This is home.
Mary grew up in Sun Prairie. Ray has lived here for 18 years. We met working patrol for the Sun Prairie Police Department, protecting the same streets our clients live on. Our daughter Emma grew up here too.
When we say Sun Prairie is our home, we don’t mean it’s where our business happens to be. We mean this is the place we’ve spent our lives serving, and this business is one more way we do it.
It started with two dogs.
Like a lot of working families, we struggled to find good care for our dogs, Breck and Gil. The local options took fine care of them but were nearly impossible to book. After years of saying “there has to be a better way to do this,” we built one: online booking from day one, daily report cards with real photos, and a team you could actually reach.
Breck and Gil are the two dogs nose-to-nose in our logo, because they’re the reason any of this exists. They’ve both passed now. But they still greet every family that walks through our doors, right there in that logo, and they always will. These days their siblings keep the tradition going: Link, our Golden Retriever, and Avi, Breck’s German Shepherd sister, run these hallways like they own the place. Honestly, they kind of do.
We built it. Literally.
In July 2016, Mary opened the door to the first Leader of the Pack for the very first time. On the other side was an empty building and a lot of work. There were no investors and no franchise playbook. What there was: a family with paint rollers and power tools.
The reason we could say “we’ll do it ourselves” with a straight face was Mary’s dad, Al, the handiest man in the family. He was critical to the whole build-out, from the original framing to the finish work. Mary’s mom, Marion, painted every piece of trim while our dogs supervised from under the sawhorses. We hung the doors and installed the locks. Al even built the road sign and set the posts by the street.
And a very small Emma sat with her grandma while they painted a big green bone on the wall.
That bone is still in our logo. And the little girl who helped paint it? She works here now.
When you build something with your own hands, alongside three generations of your family, you don’t treat it like a business. You treat it like a member of the family. That’s why every detail here gets the kind of attention most companies reserve for their own homes. Because that’s what this is.
We’re still here. Every day.
A lot of places say “family-owned.” Here’s what it means at Leader of the Pack: Mary runs this facility. Ray is here. Emma works here. And on any given day you might find Marion in the garden beds or helping Mary with an odd job, because some habits from the first build never stopped.
When you call, you reach people whose name is on the building, not a call center. When something matters about your dog, the decision is made by the family that built this place, not by a corporate office in another state.
No franchise, no investors. Nobody bought their way into this. And it’s not just talk: our own dogs still attend daycare and boarding here, and get groomed here too. We buy our own food and supplies here. Every service, used by the people who run it, because we wouldn’t trust our dogs anywhere else. Friends and family who bring their dogs here pay full price, same as everyone. Not because we owe them anything. Because they actually believe this is the best place for their dogs.
In 2022, we outgrew our first building and designed our current facility from a blank sheet of paper: 22 acres on the edge of town, built around how dogs actually live. We didn’t carry anything physical over from that first building. We carried the standard: if it matters to the dogs, we do it ourselves and we do it right. Bigger address, same family, same hands. Nobody bought us, nobody franchised us, and nobody ever will care about this place the way we do.
The name “Leader of the Pack” is about where we want to be in this industry. Not the loudest, not the flashiest. Just leading where this kind of business should go.
Ten years ago this summer, Mary opened that first door. We’ve been opening it for Sun Prairie’s dogs every day since.
“Leader of the Pack” isn’t a name we picked once.
We built our current facility in 2022. Before that, we remodeled the entryway of our first building the moment it needed it. Starting the week of October 5, we’re replacing the pea gravel in every outdoor play yard with turf, our biggest upgrade since. Here’s what we’re doing and why. And right now, we’re building an updated registration and customer portal.
Being the leader of the pack means staying it. That takes continuous reinvestment, not a name picked once and coasted on.
Your dog isn’t joining a chain. Your dog is joining our family’s life work, in the town we call home.