Building a National Luxury Dog Resort Brand with Jason Parker of K9 Resorts

0:00You are listening to and watching the Builders podcast where I interview CEOs, entrepreneurs, and leaders about building their business and career. And the topic today has a universal approval rating, which is about the dogs in our life. If you, by the way, have a high schooler with an entrepreneurial mindset, I think you should send them this episode. It's about Jason and Steven Parker. They built a dog walking business in high school, sold it, and then built a luxury resort or dog daycare called Canine Resorts, getting financing and handling construction at ages 17 and 19. That was 20 years ago.

0:36Today, there are 140 plus locations. And here's the story as I sit down one-on-one with Jason Parker.

0:48Hi, Jason. How are you? Good to see you. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Well, I'm really excited to talk to you today. We have a topic that has a universal approval rating, And that's our pets and our dogs. They're obviously an incredibly important part of their owner's lives. For consumers who aren't familiar with your industry, maybe you could describe the typical doggy daycare experience and then where your company, Canine Resorts, changes the game, if you will. Yeah, so I'd say the typical daycare experience is probably a local location, you know, non-franchised in a market where someone will live.

1:27And it's typically in the outskirts of the market, maybe in a heavy industrial type area. And they kind of go into an older factory and will not do that many upgrades, right? Put some stuff on the floor, maybe change a couple light bulbs, a fresh coat of paint. And that is quite the opposite of what we do at Canine Resorts. Anytime we're opening a new location, the existing space that we go into gets completely gutted. We have a brand standard. We spec everything out from floor to ceiling and everything is top of the line. And what are some of the amenities of the resort, if you will? For example, you know, we can all think about if we're booking a luxury resort for our own travel, what we would expect.

2:11What can a dog expect when they're hanging out for the day? Well, a dog can expect to get pampered. That's the first thing. And it makes their owners feel really comfortable. Everything in the facility, again, is top of the line. So the floors that we have have microband built in. Those will kill odor and bacteria on contact. We have ventilation systems throughout the entire resort that changes the airflow every two to three minutes to keep the place fresh and clean. And we have multiple of those units throughout the facility. We use only hospital-grade disinfectants. So that's all on the health side.

2:46But from a dog's perspective, they're just there to have a good time. Most of the dogs that are staying with us will participate in daycare, although it's not required. But for the dogs that do, they're running around in an indoor playroom with a lot of their friends, their size appropriately so that they're, you know, 30 pounds and up or 30 pounds and under. We have two different rooms and they have members of the canine resort staff in there with them, keep an eye on them, play with them and also to take them outside. One of the brand standards that we have is that all of our resorts have outdoor facilities.

3:20We have a special canine artificial grass system outside. And then if they're staying overnight, they're going to stay in an executive room or a luxury suite most of the time. And those luxury suites have luxury orthopedic beds. They have TVs tuned to Animal Planet or Dog TV. They're getting room service, ice cream. They're really getting spoiled. They don't want to go home. That's great. I love that. And I want to talk to you about how you start from a single location. Actually, I think your first endeavor into this entrepreneurship was as a kid. But before we get into that, maybe as a way of making this personal, is there a particular dog that you can remember that came into one of your resorts over the years, maybe recent, maybe at the beginning that was extra special to you and why?

4:08You know, that's a really good question. There was this dog, this is going back 10, 15 years ago. His name was Neville. I'll never forget this little dog. He was a 30 to 40 pound mixed breed between an American Staffordshire Terrier and a Lab and just a really good dog. He was like bright white and he would go in. This is the original location in Fanwood where it all started. And he would come every time his owners would travel and he would run to the daycare and really enjoy playing with the other dogs and then get to hang out in a luxury suite overnight. So he was definitely a spoiled pup. That's really funny.

4:44I love that. I'm curious, as you're thinking about building your business, and we can only focus on so much, and I understand that there's always a balance, but do you feel like in key parts of your growth, were you focused more on the happiness and joy of your residents, meaning the dogs, or like the confidence and peace of mind of your customers, the people paying for the resort? Did any of these North Stars take over at various points of growth for you? It's a very good question. We were always focused on the health and happiness of the pets that were in our care. So the residents, I like the way you put that.

5:22And we always felt that it's true that if the pets were well cared for, their owners would see that. I was actually meeting this morning with a veterinarian that has been in this neighborhood for over 30 years. And he said to one of his colleagues that was in the meeting, I always know that, you know, when when canine first opened up, it was very rare to have a dog come in with any type of injury from canine. It just didn't happen. And that wasn't the same for other local boarding and daycare facilities. So that's something that we pride ourselves on. We're very selective on the dogs that we allow in the daycare room.

