Our Story

Animal Motel was founded by Don and Diana Gutknecht in 1960 and was located in Milwaukee for 27 years. We designed and had our present facility built in 1987. We relocated to this facility in March 1988. Don and Diana are still the owners and operators of Animal Motel. Their daughter, Dawn, and son, Daryl, are also actively involved in the business. Dawn is a professional groomer and Daryl is a pet travel agent.

Don started his training career, along with working with people and their dogs, in 1946. In 1952, he entered military service and served in the K-9 Corps. His responsibilities included training sentry and scout dogs, along with managing the kennels in the Far East during the Korean Conflict. He served on the Army Dog Training Center demonstration team, working and training silent scout dogs, sentry dogs, messenger dogs, and casualty dogs. Don trained army personnel for scout and sentry work in Korea , serving in Korea with 39th Infantry scout Dog Platoon. He was NCO in charge of the Far East Sentry Dog Training Center in Japan.


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Our Original Facility
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Don Gutknecht in K-9 Corps
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our story.htm our story.htm
boarding.htm boarding.htm
grooming.htm grooming.htm
training.htm training.htm
travel.htm travel.htm
pet shop.htm pet shop.htm
where we are.htm where we are.htm
what's new.htm what's new.htm
employment.htm employment.htm
other links.htm other links.htm