Sara Gingerich, owner of Three Dog Night, walks through her dog-centric store with her St. Bernard, Snickers, on Thursday afternoon in downtown Centralia.
Sara Gingerich, owner of Three Dog Night, stands alongside her St. Bernard, Snickers, who is standing in the dog bath at her downtown Centralia store on Thursday, June 8, 2017. Gingerich, who has been a dog trainer for the past six years, opened the dog-centric store last month and offers on-site bathing options for dogs of all sizes.
Three Dog Night is located at 324 N. Tower in downtown Centralia.
For the past 6½ years, dog trainer Sara Gingerich has offered basic and advanced obedience and training for service dogs, working one-on-one with owners and their pets.
But for several years, she was contemplating a way to expand the services she could provide for her clients.
“Everything just fell into place in the last few months,” she said.
Gingerich opened her new store, Three Dog Night, at 324 N. Tower in Centralia last month.
“I’m kind of dividing my time between the two businesses,” she said. “I wanted to really have a way for people to shop local.”
The store’s name is inspired by Gingerich’s three dogs — Snickers, Midnight and Shadow.
“Store manager” Snickers — a rescued St. Bernard — greets customers as they come in.
He accompanies Gingerich to work most days.
“He just really enjoys being here,” she said, calling the sizable dog a “social butterfly.”
The store offers gifts for pet owners, dog toys, leashes, collars and specialty dog food.
“Everything in here is grain free,” Gingerich said. “Everything here would be considered premium food.”
In addition to dry foods, Gingerich also offers raw food options made of “high end proteins.”
“There’s not a whole lot of raw feeding options in our area,” she said. “Consumers as a whole in the pet food industry want to see better.”
Dog toys at the shop are chemical-free and made in the United States, she said.
Gift items include wooden signs made by local artist Shaggy Black Dog and metal art produced by an artist on Bainbridge Island.
Many of the products at the store are made by Washington or Oregon-based companies, Gingerich said.
Three Dog Night also has a self-wash station — a tub with available soap, towels and brushes — where owners can pay to wash their dogs.
The raised tub provides a convenient place to wash dogs, Gingerich said. She also said it is more cost effective than going to a groomer.
“Once they’re all done, they get to leave the mess for me,” she said.