6:03Every dog has to go through an evaluation process. And if the dog isn't isn't a good fit, then we won't allow that dog to participate. And that really says a lot about us and the brand and the culture. And that translates to peace of mind to our, you know, the consumer. Right. Because when they go to their veterinarian and ask for a recommendation and they recommend canine resorts and they ask why and they say, well, one, that's because that's where I send my dog. And two, because we very rarely have any issues, any injuries, any illnesses from canine. That says a lot. For a dog or an owner who are who are rejected, maybe is the wrong word, but the dog doesn't have the behavior or whatever that's that's necessary.

6:48Can dogs be redeemed? I mean, can they be trained and go through some kind of certification and then get back into the program? Yeah. So a couple of things. Number one, if the dog is not doing well in doggy daycare, as long as they're 100 percent people friendly, they can still come to the facility. They can do day boarding, which is an option where they get their own private room or suite. And then members of the team will play with them, take them outside. And if they have to stay overnight, they can board and same type of treatment. They'll get personalized play times, walks, things like that.

7:20We always tell our customers, and this is something, again, transparency that we pride ourselves on. We always tell our customers, even if your dog passes, if they're not enjoying it, we're going to let you know. Because then you shouldn't sign your dog up or bring your dog here for daycare. There could be other options for you, like I mentioned earlier. Or maybe in those rare instances, a dog walker could be a good option and keep that dog at home. So we're always going to tell our customers, you know, A, if their dog passed or didn't do that well, but B, even if they pass again, but if they don't like it, that defeats the purpose of daycare.

7:58I'd love to go back to the beginning. And I read that I think you and your brother did some kind of had some side gigs as a child taking care of animals. So I'd love to hear that story. But but also, when did you decide to go all in and decide I'm going to make a bet that this will become my career? So when my brother Stephen and I were in high school, we were trying to convince our parents that we had enough responsibility to care for dogs. And they believed us and they knew that, but they're just not dog people. So we started a neighborhood dog walking business and that kind of grew and blossomed into a real business after a couple of years.

8:37We had a bunch of people working for us. We're doing six figures in sales. And then one day we came up with the idea and we said, we want to build a brick and mortar resort where people can drop off their dog, where the dogs would be safe, healthy and happy. And we had a lot of ideas because, remember, we would go into people's homes and see how people treated their dogs and all these different neighborhoods where we grew up. So we did a lot of research, hired architects and engineers that specialize in this kind of stuff. And we launched the first canine resorts in Fanwood, New Jersey on January 30th, 2005.

9:16I was still a senior in high school at the time. My brother's a couple of years older than me. And we were all in at that point. We had a dog walking company that was really flourishing. And we launched this concept where people thought we were crazy having cage-free dog boarding and doggy daycare where two dogs from different families would play together. That never happened back in 2005. in that time. It just wasn't a thing. And very quickly within the first year of launching that business, we realized this is what we want to do for the rest of our life. We want to focus on it. We want to figure out a way to grow and scale across the country.

9:52So we sold our dog walking business and we focused on Canine Resorts. Five years after the launch, we started franchising. And when we started the franchise program, we would only franchise in New York, New Jersey, in Pennsylvania so that we can really be close by to support our franchise owners. We learned early on that all of your franchisees have to be really successful if you want to be successful in growing your franchise concept. So we wanted to be nearby. We had calls from all over the country, Florida, Texas, California, but we wouldn't offer franchises there until five years after we launched the franchise program, which was when we partnered up with a family office style private equity firm.

10:36And they gave us the human resources and the financial resources that we never had access to before, plus their strategic vision on how to grow because they had been part of and owned other franchises in the past and at the time. So in 2015, we made our nationwide push. And here we are today in 2025. We're operating all across the country from East Coast to West Coast about a month and a half ago. We opened a location in Los Angeles, first location in California. Extremely excited about that. And we continue to open up a location at least one a month. Is there any market that you've gotten into that you have been really delighted and surprised about the reception that Canine Resorts has received?

11:23I would say that's in all the markets, to be quite honest. We really are offering a service that is, you know, we consider canine the industry creator for high-end dog boarding and daycare franchises. And when we go, you know, across the country and open these locations, there's a lot of locations that maybe have been open for several decades and are not, you know, as state-of-the-art as canine and don't have all the different flooring materials and HVAC that we have. They certainly don't have the training and all of that for the staff that works there. But there's a couple of markets. Recently, we opened up in upstate New York in Greece and Penfield, and the revenues were off the charts.

12:10So we're trying to figure out, I mean, people must really love their dogs in those areas. Or maybe it's just a brand growing and building up. I know that Mike Mada, the franchise owner there does a really great job. He operates both locations himself, looking to open up a third location in that area. And Mike does a phenomenal job and is really an ambassador for the brand. That's really cool. I've worked with a lot of entrepreneurs in my career who are great and love building from zero to one. And then when they start to get into big expansion mode, That's just not what they're excited about or what they feel like they were born to do.

