A bad experience for the family dog turned into a business idea for married couple Judd and Thuy Gottlieb. After boarding their dog, Boba, at a local facility and not being pleased with the stay, they opened Mount Pleasant Avenue Premier Canine Villas and Spa in 2016.

Located in League City, the business prides itself on creating a special experience for anyone who drops off their dogs. The facility offers 24-hour cameras for owners to check in on their dogs in the facility’s 13 suites.

The business also throws different kinds of parties for the dogs, or “kids,” as the Gottliebs call them.

“We bombard them with videos [and] pictures; we don’t give them one second to stress,” Judd said. “[At] the end of their stay, not only has the kid had an amazing time, but we’re on a first-name basis with the [families], and it’s just really very unique in our industry.”

The Gottliebs will do anything to make the boarding experience a special one for the dogs, including helping a dog walk virtually down the aisle or watching Taylor Swift videos to calm down an anxious dog, Thuy said. NASA astronaut Scott D. Tingle has even streamed Mount Pleasant’s 24-hour cameras from space to check on his four-legged companion.


The Gottliebs did not come from an animal background, despite being animal lovers, they said. Judd worked in hospitality and Thuy was a lawyer before they opened the business.

“Everything wasn’t about the bottom line. Our whole philosophy is that if we treated the dogs like human guests and we do an amazing job that the money would follow,” Judd said.

When the duo is not busy taking care of the dogs they board and accumulating a large waitlist to get booked, the Gottliebs try to give back to the community as much as possible, Judd said. For example, any police canine is boarded for free, and they have also offered Santa pictures with the dogs for charity, Thuy said.

The biggest way the couple gives back to the community is through Holidays for the Homeless, something they started helping with last year. The couple turned to their Facebook community last year to ask their community to donate deodorant, blankets and sweaters to distribute to the homeless communities.
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“We thought maybe we’d help out 30 people. We ended up helping out over 300 [people] in Houston and Galveston,” Thuy said.

The Gottliebs have collected a large amount of donations and hope to help out more people this holiday season. In the future, the Gottliebs said they hope to expand Mount Pleasant Avenue Premier Canine Villas and Spa to host more dogs.

“Our goal is to be the destination for pets in Texas,” Thuy said.

Mount Pleasant Avenue Premier Canine Villas and Spa


501 Gulf Freeway S., Ste. 110, League City

832-905-4955

www.mountpleasantavenue.com

Hours: 7 a.m.-8 p.m. daily