A lodge to fulfi ll the need

Next Generation prides itself on making pets feel comfortable, relaxed

BY KATE RECHTZIGEL STAFF WRITER

CHATFIELD - Fireside Pet Lodge does more than provide respite for dogs and cats, and grooming services for all breeds of dogs. Experts at the lodge and its sister company focus on training dogs for obedience, retrieving, competitive shows, fi eld trials and hunting. “Pets need to be trained properly and go through the right system so they can live a happy and confi dent life and their owners can have a happy life with their pets,” said Adam Levy, one of the co-owners of Fireside. Levy and Andrew Barbouche opened the business with Kelly Bromelkamp and her husband, Casey Stickfort, in February of 2021. Levy and Barbouche grew up hunting and initially opened Next Generation Gundog Training, a retriever training facility, 13 years ago to provide training for hunting dogs. “We travel all over the country and Canada, hunting,” Levy said. “For me, there’s just that extra feeling of confi dence when you have a very well-trained dog when you’re hunting.” The Pet Lodge was fueled by demand and today is run by Levy, Barbouche, Kelly Bromelkamp and her husband, Casey Stickfort, and their ten employees. All of the owners are involved. Barbouche serves as the head trainer, Bromelkamp and Levy run the lodging kennel and Stickfort handles all legal and fi nancial matters. Levy was drawn to working in the pet industry because he quickly found out that dogs are fun animals to work with and are super smart. “Learning how to emotionally connect with and read a dog makes every dog its own challenge and that makes each new dog fun and exciting,” Levy said. “It’s something different every time.” Levy also enjoys building a relationship with the owners and training them how to work their dogs. “Seeing the progress that we can make in somebody’s dog is really intriguing because every dog is its own obstacle, its own challenge,” he said. This is something Levy knows fi rsthand from his experience running his own kennel, Next Generation Gundog Training, and working for other professionals over the years. Today, the Lodge’s trainers take the time to go over how to work their dog with new customers, and include private lessons with the training so pet owners can continue to learn and build upon the skills their dog learned during the training program. All staff are also very educated in the health and behavior of dogs, nutrition for dogs, supplementation and grooming. “Any question that somebody has specifi cally, that’s something that we can defi nitely answer,” Levy said. “If we don’t have the answers for it, we know where to fi nd them.”

Pet Lodge page 12

Fireside Pet Lodge was built February of 2021. The lodge was created after Next Generation Gundog Training owners, Adam Levy and Andrew Barbouche, noticed a need for pet boarding and grooming in Chatfi eld.

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PHOTOS BY KATE RECHTZIGEL (Above) Adam Levy is pictured with dog, Belle, inside of Fireside Pet Lodge June 28 near Chatfi eld. The lodge off ers pets relaxation and comfort in the country.

(Left) A sign hangs along Hwy 52 marked Fireside Pet Lodge. The lodge is built on 100 acres of property right outside of Adam Levy’s backyard.

