FALLS CHURCH, VA — Laura Tartaro-McGowan and her son Ian McGowan come from different work backgrounds — nursing and retail, respectively. Tartaro-McGowan was director of Northern Virginia’s first outpatient surgical center in the 1980s and later worked for Home Health. But what brought them together to work together in a business were their family dogs.
Their first dog grew to five, and the family looked for ways to care for the dogs and manage their weight.
“We want to make sure that what we’re doing is healthy and what’s best for our animals,” Ian McGowan told Patch. “And that’s when we started looking for solutions for nutrition and solutions for healthier treatments, and things like that.”
The North Arlington mother and daughter came across Pet Wants, an emerging pet health business concept, at a farmers market and decided to open their own franchise. Pet Wants Falls Church currently operates as a mobile unit that goes out to events and offers delivery to local communities such as Falls Church, Annandale, Alexandria, Arlington and Tysons. They are looking to open a brick-and-mortar location in Falls Church in late 2024.
Pet Wants focuses on small-batch pet foods with natural ingredients, vitamins and minerals to provide furry friends with a balanced diet.
“What Pet Wants offers that is different from others, makes us unique, makes us unique, is that our meals are a protein, but the rest of the food is almost the same for everyone,” said Laura Tartaro-McGowan. “Like if you have a chicken and brown rice or lamb and brown rice. So all you’re doing is changing the protein…It’s not going to up their stomach.”
Since opening the mobile unit in October, Pet Wants Falls Church has participated in dog events in areas such as McLean, Springfield and Fairfax. They are looking at different locations around Falls Church that would be a good fit for their brick-and-mortar location.
“There are so many people with pets. We are very excited to bring our product to the public,” said Tartaro-McGowan. “One of the benefits of our product for a dog is that you can rotate them, so I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to eat the same thing every day, and neither does your dog.”
Pet Wants, a franchise with more than 140 locations in the US, has more plans to expand in the DC region.
“We believe the demographics of this region are perfectly aligned with Pet Wants’ mission of pet health and wellness,” said Pet Wants president DeNita Carani. “Our data indicates that northern Virginia and Southern Maryland have the capacity to support at least 5 additional Pet Wants in the area. By adding Ian and Laura’s business to our existing franchise owners in the region, we’re able to serve more pet parents with slow-cooking, fresh pet food with treats and chews made to focus on pet health and well-being.”
The mother and daughter say owning a business is hard but rewarding.
“We work well together. I have a different set of expertise than my son does. He has all the retail. I have all the background from administration,” said Tartaro-McGowan. “So we actually complement each other very well. You know, so we’re working on it. It’s fun and scary all at the same time.”
Pet owners can stay up to date on Pet Wants Falls Church’s upcoming pop-ups and anticipated November or December 2024 location opening on its website and social media.
