The ruff-est bar in Texas
When Opal first started frequenting her local bar, the staff showered her with love and gave her time to feel safe in a new environment. Now, the gorgeous black pit bull greets staff and fellow patrons alike with her signature “wiggle butt—and so many kisses.”
Opal is a regular and much-beloved face at The Watering Bowl, an outdoor dog park and bar in South Austin owned and operated by University of Texas at Arlington alumna Leslie Paetschow (’12 BA, Anthropology).
“We often have dogs who are shy or nervous their first time coming to the park—there’s a lot going on, and it can be overwhelming for some pups at first,” Paetschow said. “Now that Opal is comfortable, she’s Miss Popular when she comes to the park. It has been so cool to see this sweet, shy girl open up!”
As “barktender” and “rufferee” at the park, Paetschow gets to see dogs of all sorts during her work week. The dogs, she admits, were pretty much the whole point when she first got the idea for The Watering Bowl. Then, she was spending most of her free time with her energetic puppy, Shiner, helping him run out his energy through daily 6 mile runs followed by two hours at the local dog park.
“One Saturday, I thought to myself, ‘I would pay someone so much money to monitor my dog for me if I could sit here and relax with a beer while I watch him be silly,’” she said. “I was 24 at the time and pretty broke, so for me to say I would give all my money to a concept like that, my next thought was, ‘Why the heck isn’t that a thing?’”
Inspired, Paetschow threw herself into learning everything she could about starting a business. She notes that there were several hurdles along the way—namely, “permits, permits, permits”—but she got through them with the help of her business partner, Heather Spearman, chief dogperations officer.
“Together, we were able to piece everything together through sheer perseverance and a desire to make a space we knew so many people and dogs needed in South Austin,” she said. “That, and we desperately wanted to pet all the dogs.”
In October 2021, nine years after the idea first occurred to her, her dream became a reality—and she and her team are, in fact, petting all the dogs.
“Seeing them come in so excited to be here, and especially the dogs who come frequently enough to know me and the staff well enough to go right for us to say hello and get love, is so rewarding,” she said. “Their happiness and the love they get from the people at the park reminds me every day why I do what I do.”
-Written by Amber Scott – Marketing, Messaging and Engagement
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