- Dianne Neffendorf, 62, owns a farm in Oregon City, about a half-hour drive south of Portland.
- She lists two of her fields on Sniffspot, an app that allows people to rent land to dog owners.
- She has earned over $25,000 since early 2022 and spends about three hours a month on maintenance.
This factual article is based on a conversation with Diane Neffendorf, Oregon’s owner of the Neffindorf Ranch, about her being with the dog park next to her. sniff pointOn the app, 7,000 owners list underutilized outdoor spaces that dog owners can rent for their puppies to play. Dialogue has been edited for length and clarity.
We bought our farm 24 years ago and since 2008 I’ve been trying to figure out how to earn extra income on the land. We have two glamping cabins, we host weddings and we also raise Scottish Highland cows. We’re only a 30-minute drive from downtown Portland, but we’re a bit out of the way.
When COVID hit, our neighbors asked if they could use one of our fields because the dog park was closed. My husband and I thought, “Wow, we might be able to do something like this.” So I offered this space through Facebook, and it made a splash. So I’m busy with my calendar, Venmo, and PayPal on my phone.
After we got on the news, someone said, “Haven’t you heard of Sniffspot?” So I looked it up and it was exactly the same thing we did. Sniffspot makes booking and payment easier. They took over scheduling and tracking collections, and then we got paid monthly. We report our tax income just like any other income.
We have two Sniffspot fields – one is a half acre and the other is an acre. Sniffspot notifies me when someone signs up. They also made sure no one could overbook so I wouldn’t have two people showing up at the same time. They provide a half-hour buffer between dog park tenants. I also closed the park multiple times. So if I’m going on vacation or training, I just go to the Sniffspot calendar and block it so no one can actually book it in the meantime.
Most people carry a dog. But many people have two or three dogs. However, sometimes they meet here for dog parties.
We have an annual Irish terrier group and have been here three times now. They come from Bellingham, Texas, and Bellingham, Washington, and anywhere in between. It’s all the trash mates and their parents. They rent out the park for a few hours twice a year.
Especially on weekends, we are usually booked from sunrise to sunset. We have a lot of regulars coming here. We have a girl who comes here almost every day.
We charge $14/hour per dog and $7/hour for additional dogs. [Editor’s note: Sniffspot collects 22% of the host’s fee, with the average rental lasting at least two hours.] I want to stay competitive. Everyone can choose how much they think their yard is worth, and I think a lot of people probably underestimate it at first because they don’t realize how popular Sniffspot is among people.
I made $2,500 last month and $2,400 the month before. It seems to be going up every month – even though I have closed the park a few times throughout the month due to the rain. I think we’ll have another record revenue once the weather improves. I’m sure we’ll be making $3,000 a month soon.
Between the two fields on weekends, we averaged a total of 14 bookings a day. Now that sunsets are getting later, we should be able to book at least a few more each day during the day.
I think we provide enough scenery and perks here. We provided a potty and hardly anyone used it, so that was a big plus. We repair it every week. We have three potties on this land as we have cabins available for camping here. It costs $300 a month to repair them, and we do that most of the time.
Our overhead is small. It also includes gas for mowing, which can take up to three hours a month.
Anyone who comes here knows they have to pick it up after their dog, and they’re always good at doing it. We provide a trash can and bag for this. Few people complain, except after a dog party, that people don’t really give their dogs the attention they deserve.
When we have a wedding or any other event here, we use one of the Sniffspot areas as our parking lot. But I want to make sure I’m maintaining it now just for Sniffspot’s purposes, as nothing else can make more money on the property.
The Neffindorf family raise Scottish Highland cows, which they say have a calming effect on the dogs.
We’ve been here for a long time and I’ve decorated our property the way I like it. I have a lot of murals and fun stuff. Scottish Highland cows are actually a huge factor. Because of their breed, they are really docile. So we have barking dogs that come here and they bark directly at them. Our cows were cold and laid back. They just looked at the dogs and was like, “Oh, whatever.” So it helped a lot of dogs, or at least their owners told me.
I’ve spoken to several dog trainers and they said that even dogs with backyards need stimulation, and going into a new space is like training their brains. We have people here for scent training. They would drop things around the venue – we could see it from the kitchen window. It’s kind of cool.
I’ve never seen happier dogs before because I’m actually witnessing dogs that are not on a leash and just run around with their mates. I love seeing photos people post on our website. Just happy dogs.