Arat Montoya just might have your dream job.
His West Linn dog daycare service offers door-to-door shuttle service for client pups in a custom yellow van dubbed the Doggie School Bus.
The Doggie School Bus costs $30 a day and includes pick-up and drop-off within a five-mile radius. A friend leases Montoya the use of about five acres of fenced rural property, where his dog clients play and run until about 2 p.m., when they head back on the bus.
An average day includes 20 dogs, though if he has a mellow pack, he can care for up to 30. All sizes and breeds of good temperament are welcome.
“I’ve never had an issue with a pitbull. I’ve never had an issue with a German shepherd or a Rottweiler,” he said. “But, let me tell you, I’ve had an issue with a Chihuahua.”
His first pick-ups start at 7 a.m. On a recent Friday, he honked as he drove by West Hills Montessori School, where the teachers and students tending a garden waved in response. Construction workers he passed on his route smiled and nodded. Joggers slowed down.
The Doggie School Bus elicits a grin from everyone.
Montoya’s dogs are eager to go to “school,” and many run out of their homes and straight onto the bus when he pulls up. Montoya converted a 1998 Ford Econoline van for the dogs, with custom wood paneling in the rear holding area. Outside, he’s painted the van yellow and added black stripes and lettering to mimic the look of a school bus.
It was all fun and games, until about half-way through the morning route, when a foul odor filled the van.
Someone had pooped.
Montoya rolled down the windows and at the next stop, hopped out with paper towels and cleaning spray.
This is a standard hazard for his line of work.
Montoya, 36, grew up in Mexico and moved to Canby when he was 15.
“My family are bakers, and my dad wanted me to be a baker,” he said. “I said, ’I’m sorry Dad, I love dogs.’”
He worked for years at Dog Club of West Linn, a dog daycare service. When the business closed, he continued working with a handful of clients, boarding and dog-sitting out of his house.
And then, three years ago, he found out his wife was pregnant.
“We were over the moon,” he said, but he realized he needed to grow his business to support his family.
In a stroke of marketing genius, Montoya had decals made and added black stripes along the sides of his gold Scion xB, which he used to transport the dogs he boarded. He parked it at the end of his driveway on a busy West Linn road.
The decals read, “Doggie School Bus.”
“I got 16 customers within two weeks,” Montoya said. “People were going bananas.”
He’s since expanded to the larger van he drives today. He has more than 300 clients. Every day he sees a different dog pack.
Two years ago, a customer took a video of her excited dog bolting out of the house and into Montoya’s waiting school bus. The clip went viral, and helped Montoya grow his Facebook page to more than 28,000 followers.
Doggie School Bus is ripe for expansion — Montoya has a second van that he’s in the process of painting yellow — but it’s been hard finding another employee.
“I’ve tried three people,” he said, “and the dogs, they don’t behave as they do with me.”
Once at “school,” the dogs sprinted out of the van and proceeded to run, fetch, sniff and, occasionally, mount each other. Montoya tells them to knock it off, and they actually listened, but he’s constantly re-directing them.
“Every day, all day,” he said.
Still, Montoya loves his work. He knows all the dogs’ names and can identify most by bark, sight unseen.
“I’m the happiest man in the world doing what I’m doing,” he said.
-- Samantha Swindler
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