Two sisters are going into business together, bringing a new doggie daycare and boarding house to Flower Mound.
Amy Petrie launched a Camp Bow Wow location in Coppell in 2007, and she hired her sister, Cara, as the general manager for about two years.
Amy left the Coppell business a couple years ago and wanted to open a new one in Flower Mound.
“I loved the business so much that when she was ready to try a new venture, I was on board,” Cara Petrie said.
The sisters co-own the future Flower Mound Camp Bow Wow, which is expected to open next March as the first tenant of Prairie Commons, an under-construction commercial development along Yucca Lane, southeast of the intersection of FM 1171 and FM 2499.
“We’ve always been very close,” Cara said. “And while we do have the same work ethic, we also bring different strengths to the table. We balance each other really well.”
Amy said she has a background in accounting, but she enjoyed fostering dogs and decided to pursue a career “doing something I love.”
“I found this, and it’s a perfect fit,” she said. “It’s the happy side of dog care.”
Cara was working in legal recruiting, but “it didn’t feed my soul at all.”
“When I’d come home to visit, I’d see what Amy was doing with her business and it seemed like such a happy, fun place to be, a dynamic environment, that I fell in love with the idea,” Cara said.
The Petries, who grew up in the area, said they chose the location in Flower Mound because “it’s very clear that in Flower Mound, dogs are members of the family. We love that about the town and we want to be a part of and add to that community.”
Camp Bow Wow offers day care and boarding services for dogs with supervised indoor and outdoor play areas. Pricing is all-inclusive, meaning if your pet requires a special diet, needs medication or any other extra attention, you aren’t charged an additional fee.
Unlike similar business models, when your dog comes to stay the night at Camp Bow Wow Flower Mound, a full day of play is included at no additional charge. Whether checking in for day care or boarding, your dog gets to play all day long. All the counselors will be certified in pet CPR and first aid and go through health and safety training.
Every play yard – there will be four, for different sizes of dogs – will have HD webcams, so dog owners can watch live video on their phone of their dog interacting with staff members and other dogs.
“We know that these are people’s children, and we treat them the same way,” Amy said.
The Petries recommended people follow the Camp Bow Wow Flower Mound Facebook page for updates on construction, grand opening and job openings.
Prairie Commons is a unique office and retail development constructed under Low Impact Development Standards and with many sustainable features, said Mark Glover, owner of iMark Realty Advisors, who is developing the project.
The development includes Dark Skies Light powered by solar energy, cascading rain gardens, pollinator gardens and 100-percent-native plant landscapes. The native landscapes are irrigated with rainwater collected from the building roofs and stored in rainwater tanks with a capacity of more than 100,000 gallons.
“Prairie Commons is about nature, health, sustainability and enduring value,” Glover said.
The most noticeable feature may be the five large art murals painted on the buildings, which will “tell the story of Flower Mound’s prairies, from the time when Native Americans hunted buffalo on our prairies through the settlement and development of our prairies,” Glover said.
“Construction has really picked up after a very rainy August,” Glover said. “The first two buildings, which are office/retail for lease, will be complete by the end of this year.”
Five additional office condominiums are for sale on a custom build-to-suit basis.
