An existing outdoor Mutts Canine Cantina in Texas, a model for what Stratford plans to open in Kelowna.
Image Credit: Mutts Canine Cantina - Jason Stratford
January 28, 2024 - 3:30 PM
A local entrepreneur is working to open up an indoor dog park in Kelowna with help from an American dog park chain.
Jason Stratford started working on starting an indoor dog park a few years ago and the idea received media attention and public support.
“I spent $30 on an ad on Meta and it kind of went viral, people all the way out to the coast were interested,” he said.
He was working on it alone in the beginning but now he has Mutts Canine Cantina backing the plan.
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Mutts Canine Cantina is part off-leash dog park and part restaurant with five outdoor locations in Texas.
Stratford plans to take their business model and shift it indoors to make it work as a Canadian franchise.
“You can’t really take something from Texas and just plop it in the middle of Kelowna in the winter. That’s where my model meets theirs,” he said.
Opening a franchise rather than a new unique business has helped with the biggest challenge; finding a suitable location in the city’s competitive real estate market.
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“Being a franchise makes it a little bit easier for developers or landlords to see that instead of being a one off we have a working business model with multiple different locations in the states with consistent membership,” he said.
Finding somewhere big enough to have a dog park and amenities in the right location in Kelowna has taken time.
“We’re the fourth most developed city in the country so lease space and land space is at a premium. Just trying to find a location that is suitable for everybody has been a challenge,” he said. “We have a few places in the works that I’m not able to disclose right now, but I’m optimistic.”
A rendered image of a Mutts Canine Cantina.
Image Credit: Mutts Canine Cantina - Jason Stratford
Even though he hasn’t been posting updates on social media he still gets emails from people asking him when the indoor dog park is opening.
“With this cold snap and the weather, I got an influx of emails asking me when it’s going to open and what’s going on? We’re still working at it,” he say.
There has been consistent interest in an indoor dog park from a range of demographics.
“There’s the senior population who can’t take the heat, the smoke, the cold. Then there’s just the people who don’t want to go outside some days,” he said.
Stratford said there will be more updates coming soon.
“If everything seamlessly falls into place I could see us being open around the end of the year,” he said.
Follow Stratford's Facebook for future updates.
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