🚨 NEWS ALERT

This dog was a big inspiration behind the logo of Dogonomist.

THIS WEEK'S TOPICS:

• 💪 +$100K/yr working out with dogs

• 🦮 Starting a career as a dog trainer

• 📦 Amazon’s pet day

 💪 +$100K/YR WORKING OUT WITH DOGS

Mobile dog gyms are coming in red hot this year, especially with summer starting to kick into high gear in many places across the US.

These “gyms”, which at their core are sprinter vans with AC and treadmills, have proven to be beneficial for dog owners in dense urban areas or regions with extreme weather.

These businesses, typically retrofitted groomer vans, offer climate-controlled environments equipped with water pumps, artificial turf, and dog treadmills, providing an ideal solution for pet fitness, rehab, and mental stimulation.

The Market & Earnings Potential

Mobile dog gyms are a relatively new addition to the pet industry, but they are growing rapidly. Owners of these businesses can earn between $90,000 to $110,000 per van annually, with session charges ranging from $45 to $75 for a 30-minute session per dog.

This profitability and surging demand is drawing significant attention from entrepreneurs looking to tap into the booming pet care market, which is projected to reach $325.74 billion by 2028.

Benefits of Mobile Dog Gyms

These gyms address several common challenges faced by dog owners:

1. 🥵 Weather Constraints: In areas with extreme heat or cold, traditional outdoor walks may not be feasible. Mobile dog gyms offer a safe, controlled environment for exercise regardless of weather conditions.

2. 😤 Behavioral Issues: For dogs that are reactive or have socialization problems, these mobile gyms provide a private space for exercise, reducing anxiety and aggression while promoting overall mental and physical health.

3. 👍 Convenience: Busy pet owners can schedule sessions at their homes or workplaces, saving time and ensuring their pets receive adequate exercise.

Industry Landscape & Opportunities

Currently, several mobile dog gym businesses are making waves in their towns, including FITPUP and Bark N’ Roll Mobile Dog Fitness based out of California.

These businesses have not only carved out a niche market but have also gained significant social media traction, leveraging Instagram and TikTok to attract clients and showcase the benefits of their services.

Run Dawg in Las Vegas is one of them, which has amassed 14M likes ❤️and 267K followers on TikTok.

@rundawggym

You sure about that? #mobiledoggym #rundawg #malinois

Run Dawg has experienced such high demand that they have had to close their self-booking system; customers now need to contact them directly to book a session.

RunBuddy Mobile claims to be the first player in the market, and has the strongest TikTok presence with over 22M likes ❤️ and 873K followers

How Much to Start One?

Starting a mobile dog gym requires an initial investment for a properly equipped van and high-quality treadmills + insurance.

Franchise opportunities are also available for those seeking to leverage established brands and business models, although the space is still very young.

The startup costs can range from $50,000 to $100,000, depending on the van, the level of customization, and equipment quality.

🦮 STARTING A CAREER AS A DOG TRAINER

We are forever on the hunt for the job where we just play with dogs all day and make $500k per year....

That's out there, right? RIGHT!?

Ok, well while we keep looking, let's go over another profession that while maybe not as lucrative, does get you lots of time w/ dogs: the dog trainer.

What is it like to be a dog trainer?

Great question, and probably the most important one. You better be sure you are going to like the work if you want to explore this as a side gig / career.

We talked to some friends and some blogs, and the most obvious thing is it's a lot of time with dogs, which is great. The flip side is it's a lot of dogs that need training b/c they aren't well behaved (not so great). So the job is really fulfilling for people that like to see the effect of their hard work, even if it's challenging to begin with.

But what are you doing most of the time? From what we gathered it depends. First off we have a bunch of different scenarios for training:

• Private one on one trainings in home

• Working at a board and train facility

• Group trainings

• Virtual trainings

Then there is also the type of training you may specialize in:

• General obedience

• Agility and reactivity training

• Behavior modification

• Specialized trainings like search and rescue or service dogs

But looking at your standard in-person training, a day might look like this:

1. Go to your first appointment at a clients house for a consultation / assessment to see what the dog (and more importantly the human) will need to achieve their behavior goals.

2. Start with basic leash walking, basic commands, household manners.

3. Take notes and schedule a follow up training and follow up with useful materials for the client.

4. Go back home to answer emails from clients and schedule new client consultations.

5. Head back out for a group training at a client’s house to work on agility and obedience for a small group of pups.

6. Grab your own dog to film some instructional videos to offer clients who have completed training but want to be able to work on their own.

7. Do a virtual session with a client.

8. Catch up on more emails, scheduling, and logging notes.

9. Do some studying for new techniques.

As you can see, it's not boring work. There's a lot of training (duh), but also different formats, as well as travel, note-taking, normal admin / coordination.

It's not light work, but it does sound fulfilling.

How do you become a dog trainer?

Well, you could just call yourself one...

Seriously, there is no required licensing or certification to become a dog trainer. You mostly decide to become one and try to get some customers. BUT, we strongly recommend you do not do that and instead do the following:

• First, get some training yourself. There is no end to the amount of training content on the internet, much of which is free. One example being the non-profit Youtube channel from Your Dog's Friend. But if you prefer to go full bore, the Karen Pryor Academy get's a lot of press, and offers a 6 month course with hands on training that runs between $5k-$6k. Do some googling and you'll find plenty of options.

