Bark Avenue Hotel and Spa started as a mobile grooming service, with owner Terra Brown traveling to the customers’ houses to tend to their dogs, but it’s grown into something even bigger.

Located at 2230 South Frontage Road, behind the shopping center where the Tamale Place and Grace Beauty Supply reside, it now functions as a full animal hotel and spa, seeing around 60-70 dogs a week, with even cats occasionally staying there.

The idea of the business expanding to be more than a grooming service really started rolling when there was a problem with the truck. Brown said she wants to bring back the mobile operation part-time in the future, but for now she has to devote all of her time to the hotel and spa.

Brown had seen similar businesses online, and felt her business would give a better option for owners than putting their dog in a kennel if they had to leave town.

“You can board your dogs around here, but there’s nothing like this,” Brown said. “I just thought the dogs would be better, being able to be out and playing and being a dog instead of put in a kennel, but if that’s your only choice that’s what you have to go with.”

There is also a “doggy daycare” option, where a dog owner can drop off his or her pet starting at 7 a.m. and pick them up by 6 p.m. Brown said this not only lets owners send their dogs off for a fun day if they are busy, but is also used as a way to get your dogs comfortable being around other dogs under supervision.

“We make sure that they’re able to go outside as much as possible, we have snack time, we even have rest time,” Brown said. “It’s just like a children’s daycare, they just have fur. They’re taken out and they’re kept out and playing as much as possible.”

In addition to the boarding and daycare options, having a full-time building also makes the spa and grooming aspects quicker and easier.

“We do everything. We do blueberry facials, we file nails, we do a hydro-massage, we do full body haircuts,” Brown said.

Along with American Kennel Club standard grooming, Brown said there is also an option for a more creative grooming. 

“Anything you can dream up, we can do,” Brown said. For Brown, the key to her business is not focusing on pushing numbers like some bigger chains do, and instead tending to the individual needs and personalities of the animals.

“I want it to still be like the dog is coming in for a spa treatment,” Brown said. “That is the treatment that they get. They’re not rushed through.”

Bark Avenue has solely five-star reviews on Facebook, which Brown attributed to the animals being in a good mood when their owners come to pick them up.

“Their dogs love coming through the door,” Brown said. “Whenever they pick up their dog, and they’re that happy, and they’re not cowering, they’re not upset by any means.”

The business was a dream for Brown, who said that her staff was key for it to come true.

“It was a big dream, and to finally be able to put it together with the right people, I hand picked who I wanted to come here, and it works,” Brown said. “Without the way we work together, this wouldn’t be possible.”