They Swim... They run... They Rock at Totally Dog® 
by Regan White

Reprinted from http://www.alllabs.com, April 2003

Nestled in the balmy outskirts of Miami, Florida Totally Dog® offers canine camp services that can only be described as doggie nirvana. Appropriately so, Totally Dog®’s web site features a quote from Ghandi above its mission statement: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by how its animals are treated.” To be sure, Elena Lopez de Mesa, the founder and owner of Totally Dog®, lives her life daily for the royal treatment of her canine campers.

During the day, campers have a variety of options from taking a plunge in the four-foot-deep milk-bone shaped pool, digging in beach sand, strutting their stuff on the agility obstacles, furrowing in over five acres of fenced-in field, sun bathing on the doggie sun bathing deck, or clowning around with some doggie toys. And when their paws get a little sluggish from the milk-bone pool laps and all of that tanning in the Miami sun there is always naptime in the doggie nap house.

What makes this camp even more worthy of praise for providing play time for these pooches is that most of Totally Dog®’s campers might otherwise lie around an empty home all day, subject to the busy schedules of their business, lawyer and doctor owners. For $35 a day, Totally Dog® offers latchkey dogs the unique opportunity to spend the daytime hours in a doggie nirvana of daily activity. This consequently reduces behavioral problems that result from boredom.

No boredom here! Totally Dog® allows our canine better halves to do what they do best: run, bound, leap, chase, swim, dig, tumble, roll, and be … totally dogs. The camp’s founder, Elena Lopez de Mesa is a professional dog trainer and certified canine behavior specialist. Elena grew up in Colombia around farm animals, and of course, dogs. From her childhood on she always knew that she wanted to work with the canine kind. In 1997, she was a hobbyist dog trainer while working on a master’s degree at the University of Miami business school and working for its Executive Education program. She quit the corporate life, turned professional trainer, and combined her business savvy with her passion for pooches and founded Totally Dog® in 1999.

And where did Elena find the ultimate inspiration to provide campers a doggone good time? She had to look no farther than her own personal FEMA-certified yellow Labrador, Thea. Elena laughs that, “Everything is built to Thea’s standards”. While formulating her business plan, Elena spent months traveling to various doggie daycares across the country. She was dissatisfied with how all the daycares were indoors. Thea agreed. While indoor doggie daycares might make sense in the colder climates of the northeast, Elena and Thea were intent on creating a more “outdoor sporty [camp] for the more active dog with lots of open land” in the milder environment of Miami. Elena also noted that doggie daycares used transport vans stacked with cages for conveyance of their campers. Thea, in all of her Labrador wisdom, didn’t like the idea, and Elena figured other dogs wouldn’t either. So what could possibly be better than being a free-range happy Totally Dog® camper with human camp counselors to ride piggyback through the pool and countless hours of tennis ball chasing and dried pig ear chewing? Why that special seat on the Doggie Bus™ to and from camp, of course!

While our school bus memories may be mixed, for Elena’s campers the Doggie Bus™ symbolizes that favorite seat on a blessed bus full of 25 other fun-loving furry friends all headed for another camping day of fun in the Florida sun. Paws poised on their benches, tails wagging and tongues lolling out the window, every one of these campers is grateful that Elena turned a diesel-powered 1989 GMC into the first school bus for dogs. The campers need no guidance as they gallop from their houses straight up the steps and right into that favorite seat. Naturally, the Doggie Bus™ inevitably receives equally enthusiastic responses from drivers and pedestrians alike in the Miami area, all watching as the doggies on the bus go round and round.

Troy and Debbie Register just can’t say enough about the unbridled enjoyment their yellow Labrador, Becky gets out of Totally Dog®. Becky has been attending camp twice a week for two and a half years. Becky’s father, Troy says that, “Becky is the sweetest little dog but Totally Dog® has really helped her become a happier Lab. It affords her the opportunity to socialize with non-aggressive dogs, and has really helped her come out of her shell.” With Debbie as an accountant and Troy as a CPA, Becky was stuck inside most of the time, especially during tax time, before she found Totally Dog®. Troy adds that, “we are very fortunate to have found a camp that caters to people that work and love their dogs.” Becky’s mom, Debbie says that there is nothing like when that Doggie Bus™ comes around: “The minute her harness comes out … she’s ready.” Though the Register’s don’t have any children, Troy laughs that it certainly seems they do as they “race from work to catch the school bus bringing Becky home. [Elena and crew] are always right on time, every time.”

The fact that all of these campers behave is a tribute to Elena’s rigorous screening, the pack’s natural order, “humane” techniques of positive reinforcement and, if needed, the harmless but attention-getting squirt from a water bottle.  As Elena stresses, the camp is not just about play, but also obedience. Campers must be at least four months old, 25 pounds, neutered, housebroken, vaccinated, flea-and-tick protected, and of course be graced with stunning social skills. Screening takes about an hour, and all first time campers are on probation with training for four days before clearance is granted into that elite class of canine campers.

Perhaps the strictest screener is Elena’s Lab Thea who attends camp every day and “definitely acts as a camp counselor”. Elena adds that Thea has a table that she is allowed to lay on and oversee all the cavorting campers. Likewise, Thea surveys the landscape from her hammock, and occasionally protectively stands in front of the deck that no camper is allowed on.

It also can’t hurt that in her own right Thea really is a member of the fire department, as she and Elena belong to Miami-Dade County’s Urban Search-and-Rescue FL Task Force I. Most notably Elena and Thea served in the search and rescue efforts at the World Trade Center on September 11^th. Elena is also in the process of certifying her other dog, a Schnauzer named Streater. Elena adds that, “the camp helps tremendously in the training of my own dogs for Search and Rescue work. Other campers provide ample distractions which make Thea and Streater better at their job.” When asked if Totally Dog® offers a dose of relaxation for her dogs from the rigors of rescue work Elena explained that, “SAR is not stressful for them. While we see devastation and death they only see a big huge playground. It’s hide and seek.” And where better to practice than in your own playground, with your best friends, and a bone-shaped pool?

As the Doggie Bus™ lazily winds its way through palm tree-lined Miami neighborhoods, 25 homeward bound dogs exhaustively hang their heads into the aisle. Elena, while glancing at her campers in the rearview mirror smiles, saying “I think they tell their owners stories.” Like all eager campers returned home she imagines they follow their owners around the house saying, “I went in the pool! I caught the ball!” Owners embrace truly happy campers who collapse on their favorite couch cushions, blankets, and rugs with sleepy grins of contentment. And how can the Registers tell that their Lab Becky has had a Totally Dog® experience? “Because she sleeps all night long. She finds the coziest spot on our bed and she’s out like a light so we know she’s had a good day.” After another day well played, Elena, Streater, and our favorite camp counselor Thea, all head homeward in a yellow Totally Dog® bus… a magic bus.