Welcome to the Riverdog Blog! We are very excited to have launched this new website upgrade and also look forward to trying out writing our own blog. We hope that some (maybe even many!) of you will Subscribe to our blog updates (enter your email address in the box at the bottom of the screen to do so) and stay connected with us. We plan on using this blog as a platform to communicate with our beloved Riverdog family and give you all some deeper insight about us, our business, our values, our vision for the future, the pet care industry, and more.

The story of “our” Riverdog began in 2017, when Greg began to lead our Somerville location, the original Riverdog, into a new chapter when previous owners Peter and Priscilla Lareau were retiring from the business. Two of his original teammates forging this path were Cat and Stefanie, who are still with us today. 

The Lareaus, when starting their daycare, were trying to think of the best name for the business. For inspiration, they brainstormed places and things that made their dog the absolute happiest, since that would be the central mission of their daycare: be a dog’s favorite place. Among the many sources of joy for their pup, a primary one was the Mystic River. He adored going on boat rides with his humans and swimming in the river, and they realized they had their answer. Thus the name of “Riverdog” was born! (see above for a photo of Riverdog’s namesake: Rastah, the river dog!)

Moving forward into a new era, Greg and the team pondered whether they would keep the name or come up with their own, but determined that they really liked the concept of being a dog’s favorite place to go--their ultimate destination for fun and play, but also a place they would feel comfortable, relaxed, and safe. They felt connected to that core goal, the driving force of being the best they could be for the dogs, and so they kept the name Riverdog as they not only pushed the original Somerville location into a new wave of success, but expanded the business to 3 more locations in the 3 following years (Peabody in 2018, Malden in 2019, Melrose in 2020). 

Riverdog’s principles have not changed since its naming: we still strive each day to be every dog’s favorite place to be. The best care for dogs (and the best service for their owners!) is what we are here to provide, and motivates our choices in how we run Riverdog to this day. We also extraordinarily value our team, the lifeblood of the company, which has helped us develop our present-day mission statement to include the team, along with our dogs and customers, in what drives us and how we make decisions to operate our business. But--that’s for another blog post! You can check out the About Us page to learn more in the meantime.

Stay tuned for regular updates on our Blogs page, and Subscribe below if you want to know when we post something new. Thanks for reading!

Pawsitively yours, The Riverdog Team