Across the City of Peterborough and Peterborough County, more and more established businesses are choosing Community Futures Peterborough (CFP) as their preferred lender to accelerate growth.
One of those businesses, Complete K9 Care, has developed a reputation over the past 13 years for providing high-quality dog training with proven results.
When Brent and Sarah Alvey were seeking a loan for their planned expansion, they chose CFP over traditional banks because of the non-profit organization’s flexible repayment plans, wrap-around business support, and commitment to reinvesting every dollar back into the community.
“As they’re growing and expanding, clients are choosing us because they appreciate the ease and the comfort they feel in working with both our lending and our advisory team,” says CFP executive director Devon Girard.
“Every day, we continue to see businesses come through our doors who want to invest in their businesses in our region, and that’s exciting for us to see.”
Thirteen years of helping dogs and owners succeed
Complete K9 Care founder Brent Alvey has been training dogs for 13 years, ever since he had his own pet with behavioural issues. He then began volunteering with rescue shelters, fostering and helping dogs be ready for new homes, before launching Complete K9 Care.
Now operated with the support of Sarah Alvey and located on a 35-acre property in Otonabee-South Monaghan near Keene, Complete K9 Care delivers reliable dog training services that address everything from basic obedience to reactivity and fear-aggressive behaviours.
Having been a protection dog decoy at the national level (a trained specialist who acts as the “bad guy” during bite work and protection training), Brent also offers training for dogs competing in protection sports. In addition, Complete K9 Care’s services include board and train, overnight boarding, classes, workshop, and, now, an all-new daycare.
“We get a lot of dogs in for behavioural issues such as human reactivity and dog reactivity, because we get results where a lot of other trainers can’t,” Brent explains. “I’m willing to work with these dogs when other trainers won’t because it can be dangerous.”
Brent’s experience in sport has given him opportunities to learn techniques from trainers around the world, continually building his knowledge and individually adapting proven methods for each of the dogs he trains.
“It comes down to not taking a cookie-cutter approach,” says Brent. “I had a dog recently with behaviours I hadn’t seen before, so I had to figure out a solution on the fly. I read the dog, tried something, and it worked. It’s about being open-minded and creative and willing to try new things.”
“He’s got the skills, he’s got the knowledge, and he’s got the reputation,” Sarah adds.
“He also sets realistic expectations for clients instead of selling a dream. That’s the reality of what it means to be a trainer and to deal with challenging behaviours. Dogs are sentient animals — you’re not programming a computer. There’s a lot of work to do, and then there’s aftercare and ongoing management.”
Complete K9 Care is all about setting clients up for success when they take their dogs home at the end of their training, providing free support to clients afterwards if they’re not getting the results they desire.
“If you start making the training too complicated, people aren’t going to follow through with it,” Sarah says. “If you want to show off your skill and how fancy you are, just because you can do it, you’ve made it very unsustainable for the owner to keep up with everything they need to do.”
Creating more opportunities for dogs to learn, play, and thrive
Complete K9 Care is in a pivotal moment of expansion, as the Alveys are bringing on new trained staff and introducing all-new puppy classes that go beyond traditional skill learning to include responses to environmental stimuli, impulse controls, off-leash recall, and much more.
On November 4, the business also celebrated the grand opening of its new dog daycare, which Sarah says will help transform Complete K9 Care into a central hub for canine enrichment.
Unlike some unstructured daycares where dogs end up going home over-stimulated and with bad behaviours, Sarah says Complete K9 is focused on promoting positive development through structured exercise and mental enrichment.
“This is a place where they can come and have their exercise, but we have a bunch of enrichment activities for the dogs to do,” Sarah says.
“We have different obstacle courses and jumps. They’re still playing, but they’re engaging in a positive way that helps them build confidence, and they’re engaging with professional handlers.”
Flexible lending from CFP gave Complete K9 Care the ability to grow
To create the enriching environment, Complete K9 Care needed to completely overhaul one of the outdated barns on their property. However, the Alveys were hesitant to seek financing from a traditional lender as they had previously self-financed their business.
“I wanted something that I’d be able to repay as soon I wanted,” Sarah says. “At a bank, you can get penalized if you pay a loan back too soon, and we don’t like having debts.”
One reason the Alveys decided to reach out to CFP is the fact that all their loans are open and repayable at any time without penalty to the client.
“I thought it was a massive loan that was going to be unattainable and realistic, but I asked anyways,” Sarah recalls. “They believed in the program and what we were doing, which was really nice. It helped to give us the confidence and support to push forward with it.”
When filling out the loan application, the Alveys were guided with one-on-one support from CFP loan manager Braden Clark. He saw consistent growth and profitability from the business, while seeing the potential for the new daycare to diversify revenue while introducing local job opportunities.
Not only do CFP clients receive penalty-free prepayments, but there can be flexibility in the payment schedule as well. For example, seasonal businesses might increase their payment during months with higher revenue to balance out the slower months.
“When times are tight and there are different inflationary pressures on businesses, it’s really simple for us to work with clients to adjust their payment schedules and that is why they choose us,” Devon explains.
“If they are a more seasonal business, or if they’re in a position where their receivables are coming in three months from now, it’s easy for us to work with them and make those changes to create flexible repayment schedules that work.”
She notes that almost $1 million in client loans are repaid early “pretty consistently” every year, which is recycled back out into new loans to other businesses in the community.
“That is really a sign of success, and something that we view as a marker of a business achieving their goals earlier than they had expected to,” Devon says.
Business support that goes beyond financing
Complete K9 Care also continued to access support from CFP’s Business Advisory Centre, including marketing assistance and support to prepare for the daycare’s grand opening.
“With the addition of the Business Advisory Centre and having a senior advisor on board, we’re able to support businesses as they expand,” Devon says.
“It’s helped us reach a wider range of clients, making it a more seamless journey for small businesses to access both lending opportunities through loans and expert marketing and advisory services.”
For her part, Sarah says the extra support from the Business Advisory Centre was a pleasant surprise.
“I was not expecting to get this additional support,” she says. “With CFP, you feel supported — like your project matters not just to you, but to them. That’s a nice feeling.”
Sarah adds that it’s a bonus that every dollar of interest collected by CFP is paid forward to other entrepreneurs.
Devon says that is one of many reasons why CFP has become a preferred lender for both start-ups and expanding businesses.
“We know in Peterborough the businesses that we serve believe in the local economy and they believe in local entrepreneurs and local small businesses,” she says.
“They know that taking a loan through us also keeps that money in the community, allowing the loan fund to be reinvested into other businesses in our region. We have such a resilient and ambitious small business community, and we’re proud to play a small role in supporting them.”
To learn more about Complete K9 Care, visit completek9care.ca. For more information about Community Futures Peterborough, visit communityfuturespeterborough.ca.
This branded editorial was created in partnership with Community Futures Peterborough. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.
