Go Dog Chattanooga is the newest location of pet hospitality facilities owned by CHA OpCo, LLC. The owners have businesses in two cities in North Carolina and one in Nashville that has been open a couple of years. After visiting Chattanooga, Benjamin Eberdt, one of the owners, said the city was a good fit and the building and location they found at 255 W. 20th St. were very suitable for their type of business. Go Dog primarily has boarding and day care for dogs. Another component of the business will be a social with an off-leash dog park and bar with TVs, music and watching dogs play as the entertainment.
The goal is to open the bar/dog park piece of the business “as soon as possible.” This will be more of a dog first establishment instead of trying to be a bar. To start, there will be seven-eight different beers on tap and later there may be mixed drinks available.
There will be bartenders behind the bar and attendants stationed around the park to supervise the dogs. Mr. Eberdt said although there are people watching and monitoring, the dog’s owner is ultimately responsible. People and pets will enter through the lobby and to get in, they must be a monthly or yearly member so that the monitors will have records on file for each dog and will be familiar with their temperament and behaviors. Day passes will also be available.
Bar managers and staff serving beer will have TABC licenses and IDs of all customers will be subject to age checks on the point-of-sale system. Beer Board member Dan Mayfield said that he could not help asking “if you calculate the dog’s age in dog years?”