We had the good fortune of connecting with Chiara & Raffaella and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chiara & Raffaella, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
We believe that knowledge, experience and love for dogs are the most important factors of success behind Stardogs. Chiara is a Veterinarian and a Dog Trainer while I am a Marketing Specialist. These factors have been so important for starting and running a business in the pet industry. Working with love, passion and commitment are other important factors that we and our Team put every day for each dog at the Clubhouse. We moved from Italy to Los Angeles and we joined our forces, experience and knowledge with the goal of opening a premium Clubhouse for small dogs. Stardogs is located in West Hollywood/Beverly Hills and we designed the entire concept thinking of a 5 star experience for dogs. Chiara takes care of dogs, while I work on all the marketing duties. As a Veterinarian and Dog Trainer, Chiara knows how to provide the best environment for dogs: well sanitized, safe, relaxing and stimulating. It’s important that pups socialize in a positive environment and maintain their mind and body healthy, active and well stimulated. We studied every detail to keep dogs healthy, clean, safe and happy in a great environment, just like their home. Chiara loves being helpful when dogs’ parents ask questions or have concerns about the well-being or behavior of their pups and she is always happy to give them advices and tips. At the moment she is not allowed to practice Veterinary Medicine in the USA, but she makes sure every day that all dogs at the Clubhouse are healthy, safe, happy and well behaved. Chiara graduated in Veterinary Medicine Science and she owned a Veterinary Clinic in Italy. Since she was a child, she always has been deeply passionate about helping animals recover and live a healthy life. She specialized in Anesthesiologist, Dermatology and Nutrition. One of her biggest passion is training dogs for the movie industry. In Italy she worked on movie sets and commercial spots training her dog Paco. Her dream is to train dogs for the US Film Industry. At Stardogs she offers school for pups and she hopes one day to make them famous actors! I graduated in Marketing and Communications and I realized the website and the whole concept of Stardogs. I love playing piano and painting, especially dogs’ portraits for our beloved clientele. My new mission is to start professional grooming, because I would love taking care of the dogs’ “coat style” at the Clubhouse, bringing an added value to our business. Our approach is authentic Italian and we try to make Stardogs a unique place for customers and a second home for their dogs. Our promise is making parents and pups always happy and healthy, living their best experience. We put every day, all our love, experience, knowledge and passion to make this happen!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The idea of Stardogs was born when we decided to start this new adventure abroad. We moved from Rome to Los Angeles on February 2018. Taking this decision was very hard, we knew we were leaving our family, friends, job, home and habits. It was so emotionally hard! Living a new life in this new amazing city, speaking a new language, was not easy at the beginning, but for sure it was exciting! We were alone in the big LA and we did everything by ourselves, step by step we built our new life and started our business. Once we arrived in Los Angeles, the first step was looking for a location. We saw so many spaces and we were losing hope, but finally, after three months, we found the perfect place in West Hollywood, at the border of Beverly hills. There, Stardogs was born: a premium Clubhouse for small dogs! We offer Club Time and activities to enhance every dogs’ day, and help them maintaining their mind and body healthy, active and well stimulated. School, walks, gym, treadmill and mental games are some of the activities that dogs can enjoy. At Stardogs we introduced a special wellness treatment for dogs’ skin and coat: the hydro-massage in ozone water. The ozone is the most powerful antimicrobial that exits in nature. When it is combined with water, heat and bubbles, it brings lots of benefits to dogs: it heals and treats skin diseases, dermatitis, itchiness, redness, releases joints and muscles, eliminates bacteria, spores and viruses, fights fleas, moisturizes the skin, helps with de-shedding and deep cleaning and it’s great against anxiety and stress in dogs. During the bath we add essential and organic oils and salts. The chromo-therapy and aromatherapy make the hydro-massage even more relaxing: a unique experience for dogs. In Italy Chiara used to teach groomers dermatology and skin treatments for dogs. She has been using the hydro-massage treatment in ozone water during the last 4 years and she got amazing results on the dogs’ skin and coat.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We have being in Los Angeles since 2018 and we have being working so much that we didn’t still have enough time to visit and discover LA as we would like to. Of course our friends coming from Italy would be excited to visit the most famous places in Los Angeles. They would love to taste some american food and experience the american lifestyle. The first stop would be Stardogs! After visiting the cute pups at the Clubhouse, we would walk with our friends to the Beverly Hills neighborhood, just 5 minutes away from Stardogs. There are a lot of lovely places to have lunch or dinner in Beverly Hills, some of them are Il Pastaio, Wally’s or Caffe’ Roma. In the afternoon we would bring them to the Mullholland Drive and to the Griffith Observatory for a beautiful top view of Los Angeles at the sunset. Dinner on Sunset Blvd, eating hamburger or something with a real American taste! The day after we would like to bring our friends to visit the famous Hollywood Blvd, go shopping on Melrose Blvd and have a great lunch at the Farmers Market. Of course Santa Monica and the Ocean can’t miss in our plans. Our friends would love to rent a bike, experience the atmosphere in Venice beach and watch the sunset eating a burrito on the beach.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Our family and friends in Italy supported and encouraged us through this amazing adventure, but we would like to say a special “thank you” to our customers that everyday play an important role in our lives. We receive so much love and support that our clients are not just clients, we consider some of them as friends and family. Being on the other side of the world can be hard sometime, but their love makes our hearths warm and helped us to get up during difficult times. We are so grateful to have such amazing owners and dogs! Our priority is to build a special relationship with dogs’ parents. They leave their babies at Stardogs and is very important for them to feel reassured their pups are in good hands. Most of the dogs come to the Clubhouse everyday and we really feel Stardogs is a big family! Our Team is a very important part of Stardogs. Everyday we make sure that dogs are loved and under professional supervision at all times. Our mission is to have the best Team taking care of our dogs. We would like to thank them for their work, support, love, and loyalty. We can’t imagine Stardogs without some of them during the past months and years. We all together are a family, everyday we support each other and it’s very important to us that everyone is happy to work at Stardogs. Teamwork, love for dogs, passion and professionalism are the most important requirements for being part of our amazing Team!

Website: https://www.stardogsclubhouse.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stardogs_clubhouse/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stardogs.clubhouse/
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/stardogs-clubhouse-west-hollywood
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjnVETIorQE

Image Credits
Raffaella Ferro Alessandro Bordoni Valentina Socci