Dogs catch a ride and gain TikTok fans on this adorable school bus
Hope Mehlberg, owner of dog-care service K9 Konvoy, transformed a school bus to pick up dogs of all breeds and sizes to play at a private dog park.
The dogs on this bus go ‘”woof, woof, woof!” all day long.
When Hope Mehlberg first started taking her dogs out for a walk after work, it was just to touch grass and relieve stress after a hectic day at work. However, she never thought it would blossom into a full-time doggie day care service requiring a school bus to transport the dogs.
“I worked really early morning shifts (and I’d) get home about noon every day,” Mehlberg, a former federal government employee, who lives in Oconto, Wisconsin, a small city of about 4,500 residents about 150 miles north of Milwaukee, told USA TODAY. “I was like, ‘Okay, I need to do something,’ so I started with just my own two dogs.”
Mehlberg’s two dogs then were Dodge, a 10-year-old yellow lab, who will turn 11 in April and Teddy, who was 9. Teddy, who unfortunately had to be put down usually last week for a terminal illness, would accompany Mehlberg on her trips every day, while Dodge would come less often given his age. Shortly, after her in-laws’ dogs joined in her daily walks and Mehlberg said she “would come home from work and load those four dogs up into my personal vehicle, and I would just go walk.”
“It was just about getting out of the house. It was like a stress reliever,” Mehlberg added.
How this doggie day care service began
One day as Mehlberg and her husband were having lunch at home, they heard a piercing squeal, like a dog crying. When they went out to investigate, they found a big German Shepherd which had been hit by a truck.
Turns out the dog, named Zeppelin, and his family had just moved into town and were settling in when the accident happened. Mehlberg said Zeppelin’s family had a convertible, which wasn’t adequate to transport the dog to the vet, so she went and got her car and drove the dog and his owner to an animal hospital about an hour away because the local vet did not have the equipment needed for the emergency surgery. The collision had left Zeppelin with a collapsed lung and other internal injuries, which took more than a month to heal.
After Zeppelin recovered, his owner reached out to Mehlberg asking if he could join Mehlberg’s pack on their daily walks.
“A lot of (who) I call my pet parents are working throughout the day, so it’s just a nice little service to get their dogs out of the house, get some interaction and play time because in our location, the closest doggie daycare is about 20 to 30 minutes away,” Mehlberg said.
Mehlberg said she discussed the idea with her husband and decided to start a part-time thing in the afternoons. However, her car was not big enough to transport so many dogs, and she eventually purchased a Ford utility van.
“I took all the seats out, and then I was just transporting dogs that way,” Mehlberg said.
Soon enough, word spread and pet owners in the area started reaching out to Mehlberg, asking her if she could add their dogs to her daily walks as well. For two years, Mehlberg worked part-time on the “pet-walking service,” as she calls it, rushing after work to take the dogs out.
A ‘leap of faith’ to embark on a new business
In May 2023, as her customer base expanded, Mehlberg took a leap of faith, quit her day job and started K9 Konvoy.
“That is when I got the bus,” said Mehlberg, who sold the utility van to the local high school. “It’s kind of just been a wild ride. I’m overwhelmed with all of the support.”
Mehlberg now transports between 22 and 26 dogs of all kinds of breeds, sizes and age every day, picking them up from their homes and taking them to the park, where the dogs play and socialize with each other.
“It’s insane. I never would have thought it would have been become anything like this but here we are,” Mehlberg said.
A day in the life of transporting pooches
The founder said her day begins at 8 a.m. when she revs up the engine and loads her dogs onto the bus before heading out to collect the other dogs. Mehlberg said it takes her about an hour, give or take, to collect all the dogs after which she heads to the park.
The three-acre park where the dogs play is owned by Mehlberg’s family. Mehlberg said when she started the doggie care service full-time, they cleared out the area, fenced it and added toys and play areas for the dog, including tire swings and trails. Mehlberg added the park is “consistently evolving,” and she plans to add a lot more activities once the weather improves.
“The biggest thing with me is I let dogs be dogs,” Mehlberg said. “If there are mud puddles out there, I let them roll. At the end of the day, if they are dirty or I have to bathe them, then I did my job.”
After a long day of socializing and playing, the dogs then enjoy snack time and are cleaned up if they are dirty before being boarded back onto the bus to go home.
Hanging with hounds is the ‘best job’
For now, Mehlberg is single-handedly running the business, from driving the dogs to managing K9 Konvoy’s social media accounts, although her husband does help with maintenance stuff. However, she loves every aspect of it.
“I get to spend the day with dogs,” Mehlberg said. “I can’t complain about that. Some days are a little faster than others, but overall, it is most the best job I’ve ever had, and I think I will ever have.”
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
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