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Meet Michael Grayson of Southlake Classic Pet Retreat

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Grayson.

Michael , can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My wife, three daughters and I have been Southlake residents since 2002. Both of us asked each other what we wanted to do when we “retired” which was to own a small piece of property and have a small retreat, but the addiction to Corporate benefits made it a pipe dream. I became ill and was out of the corporate world for about three years and when I recovered, I jumped back into the labor force doing what I know which was sales and operational leadership for different technology companies crisscrossing the US on about 150 planes a year.

One day I came home and told my wife that I just couldn’t do it any longer. She suggested that I contact the owners of the facility which was less than a quarter mile from our house which was in a dilapidated state to see if they would be willing to sell the property and the business to us. Fast forward, on April 28, 2015, we closed on the business and started renovating the property, changed the operations with respect to the day to day activities of our guests which included instituting 7 day a week daycare.

As a lover of baseball movies with my favorite being Field of Dreams, our “field of dreams” came true and we have an incredible client base that appreciates the way we operate which includes 6 hours of dedicated playtime daily without incurring any extra charges for our overnight guests.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth is a relative term. After being in the technology world and having former customers in my prior life buy into “step releases” of feature function, outlining the vision of what we were going to be and executing against that vision right in front of their eyes has been rewarding. I remember the first few months were really tough with some folks yelling across the road to “knock that expletive down” which really caught me off guard.

As residents of Southlake and knowing the direction that the city was in continuing to beautify the older property, a facelift was an initial phase to make it appealing from the street while simultaneously demolition projects and core infrastructure repairs. I always tell our clients and potential clients that we are 98% done because I do not believe that one can ever be done with this type of business.

One of the hardest parts of the business in being a huge dog lover is returning pets to the community that don’t meet the profile of what we require in terms of being pet-friendly, people friendly and having the ability to play in groups. It doesn’t make the pups bad dogs, but rather with open play it is too much of a risk and I try to help them find alternative options.

Please tell us about Southlake Classic Pet Retreat.
What’s unique about Southlake Classic Pet Retreat is that we sit on about an acre of land and believe that pups should play and have the ability to really stretch their legs whereas most facilities around us have indoor play primarily. We have 5 large outdoor play yards that we separate our guests based upon size, age and temperament and we play from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. and again from 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. If the weather is inclement we have three indoor play areas in addition to a covered patio.

The three primary yards which are about 17 thousand square feet in total and our gated walkway system all of K9 Forever Grass which is awesome for all of the pups and my associates too. One aspect that our clients really enjoy is that we post pictures and/or videos daily on our Facebook page. In addition, we started this business with a belief structure that we didn’t want to nickel and dime our clients just based on our zip code which I can’t stand as a consumer.

Southlake Classic Pet Retreat is really a small family owned business where we have 19 associates (we started with 4) currently, but it scales to about 25 during peak times with former associates coming back and picking up shifts during breaks and summer. The great thing about being small is like that scene from the Cheers sitcom when our pups show up everyone knows their names and our guests typically know exactly where they are going from the moment they jump out of their owner’s car.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
There’s that word “favorite” again which is always difficult for me to nail down for anything, but I’ll give it a try. My wife and I are both products of being military brats which offered a lot in terms of experiences.

I grew up in a very loving environment always surrounded by dogs which offer that unconditional love we all need, I would say the memory that brings back some great memories was when I lived in England where my father was stationed and to experience traveling through the U.K. and Europe while also being exposed to English Labradors. We ended up bringing a couple back to the U.S. with us when the tour was over and we’ve had them ever since.

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