Rita Ranch has more dog lovers than anywhere else in Pima County, and Michael Adams is depending on it.
His business complex, Rita Ranch Car Wash and More, 7850 S. Rita Road, will feature a self-serve dog wash next fall.
Adams believes the idea will be very popular in Rita Ranch, where 56 percent of the households include a dog or two. That's the highest percentage of any area in Pima County, a Claritas marketing study shows.
Adams, who lives near Rita Ranch, has four big dogs himself.
"They're real fluffy-type dogs and weigh about 50 pounds each," he said. "It's just a mess when you try to wash them in the bathtub."
Nicole Astill shares his frustrations. She said she would love to see a dog wash in her community.
Astill has two big mutts, and she said they can get rowdy when it's bath time.
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"My dogs do not particularly like baths and so if we give them a bath at home, we have dog hair stuck to every particle in our house,'' she said.
Astill, 29, takes her dogs in to be groomed professionally, but she said it's a long drive and costs too much.
"I don't mind doing the bathing myself. I just don't want to do it in my bathtub," she said.
Adams said the idea of a pet wash is catching on in the car-wash industry. "That way you can wash your car and your pet in the same trip," he said.
There's already one carwash in Pima County that's gone to the dogs. The Wildcat CarWash, at 1525 N. Park Ave., began featuring a computerized dog wash last spring.
Adams bought his business about 18 months ago. In addition to an automatic and self-serve carwash, it also includes covered parking for recreational vehicles and boats, U-Haul rentals and self-storage units.
Rachelle Colcleaser has lived in Rita Ranch about six months and likes the idea of a pet wash. She said Jennifer, her Pomeranian, isn't crazy about getting into a tub full of water.
"I'm hoping this will make it easier on her," she said of the dog wash.
Colcleaser, 53, said she'd bathe Jennifer more often if she could avoid the hair-in-the-tub problem.
"I have to shave her now and I still get hair in the tub," said Colcleaser, explaining that her dog has a heavy undercoat.
Ginger Baxter said she and her husband were washing their car at Adams' carwash recently when Adams approached them.
"He asked me if I would ever use a dog wash and I said, 'Well, to be honest with you, when we were in Illinois and had gone to the car wash, I used the wand to bathe the dog,' " she said.
Her dog, Harley, is a Newfoundland-Lab mix. She said he's too big for a bathtub.
And Baxter, 62, said it's not just the dogs that get a bath at the Illinois carwash.
"We also show quarter horses and I take my young horses there, my yearlings," she said. "I do carry my own soap and conditioner, of course. It's an ideal place to do any large animal."
East side
Go to /ritaranchcarwash andmore.com/ for more information on the dog car wash.
