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Every year the mission shifts a little as we discover new avenues for this adventure dog business to go. At the core we will never change in the mission to bring dogs back to nature, that has always been the goal from the beginning. As we've tried new things with great success and collaborated with other similar businesses we are ready to shift another gear to up level the skills we can provide dogs and their owners. While off-leash multi sport pack adventures have become the staple offering, our goal is to now fine tune dogs and their owners' adventure skillset. We know skiing and mountain biking with pup can be dangerous and even life threatening. We want to teach and reinforce safe techniques for training pup to be the best adventure companion.

Much of this training is still well reinforced in the pack adventures which we are always looking to grow. The dogs will teach one another how to act around skis and mountain bikes just through the distraction of pack dynamics. While one on one a herding breed may bite a tire or go after skis, in the pack all attention turns to keeping the cohort together. Through positive reinforcement we can get that behavior to stick for when it is just you and pup.

I am very passionate about the value of building really strong off-leash behavior in our dogs and allowing them to find out who they are within a pack. It is my mission to build a community of as many trusted off leash companions as possible. I strongly believe we can systemically on a small scale change our culture around all dogs needing to be leashed. I think this has caused a lot of the anxiety and behavioral issues we see in dogs leading to more dogs in shelters getting euthanized. I know this sounds crazy but it comes down to just breaking down the barriers keeping us from creating a well socialized dog community. If it's just within my little business that’s great but I think we can create a movement within small communities like this mountain town.

My most recent project is now building in the value of owners putting in the work with their dog. Dogs are a mirror into our own life and often can reflect how we are thriving in our own wellness journey. We feel the bond grow with our dogs while out getting exercise even if it's just a walk. I've seen my adventure packs respond differently when I have been slacking on my own health routines. So we now offer early morning boot camps for all existing or potential clients. Come for a workout in nature and have pup stay for continued adventures. The workouts include dog friendly activities and can be modified for different fitness levels. Come chop a cord of wood, run to the lake, or hop in the sauna and cold plunge before work. We’ll keep it laid back or go as hard as you want.

Lastly why did we settle on the name Summit Pups? Yes it is cute and fits into the mountain town theme but it really goes way deeper. The vision is to build a brand that suits the needs specifically for mountain towns, their active dog breeds and owners. We are not about piling in as many dogs into a facility to make a profit, its not sustainable to our model of building up the individual. We are all on a climb up our own mountains in life and our dogs are along for the journey. We want our dogs to be strong in all areas so that it feeds back into the conquering of our busy lives and reaching the ‘Summit’ of our goals.