By Scott Morgan
The idea of pet day care isn’t what it was even a decade or so ago. Even at the beginning of the century, dropping the dog off at the kennel often meant sending him to jail for a week while you were on vacation. He would be put in a large cage, fed and walked, and not much else.
Today, if you drop your dog off at a place like Camp Bow Wow of Lawrenceville for the day, he’s probably got a better life than you. This is where he gets to hang out, sniff a few chums, play like a sugared-up kid and lounge in a nice soft bed. Camp owner Louise McKeown, in fact, detests the word “kennel.” The dogs under her charge are put into spacious dog cabins, a la the Camp Bow Wow franchise way.
But even within the network of Camp Bow Wow centers, not all camps are created equal. The attention McKeown and her crew put into the dogs is rather extensive. All camp counselors are trained in pet CPR, all dogs are trained and exercised, and everyone connected to each dog is taught to understand the dog’s language. By which McKeown means getting to understand how your dog thinks and why she might be snacking on the sofa cushions while you’re at work.
See, a typical scenario that gets a lot of dogs put in shelters goes something like: The kids get to be about 8 or 9 and want a puppy. So the parents get a golden retriever or some other family-friendly breed without realizing that dogs like company and need to play. Then everyone goes off to work and school, only to come home and find the rug torn up and the curtains in tatters. Which they then yell at the dog about, at least long enough to realize they can’t handle a pet and take her to a shelter.
In the three years that McKeown has run Camp Bow Wow on Baker’s Basin Road, she has saved a lot of dogs from ending up in a shelter, simply by indulging their playful sides. Actually, “indulging” is a bit of a lightweight way to say it. Counselors, she says, take high-spirit dogs and teach them basic no-jumping and leash commands, but they also exercise them. A lot. By the time the dog goes home at night, he’s wiped out. And your rugs and curtains are safe.
McKeown came to the business from Wall Street (where her husband, Kevin, still works). She was a trader of government securities until she had her daughter and had to face the harsh truth that there is no such thing as flex time on the trading floor.
“You’re either one of the guys or you’re not,” she says. “I chose not to be.”
The McKeowns bought the business from its previous owner and promptly introduced nap time and music so mellow that it not only keeps the dogs chill, it sometimes puts her counselors to sleep.
“I have to break out Bruno Mars or something every so often,” she says.
McKeown, who is preparing to open a second location in Neshaminy, also introduced the dog interview to Lawrenceville. Not all dogs are admitted to the camp, after all. A dog can’t be aggressive or antisocial. It’s not a concept all dog parents like. Some are stupefied that she will not accept their business, but McKeown says she’d rather know she did the right thing than pocket some cash.
If your dog does get admitted, you can drop him off for a day or for overnight, or for a few days while you’re away. And you can watch him from one of the many live cameras over the web that Camp Bow Wow has positioned. The cameras are most appreciated, McKeown says. They really help dog parents feel more at ease, seeing their pets doing well.
And that’s the real secret. McKeown realizes that dogs are family members and that owners consider themselves more like parents and guardians. Well, that and an unyielding love of dogs (which she used to drop off at the camp before she bought it). But the other half of this secret is being a good neighbor and friend. Something, she says, people don’t get enough of these days.
“People don’t know their neighbors anymore,” she says. When she was growing up, Mrs. Gallagher next door would let the dog out and keep and eye on him. These days, no one does that. Which is why she strives to be that good neighbor of old.
“I’m here six days a week,” she says. “You’ll get to know me.”
Camp Bow Wow is located at 231 Bakers Basin Road. Phone: (609) 689-3647. On the Web: campbowwow.com/us/nj/lawrenceville2.
Owner Louise McKeown poses with two of her own dogs at her business, Camp Bow Wow. (Staff photo by Lexie Yearly.),
