Dan’s Pet Care To Hold Grand Opening Jan. 27

A lifelong adventure in creating a one-stop shop for pups

Jan. 27 will be a very exciting day for people and dogs alike, as Dan’s Pet Care hosts their grand opening for the day care facility at 10 Shore Road in Glen Cove. The event will take place at 11 a.m.
Services at the facility include daycare, training, boarding and grooming, among other services. Daycare and boarding are cage-free, except when the dogs are eating. Dan’s Pet Care has been open to the public since December.
Stephanie Weinberg, the lead trainer at Dan’s Pet Care, believes in routine, ritual and rhythm. Weinberg has been training dogs for over 10 years, getting certified at PetSmart and training dogs of all ages.

“What I like is seeing the confidence it gives the human to be able to communicate with the pet after some struggles they may be having, or watching a nervous dog go from nervous to accepting,” Weinberg. “I also really love seeing a dog’s mind click and understanding when you slow down to their pace and let them learn at their own speed.”
While the daycare facility is new, Dan’s Pet Care has been around for over a decade. Daniel Reitman, who grew up in Port Washington and founded Dan’s Pet Care, first started walking dogs in 2009.
Growing up, Reitman has always been fascinated by animals, starting with his golden retriever puppy Sasha. “You name it, I’ve had it or tried to have it as a pet,” Reitman said. “If it moved, I was obsessed with it.”
In fact, while attending Loyola University in Maryland as a pre-med student, Reitman almost lost his housing due to having too many pets, including an emporar scorpion named Hank, piranhas and chinchillas. “The school basically wrote a bunch of new rules because of us,” Reitman said.
But while attending university, Reitman realized this path wasn’t for him. Instead, he found himself working as a vet tech for Dr. Robert Henrickson at Manhasset Animal Hospital, where he realized his passion for working with animals. He did return to school to study entrepreneurship at Nassau Community College and Hofstra University from 2008 to 2013.
Combining his passion and entrepreneurial skills, Reitman was inspired to make extra money walking dogs after a recommendation from his coworker. He saw his first client in 2009.
“I just continued with it, and it became something I didn’t realize would turn into the biggest obsession of my life,” Reitman said.
Reitman began dwindling his time at the animal hospital and doing pet walking and sitting full-time, naming his business Dan’s Dog Walking and Pet Sitting at the time.
“I want our company to be so obnoxiously good that in order to compete with us, it’s not about price; it’s just that you had to do a better job,” Reitman said.
While growing his company, Reitman began other side projects, including starting a nonprofit with friends called Hope for Hope that aimed to provide access to clean water, proper nutrition and elementary education for children worldwide. The primary project of the nonprofit was the Little Drops Home in Nyahururu, Kenya. Reitman was also involved in a tech startup called SmartLine, which created a waitlist solution for restaurants. And, he co-founded a company called ZippyCap. But Reitman realized, with advice from a friend, that he should focus on his pet care and walking business, so while the home in Kenya still exists, the nonprofit dispersed, and SmartLine was sold to PaidEasy.
In 2020, his company faced a major hurdle, the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I had to lay the entire company off,” Reitman said.
There were still people who needed services, such as first responders and doctors, so Reitman commuted from Brooklyn to Long Island to walk dogs in order to keep the community going. During that time, the company also began offering podcasts and YouTube videos.
“I’ve been looking into opening a place like this [in Glen Cove] since I started the business,” Reitman said. “We found this location and I loved when you walked in; it was a big, big space.”
Reitman competed against a couple of other businesses for the space and officially signed the lease in March of 2021.
Obtaining permits and delays in construction created a long process.
“But now that we’re here, I’m just so excited to ramp this up,” Reitman said.
Reitman prides himself of the safety of all dogs who walk through the doors of Dan’s Pet Care. All employees have experience with working with dogs and the facility is thoroughly staffed, even during the night hours.
“There’s a person in each playfield, a floater for when they need bathroom breaks and if they need help with anything and a supervisor and manager,” Reitman said. “There’s more cameras you can imagine in this building… I take the safety and well-being of every animal personally. I put my name on it.”
And to keep dogs safe and healthy, every dog goes through a temperament test to make sure they’ll get along with their caretakers and fellow pups. The facility is also thoroughly cleaned and sanitized multiple times a day to prevent dogs from getting sick, including from what has been called the “dog virus,” an unidentified respiratory virus that has been making news headlines lately.
“Every piece of equipment is cleaned and sanitized multiple times,” Reitman said. “We do a deep cleaning once a day. Every dog that comes through the building, there is a symptom check and a travel check.”
Staff are also trained on what to look out for and dogs are required to have certain vaccinations.
“What’s really great is our evaluation process,” said Joseph Alcantara, a senior manager at Dan’s Pet Care. “Here we really take our time… We get to see the dogs develop and get more comfortable and play with other dogs and learn from each other.”
Alcantara began working with animals as a vet tech assistant and kennel worker, making his way up to operations at a dog boarding facility in Mineola. While he tried work in other fields, he realized that his heart was in working with animals, so he began working at The Ark at JFK, which provides care to animals in transit through the John F. Kennedy International Airport.
But then Reitman found Alcantara’s résumé and recruited him to work in the walking and pet care side of the business.
“This has been my dream opportunity job,” Weinberg, the lead trainer, said. “I’ve had everything that a trainer could need to grow. I’ve been able to teach the walkers, I’ve been able to help the staff walk the dogs better, I’ve been helping them with animal behavior.”