Good Neighbor Podcast: Frisco

EP 354: What If Dog Boarding Treated Pets Like Family, Not Room Numbers

• Sophia Yvette

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What Makes Cecilia Gonzalez with Pixie’s Paws Pet Palace a Good Neighbor?

Looking for boarding that feels like a safe, joyful sleepover instead of a row of crates? We sit down with Cecilia Gonzalez of Pixie’s Paws Pet Palace to explore a home-style, cage-free model built on temperament-based packs, round-the-clock supervision, and nurse-led hygiene that rivals a clinic. From futons and open-door crates to movie nights that help anxious dogs settle, every detail points toward one goal: calmer, healthier pets who return home better than they left.

Cecilia shares how a well-designed Arlington space—with an upstairs track for indoor runs—became the perfect backdrop for a rescue-rooted philosophy. Gayla, a nurse and gifted “dog mind reader,” leads protocols like twice-daily wellness exams, strong ventilation, and water bowl sanitizing every two hours. We get candid about the biggest myth in pet care (it’s not all belly rubs), why timeouts are mental resets rather than punishment, and how board-and-train in their home pack accelerates social learning. The result is a program where big and small dogs mix by temperament, not size, and shy pets learn confidence through calm structure.

We also dig into smart marketing for pet services: shifting from the old phone book to geofencing, Google Maps, and video-forward social media. Weekly enrichment themes—think Wicked or Bob Ross “painting” sessions—aren’t just cute content; they’re confidence-building sensory work that reduces stress and improves behavior. Plus, a heartfelt look at rescue partnerships and adoptable dogs like Peanut, a papillon-chihuahua learning to trust again.

Curious how a boarding “palace” can be both cozy and clinically clean? Tune in, then check out Pixie’s Paws on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and pixeespawspetpalace.com to register or learn more. If you enjoy conversations that rethink pet care with heart and rigor, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a fellow dog lover.

To learn more about Pixie’s Paws Pet Palace, go to
 🔗 https://pixeespawspetpalace.com/

Pixies Paws Pet Palace

682-999-8684

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sophia Yvette.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a pet palace? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Cecilia Gonzalez, with Pixie's Paws Pet Palace. Cecilia, how are you today?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm doing wonderful. How are you doing today, Sophia?

SPEAKER_01:

Wonderful. Wonderful to have you on. Now we're excited to learn all about you and your business. Can you start off by telling our listeners just a little bit about your company?

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. Pixie's Paws Pet Palace started six years ago here in Arlington, Texas. And we started with a goal of having a place people could bring their dogs that was similar to grandma's. So not your traditional caged boarding where they're locked up in a crate all day, let out a few times a day to go potty or have their run to go out. So we really wanted to have somebody on site 24-7 that that stays with them, plays with them, have have packs uh designed to each category of pets and temperament. Now you might have a hundred-pound dog with a 20-pound dog. If the 100-pound dog has a temperament that's easygoing and relaxed and prefers to be around small dogs, and then at night, they all sleep together like you would a grandma's. So we all go get in the futons, sofas, under the beds. We have crates as well, but like at home with bedding, um, we leave the doors open. If they're acting a little, you know, extra, they will have to get a little bit of a timeout just to rest their brain a little bit. And then once they've seemed to settle down, we open it back up, let them ride back out and hang out with everybody, watch Lilo and Stitch on the 60-inch screen television, and uh just enjoy the night with the with the person that's hanging out with them.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my goodness, who doesn't love Lilo and Stitch?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, shout out to Lelo and Stitch. I was tickled as I walked in one night and uh our our our staff was uh they were watching Lelo and Stitch. I was like, well, look, okay, all right, all right, that sounds fun. Elvis here, I guess, right? Gotta love it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Now, how did you originally get into a business like this?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, it was out of need. We have uh a family uh building. We have a building here in Arlington, and we needed to occupy that space. So fortunately, ironically, maybe God grace or something, the building really has a great layout for what we do. We even have an upstairs track. So the dogs can actually go upstairs, get their yayas out, and run the track, and it's all safely fenced in. Um, and we also uh just love dogs, always rescue dogs. My dad and mother would say, You're gonna get hit by a car rescuing these dogs. And I just would see a little dog on the side of the road and just have to pick them up. And then we rescue dogs. My wife and I rescue dogs all the time, and we thought, well, we have dogs anyway. We know she speaks dog better than she speaks human. So that's kind of how she wanted to start it. To say, well, let's just start a business taking care of dogs. And we started off with, I think, with maybe what two or three dogs overnight boarding and then grew to four, and now we're up to over uh mostly maybe 20 to 30 dogs overnight. Yeah, so it's a lot of fun. It's it's it's uh it's uh always a learning curve. But um Gail is a nurse, so she came in and brought a lot of the health practices on board. So we have a very clean facility, um, maintain a lot of cleanliness for the dogs, make sure that it's well ventilated for any respiratory prevention of illnesses, um, as well as keeping everything extremely clean. So, you know, picking it up, picking up the poop, you know, sanitizing any urine, everything is just very, very uh uh well taken care of on an ongoing basis. And that's why it's a palace, you know. We have to have it, we have to have it clean and fresh for our little princes and princesses.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my goodness. I was actually just about to ask you that. You read my mind. What next question for you What is the most common myth or misconception you come across in your pet palace?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh well, that's easy. I want to volunteer. I want to volunteer, I want to, I want to come hang out and play, help you with the dogs. Well, it's not it's not just an easy laid-back setting all the time working with dogs. You know, you have different personalities, you have different things that happen, and it's it's hard work. So the misconception is that it's all you know, fairy tale and gold dust and you know, pink bedding. It's not, it's it's hard work, it's uh diligence. We do two wellness exams a day. So the dogs are inspected twice a day. We check for everything. Um, and we've been blessed to help pet parents find some things that were off with their pets, and they were able to go to the vet and get it taken care of. Um, we also um just, I guess that's the biggest misconception is that it's just all fun and games. And it's it's not, it's a very serious job because you're taking care of somebody's pet, you're taking care of their family. So pixies, we want them to know that they're going to be taken care of and they're gonna be well looked after. And that's our that's our biggest uh our biggest uh goal and and our daily duty is to make sure that the dogs are taking well care of. We do two too, uh, we do every two hours, they change the water bowls, they clean them, sanitize them, fresh water every two hours. Again, going back to health, going back to health standards for the dogs. We don't want them, you know, having dirty water to drink from. We want it to be a palace, so they have to be treated as such.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that is definitely amazing to hear your heart for animals. Now, we know marketing is the heart of every business. Who are your target clients or customers? And in terms of marketing, how do you attract them?