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Most of the owners help, along with two other trainers, to train all breeds of dogs for pet obedience both on and off leash, including either behavior modifi cation or working on specifi c manners. Dogs stay at the lodge which gives the trainers 24/7 access to the dog so they can focus full-time on training, giving the owners back a trained animal that’s able to obey commands. “I personally think that every dog that everybody gets should go through a formal obedience program,” Levy said. “There’s a reason why we send our kids off to school and I think the same thing should happen with a pet. You’re building a confi dent foundation so they can live a long healthy life.” Dogs learn basic obedience skills such as “here,” “heel,” “sit,” “place,” walking on a loose leash and any specific behavior modifi cations or manners the owners desire. The biggest being to stop jumping or counter surfi ng. “The way that you train each dog should be completely different,” Levy said. “Each dog is an individual.” One of Levy’s favorite memories was when a dog came in with a muzzle and none of the employees could touch it, and it walked out four weeks later, loving on everybody and licking on everyone’s face. “The dog comes in three days a week for day camp, roams the place and says “hello” to everybody,” Levy said. “Every time the owner picks up the dog he says, ‘Thank you for changing my dog’s life.’” He also was quick to point out some common misunderstandings. One being that e-collars are not bad, and are actually one of the more positive or rewarding tools that can be used to train a dog. Dogs, he said, need to be treated and trained differently than we imagine because they are not humans, even though many owners treat them as such. Levy also said that dogs, despite popular belief, actually enjoy more human interaction than animal interaction. In fact, to satisfy the last point, they offer day camps for people with busy work days. Dogs are able to have day lodging with individual playtimes with one of their employees. “We don’t do a big mixed daycare where all the dogs get together in a room and play together throughout the day,” Levy said. “This allows each dog to get individualized attention, without the stress and anxiety of fi nding their place in the ‘pack’ each day they come to a facility. What most people don’t understand is that their dog is tired after a big mixed daycare because their brain or body was in fi ght-or-fl ight mode all day long. It’s extremely stressful for most dogs.” Fireside Pet Lodge also offers long and shortterm lodging for people going on vacation or those who have a crazy work schedule. People have the option to drop off their pet for a day or months at a time. “The lodging gives pets a safe place where owners don’t have to worry about them,” Levy said. They also offer an allbreed grooming service for dogs with multiple groomers and they offer conformation handling classes. “I believe every dog should receive a good bath and grooming every four weeks,” Levy said. “Healthy skin leads to a healthy coat. I see way too many dogs that don’t get groomed properly or enough and it’s quite unhealthy for them.” The new facility sits on 100 acres right outside Levy’s house, offering a country-style retreat where the dogs can listen to the birds chirping, and have the space to be trained off leash, safely. “I like it because I don’t have to go very far to work,” Levy said. “The dogs also have a lot more space to stretch out their legs and enjoy themselves. There’s that comfort and relaxation for a dog to not always be in town, and I think dogs tend to be more relaxed.” A typical day at Fireside Pet Lodge starts at 6 a.m. with letting the dogs outside for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on weather. Their kennel spaces are cleaned well during this time and dogs are brought back in and fed breakfast around 7 a.m. and have time to digest and relax afterwards. Between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., they go outside again for another 45 minutes to an hour. Then, playtimes and adherence to special requests from the owners begin. Around 4 p.m. or 5 p.m., the dogs are fed dinner and let out again for a while. The last outs are around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. “They are outside at least four or fi ve times a day and then people can book extra playtimes as well,” Levy said. Fireside Pet Lodge services Chatfi eld as well as Stewartville, Rochester, Byron, Eyota, Fountain and Preston. “The experience with our staff and owners I would put up against any place,” Levy said. In addition to the lodge and its services, owners from Fireside Pet Lodge also breed Chesapeake Bay Retrievers and have had the #1 dog in conformation for the last three years in that breed. Lodge owners happen to own the top winning Chesapeake in breed history, and Next Generation has titled multiple breeds of Retrievers to the highest level. Dogs they have bred have won Best of Breed in Chesapeakes at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show this year and at the AKC National Championship in Orlando, Florida. They currently have a dog who is a Master Hunter and Qualifi ed AllAge in fi eld trials that has won multiple Best in Shows. They have bred or own the only Retrievers in AKC history to win Best in Shows and be so highly titled in the fi eld. “We’ve won on nearly the highest levels that we can,” Levy said. “Every one of our pets are pretty memorable.” The team at Fireside Pet Lodge pride themselves on making sure the customers feel just as comfortable, or more comfortable, leaving their pets at Fireside than they do under their own care. “I really like changing people’s lives through giving them a more confi dent and obedient dog,” Levy said. “The satisfaction of seeing the happiness between dog and owner is about as good of a feeling as you possibly can get.”

An employee grooms a dog at Fireside Pet Lodge. The lodge has multiple master groomers on-site.

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Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment PHOTOS SUBMITTED Adam Levy trains a dog to stay during a pet obedience training. Dogs also learn the commands “here,” “heel,” “sit,” “place,” and any specifi c behavior modifi cations or manners the owners want.

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Niagara Cave is home to speleothems, fossils and a 50-foot waterfall

