Hello, we are Tristan and Abigail! 

 

Welcome to Wag It! Our mission here is to give your fur baby the most positive experience while being away from their people and leave your pet feeling like our VIP (very important pet). We strive to provide a stress-free vacation for your family member and we treat each pet with love, care and respect.

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Tristan and I got married in the summer of 2017 and have loved growing together as friends, lovers, business partners and parents! Over the years we have widened our family with our two playful Standard Poodle's Ember and Wren, our stunning children, Ophelia, Theodore and Ellison. Our family and business is very important to us and we are often comparing Wag It as our fourth child. 

 

I have always had such a strong passion for animals. I always knew my love would grow and land me in an animal related career. As a child I had hundreds of stuffed animals and could be found playing vet, pet store or be making imaginative scenarios with my animals. My parents called them "Abby's Animals".

 

2015 was my kick-off year, I was old enough to get a job! I first was a volunteer march break camp counselor at the KW humane society. I also volunteered at a vet clinic for a few months in 2015. Volunteering here was challenging and opened my eyes to the very hard and important work involved. I felt sad seeing animals typically coming in because something was wrong. I am grateful I had the chance to discover vet care wasn't quite right for me. I still wanted to help animals however, so I applied and was accepted to become a dog bather at PetSmart in 2016. I knew shortly after starting, Dog Grooming was the right direction for me. I was sent to Alberta in April of 2017 for a month for in depth training and when I returned, I finished the 6 month long course of hands-on training, my '200 dogs' and was officially granted my Grooming Certificate. At the time, Tristan and I lived in Niagara area while he attended Niagara college. So I continued working at PetSmart. 

 

We moved to Fenwick, and I found a job 5 minutes from home. I was grooming for a dog kennel called Fetch Me Later! I had so much fun working here and it felt less stressed compared to corporate. I learned about boarding, and got to hang out with the day care dogs while I was grooming. The owners were very kind and this opportunity opened my eyes to starting my own business one day and helped me create values when it came to business, customer and pet care.

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In Jan of 2019, we moved back in with my parents in New Dundee. They were generous enough to let me start my grooming salon in their home! I named my business Hearts and Paws Dog Grooming and I worked up a small but mighty clientele. Enough for me to look for a bigger work salon. I came across a listing for rent in the New Dundee business park and started in May of 2019! I got pregnant in the fall and hired a wonderful contractor to help me as the business was growing!

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Lets just skip past most of the covid part lol! We had another kiddo too. 

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In Aug of 2021, some of you may call fate, I call a blessing from God, I met a man who is the owner of of this beautiful property most of you know as Wag It! He was looking for someone to run the kennel again since it closed after covid. We jumped at the opportunity and Tristan and I were running Wag It and Hearts and Paws with our 2 children both under 2years old at the time. We ofically opened Wag It in November 2021!

 

In the summer of 2023, running both full time businesses while trying to parent was too overwhelming. I felt my grooming business was taking the back burner too often and I couldn't keep up with the workload. My wonderful contractor who still worked for me, ended up taking over the business and is still operating Hearts and Paws to this day!

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In 2024, We welcomed our 3rd child and watched our oldest start kindergarten. I still offer my grooming services here at Wag It and get to lead a fantastic team doing my absolute dream job, boarding!  We have learned and grown so much over these years and have welcomed and met so many new clients and team members that we are so grateful for! We both are so passionate about our business and hope you can welcome our family into your family.

 

            - Sincerely, Abigail ​