A girl I worked with left the bank and leased a building in a business park, and opened a doggy daycare. It's ridiculously expensive and always has a waiting list of people wanting a place for their dog.
She also has a self-service dog wash area, and at weekends there is no day care, but she offers Play Days, which are very well-attended.
It was a risk, but I'm glad to see she's having great success.
I think you just have to be really lucky for those types of businesses to succeed and you need to base yourself in the exact right location. I am happy though that the person you know was able to successfully make a go of it because it is a lovely idea. Around where I am, there's a lot of woods for walking dogs in and there are LOADS of dog walkers in the area so people tend to utilise those and, occasionally, doggy day care. I think the indoor play area would be a great idea, I just don't think it would be a successful business down where I am unless it was relatively cheap and very accessible. I think the more north you go, the more dog-friendly everything becomes and the more dog owners you get (because it's really easy to socialise them and take them to the pub, etc.) so that might be where having indoor play areas for play days would work more so than down here in the south.
I agree, a bare bones doggy park project wouldn't be a business. But it's a great idea for a community space in a neighborhood . Just need enough people to petition in favor of the project for financing. In most towns and cities in America there are usually parks for kids and family to enjoy leisure time. Walking trails, tennis courts, baseball and soccer fields are pretty much par for the course. Doggy gated areas are like the new thing and they are popping up in quite a few places.
In fairness, we do have a lot of great places to walk dogs where I am, it would just be nice to also have a place I could take her to and let her run herself ragged in a smaller space than the woods - though for the same amount of effort, I could just take her in the woods off-lead. I don't know if it would be as simple as signing a petition in favour of it to get financing but I honestly didn't look too far into it after a certain point as I started a new job and just had no time. I think I saw more dog parks in the US where I was because there were less wooded areas you could easily take your dog to walk through while there are less dog parks where I am now but more wooded areas for walking - it ended up being more of a trade-off in that sense.
A doggy spa set up for day long care would be a great business at least in the States. Your home away from home nanny for the dogs would be very profible. In America that kind of business is in demand because people love to treat their pets like a family member and almost like a child. Toys, games, learning classes, the whole package. Especially for those people that have to travel for business or leisure time. It's a growing industry in America. But what applies to America might not be seen as important in other regions of the world.
There are these places here in the UK (in terms of places to board your dog when you travel) but I think it would be hard for a new business to open up and stay running with the cost of everything unless they were charging very high fees and - if that's the case - they'd have to open somewhere that's more affluent. I also think it's more common here for people to take their dogs on more short-distance holidays with them (at least from the people I know with dogs - my in-laws, for example, would take their dogs with them on their drips over to France as they would either take the ferry or the drive-on Eurostar so the dogs would just stay in the car with the,). If you don't take your dog with you, it's quite common (again, just from my own personal experience of myself and those around me) to leave your dog with a trusted friend/family member as you're wanting your dog to stay in a familiar and loving family setting when you're travelling and it can be difficult to afford to board your dog at a posher kennel.
I'm sure there are definitely parts of the country where this service could be profitable, but it would definitely be a big risk and you'd need to do a LOT of research beforehand.
