Fort Worth Couple Begins Franchise Journey With Ambitious Texas Expansion
For Trinity Shields and Abigale “Abby” Freeman, becoming franchise owners is starting with a considerably bigger commitment than opening a single business.
The Fort Worth couple has signed an agreement to develop three Camp Bow Wow locations in North Texas, bringing the dog daycare and boarding franchise to Weatherford, Burleson and Granbury.
Their first location is planned for Weatherford.
From there, the married couple will work toward developing the other two territories, transforming their first experience in franchising into a multi-location pet care business.
Their story comes at an interesting moment for Camp Bow Wow. The franchise is changing how its locations are developed, lowering the cost of opening new Camps and creating a format intended to make expansion easier for entrepreneurs who eventually want more than one location.
Finding a Business They Could Build Together
Shields and Freeman were searching for franchise opportunities when they discovered Camp Bow Wow.
They were not simply looking for an investment. They wanted to build a business that could become part of the communities where they operate while giving them an established system to follow.
Camp Bow Wow’s emphasis on dog safety, structured operating procedures and support during the franchise discovery process helped separate the concept from other opportunities they considered.
Pet care also offered something important to the couple: a business with a strong emotional connection to its customers.
Dog owners are not simply purchasing a convenience when they leave their pets for daycare or overnight boarding. They are trusting another business with a member of their family.
That makes reputation, safety and customer confidence particularly important in the category.
For Shields and Freeman, those priorities aligned with the type of operation they wanted to build.
Weatherford Comes First
The entrepreneurs plan to begin their expansion in Weatherford before moving into Burleson and Granbury.
Opening sequentially provides an opportunity to learn the business at the first location before managing a larger operation.
It also gives them time to establish local relationships.
The couple expects to work with veterinarians, animal shelters and rescue organizations throughout their territories. Those connections can help a pet care business become more deeply tied to its community while introducing the brand to dog owners through organizations they already know and trust.
As their network grows, the goal is for each Camp to become more than simply a place where customers leave their dogs while working or traveling.
Camp Bow Wow locations can provide daycare, overnight boarding, grooming and enrichment services, creating multiple reasons for customers to return.
A New Kind of Camp Bow Wow Location
The three Texas Camps will also be connected to a broader change happening inside the franchise system.
Camp Bow Wow has introduced a redesigned prototype intended to make new locations less expensive to develop.
The company says the new model can reduce the required initial investment by more than $400,000 compared with its previous development format.
The difference comes partly from creating a more efficient physical footprint.
Pet care facilities can be challenging development projects. They need sufficient space for dogs, appropriate indoor and outdoor areas, specialized infrastructure and locations that make sense for customers.
Large real estate requirements can limit the properties available to franchisees and increase construction costs.
Camp Bow Wow’s newer approach is meant to improve that equation by creating more flexibility without eliminating the features that define the customer experience.
For entrepreneurs planning several units, those savings become particularly meaningful.
A reduction in development cost at one location is important. Across a multi-unit agreement, the ability to build using a more capital-efficient prototype could significantly affect how quickly an operator can expand.
Camp Bow Wow Already Has Deep Texas Roots
Shields and Freeman are entering a market where Camp Bow Wow is already familiar to many dog owners.
The franchise currently has more than 30 Texas locations, including Camps throughout Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and surrounding areas.
At the same time, Camp Bow Wow continues to identify Texas communities where additional franchises could be developed.
That makes the state’s growth story different from a completely new market launch.
The objective is now to fill gaps between established locations and extend the brand into communities where population growth and pet ownership may create additional demand.
Weatherford, Burleson and Granbury fit that strategy particularly well because each provides access to communities surrounding the larger Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.
Pet Care Continues Attracting Franchise Investment
Camp Bow Wow has spent more than two decades building its position in the professional dog care market.
The franchise now operates more than 220 locations across the United States and has also expanded into Canada.
Its growth has coincided with the transformation of the pet industry itself.
Services once viewed as occasional luxuries have increasingly become routine purchases for many dog owners. Daycare can help working households manage active dogs, boarding provides care during travel, and grooming and enrichment services create additional ways for consumers to spend on their pets.
That shift has made professional pet services increasingly interesting to entrepreneurs looking at recurring consumer demand.
But growing demand alone does not guarantee a successful franchise.
Operators still need the right real estate, adequate capital, trained employees, strong local marketing and systems that can deliver consistent care.
That is where established franchise infrastructure can become particularly valuable for first-time business owners.
From First Franchise to Regional Operator
The most interesting part of the Shields and Freeman agreement may ultimately be its scale.
They are entering franchising for the first time, but they are doing so with the intention of becoming multi-unit operators.
Their path begins with one Weatherford location rather than three simultaneous openings. That gives them the opportunity to prove the concept locally, build an operating team and apply what they learn before expanding farther.
Burleson and Granbury can then become extensions of an already functioning operation rather than three completely separate startups.
For Camp Bow Wow, the arrangement supports two important development priorities at once: expanding further across Texas and demonstrating that its redesigned prototype can make multi-unit ownership more accessible.
For Shields and Freeman, the agreement marks the beginning of a business they intend to build together over several markets.
If their plans unfold successfully, what begins with one Camp in Weatherford will eventually become a three-location North Texas pet care platform—and their first step from new franchisees to experienced regional operators.
Learn more about Camp Bow Wow Franchise opportunities.
