Today we’d like to introduce you to Cort Cox.
Hi Cort, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in Atlanta. Went to school at Woodward and graduated at Brandon Hall before attending the University of North Georgia. School wasn’t always for me as I hated going and even hated doing the work more so high school was always struggle for me. Had lots of fun playing sports and made some dear friends but the academics always killed me. My attention span was not there unless I was on ADHD meds but I hated them and refused to take them. Made it through and was on the way to student orientation at The University of Alabama before I decided to turn my car around and that I didn’t want to go to college and wanted to travel to Asia.
After some of the most eye opening months of my life traveling and immersing myself into a completely different culture I decided I need to join my friends in college and see what it’s all about.
Came back and attended the University of North Georgia with the idea of transferring into UGA. Day one of class I sat down after a 2.5 hour lab class and decided right there I am not doing this for 4 years it’s just not for me. So I was checked out from the beginning but felt the normal pressure and idea of having to pass and make it through college to be successful. I stayed around in Athens for 2 years only successfully passing one semester (the one I took ADHD meds for) before I decided let’s go figure out something else. I dropped out with the intent of coming back with an idea of what I wanted to do.
I got back to Atlanta and started working some odd jobs, server, valet construction and even almost started selling ads on scorecards at golf courses before stumbling upon Rawson at Sawnee Dog Retreat. One of the first of its kind a “farm style” dog daycare and boarding retreat that offers pickup and drop off in the Metro Atlanta Area.
Within a week of working there I quickly realized my passion for animals which I have always had since I was a kid had come back. Quickly decided that first week that this was what I wanted to do.
Now that I had my mind made up and saw some sort of end goal I could begin figuring out how to get there. I took note of everything good and bad I saw and started writing it down in a note book. Pros & Cons of certain ways to run a dog daycare, staffing it out, care for the animals, types of dogs you will allow, what kind of fences, turf or no turf etc.
With this goal in my mind that I would open one of these and make it the best dog daycare boarding facility in Atlanta.
I kept working at different dog daycare and boarding facilities all across Atlanta, some for 2 days some for a few months just to get a layout and better understanding of what they did and how they did it. I ended up working at 6 dog daycare and boarding companies before I officially started my own.
We now service over 1,000 clients in the Atlanta area, have 14 employees and the best reviews of any daycare or boarding facility in Atlanta and as I or any of our employees can attest the best group of dogs and clients around!
Now we have been up and running for for 2.5 years, I started my own mobile grooming company that is separate and we have our second location about to be announced soon!
It’s a grind out there but don’t give up and keep taking notes. The sooner you make your mind up the easier it is.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been a bumpy road for sure. I started working in this industry 8 years ago. My company has only been open for 2.5 years so took a little over 5 years to get my company open.
Some of the struggles along the way have been finding investors, finding real estate and deciding how you want to set everything up.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I run a “farm style” dog daycare and boarding company that offers pickup and drop offs in Atlanta. I also run a separate mobile grooming company.
We go door to door and pickup dogs and bring them to our facility, let them run around and play then bring them back into town and drop them off. We also do boarding as well.
We are known for the care your dog receives when they are with us and our amazing employees. Working in the pet industry is not easy especially when your dealing with 60+ dogs some days but we are always super communicative and have great employees that help keep all of the animals and clients happy whether it’s updating them about there dog or reaching out to a client if there dog has an upset stomach. Very little gets missed by our staff since everyone cares about the pups and we make a point to hire responsible dog lovers that want to be around amazing dogs. That separates us from the others.
How do you think about happiness?
What makes me happy is knowing that what we do is helping people’s and dog’s lives. We have a lot of clients that our doctors, nurses, or moms with 4 kids and they need help with their dogs.
We give them a way to not stress about getting home and making sure their pet has had enough exercise or attention that day and we give them it all by letting them run like crazy and getting lots of love for our staff.
Pricing:
- Daycare is 35-45$ a day depending on how many times they come in a week
- Boarding is 70$ a night plus discounts for extended stays
Contact Info:
- Website: https://TheDogyard.net
- Instagram: @thedogyardatl
