From Linda & Dora
Co-Founders · Allen, TX
I've spent thirty years figuring out how to make things work that other people said couldn't. Hotels, businesses, systems, people — I've been building things from scratch my whole life. Bark & Purr is different from all of them. This one I built because I love it.
I looked around at what was available for pet owners in Allen and I saw two kinds of grooming salons: the chains, where your dog is a ticket number, and the independents, where the quality was inconsistent and the experience was stressful. I wanted a third thing. A place that felt like home for pets and PAWrents both. A place where the groomer knows your dog's name before you get through the door.
But I couldn't do it alone. That's where Dora came in.
Dora Valdez Owens is a Director of Marketing at a top advertising agency, working with some of the biggest brands in the country. She's strategic, creative, and unshakeable. We'd worked together before — and when this opportunity came up, I went to her and said: I know this is something you wanted to do next year, but it's available now. Do you want to do it with me?
She said yes immediately. Didn't have to think about it twice. She believed in the vision so deeply she got a second mortgage on her home to make it happen. That's the kind of partner she is.
"I didn't open a grooming salon. I opened a place where pets feel safe and PAWrents feel proud."
— Linda G., Co-Founder & Managing PartnerI'm the Managing Partner. I'm on the floor every day — working with the team, greeting the regulars, dancing with the doodles, whispering to the cats. Dora is the creative and strategic partner. She's the one I call when I'm brainstorming a new idea — Tranquil Tail Grooming®, the logo, the Den Club membership. She gives feedback, asks the hard questions, and helps me turn vision into reality.
Linda brings the heart and the hustle. Dora brings the strategy and the belief. Together, we've built something neither of us could have built alone.
What makes Bark & Purr different isn't any one thing — it's the accumulation of all the small decisions made in favor of the pet every single day. The choice to hand-dry instead of cage-dry. The choice to stop a groom if a dog is too stressed. The choice to build an Academy so our groomers are trained by people who actually groom. The choice to know every regular by name.
You feel it when you walk in. The leash goes slack. That's by design.
Tranquil Tail Grooming® is the framework that Linda developed over years of working with pets who were frightened, reactive, or had been failed by other groomers. It's not a single technique — it's a complete philosophy of care that every Bark & Purr groomer is trained in.
The core principle is simple: the pet's emotional state is part of the groom. Every decision — how to approach, how to handle, how to introduce the dryer, when to take a break, when to stop completely — is made with that principle at the center.
"The best groom I've ever done was on a dog that other salons had given up on. It took three visits before she let me finish. The fourth visit, she walked straight to my table."
— Linda G.These are not marketing bullets. These are specific decisions we make every day that most salons don't.
The only way to really understand Bark & Purr is to bring your pet in. Book their first sPAW Day — then watch the leash go slack.