HARMONY - The Bishop family is in its element at Niagara Cave, winding through the stalactites and stalagmites, fossils 450 million-yearsold, the underground stream and a waterfall BY KATE RECHTZIGEL STAFF WRITER

that plunges 50-feet.The cave is home to different types of speleothems; stalactites, stalagmites, botryoids, owstone and columns.“I saw it for sale in a local newspaper and followed up on it,” said Mark Bishop, the owner and manager of the cave. “I was very excited about it because I have been a rockhounder my whole life.”He and his wife wanted their kids to go to a smaller school district and the family who owned the cave was transitioning out of it. It was April, 1995. Bishop grew up on his family farm near Byron which was like most back in the day and had a diverse mixture of livestock ranging from dairy cows, pigs, chickens and sheep. At the age of 16, his family sold the farm and he later went to pursue a career as a realtor and worked for the Farm Service Agency in Rochester. But Bishop’s real love was for rocks and more specifically, underground caves. Bishop, who has degrees in environmental studies and physical geography bought the cave in Harmony in 1995 and packed up his wife, Jennifer, and four sons, Eric, Christopher, Ryan and Aaron. Christopher passed away in 1999 and Eric helped out with cave operations until he married and moved to Canada. Now, almost 27 years later, the cave is still in the family and Bishop helps his two sons, Ryan and Aaronwho have degrees veopsaid. “When this cave became available, it really piqued my interest.” The cave was discovered in 1924 when Phil Todd, who was running John Kennedy’s land at the time for corn, alfalfa and oats, noticed he was missing three of his pigs. Todd asked his hired hand, Clifford Booth, and nephews, Howard and Gordon Elliot, to track the pigs down and after searching around the farm, they found them at the bottom of a 75-foot-angled sinkhole in the middle of a eld squealing, but alive. “They got ropes and lights and lowered themselves down into the hole to rescue the pigs,” Bishop said. “In fact, the building intodaysits over e The cavers, the story says, were instantly amazed by the 2-mile size and spectacular beauty inside the cave. The explorers spent many hours in the passageways before coming across the underground waterfall for which the cave was aptly named, after Niagara Falls in New York.“The greatest feature in the cave is the water fall, so the name was very tting,” Bishop said. The cavers got to wor and removed mud and s fromthe sinkhole a berWh PHOTOS BY KATE RECHTZIGEL The Bishop family (from left) Ryan holding his son, Zachary, Aaron, Jennifer holding Alexander and Mark sit just outside of Niagara Cave near Harmony. The family has been running the cave since April of 1995. HARMONY - The Bishop family is in its element at Niagara Cave, winding through the stalactites and stalagmites, fossils 450 million-yearsold, the underground stream and a waterfall Niagara Cave is home to speleothems, fossils and a 50-foot waterfall BY KATE RECHTZIGEL STAFF WRITER The cave is home to different types of speleothems; stalactites, stalagmites, botryoids, owstone and columns. “I saw it for sale in a local newspaper and followed up on it,” said Mark Bishop, the owner and manager of the cave. “I was very excited about it because I have been a rockhounder my whole life.” He and his wife wanted their kids to go to a smaller school district and the family who owned the cave was transitioning out of it. It was April, 1995. Bishop grew up on his family farm near Byron which was like most back in the day and had a diverse mixture of livestock ranging from dairy cows, pigs, chickens and sheep. At the age of 16, his family sold the farm and helaterwent t a ca wor vic Bu for ic g s oLook for the next issue July 2

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Sealed bids will be accepted at Nethercut Schieber PA, 32 Main Ave N, Harmony, MN 55939, until July 21, 2022, at 11:00 a.m., for the sale of farm real estate located approximately 3 miles Northwest of Harmony, MN, owned by the Robert D. Burmeister Estate.

The property features 166 acres +/- and is being off ered in parcels or as a whole. Parcel 1: 102.41 acre +/- parcel of mostly tillable land; Parcel 2: 45.29 acre +/- parcel, tillable and wooded; Parcel 3: both parcels 1 & 2 combined; Parcel 4: 19 acres of woods. The tillable land is being sold subject to outstanding lease for 2022 and 2023. Buyer shall receive fall rent payment (1/2 of annual lease payment). It is being sold as is.

Bids should be placed in a sealed envelope and marked “Burmeister Bid”. The bid should indicate the relevant parcel(s), bid amount, bidder’s contact information, and must be received by 11:00 a.m. on 07/21/22. The Seller reserves the right to hold a bid-off with the top three bidders on each parcel. Any bid-off shall occur at 11:00 a.m. on 07/22/22 at 32 Main Ave N, Harmony, MN or such other location as later announced. The seller reserves the right to accept any bid and reject any or all bids and to negotiate with bidders. Successful bidders will be expected to enter into a standard purchase agreement and provide non-refundable earnest money in the amount of 10% of the purchase price on the day of the bid award. Closing shall be on or before 08/26/22.