SPEAKER_02:

Our our targeted audience are predominantly women in their 30s and above. Um, and we are targeting them through um all the traditional, new traditional to me. My age, it used to be the the fingers did the walk-in, right? The yellow pages. Of course, that's no more. So we use the the geofencing and the Google ads and the Google Maps. And we've recently joined uh forces with another marketing team that's supposed to help us up our game in the social media front. So those are some things that we're working towards, especially towards our training department. Um, like I said earlier, Gayla's a nurse, but she's also, she's not Caesar Malone dog whisperer, but she is a dog mind reader, I would say. She's a she's a dog mind reader. She's really good at uh at reading dogs, talking to dogs without even talking to them, and knowing uh what to look for as far as their their needs go and and how to talk to them. And it's a lot easier for her to train the dogs than it is to train the pet parents. So the hardest job is training the pet parents, you know, because the dogs are really eager to learn and and and and to please you. So, you know, pet parents not so much. They just they just want to they want us to do it and and we're there to do it. But we also need uh we need everybody to work collaboratively in that way. But uh, as far as our marketing goes, we are um focused on upping our our our marketing towards training, of course, this uh holiday season with uh boarding, because we do boarding, we do board and train, and we do do the board and train from our home. So not only are you getting um training for your pet, but they're also learning how to behave in a pack, because we have a pack of at our home, and they they help incoming dogs, whether they're rescues or their clients, learn how to be a dog or learn how to engage with other dogs in a healthy way. So those are kind of the things that we're we're always working on is training, board and train, um, holiday boarding at our facility. Um, and like I said, just increasing our presence on social media. And we have a great um person that works for us that that handles our social media on Facebook, and she's she's just fantastic at making videos and the pictures and what have you. And we have enrichment days. So every Wednesday at Pixies, there's a theme that we have we've had Wicked uh from the movie as of late. We also are doing Bob Ross tomorrow, so we'll have uh canvases and and dogs will be creating art tomorrow at Pixies.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, have you ever thought of having your own podcast?

SPEAKER_02:

Our own what?

SPEAKER_01:

Podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Podcast. Well, yes, yes, my wife and I have talked about that from the beginning, and it's because when we are together talking to our with our friends, we seem to make everybody laugh because we're both as well, we're kind of we're kind of goofy and silly, but we're also serious. But then we we're just we're just crazy dog moms. And we uh we actually had started try try to do that, but I I uh I I try to tweak it way too much, and it just took the fun out of it and the spontaneity. So yeah, I do want we do want to do a podcast, but we've kind of put that on the back burner because lots of things happen through through the year working with dogs and and humans and our business. So the podcast hasn't uh hasn't come to fruition, though we'd love for we'd love to do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Cecilia, I know we've covered a lot of great subjects today, but what our listeners really want to know is where can they go to learn more about Pixies Paws Pet Palace?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you can go to our Facebook page. So we're at Pixies Paws Pet Palace, and that's with two E's, not I E for Pixie. You can also go to our website at pixiespaws.com, P-I-X-W-E-S-P-A-W-S.com. Um, we're also on Instagram and we're um on YouTube. Uh we're also, I believe we're on Thread. So we're we're pretty much everywhere. Um, but mainly our website is the best place to go to, and you can self-register. You can give us a call and we can get you registered with Mitch. Mitch answers the phones during the week. And uh Tammy answers the phones on Saturdays and Mondays.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Cecilia, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the best. Before you go, wait, before you go, I gotta show you someone.

SPEAKER_02:

Come here. It wouldn't be a podcast without a baby. So this is Bella, she's a rescue with us right now, and I have hang on, she's so cute. And this is Peanut. Now, Peanut is definitely up for adoption, and his uh he's a Papillon Chihuahua. He was abused, um, but he he's learning how to be hailed and be loved. But we do have rescues as well, with lighthouse dog rescue. So we we have dogs that need homes.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, you don't have any Pomeranians in there by chance, do you?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I don't. The closest I have is this little guy who's a papillon chihuahua, and um, well, Bella, she's still not up for adoption yet, but um, I'm sorry, I'll be on the lookout for Pomeranians for you.

SPEAKER_01:

You're good, you're good. Well, thank you for sharing your furry friends with us. Now, Cecilia, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you so much for having me. We really appreciate your time and your patience with us. You guys have a great, great day.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfrisco.com. That's gnpfrisco.com or call 469 221 9345.