A small-town pet resort with big-facility standards

The story

The Ruff Inn opened its doors on Atlanta Street in December 2023, in a building we renovated ourselves on the edge of downtown Gravette. The grand opening party followed on July 19, 2024, with half the town and most of its dogs in attendance.

Chelsea Caspermeyer runs the resort day to day. She is the reason your dog gets greeted by name at the door, the reason a photo report card lands on your phone during every stay, and the standard-setter for how every animal in the building gets treated. Ryan Shelton handles the finance and strategy side, which mostly means keeping prices honest and the lights on.

The team behind them is small on purpose. We never have more than 50 dogs in the building at once, so playgroups stay supervised by people who can tell the difference between play and trouble at a glance and who actually know every dog by name.

The community part

Gravette gave us our start, so we invest back. We are active members of the Gravette Chamber of Commerce, we founded Gravette's first Poodle Day, we were voted a Nextdoor Neighborhood Favorite in 2024, and our Google rating (4.9 stars across 136 reviews) is built almost entirely on word of mouth from neighbors across Gravette, Bentonville, Bella Vista, Centerton, Gentry, Decatur, and surrounding Northwest Arkansas.