meet karen nash

Karen and clients 'working' Karen Nash, the soft-spoken founder and owner of Doggie Daytrippers, grew up in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, in a house filled with animals. “I always had a dog,” Karen says. “I had a Belgian Shepherd most of my life. And my father worked at the horse track and would bring home any number of animals. I had guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters, and turtles.”

chicks to shelties to college . . .

“Once,” Karen says with a smile, “I even had a pet chicken.”

In her teens, Karen also worked at a kennel that raised Shelties. She fed, watered, brushed, and picked up after the dogs. “I wanted to be either a veterinarian or a jockey, but by the time I was six, I was already too tall for the jockey work.”

Karen graduated with a degree in marketing and went on to hold several sales management positions ranging from sports retail to high tech sales. She was always busy and never bored in these jobs. “Sales gave me a good sense of how to develop relationships and match clients to services,” Karen recalls, “but I was never really fulfilled in an office environment.”

on getting satisfaction. . .

She began to think of other jobs she might have. After working part-time for a friend who had a dog-walking business, Karen had found a match. She was happy spending her entire day with dogs and wanted to design her own dog care company with personalized options — for the dogs and their guardians.

and so it all began . . .

“In creating Doggie Daytrippers,” Karen explains, “I realized that most dogs have more fun off-leash. They get more exercise that way, more of their personalities come out, and they get to socialize, which is extremely valuable.” As a result, Karen began offering multi-hour, off-leash field trips in addition to regular dog walking. “It’s fun for me to be out on hikes 12-months of the year,” Karen says, “but it is ultimately about the dogs’ happiness. They are thrilled to be outside for so long every day. It’s in their nature to play freely.”

what about her employees?

Karen sees choosing employees as one of the most important things she does. “I spend a week of training with new employees. It has to be a three-way match – for me, for the employees, and the dogs. Employees of Doggie Daytrippers have to love as well as control the dogs. And the dogs have to respond to the person.”

just how unique is DD?

And when asked what makes Doggie Daytrippers special, Karen smiles as she responds, “Without question, it is the personalized care that distinguishes us. When you call the phone number for Doggie Daytrippers, you are going to speak directly with me. I like to be hands-on because I love what I do. My trips are longer and less expensive than ones offered by other companies. Part of that is due to the way I run my business and part of it is due to a conscious choice to make my services possible for as many dogs as I can.”

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