WICHITA, Kansas — More than 40% of Kansas households have a dog, but not everyone has a place where dogs can run, explore and burn off energy.
Enter Sniffspot. The website and app lets people list their backyards or other spaces to rent by the hour as puppy playgrounds.
The site began in 2018 in Seattle, where David Adams lived with a couple of energetic mixed-breed dogs named Toshii and Soba.
“I was living in a high rise and going to public dog parks, and it wasn’t a good experience,” Adams said. “I looked around at all this empty land, and I said, ‘Hey, why not let people rent out land when they’re not using it?’”
Because people are already familiar with short-term rental sites like Vrbo and Airbnb, the concept was easy to explain.
“People get it when I just say ‘Airbnb for dog parks,’” Adams said.
So far there are about 200 Sniffspots across Kansas — about 30 in the Wichita area — and the number has doubled since April. Bigger cities like Seattle, Dallas and Los Angeles have several hundred spots.
Anyone can apply to list a property on the site, and someone from Sniffspot reviews it to make sure it’s safe. Most Sniffspots are fenced yards, but some feature private land with rivers or lakes, splash pads, hiking trails, agility courses and even beaches.
Karen Regier owns a farm outside Newton. A half-acre portion is sectioned off with a chain-link fence and marked with a sign that says, “The Woof, LLC.”
Regier said most of her customers are people with large dogs and small yards.
“Big dogs need to run, so they come out here. It’s really a lot of fun,” she said. “They can come and have the whole place … and not worry about dogs fighting and things like that.”
Some dog owners who rent Sniffspots live in apartments and don’t have yards where their dogs can run off-leash. Others avoid public dog parks because of safety concerns. Some travel with their dogs and look for Sniffspots where their pets can run off some energy.
In Wichita, a new off-leash dog bar called Barks & Brews is part of the Sniffspot network. The renovated service garage features a 5,000-square-foot turf play yard with picnic tables and Adirondack chairs, as well as an indoor bar serving beer and mixed drinks.
Because the bar can host multiple dogs at once, it requires dog owners to upload proof of vaccination records ahead of time. Employees known as “Bark Rangers” monitor the play yard, and there’s a sectioned-off “chill zone” where small or overexcited dogs can take a break.
Katie Root said she feels safer bringing her small mixed-breed dog, T., to the private park.
“They require vaccination records, and they have Bark Rangers that kind of keep an eye on the play yard, versus a dog park (that) is just kind of a free-for-all,” Root said.
Koda Franklin works as a Bark Ranger, playing with dogs and supervising the yard. It’s also a favorite spot for her own dog, Octavia.
“I have a public dog park in my apartment complex, (but) I bring them here only,” she said. “I’ll take them outside to go to the bathroom, and then I’ll bring them back in. But if they’re going to play, they’re coming here.”
Adams, the Sniffspot creator, said dogs need physical exercise to stay healthy, and they also need mental enrichment.
“A dog really senses the world through their nose. So being able to go sniff a new area — especially an area like a Sniffspot that has a lot of interesting smells — is really good for dogs,” he said.
For property owners, extra income is another bonus. An average Sniffspot rents for about $10 an hour. The website takes a 25% cut, but the company provides property owners with $1 million in liability coverage.
Pet owners are expected to clean up after their dogs. And just as with Airbnb, the property owner and renter review each other on the app.
“Our hosts are people that love dogs,” Adams said. “Some of them … have dogs and can understand the need for dogs to have private space. But a lot of them just love bringing joy to dogs.”
Suzanne Perez reports on education for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @SuzPerezICT.
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