• Try training your own dog. There's no better way to see if you like or are good at dog training than getting your dog up to snuff. You can check out the AKC's Canine Good Citizen test to see how you stack up.

• Apprentice with other dogs. Once you've got the hang of training your dog, you'll need to see how your techniques work on other pooches. Plus you need to get some testimonials and references. The best way is offer to train friends dogs for free in exchange. This is also a great test on whether you actually want to do this or not. You won't love these dogs like your own, so if you aren't excited about training, you'll know it.

• Get certified. Just because certification isn't required to become a dog trainer doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it. Potential customers are going to want to know your credentials, experience, and references. There are plenty of certifications out there, but a popular one is from the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers, which requires 300 hours of training experience and a 180 question exam.

Yeah, but what's the money like?

Maybe this is actually the more important question. For this to be viable you need to make enough money to meet your goals.

And we've got to be honest, it isn't a ton unless you get creative.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the average salary at $44,910 though that will vary by state, and this is for trainers who are employed by a facility or part of a group.

The opportunity in our opinion is to either have the goal of opening your own facility, or self-employ and drum up enough business to hire additional trainers and grow. This requires a lot more time and marketing/sales know-how.

We know dog trainers that have teams of other trainers and their businesses make anywhere from $300K to +$1M per year.

That's not the only opportunity we see though. You could look to white label training content, make virtual courses or guides to sell to the consumer, generate leads to sell to certified trainers, help trainers improve their web presence, and more.

When it comes down to it though, you probably aren't in this just for the money. If it's dogs you love then training might be a good avenue for you because it's fulfilling and gets you a lot of time with them.

A good trainer is often the key to helping dogs and owners reach the behavior goals needed for them to be a long term fit.

📦 AMAZON’S PET DAY

This last May 7th and 8th, Amazon ran it's 3rd consecutive "Pet Day" as part of it's strategy to compete with specialty retailers like Chewy and others.

Similar to Prime Day and others, the design is to bring in consumers by centralizing marketing around deals and products related to that category in the hopes it drives both net new customers that may use other shopping tools, and gets existing customers to buy more.

Based on data provided by Momentum Commerce, Amazon saw a 6.3% increase in sales compared to 2023.

Unfortunately we don't have the total $ figure, but you can bet it's a lot since Prime Day brings in a staggering $12.9 billion in sales. Having said that, the data shows that Pet Supplies sales on Prime Day, Big Deal Days, and Turkey 5 all beat Pet Day.

The categories of that 6.3% increase are interesting, as leading the way are cat litter / housebreaking and dog beds and furniture:

It's also cool to see which brands saw the biggest increase in revenue compared to 2023, with Amazon Basic & Greenies leading the way (not surprising w/ Basics), and big dips from Frontline and Hill's:

Some Takeaways:

• Shopping during Pet Day seems geared more toward specific categories, so if you are a company that participates, offering discounting on specific products might be better than a blanket approach.

• Amazon seems to still be the big dog in the online pet supplies space with 59% market share, though they haven't yet knocked Chewy out (41%).

• Greenies is doing something right, because while dog treat spending fell as a whole, they saw one of the biggest increases in YoY sales.

For those of you out there in the pet e-commerce space, Amazon can be a necessary evil, or a big lift depending on how you approach your research around consumer trends, competitors, and other factors.

DOGGYDEX™

Winner 🏆: S&P 500

Proudly introducing the DoggyDex™, an index comprised of 10 publicly traded companies whose primary focus is the dog/pet industry.

List of tickers used can be found at the very bottom of the newsletter.

The yellow line-plot in the chart represents these companies above (DoggyDex™) and their combined performance against both the S&P 500 and Bitcoin on a weekly basis.

Pawformance is measured by % gains & losses.

• 🏃🐕 Peloton launches pet-friendly classes: Classes include 10-minute mediation, 15-minute outdoor run, and 10-minute body strength training class.

• 💆 Dog gets the most relaxing hot stone massage: Watch as Elvis the Lab gets a hot stone massage and quickly falls asleep.

• 😂 Tom Papa explains how pugs are not dogs: Comedian and actor, Tom Papa, doing a bit on the creation of Pugs and how they’re not dogs. (he owns a Pug)

A REALLY GOOD DOG

• $CHWY - Chewy: E-commerce platform for pet supplies

• $IDXX - Idexx Labs: Vet point of care instruments and vet software

• $FRPT - Fresh Pet: Pet food company

• $PETQ - PetIQ: Pet health products and medicines

• $PETS - PetMeds: Online pet pharmacy

• $ZTS - Zoetis: World's largest producer of meds and vaccines for pets and livestock

• $TRUP - Trupanion: Pet insurance company

• $WOOF - Petco Health & Wellness co.: Pet health & wellness company

• $BARK - BarkBox: Subscription service providing dog products, services, and experiences

• $PET - Wag! Group Co.: Tech platform that allows pet owners to connect with industry professionals for services such as, walking, training, etc.