treatments turn a simple boarding trip into the ultimate dog vacation.
A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 51% of dog owners view their pets as equal members of the family alongside human relatives. And as owners spend eye-popping amounts to provide the best for their four-legged loved ones, one thing is clear: It’s a dog’s world, with humans picking up the tab.
At Far Fetched Acres, nightly boarding starts at $125 during the off-season. Intensive puppy and training programs can reach $250 a day, founder Colleen Safford told The Post. For some regular clients, annual boarding expenses exceed $100,000.
With that level of spending, Safford has fielded some exceptionally precise requests, including instructions to hand-feed a dog an exact number of freeze-dried kibble pieces.
Still, when a human idea of luxury conflicts with what a dog actually wants, the dog gets the final say. “Sometimes what humans consider spoiling isn’t what a dog actually enjoys,” she told The Post. “The dog is our primary client.”
In New York, that primary client may have a private chauffeur, a designer wardrobe and accommodations more spacious than those of many human residents.
Just ask Seth Cooper, owner of Roam Camp, a “rustic” boarding retreat in northeastern Pennsylvania. There, city dogs swap apartment living for 50 acres of fenced play areas, forest trails, a swimming pond and even a trout stream.
After a day outside, the dogs can unwind in a farmhouse furnished with couches and beds.
Prices depend on the length of the visit and the number of dogs. Stays begin at $450 for four nights and five days, while a week for two dogs can cost slightly more than $1,000, including transportation and a bath.
Though the visiting dogs come to escape the concrete jungle, some leave behind surprisingly lavish homes.
Cooper remembered one Financial District client whose owners purchased the neighboring apartment and joined it to their own, creating a dedicated space where the dog spent much of the day.
“If the owners were at work when we picked up, we would go into this dog’s private apartment and just snap the leash on,” he recalled.
Some dogs stay for only a few nights. Others remain for months.
After one client underwent back surgery, she paid approximately $5,000 per month to board her two large mastiffs at Roam for about six months, Cooper said. Because the dogs had separate accommodations, the total exceeded $30,000.
For Chelsea resident AJ Johnson, Roam gives her 6-year-old rescue dog, Juna, something the city cannot: the freedom to feel “real earth under her paws” and run without restraint.
The arrangement costs $2,000, but Johnson considers it worthwhile. She has even scheduled her own vacations around Roam’s Monday and Thursday shuttle service.
“I love letting her go and be a dog for a while,” she said. “She’s having fun while I’m having fun.”
In Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Mollie Zalman’s two Labradors, Pedro, 9, and Paloma, 3, need no convincing when it is time to head for their country retreat.
As soon as they realize their belongings are being packed, “They sometimes wait for hours [by the door], tails wagging!” she said.
Depending on her travel plans, Zalman spends about $15,000 a year boarding her dogs.
A weeklong stay for both dogs costs just over $1,000, including transportation and a bath. A recent three-week visit came in just under $3,000, while Paloma’s two-week residential puppy training program cost roughly $3,500.
“I am pretty certain they would beg to move to Roam Camp full time!” she said.
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For dogs that prefer an outdoor excursion without an overnight stay, Concrete to Creek offers city pets a same-day escape. The New York City adventure service collects dogs for small-group nature trips outside the city and brings them home that evening.
Founder Nick Viscomi leads the dogs on four-mile hikes, spending roughly three hours on the trail before wiping down each animal and checking for ticks.
That kind of adventure carries a premium price.
Viscomi told The Post that his biggest-spending customer pays about $1,100 per month for three hikes each week.
Of course, not every dog wants to share a group outing or ride a shuttle to the country. Some prefer a private vehicle — ideally one with a professional driver.
Elliott Levenglick’s Pet Cab transports dogs to country camps and other destinations throughout the Hamptons, Connecticut, New Jersey and upstate New York, as well as locations farther afield.
He has driven dogs as far as Michigan and northern Maine, stopping along the way for water, exercise and bathroom breaks.
As expected, the VIP treatment does not come cheap.
One-way trips start at $315 to the Hamptons, $175 to Greenwich and $295 to the Hudson Valley and upstate New York, Levenglick said. Some passengers arrive carrying luggage and accessories from Tiffany, Goyard and Hermès.
Pet Cab also handles international, door-to-door pet transportation. When requested, company employees accompany one or more animals on overseas journeys.
Levenglick told The Post that employees once escorted two Shih Tzus from Manhattan to Switzerland, where they joined their owners for a ski vacation. The company also transports pets to and from Teterboro Airport. Since commercial airlines do not permit pets in the cabin on UK routes, “many Pet Cab customers flying to the UK choose pet-focused charter flights,” Levenglick said.
For certain owners, however, luxury transportation is only the start.
Former NFL player Mitchell Marrow has witnessed just how extensively people will indulge their pets — and the extraordinary prices they are willing to pay.
Marrow, who previously owned Spot Canine Club, a New York City pet-care company offering daycare, boarding, training, walks and grooming, recalled working with a famous actress and singer who maintained a rotating group of six to eight French bulldogs.
“She would take one and leave the rest,” Marrow told The Post. “She would rotate them in and out.”
Routine care for the celebrity’s canine entourage cost about $15,000 a month, he said. Once training, transportation and other services were added, the monthly bill could rise to $25,000 or $30,000.
“We would transport them from her to wherever she wanted them to go,” Marrow said. “We were like a pied-à-terre of sorts for her dog menagerie.”
But spoiling a dog is not only a question of spending. It also depends on the animal’s preferred lifestyle. Some dogs live for rural adventures; others would rather enjoy a little urban glamour.
Chimi, a 6-year-old Chihuahua owned by New Yorker Montina Hardesty, is “more of a city girl” than an outdoor explorer, her owner said.
Whenever Chimi travels, she brings a suitcase filled with daily outfit choices, bows and accessories. Her collection includes six cashmere sweaters costing about $175 apiece, a Tiffany & Co. bracelet worn as a necklace and custom seasonal dog bags priced at more than $500 each.
“She’s probably better dressed than I am!” Hardesty admitted.
For other dogs, the good life is defined less by fashion than by a packed social calendar.
Linda White’s Pomeranians, Lala and Darla, have social schedules of their own.
They travel with White between Massachusetts, Florida and New York. When they cannot accompany her, she hires a sitter. In New York City, she even employs a driver who remains with the dogs in the car while she runs errands.
Their birthday celebrations in Florida are elaborate affairs, featuring Arabian Nights costumes by canine designer Anthony Rubio, a mermaid in the pool, and hula and fire dancers performing for both the human and canine guests.
White spends at least $10,000 on the annual birthday parties and another $5,000 each year on Rubio’s designs. Private grooming appointments cost approximately $250 per dog every four weeks. Exercise, however, is a different matter.
“They barely want to walk,” White told The Post.
“My dogs go from designer gowns to bathing suits, have standing private spa appointments and eat organic…There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to give them the best. It’s a dog’s life. The rest of us should be so lucky,” she added.
