Doggie daycare to offer nonstop fun for pooches
When Katy resident Jose Morillo moved from Fort Charlotte, Florida, back to his native Texas more than a year ago, he brought a vision to build the suburb’s own dog heaven.
Now he’s close to opening a Katy location for Camp Bow Wow, a dog daycare company with 152 locations nationally.
“I’m really excited to get going here,” Morillo said. “When we got a dog in Florida, a Camp Bow Wow opened up where we lived ... I began to think of it as a great business model; so I began to search to know more. I decided that this is what I wanted to do.”
Camp Bow Wow, which opens Sept. 19 at 1515 Vander Wilt Lane, boasts a motto of “Play all day” — promising each visiting dog unrestricted time to romp in designed areas. Its kennels, named “cabins,” “suites” and “condominiums,” go along with the vacation camping theme. Cameras track the dogs and can be viewed by owners on a phone app.
At Morillo’s facility, three open playing areas will comprise about half of the 8,700-square-foot building, with the other half being filled with kennels and service space.
Two of the three playing areas are split between the indoor facility and outdoor playing turf, each containing bridges, ladders, toys and other dog-play items.
The facility also offers basic grooming services and eventually will add dog training services, said his daughter-in-law, Jazmine.
”We even interview the dogs to make sure they are socially fit to be around other dogs,” said Jazmine Morillo. “We make sure each dog is introduced to other dogs it will be in the same area with.”
The facility, the third company site in Houston, is at 1515 Vander Wilt, close to the Westgreen exit on the Katy Freeway.
Morillo chose the location because of the large potential market and traffic volume in the area, saying studies he funded indicate that about 81,000 dogs live in Katy and nearby Brookshire, Simonton, Fulshear and Richmond.
Before deciding to start the business, which is his first, Morillo worked as a chief technology officer for several Florida hospitals.
He said he is funding the entire $1 million it costs to build the facility. An overnight stay for a dog costs $46 for a regular 4-by-4foot cabin or 3-by-4 small dog condominium and $95 for a 6-by-6 suite that includes a nicer bed and private viewing camera inside the kennel.
A typical 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. day rate is $28, but various packages can make the cost drop to as low as $22 a day, according to Morillo.
There are at least nine other Katy facilities that offer grooming, training or day/night care services. Camp Bow Wow’s strategy is to provide extensive playing time in a large area and offer services customers can’t expect elsewhere, facility marketing director Heather Peterson said.
For more information, visit www.campbow wow. com/us/tx/katytx.