Celebrating 25 Years of Happy Tails!

November 2026

I am so excited to be celebrating my 25^th year owning this wonderful business! 

Camp Happy Tails is a living, breathing, loving and magical place! Your pups are in the best hands while here with us. Everyone here truly cares about them and each other. 

We are excited to present our new website, thanks to those of you who offered your testimonials, we are also presenting the addition of this newsletter. 

We plan to have a new one every quarter. I feel blessed to have known so many wonderful dogs and their families. We hope you and your pups enjoyed your Halloween treats and gifts from us.

As most of you know, my name is Lisa Olivo, owner of Camp Happy Tails and we are dedicated to Canine love & enrichment, personally; we have our beautiful rambunctious, intelligent and loving Bernese Mountain Dog; Rose’, she will be six in January, 97 pounds of happiness and joy.  

We lost our handsome sweet male Bernese Mountain Dog Zin “Zinfandel” in March, he was close to thirteen years old. He was loved by so many for his wisdom and kind soul. 

We recently added our new little guy Primo “Primitivo” to our family, he is a mix of Bernese Mountain dog and King Charles Cavalier. He just turned 5 months old and is now mostly potty trained and just graduated to a dog bed instead of his crate at nighttime, although we still utilize his crate for safety when needed. I am a firm believer in crate training. Rose’ has adopted him and shown him how to be a good boy! 

I had forgotten the work involved in raising a puppy but do enjoy every minute with him. Believe me, it takes a village, so happy we have one! I had a left hip replacement in May and having my second one soon, thank goodness we have the wonderful support around me to keep the business going.

Larry, my husband has retired from the corporate life, and we sold our Winery “Kissed by an Angel Wines” he is still working as a winemaker for a Winery in Paso Robles, we are happy to have you join us for some wine and learn about his methods in one of our Pop-Up events, please contact me if you have interest in attending the next one in February. 

Part of our mission with the Winery business is to fundraise for the Make A Wish Foundation in our beloved daughter Amanda’s memory. I still remember her helping in Camp and with pet sitting when we first started Happy Tails Pet Sitting. She was an amazing young woman. We still feel her here and know that Camp has “Angel Amanda” watching over it.  

She had her dance studio, was engaged to be married living a full life and unfortunately, she contracted MRSA staph infection. Being a kidney transplant patient means immunosuppression, and she was unable to fight it, we lost her suddenly at 22 years of age almost 20 years ago. 

We raised over $100,000.00 in our 13 years of having the winery for the Make A Wish Foundation, also helping others through the grief of losing a loved one. We are still fundraising with our new venture of wine making and I have recently become a “Wish Granter”. As part of a volunteer team of granters, we help the kids develop their wish and then see the wish through with them and their family. If you know of a child that has a chronic health problem or life-threatening condition, I would be happy to help you facilitate a “Wish” for them. Please contact me, they are an amazing organization.

Larry helps me run the business, he wears many hats, one being the head of our fleet of vans, making sure they are in top working condition, he also helps me walk the pups in the evenings and weekends when we have lodgers on property. We have been together now for 50 years and have weathered the forest fury and Mother Nature’s challenges, we love this place and take pride in making sure it is kept up, safe and secure for your fur babies. We take their wellbeing very seriously.

We are incredibly thankful for Reina, our manager, she reminds me of my younger self, ton of energy, dedication and her love of this place, the dogs, plus her ability to take care of the many changes, diverse dog personalities, manages our team of dedicated staff and is the mom of two adorable girls.

Jerry is my wonderful Big Papa of Camp, he is a caring person who has done every job here, in the beginning took care of all of the dogs pretty much on his own with my help, we have developed a great relationship over the years, I trust him implicitly and so can all of you. Presently; the loved driver of the Santa Cruz van and helps with the maintenance of this place he has been dedicated to for almost 20 years.

Courtney is our fabulous Groomer, she has so much talent and creativity that all of you should experience, she now offers teeth scaling, which is extremely beneficial for your pups. When your pups have a dental cleaning; anesthesia is necessary. If you can get the tarter taken care of with the teeth scaling, you are saving your pup the anxiety of that and also the expense and trauma of the experience. 

Courtney has such a way with the pups, she makes a connection and develops their trust, she is an amazing talent and has a wealth of patience. She has been here doing “Tender Touch” grooming for 13 years. With the new website, we have added rates and some new photos. If you are a current client, you can attest to the amazing photos she takes of them. The blueberry facial and the super quiet nail grinder are just a few of the special things she does for the pups to improve their experience during their “Spa” time. 

We no longer offer year-round boarding but are open and happy to house your babies when they need their home away from home depending on availability. They must be part of our Camp daycare program to take advantage and be considered for boarding. 

Sometimes we can also arrange a schedule coordinating with other boarding facilities that do not have the same large area for playing. We can provide the taxi Monday through Friday to come play here then return to a more traditional boarding place for overnight/weekends, we are happy to discuss that with you if needed, please email, call or text us and we can discuss the best plan for your pups. 

Gabriel, Zach, Shane and Alina are our newest staff members, please see their profiles on the new website. They all bring wonderful and diverse talents to our team of canine lovers.

Our next newsletter will offer some homemade dog food recipes, other helpful information for dog owners. We would also love to feature some of your pup’s photos, please feel free to send them in to us, if you have a good story to share about them, please do.

We are a community of caring, kind and responsible people, thank you for being part of it!