Bark Mountain Pet Resort didn’t happen by accident. Lauren Crandall and her mom spent years learning the industry, then rebuilt a facility from the ground up to create a more thoughtful, structured experience for dogs. Here’s how they did it and doubled their revenue in just one year.
Lauren Crandall and Susan Rollan, the mother-daughter team behind Bark Mountain Pet Resort, joked about opening a “dog park bar” for years before they went all in. When Susan decided it was time to move away from nursing, the timing finally felt right. Their local business community gave them the final push to pursue the idea full time. As Lauren put it, “We had joked about opening a dog park bar for years because there wasn’t any social place you could go with your dog off leash except dog parks.”
From the beginning, Susan and Lauren had a clear sense that most facilities were missing something. There was too much chaos, too much “play all day,” and not enough structure. They wanted to be more intentional about what the dogs were actually experiencing. But knowing something needs to be better and actually building something better are two very different things.
Lauren and Susan set out to build a more
thoughtful kind of pet facility
So they made a decision most people wouldn’t. They quit their day jobs and committed to learning the industry from the inside out. Lauren went to work at six different facilities, getting hands-on experience with the daily rhythms, challenges, and tradeoffs of pet care operations. Susan took a different path, traveling across the country to tour more than 100 facilities, speak with owners, and understand what they would do differently if they could start over. Together, they combined those perspectives, Lauren’s view from inside the operation and Susan’s broader owner’s perspective, to start shaping what Bark Mountain could become.
After working at a facility that would later become Bark Mountain, Lauren approached the owner about taking over the business and lease. From there, Lauren and Susan began turning the idea they had talked about for years into a real operating business. What they acquired wasn’t quite what they had imagined, and there was still a lot of work to do.
They demoed large portions of the building, repaired fencing, installed new turf, upgraded flooring, and made safety improvements throughout the facility. Much of that early work was done themselves, with Susan taking on a significant portion of the repairs and driving the hands-on transformation of the facility. It didn’t happen overnight. It was a steady, ongoing process of improvement, guided by what they could take on at the time. As Lauren described it, “Just baby steps: what we can afford to do, when we have the time to do it.”
Bark Mountain Pet Resort is located directly across from Oak Mountain State Park in Alabama, the largest state park in the state. That proximity isn’t just a detail, it has become part of the identity of the facility and shows up in how they think about the environment they are creating.
Instead of a traditional “play-all-day” model, Bark Mountain focuses on structured enrichment. The goal is to create a more natural, balanced experience for dogs. Their approach blends enrichment activities like foraging and scent work, agility and structured play, built-in training throughout the day, and intentional rest periods.
Enrichment activities are part of the program at Bark Mountain
100% chance of fun at Bark Mountain
That philosophy carries through in the small, everyday interactions. Dogs sit at thresholds, wait calmly before exiting crates, and are expected to walk loosely on a leash. These aren’t one-off moments, they’re reinforced consistently throughout the day.
“We ask them to sit at every door, we don’t open crates until the dog is settled, and they have to walk loosely on a leash. We work on that every single day.”
The result is a facility that feels more structured and thoughtful than a typical daycare, without losing the energy and fun that pet parents expect.
Lauren’s experience working across multiple facilities gave her a clear view into how each one operated and how technology shaped that experience. For Lauren and Susan, choosing software was not just about replacing a system. It was about finding something that could support the kind of business they were building together. The facility they acquired was running on PetExec, but they knew early on that they wanted something more modern. They needed something that worked online, made booking easy for customers, and gave them better visibility into the business.
Before Goose, they were dealing with the same issues most facilities run into. Customers would show up without bookings, something the previous operation had conditioned them to do. The phones rang constantly, and there was very little visibility into what the day, week, or month ahead would look like. “They would just show up for daycare and we would have no idea what our days looked like. There was no way to schedule appropriately and no way to know what we were expecting a month from now,” Lauren said.
Lauren expected the transition to be painful, but it turned out to be much smoother than anticipated. Data migration was fast, the system was easy to learn, and the team picked it up quickly. Within about a week, staff felt comfortable using it, and customer adoption followed naturally. “Once I explained we were getting a new software, they were chill,” she said.
Just as important, the system reduced the stress of day-to-day operations. “You can’t permanently mess something up, there’s always a way to fix a problem,” Lauren said.
Since moving to Goose, the way the business runs has shifted in a meaningful way. With easy online booking, they spend far less time managing reservations at the front desk, and call volume has dropped significantly. When they attend events, they simply have potential customers scan a QR code and book discovery days on the spot, often in under five minutes.
That shift has allowed Lauren and Susan to run a leaner operation overall. On weekends, there’s no front desk, and calls are routed directly to Lauren’s phone so the business can stay responsive without adding unnecessary front desk coverage.
Lauren and Susan give out treats at a rescue event
The biggest change since acquiring the facility has been the financial impact. Over the past year, income has doubled.
That growth isn’t coming from software alone. Lauren and Susan have improved how services are merchandised, built a loyal customer base through a strong experience, and incorporated thoughtful scheduling and training throughout each stay. But Goose has played a meaningful role, especially when it comes to add-ons.
What used to require active selling now happens naturally during booking. According to Lauren, “We have a lot of add-ons… that has helped a lot because it decreases the amount of selling that I need to do. They just automatically add those things on.” A simple example is a $5 “bedtime snack,” a frozen Kong treat that most pet parents now add without being prompted.
With better reporting and more automation, Lauren and Susan also have a clearer picture of the business. Labor is easier to plan, revenue is easier to forecast, and decisions are less reactive.
“Goose gives us a lot more power over our labor costs and forecasting our income as well,” Lauren said.
The pair have also seen the benefit of a product that continues to evolve alongside her business. “I really love that y’all continue to update it and add new features… as we’re growing, y’all are growing,” Lauren said.
And when something does come up, support has been reliable. “The customer service is hands down the best in the industry. If I can’t fix it, I know the customer service team can and will,” Lauren said.
So what’s next for Bark Mountain? In the near term, the focus is on steady improvement. They are continuing to invest in the facility, refine the experience, and build on what they’ve already created.
Longer term, they’re thinking bigger. When their lease is up, Susan and Lauren plan to build a new facility from the ground up, shaped by everything they’ve learned along the way.
Now they have the foundation in place: a differentiated experience, a growing business, and a system that supports how they operate. There’s not much standing in their way.
Bark Mountain and its dogs are thriving, and it shows
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