Yahoo Lifestyle L.A.’s ‘Soho House for Dogs’ Lets You and Your Pup Socialize in Luxury
Some pampered pooches are already flying private like the wealthy, but now they can socialize like the rich, too.
A private members-only park in Santa Monica, Calif. offers dogs and their owners the opportunity to mingle in a luxurious setting with high-end amenities. The aptly named DOG PPL gives members access to a premium park, a lounge, work areas, a cafe, a bar, a concierge, free parking, Wi-Fi, and even social events, as reported by Reuters. All pups are also watched by minders called “rufferees,” who intervene if play gets too rowdy.
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DOG PPL is the brainchild of friends Alex Esguerra and Liam Underwood. The duo launched what they say is Los Angeles’s first canine social club in 2021 after they became frustrated with the lack of clean and safe dog parks in the city.
“A lot of people call us the ‘Soho House for dogs,'” Esguerra told Reuters. “I think that they relate the two because they imagine Soho House is a membership club that really invests in their people and they curate community and programming and hospitality to the finest degree to kind of give people a different type of lifestyle. We want to do the same for dogs.”
To score a membership, dogs must complete a temperament test to ensure they are fit to be around other four-legged members and people. “They’re not jumping through hoops or having to stand on their back legs or anything like that,” adds DOG PPL’s safety operations manager Keitel Frankle. “We’re more passively seeing the social skills that they have and how they’re able to coexist amongst the community of different ages, sizes, breeds, energy levels, personalities.” The dogs also have to be up to date on vaccinations and be spayed or neutered at eight months of age.
DOG PPL has grown to 1,700 members since it opened, according to The Los Angeles Times. Nearly two-thirds are women and the average household income is $143,622, Esguerra says. The company is looking to expand, too, starting with up to three new Southern California locations this year. Esguerra adds that the goal is to open 60 U.S. locations in the next four years and then move on to global outposts.
As for cost, the basic membership fee for one dog is $120 per month before tax. You can also pay $1,200 for an annual membership. And to clarify, the pups are the members and humans are simply their guests.
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