Carolina alum gives pups a new way to play
Tar Heel basketball player’s Pup Park Shuttle is changing the game in doggie day care.
It’s 7:30 a.m. on a sunny Wednesday, and Baden Jaxen ’13 is meeting his first client of the day at Raleigh’s Jaycee Park. After Jaxen gives the pup a few pats on the head, the two trot over to a bright yellow minibus parked nearby.
“I’m waiting on a few more to arrive and then we’ll go start our pickups,” he says. He buckles his furry friend into a seat on the bus, which is decked out with artificial turf and a ceiling painted the color of a clear blue sky.
Those pickups, he goes on to explain, will crisscross multiple neighborhoods nearby to welcome aboard more tail-wagging passengers, all ready for a day of fun at a variety of parks in the area.
That’s the idea behind Pup Park Shuttle, which Jaxen launched in November 2024. Inspired by a similar business model he saw on TikTok, Jaxen combined his passion for entrepreneurship and animals to introduce the concept to the Raleigh market. He picks up the dogs at home or at a park, then takes them in the minibus to three to five parks, where they play throughout the day before being dropped off back home.
It may sound exhausting, but Jaxen recently retired from professional basketball and was used to working out three times a day. “I needed to put that energy into something,” he said.
Jaxen played, mostly in other countries, for more than 10 years. Before that — as the Carolina Blue details painted on the proud alum’s Pup Park Shuttle bus make clear — Jaxen was a Tar Heel. Fans may remember him as Dexter Strickland, a starting guard for the men’s basketball team from 2009 to 2013. (He formally changed his name in 2016).
Jaxen credits his time as a Tar Heel and guidance from coach Roy Williams for the strong work ethic that helped get his new business off the ground.
“I was pretty immature when I first arrived at Carolina,” said Jaxen. “But the life lessons that coach Williams bestowed on me help not only in my day-to-day life, but in running this business. All of the attention to detail, persistence and tenacity that I had to have when I was being coached by him is being converted into this company. And that’s one of the reasons why, and I say this humbly, I think this business is going to be successful.”
An Achilles tendon injury two years ago while he was playing for the London Lightning in Canada got Jaxen thinking about the future and life outside the sport he’d been playing since he was a kid in New Jersey.
“I knew I couldn’t play forever,” he said. “When you do something for so long, it becomes part of your identity. But when something happens that changes all of that, like my injury, you have to start to find a new identity. Everything I’ve learned along the way — at Carolina, playing professionally, starting Pup Park Shuttle — has been a blessing and helped to guide that journey. This business is a great thing not just for myself and my family but hopefully for people in our community, too. And that fills me with so much appreciation and gratitude.”
Working with a former Tar Heel teammate, a silent partner for now, Jaxen next plans to expand Pup Park Shuttle to serve Chapel Hill.
“How could I not?” he asked. “It’s where a piece of my heart is.”
