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Meet Eli and Frances Shayotovich of Camp Run-A-Mutt Denver

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Eli and Frances Shayotovich.

The husband and wife team of Eli and Fran Shayotovich have lived in Colorado for the last 17 years, toiling away in the pits of Corporate America. Eli has extensive experience in operations management, while Fran supervised a team of highly regarded customer service reps. While their brains were always hard at work, their hearts were always with their dogs. Rescues with odd personality quirks always seemed to find a way into their home. Their current fur baby is Posey, a Boxer/Springer mix hilariously referred to as a “Box Spring.” At five years old she still has some anxiety issues; a direct result of being taken away from her mother too soon. She’s afraid of new places – so no walks at Home Depot! – and the sound of wind terrifies her.

Fran and Eli took Posey to doggie daycare at an early age in hopes of easing her anxiety, and over time it helped. But something happened to Eli and Fran as well: the unadulterated love and joy of a dog’s greeting at the end of a bad day had become the best part of their day. After seeing this same elation play out over and over at the daycares they frequented they asked: “why not make this our job?” Thus, the seed was planted and over the next few years, Eli and Fran worked diligently towards getting out of the corporate grind and into the furry paws of their own doggie daycare.

Camp Run-A-Mutt Denver opened on April 29, 2019, and is a cage-free daycare and boarding facility that offers over 5,000 square feet of outdoor play area complete with special K9 turf, sun shades, a waterfall and splash pond. It’s a true park-like oasis nestled within the metropolis of Denver! Overnight boarders get to have a slumber “pawty” with the friends made during the day… without cages. That’s right! We don’t put your fur babies in cages at night; instead, we place them in a big common area with dog beds and blankets and let them hang out in a pack. Don’t worry… they’re fully supervised 24/7 by actual humans who stay onsite with them through the night. We turn the big screen TV on, turn the lights down and make as much like your own home as we can.

Owners can watch their dogs frolic and play (during normal business hours) via our six MuttCams on their mobile device or computer.

We also offer obedience training (provided by positive reinforcement trainer Emily Martin from Pawsitively Pets) and grooming services.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been a smooth road. We originally planned on opening in October of 2018, but the city of Denver had other plans. Long delays in permitting and rezoning followed, which forced us to postpone until April 2019.

Please tell us about Camp Run-A-Mutt Denver.
Our outdoor play area consists of 5,000 square feet of special K9 turf, sun shades, and a big waterfall and splash pond. It really is a park-like oasis nestled within the metropolis of Denver! Our overnight boarders have slumber “pawtys” without cages. We have a number of dogs that come here specifically because they have some form of PTSD (i.e., afraid of cages, rescue dogs with phobias, etc.). At our facility, we place the dogs in a big common area with dog beds and blankets and let them hang out in a pack. They’re fully supervised overnight by actual humans who stay onsite with them. We turn on the big screen TV, turn off the lights and make it as much like what they’re used to at their own home.

We’re really proud of being a place that dogs that are typically afraid of boarding can feel comfortable. The cage-free boarding environment is really what sets us apart from the competition.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
In the short time we’ve been open we’ve already earned a number of really loyal clients. They’ve been very supportive and love the environment we’ve created for their dogs.

Also, we had some pretty incredible contractors who built our vision. Keith Parker at Kestrel Design Group put that vision to paper. Cory Teague and his crew at Vesta built out that vision, and Alan Jeffs and his team at Frontier Turf created the park-like outdoor areas (installing K9 turf, fencing, splash pond/waterfall).

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