Lynaire Kennels celebrate 30 years in business | News

Representatives of the New Bern Area Chamber of Commerce, city officials, friends and customers of Lynaire Kennels gathered Thursday to celebrate with staff and the owner, Linda Baake Jarvis.

Linda Jarvis opened Lynaire Kennels in December 1994, while working as a manager for a physician’s practice in Morehead City.

“I always thought about owning my own business and I know dogs because I was showing and breeding Airedale terriers,” Jarvis said. “I decided my dream would be to open a kennel and realized the need for a good kennel in the area. There really wasn’t a nice kennel in our area.”

Jarvis lived in Morehead City until she built a home on Lynaire’s property in 1998.

When she began looking at property in 1993, she started in Morehead City but the high cost of property in the city pushed her search further west, into New Bern.

After she purchased the property on Old Cherry Point Road, she hired an architect to design a kennel and drew up a business plan.

“How I had the courage to do what I did still surprises me,” she said. “I basically borrowed all this money, spent all the money on the land, hired the architect and didn’t even have my first customer.”

Lynaire Kennels, at 4634 Old Cherry Point Road, opened its doors weeks before Christmas in 1994 and Jarvis was thrilled when all 60 of the indoor-outdoor runs were full by the holiday. However, by Jan. 2, 1995, there was only one customer.

“I thought, hot dog, this is going to work,” she said. “What I didn’t realize is that all the other kennels were full so people called us because everybody else was full. I never thought about it that way, but that’s exactly what happened.”

Since then, Jarvis has been able to expand Lynaire Kennels and offer more services than just dog boarding.

They offer grooming and spa services, with a team of three groomers, one of whom has worked there for 25 years.

“We’re fortunate to have several employees that have been with us for years,” Jarvis said. “All of my staff are major animal lovers and they are so excited to see their dog customers come in.”

Co-manager Kristy Gaskins has worked with Jarvis for 20 years and co-manager Heather Stanley has been with her for 19 years.

The crematory, which Jarvis added in 2001, has been run by John Carraway for 10 years.

Jarvis purchased a crematorium and constructed a building on the property for pet cremations because she realized that service wasn’t available in the area.

“We approached the vets in the area, many of them were on board and thought it was a great idea,” she said. “I was very pleased when that took off and it’s a wonderful thing in the wintertime when boarding is lighter because it helps supplement our income.”

She continued to work in Morehead City until 2014, but when she married James Jarvis in 2004, he helped run Lynaire Kennels. James Jarvis helped with repairs and bookkeeping while his wife was working.

Also, when Linda Jarvis was ready to expand the facility, he helped design the addition. In 2008, they created a space with more grooming rooms, 26 large indoor-outdoor boarding runs and 10 boarding suites.

When she retired in 2014, she took over the books and operations.

Lynaire Kennels has runs with guillotine-style doors that allow indoor and outdoor access in four sizes ranging from small to giant. The guillotine-style doors allow staff to care for K-9s and service dogs with special hands-off instructions.

Owners can purchase optional play time or nature walks for their dogs and all dogs receive a complimentary bath before returning home.

Suites are also available, which is a bedroom-like accomodation with special bedding, a flat screen television and a private outdoor space.

Jarvis said she tried to make Lynaire Kennels unique from others in the area by creating large boarding spaces and staying away from group play. Each dog has their own enclosed outdoor area and there are many enclosed play areas outside so dogs can’t interact with each other.

“We’re the only kennel in town that doesn’t do group play and we don’t because I consider it dangerous,” she said. “Also, all of our runs are 17 feet long, even the small ones.”

Jarvis said she’s proud of what they’ve accomplished at Lynaire Kennels since its beginning in 1994.

Since then, she’s also been able to get more involved in the New Bern community.

Before Colonial Capital Humane Society expanded, Lynaire Kennels would house their dogs when extreme weather was expected. When Hurricane Floyd struck North Carolina in 1999, she aided efforts to rescue dogs who were left behind by housing pets until owners could pick them up.

Jarvis said that even though she may not be around for the 60th anniversary of Lynaire Kennels, she’s already thinking of the future.

“In the future, I really would like to see it continue to be run with care and remain a family business,” she said. “I’m not interested in selling it to one of these big conglomerates because I’ve seen businesses go kind of downhill with absentee owners who are not around.”

However, she isn’t ready to sell the business anytime soon.

“Lynaire Kennels is my baby,” she said.