The Wag Lab, Bucktown’s New Doggy Daycare, Takes Donations For Homeless Pets And Their Owners

BUCKTOWN — Linette Robles has two lifelong passions: helping those less fortunate than herself and taking care of dogs. 

With the Wag Lab, 1655 N. Western Ave., she’s combining both passions.

Wag Lab, which opened earlier this month, is primarily a boutique daycare for dogs less than 25 pounds. It also serves as a collection center for donations to support homeless pets and their owners in Chicago.

“There’s a lot of owners that don’t have the means to get poop bags,” Robles said. “I figured I could kill two birds with one stone.”

The Wag Lab offers two-day bundles priced at $60 per day and three-day passes at $55 per day, Robles said. Daycare services include medication administration, cuddle sessions and “sniffaris” — a portmanteau of sniff and safari — which Robles said are walks that let dogs lead the way by following their own noses.

Robles hopes to keep the space intimate by accepting a small number of dogs — about 10 to 15 at a time as of now — and offering a free coffee bar for pet owners during drop-off and pickup. 

Robles is also collecting donations for pet supplies, including food, leashes, toys and poop bags, as well as $5 gift cards for stores like Aldi, McDonald’s, Walmart and Dollar Tree. The items will be stored in the space and available to be picked up by Chicagoans and their pets who are struggling with homelessness. 

“This gives sort of the opportunity to get what they need, if they need shampoo, if they need soap,” Robles said. “I know $5 isn’t much, but I think that if I put a little bit and you put a little bit, it just helps.” 

The Wag Lab will host an open house 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday where it will give away goodie bags with items like treat-dispensing balls and poop bags. The first five families to register their dogs for daycare will receive a free six-month supply of poop bags, Robles said. 

The inspiration for opening the Wag Lab comes from a marriage between Robles’ two previous ventures. Since 2017, she’s operated K9 Sweets and Pet Care from her home in Humboldt Park, providing mobile fecal testing and private, one-dog-at-a-time boarding for dogs and drop-in visits for small dogs and cats. 

Since 2010, Robles has also run the Oman Center, a nonprofit providing meals, hygiene products and seasonal items like winter coats to people who are homeless. The organization started with Robles handing out sack lunches to people experiencing homelessness on holidays like Thanksgiving, inspired by kindness she found growing up with a single mother in a home marked by struggle and uncertainty, she said.

Robles is a North Side native and grew up attending the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, which provides bus transportation for people in the Chicago area who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend church. Steve Oman, who worked on the bus that brought her family to church, took them “under his wing,” buying them birthday cakes and Christmas gifts when they didn’t have any. 

“I want to be that angel that he was to us to other people,” Robles said. 

Robles said she used to dislike dogs, but about a decade ago, her daughter, an animal lover, convinced her and her husband to foster one. That prompted her to keep fostering and ultimately kickstarted her career in pet care. 

Robles doesn’t have a dog of her own because when her first client at K9 Sweets and Pet Care got sick and had to be put down, “it was the hardest thing ever,” despite it not being her own pet, she said.

“Bring me your pets, I’ll love on them, cuddle with them and then you could take them,” Robles said. “Just like the grandkids.”

The Wag Lab is open 7 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.