Central Alberta will be the home to possibly the largest pet resort in Canada.
It’s A Dog’s World Pet Resort will officially open its doors to the public June 1-3 in Bowden. The 93-acre site offers kennels, two agility courses, grooming and boarding, a pet daycare and a 90-acre off-leash dog park.
Brie Leussink, resort manager and co-owner, said they currently have 65 dog kennels and eight cat condos.
“We hope to grow that number to have as many dogs (and cats) as we possibly can. We’re planning to expand for sure,” she said.
There is still a bit of last-minute work opening day, she added.
“We’re just putting on the final touches; making sure the kennels are ready and we’re putting the beds together today for the pups,” she said.
Work on the property began in 2016.
“We didn’t really know what to do with the land at first. We only started working on it as the pet resort in January,” she said.
The land used to be the Bow Seed Nursery, formerly the Alberta Nurseries and Seed, which opened in 1928 and closed in 2012.
“There was a lot of work cleaning it up,” she said. “The past two summers … we were cleaning up just the outside and in January we started cleaning up the inside of the building.”
Leussink said it feels amazing to finally show off the resort.
“We’re very excited to show people the resort because we’ve put a lot of work into it,” she said. “Even receiving phone calls right now is exciting for me.”
Paul Leussink, co-owner alongside his daughter Brie, said it’s a good time to get into the pet industry.
“It’s one of the fastest growing industries globally and we felt a resort like this was needed in the area,” he said.
The next largest resort in Canada they could find online is about 20 acres, he said.
On June 1, 2 and 3 everyone, especially pet-owners are invited to the opening, where there will be golf cart tours of the land and building.
“We want to invite the public here to view it, get to know us and have a coffee,” Paul Leussink said.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
