Sabrina MacDowell’s career has gone to the dogs. And she knew early on her love of animals would eventually lead to starting her own business.
MacDowell has been working with dogs from a young age, starting at a doggie daycare as a teenager, where she met her now-husband. From there, she trained as a groomer and worked at an animal hospital. “I had said the whole time that that was my dream,” MacDowell says. “I wanted to open my own place.”
She has achieved that dream as the owner of Pampered Pup in Candia. Pampered Pup offers doggie daycare, overnight boarding and grooming. MacDowell purchased an existing business in 2022 and rebranded to Pampered Pup the following year. The first year was a learning experience, she says, from managing staff and customer expectations to upgrading the physical space.
“I wanted to open a daycare that was different than the ones that I had worked for, meaning that I wanted to put the dogs’ well-being and care at the forefront of everything that I do,” she says. “I’m really proud to say that I think that we have accomplished that.”
MacDowell manages a tight ratio of staff to dogs and has honest conversations with owners whose dogs don’t thrive in a kennel setting. Her hard work has paid off.
In 2025, MacDowell received the Small Business Association’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year in NH. Over the last several years, MacDowell has doubled the boarding capacity at Pampered Pup to 85 dogs.
One of the upsides of being a founder is the ability to set up her life as needed. “The freedom to make my own schedule and prioritize my life around that has been the most rewarding,” she says. She’s a mom of three boys and pregnant with her fourth child. “That’s not to say that I don’t work a lot, but it’s usually I put my kids to bed and then I’m logging back on, or getting up a little bit extra early, or working on the weekends if I need to. I just kind of fit it in, and I think that’s, for me, been the most rewarding.”
On the flipside, the most challenging part of being a business owner is needing to have thick skin. “I am definitely a people pleaser, and that was a rude awakening for me, just kind of having the understanding that you’re just not going to please everyone. It’s just not possible,” she says.
MacDowell hopes to renovate more space at the current location and open a second location. “I do think that eventually we will end up purchasing another business, just because I love being a business owner,” she says. “It’s something that I feel like I thrive in.”
