Why Dogtopia?

A Business You’ll Feel Good About Owning

Dogtopia is a unique dog daycare business that opened its first location in Virginia in 2002. At that time, dog daycare was very much a new concept, and the Dogtopia approach—to create “indoor dog parks” and provide a daytime service for dog care along the lines of a children’s daycare—was extremely innovative. Since then, the idea of taking man’s best friend to doggie daycare has gained widespread popularity, as we now operate close to 300 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Being early pioneers in the pet industry means that we’ve had more than 20 years to refine and perfect our model. We also operate company-owned locations, so are active in the business and have boots on the ground. The U.S. pet industry is predicted to reach $277 billion by 2030, and Dogtopia is the leading pet services franchise in the pet industry.

Validating Dogtopia’s significant growth and success:

• We ranked No.69 on Entrepreneur Magazine’s esteemed Franchise 500® list as a result of our outstanding performance in areas including unit growth and financial performance along with strong franchisee support.
• Entrepreneur Magazine also named Dogtopia #1 in the Pet Category for the fifth year in a row.
• Dogtopia was honored in the Top 50 Franchises by Franchise Business Review, based on rankings tabulated from a third party independent survey measuring franchisee satisfaction.
• We ranked #13 on Franchise Times’ Fast & Serious List, that celebrates 40 of the smartest-growing brands in the United States.
• Dogtopia was recently ranked No. 252 on Franchise Times‘ 2024 Top 400 List, an increase from 268 the previous year.

Dogtopia is the fastest-growing pet franchise in the U.S. We plan to open franchise locations across a variety of North American markets and grow to reach the 400-unit milestone by 2026. The demand for our brand, flexibility of our model, and the availability of prime territories is fueling our growth. There has never been a better time to join our franchise and gain the support of our entire network. You could be the first to bring Dogtopia to your community!

One of the prime benefits of teaming up with a rapidly growing brand like Dogtopia is the ability to cherry-pick prime markets to open a location that is perfect for you. You have the chance to open your own Dogtopia where you know people and have connections.

“As we grow Dogtopia across North America, there remains a lot of opportunities in many major markets—but that opportunity won’t last forever. Now is the time to join an experienced and dedicated team that surrounds you with support. At Dogtopia, you’ll be in business for yourself but not by yourself, and that is the real key to success.” – Neil Gill, CEO/President, Dogtopia

 

ABOUT DOGTOPIA

• Founded in 2002 and franchising since 2005, Dogtopia is the fastest-growing franchise in the pet industry
• Current leadership team stepped in 2015 after acquiring the company
• Sustainable growth plans to reach 400+ stores by 2026
• More than 350 units have been sold and are in various stages of development
• Modern branding and market positioning targeting female millennial pet parents
• 3 Flexible Models: Urban, Suburban, Light Industrial (3,000–8,000 sq. ft.)
• Support: 30 days of initial training, grand opening, and ongoing support, more 650 hours of training available at your fingertips
• Turnkey real estate, construction, and architectural services
• Top 10 Commitments to Safety including dog-friendly cleaning protocols
• Subject matter experts on staff, including a veterinarian, canine behavior expert, and environmental biologist

STRONG UNIT ECONOMICS

Dogtopia is the only brand to offer a scaled and proven recurring revenue membership model. We have impressive unit economics, including dramatic year-over-year traffic and sales growth in one of the fastest-growing industries. The difference is incredibly engaged franchisees combined with an executive management team that has a winning track record and extensive experience with national brands. Our focus on unit success and refinement of our operational and marketing systems has positioned Dogtopia for dramatic growth in the coming years.

• Easy to run + easy to learn = franchisees can grow rapidly into multiple units
• Work-life balance = majority of business is Monday through Friday (limited nights & weekends)
• Financial strength of franchisor = 100% privately owned, no debt
• Recession-resistant, strong demand for our services

Momentum has largely been driven by the growing demand for professional pet care services and heightened by Dogtopia’s unparalleled franchise support, training, and franchise industry expertise. With more than 20 years of industry leading experience, Dogtopia is primed to capture even more market share as we continue to attract sophisticated and passionate franchisees. With plans to penetrate several new urban markets in 2025 and beyond, the company is continuing to target motivated franchise candidates looking to grab a piece of the booming pet industry.

SMART STORE DESIGN

Dogtopia’s latest store design entails a smaller footprint and more playroom space than our previous layout. Utilizing smart planning and space-saving efficiencies, Dogtopia has been able to drive a 25% savings in cost per square foot. In addition, this new design offers standardized millwork and graphics for a faster construction schedule enabling franchisees to open faster and maximize revenue. For more on Dogtopia’s store design, click here to take a tour.

OPEN-PLAY DAYCARE ALL DAY

Dogtopia offers 8-10 hours of open-play dog daycare with no rotation play.

Tech Investment

We’re proud to have made a significant investment of over $7M in our technology stack over the last few years. We partnered with Salesforce to build a customized system specifically for our Dogtopians. Unlike third party or off the shelf applications, Dogtopia’s daycare management system was built for scale and allows us to be nimble and address changing areas of the business quickly.

We believe that it’s important to continually innovate in order to maintain top-level service for our customers and stay ahead of competitors. Our team is always looking to incorporate new technology, improve business processes, and elevate our brand presence.

CONTACT CENTER

We also offer a national contact center for our franchisees as a store-level labor savings option.

WEBSITE & MOBILE APP

Our digital assets include a robust international website that:

• Incorporates best-in-class franchise/multi-location website thinking and functionality
• Maximizes the power of the Dogtopia digital network
• Utilizes an integrated web, social, and search strategy to generate new leads and create a digital competitive advantage for Dogtopia above others in the market
• Offers online appointment requests and additional functionalities launching all the time
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization

Each new franchisee will have access to a complete website for their location, allowing them to:

• Increase opportunity to rank in local searches (e.g., dog daycare Highlands Ranch)
• Provide key local information that people search for (e.g., address, hours of operation, areas of specialty)
• Include local-specific terms and regional terminology and spelling, localized metadata, and store-specific products and services

We also have a custom-built proprietary mobile app on both Apple and Android, which allows our customers to easily book appointments, see their dogs on our webcams, and coordinate our concierge drop-off service and more!

SEARCH OPTIMIZATION

We run a sophisticated local search program that provides our franchisees with the ability to out-rank their local competitors on Google. The focus of the program is to help our newly launched Dogtopia locations gain visibility in search results much faster than would normally be the case. Through this approach, we are able to generate a large number of leads and new sales for our new franchise locations very quickly.

SOCIAL MEDIA

When a new location opens, our Support Office creates a local Facebook page that is part of the Dogtopia Facebook locations framework, enabling a consistent brand look and feel. The local Facebook pages automatically receive high-quality creative, posts, offers, and incentives from the Support Office to keep their page active. At the same time, every franchisee has the ability to create their own posts to really showcase the personality of their local location. The Support Office will also provide creative and post ideas for franchisees who also wish to engage in local social media marketing on other social networking sites like Instagram and TikTok.

DIGITAL MARKETING

Dogtopia also offers an integrated advertising program that empowers franchisees to easily run paid localized Facebook, Instagram, and Google advertising with an easy-to-use interface that requires no previous digital advertising experience. Campaign imagery and copy are provided by the Support Office to make it as easy as possible for individual locations to deploy sophisticated campaigns in minutes. Franchisees are able to set their daily budgets and track and manage their store’s leads (both from form completions and phone calls), including call recordings.