Our Philosophy
To ensure the safety, comfort and happiness of dogs placed in our care, we provide 24-hour supervision and care. There is ALWAYS humans on the premises ready to hug, snuggle and play with our precious clients. Under the trained, caring and watchful eye of our human "pack-leaders", dogs can socialize, play, run, chew, sleep, drool, sit, stay and bark until their heart's content!
“Unlike other doggie daycares, Eva’s Play Pups offers various outdoor activities to keep your pup happy, healthy, and mentally simulated.”
About Us
Eva’s Play Pups was founded in 2002 by Eva and Sofia, two sisters who are just plain crazy about dogs. They wanted to create a place where dogs can run, play and be loved all day while their owners are busy at work or taking a trip.
Watch the video to learn more.
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Meet Eva
Eva grew up near her grandparents farm in Sweden raising dogs, cats, chicken, cows, pigs and horses. She developed an understanding of and love for animals at an early age.
She graduated from Hunter College and began her career at a political research company—soon realizing that wasn't the path for her. Instead, she trained as a veterinary technician at an animal hospital and discovered caring for animals was her true calling.
In 2000, Eva founded Eva’s Play Pups dog walking services, providing dog walking and cat sitting to Park Slope residents and their pets. Today, Eva's Play Pups has expanded the business to include country camp at our farm in the Pennsylvania mountains.
Eva's favorite part of her job is spending time with the dogs outdoors at the farm and in the mornings at Prospect Park.
Meet Sofia
Sofia Fasth was always surrounded by animals while growing up in Sweden. She spent a lot of time on the family farm along with her sister Eva where she developed a real love and connection with all animals, but became especially close to dogs. After spending numerous years working in restuarants in New York while putting herself through college she jumped on the chance to team up with Eva and run Eva's Play Pups.
Sofia currently lives in Brooklyn with her 4 dogs—Lola, a rescue pitbull, Jelly, an akita mix, and Cody and Rocky her Chihuahuas.
Meet a few of our other staff members:
Meet Mikki
Mikki has worked with our guests at The Farm (as we lovingly call our Countryside Dog Camp facility) since December 2012. She has three fuzzy babies: Otto aka "The Little Man" is a 4 year old Rat Terrier Mix, Daisy Mae aka "The Terror" is a 2 year old Beagle Jack Russel Mix, and Franklin aka "The Ham" is a 4 year old Beagle. Mikki and her pack enjoy yard work, painting, and chasing bunnies on long hikes in the woods. Mikki is from Eynon, PA, is the lead vocalist of the North Eastern PA rock band Last of Nine, and enjoys volunteering at local theater groups. Mikki says working with dogs is relaxing and fun. Spending a day at the farm in the company of sweet pups is her kind of job!
Meet Natasha
Natasha, a beach bum from the North Fork of Long Island, stumbled upon working at Eva's Play Pups while looking for a journalism job in the Big Apple, and says she couldn't be happier having life surprise her with this career change! "I always wanted to work with dogs, but being from a small town there wasn't many opportunities," Natasha said. "Eva's and Brooklyn have helped me on my way to the life I want!" Natasha grew up with several Labradors, and credits her childhood dogs, Jeter and Ziggy, to her pursuit of becoming a trainer for assistance dogs. She spends her weekends with her 10-year old Chocolate Lab, Leroy, and her 3-year old Pit-bull, Otis. She says their goofy, loving nature is contagious and she can't imagine life without them. Natasha said she doesn't feel like working at the daycare is a job, but a privilege. "It's like that joke when people are having a bad day and they just want to be covered in puppies...I literally am!" When she's not working Natasha enjoys writing, reading, swimming and burning through television series all at once on Netflix.
Meet Kristina
Kristina, a California import and dog-lover extraordinaire has worked at Eva's Play Pups since 2010. "Working at Eva's Play Pups isn't really like a job to me, it's like Sofia asked me to come play with puppies all day. Who would say no to that?" She moved to New York for a change of pace, and didn't waste much time before rescuing her pit bull, Red, from Craigslist. Kristina said once Red's former owner knew she worked at a doggie daycare "the dog was in the bag." Growing up in San Diego she and her mom shared a home with their lazy beagle, Charlie, and crazy cattle dog named Daisy; both of whom kept Kristina warm every night. "I've loved dogs since I was little," Kristina says. "I thought I had the 'magic touch' like I was the dog whisperer or something, haha!" In her spare time she loves gardening, reading, and anything 'dog' in general.
Meet Robert
Daycare worker Robert may not have a dog of his own right now, but he says that void is easily filled by coming to work each day at Eva's Play Pups! Robert says this job is a dream come true. Originally from Puerto Rico, Robert did always grow up with a dog around, naming Buddy, a Maltese-Poodle mix as his favorite. "Nothing beat coming home from work and having him excited to see me." Robert moved to New York to get a fresh start in life and is finding it working at the daycare. At 26-years old his hobbies include cooking, swimming and hiking. He has a strong work ethic, always wearing a smile and making sure he goes the extra mile for the dogs' comfort. "I get to work having fun with doggies," Robert said. "To me it doesn't get better than that!"
Meet Valerie
Daycare worker Valerie is the youngest pack leader at Eva's Play Pups at 20-years old. She has recently begun her academic journey at Queens College to become a veterinary technician so working at Eva's was a natural choice for her. In her free-time Valerie is an avid runner and always brings her 2-year old yellow lab-pit mix named Rocky. She says he may have even more energy than her! Whenever she gets a chance to bring him to the beach he runs wild; diving in the water sans caution and even sticking his snout below the water to discover the mysteries of the sea. Valerie has been a dog-lover since birth spending every summer with her uncle and his three dogs in Ecuador. Valerie's small in stature, but always kept up with Great Dane Duke, a Chow Chow named Leo and, her favorite—a mutt named Nekko. She said she enjoys coming to work every day and interacting with all different types of breeds. Needless to say, Valerie is not only working on becoming a professional in the veterinary world, but a professional cuddler, as well.
Meet Kelly
It may be less than a year that Kelly has worked at Eva's Play Pups, but she is already quite the accomplished pack-leader. This 27-year old all-around animal lover says there's nothing like, "a happy tail-wagging dog trot!" and that the time spent with the dogs at the daycare is a win-win; they love the attention and the chance to have several walks throughout the day, and Kelly loves bonding with so many pooches (especially the large ones!). She's originally from Long Island and moved to Brooklyn because she always wanted to be part of the big city while not being too far from her family. Back home, Kelly's a big sister to her younger brother and sister, as well as her family dog, Layla, an older lab mix who has mellowed out in her old-lady days. She doesn't have a dog of her own, but along with her two cats, Keyser and Stella, she is constantly fostering for Badass Brooklyn Foster Rescue. Besides assisting rescue dogs in their adoption, Kelly enjoys thrifting, eating pizza, and collecting unusual cat art (she says she's still a cat lady at heart).
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