Dog Trouble? This Pet Service Shop May Come to the Rescue

When banks wouldn’t give Kathy Deets a loan back in 2004 to open The Barker Shop in La Grange, she went to the community for fundraising help.

This year, on her business’s 10th anniversary, Deets will turn to the community again with a fundraiser in late April to help double the size of the West 55th Street shop so she can offer more training, more space and more rescue opportunities.

“I have to do it for the dogs,” Deets said. “I want them to have more space. I want to be able to do more. Everybody in the community tells me I should do it, so I’m going to try.”

Some might know The Barker Shop as a source of nutritional dog food, daycare services or for its groomers, who compete at the national level.

But Deets and her team have recently been recognized for helping catch Mitch, a border collie mix, lost from his Burr Ridge family for more than a year. Mitch was spotted around Countryside for about six months, but no one could catch him, until the Barker Shop team stepped in.

On a cold Sunday morning in February, Deets, a Barker Shop employee and a volunteer set a humane trap for Mitch at one of his hangouts. Mitch took the bait, and the team brought him to a veterinary clinic for a check-up.

Deets said she figured the dog would join her shop’s rescue program, but the vet found his microchip. After a year of making flyers, posting on social media and holding tightly to hope, Mitch’s family was reunited with their long-lost, elusive friend.

This wasn’t Deets’ first success story tracking down a lost dog. In May 2013, the Barker Shop team lured mixed-breed Duke of Western Springs to the Salt Creek Tennis Club in Hinsdale, where his owner, Anne, waited for him.

“Duke saw his owner and ran right to her,” Deets said. “It was heaven.”

• How to Find Your Lost Dog: Tips from The Barker Shop

Deets said many people know they can reach out to her for help finding a lost pet or to help an animal in need. The rescue program at The Barker Shop began about three years ago, when Deets added the daycare and the rescue center.

The shop can now house about six rescue dogs, who participate in the shop’s daycare activities. Handlers and trainers work to make rescue dogs more adoptable, and the daycare service supports the cost of the program.

Deets works hard, not only to rescue dogs, but to keep them in homes with families who feel they might have to give up on their pets.

She said if a family has financial issues or a health problem, she’ll help find someone willing to donate food or services. She has also boarded dogs when an owner is sick or in the hospital, and she’s trained dogs when behavioral problems threaten to keep them away from a loving family.

Theresa Napolitano, Barker Shop daycare manager, said everyone at the shop is an animal lover, and they all work to make sure dogs stay in good homes. She said most people are familiar with the grooming side of the business, but the daycare and the rescue program have grown in the past year.

“We put in our own time on weekends and holidays, working to get these dogs adoptable,” Napolitano said. “Most of the time when these dogs come in, it’s not their fault. A person in their life mistreated them or didn’t do basic training to keep a dog in a home. Those are the dogs we put even more effort into.”

The Barker Shop has about 12 regular volunteers, but Deets said with the weather changing, there’s a greater need for more people to help walk dogs.

Napolitano said volunteers and fosters play a big part in helping the rescue dogs. She said volunteers are young and old, long-term and temporary.

The shop also works with Lyons Township Transition Program special education students, who develop workplace training and community participation at the shop.

“This is a great business,” Deets said. “Not only do dogs give me joy, I see how they help other people so much, from giving people love and companionship to exercise in warm weather. They get people out and about in the neighborhood. It’s amazing what dogs do for people.”

Visit The Barker Shop website or call 708-354-0400 to learn more about volunteering, donating or to keep an eye out for the April fundraiser.

Photos courtesy of Kathy Deets.
(1) Kobe, Australian shepherd, is looking for a home. Steven is the playgroup leader in the background.
(2) Scout, a lab Shiba Inu mix, and Kobe, both in the front, are looking for homes. The others are daycare dogs. Steven is the playgroup leader in back.
(3) Lynne, a playgroup leader, sits with Kobe.
(4) Kane, a 12-year-old beagle mix, is looking for a home, hanging out in daycare.
(5) Star, a 12-year-old pit mix, is in the daycare rescue center, looking for a home.
(6) Big dog playgroup
(7) Small dog playgroup
(8) Kathy makes time to take pet photos for the rescue dogs.