12:52It strikes me that you've been a small business owner, growing that business, making it successful, and then decided to be on board and stay on board for that one to two, one to ten. Is there something that maybe was harder than you expected, like personally from that? And then is there something that kind of brings you joy above and beyond being a small business owner that maybe you didn't expect? I'm sort of asking about the pros and cons of staying as CEO or leader after that initial growth stage. Yeah, I think that in any business, if you're scaling it, you're going to experience different challenges throughout the life cycle of the business.

13:27So in the beginning, and I'm talking the way beginning, a challenge that Stephen and I faced that I was 17 and Stephen was 19 was getting a landlord and a bank to take us seriously. This was our second business venture. We were, of course, very young, but it was very difficult to get financing and we didn't give up and met with over a dozen banks and then found one that believed in us. And we were able to secure financing for location number one. If you fast forward, then when we started franchising, it was difficult to find franchise owners in the beginning because there really was no proof of concept.

14:04We had one location open and people were hesitant to take that risk. You fast forward that to today, we're blessed to have a lot of locations that are open, dozens and dozens open, and over 100 that are in development. So our biggest challenge or roadblock today is figuring out a way of getting the locations open and going through the real estate process and the zoning. And we've expanded our team. We have a phenomenal team at the corporate headquarters that helps us get locations open and make franchise owners successful. So I would say those are some of the challenges that we faced. So I speak at colleges and universities a lot.

14:44And I also talk to people who want to get into the franchising world and franchise their business. And that's very different than running your business day to day. When you have one or two locations, you're running your business. You're on the floor working with the team that is at that location each and every day. When you start franchising your concept or scale it through corporate expansion, you're building teams and you're building procedures that teach other people how to run businesses and you're teaching them the best practices. And that's each and every aspect of the business, right? From finding a good location to working with the municipalities to get it zoned, to having a contractor build that location out, to grand opening, to marketing, to hiring.

15:29I mean, there's a lot of hats you have to wear. And I always like to educate people on that subject because people should know what they're getting themselves into. I want to talk about the economy without getting into politics. We can agree, I think, that there's economic uncertainty right now. And I've been asking guests on the podcast over the last couple of months, how is this impacting how you operate your business, planning for the rest of the year or beyond? So I think for us, there's two different ways that we're looking at it. We're looking at it from the consumer lens and then we're looking at it from the franchise owner lens.

16:04On the consumer side, we're fortunate that revenues have remained strong and actually increased over 2024, which is not the same thing that's happening nationwide in the industry. So I'm proud to say that Canine Resorts is doing better than the industry average, and we're actually growing considerably over 2024. On the franchise owner perspective, there's obviously a little bit more of a worry because they want to understand what's going on with inflation, what's going on with tariffs as they're building out their locations. So what we've done is we've worked with our franchise owners, our franchise advisory council, and our team here at corporate.

16:48And we've been working on really since Q4 of 2024, some value engineering exercises. How can we buy things in bulk, get more national contracts? How can we lower the cost to build to combat inflation and tariffs? And we've been able to do a nice job on that and people are comfortable. Nice. Sounds like you're being proactive with that. And I'm glad to hear the revenue is increasing. You know, I wonder if people going back to work and being in the office more has been sort of a tailwind to the business as well. You know, it's interesting because when, you know, COVID, when we were coming out of COVID, there was a real big influx of dog ownership, right?

17:30People bought dogs. First time dog owners were all over the place and the business did really, really well. And then, you know, obviously that can't last forever. So it didn't. But now that, you know, it's been several years and you're right, a lot of people are going back to the office. There's mandates from most companies now, four or five days required to be in the office. And we're seeing that. Maybe that helps our numbers, as you alluded to. I think it certainly does. But we're seeing people back in the office. We're also seeing people that, especially younger professionals that do a lot of Zoom interviews and meetings and phone calls, their companies have policies that you can't have your dog in the Zoom shot, as cute as they are.

18:17And we would really all love to see everyone's dog each and every day. A lot of companies have policies that don't allow that. So therefore, even people that work from home bring their dogs to daycare. And there's a lot of makeup trips, trips that got canceled or postponed in COVID. People are still making those trips up and going away and making up for lost times, I guess. Yeah. When you work with your franchise owners, You bring them a lot of ideas and a blueprint. Can you think of an example where a franchise owner gave you an idea that was so good that you spread it to all of the resorts? 100%.

18:53An easy one is pre-sales. So this is going back a couple of years ago. And we had a franchise owner, Glenn, from Planet Fitness. And he said, all right, we're getting ready to open our resort in 90 days. Construction is on time. When do we start the pre-sales? And we said, excuse me? And he said, when do we start the pre-sales at our clubs, Planet Fitness? We get out in the community before opening and we sell memberships. And in this business, you can sell daycare bundles and packages at a discounted rate ahead of time so that when you open, your locations have a lot of dogs in them. I said, Glenn, we've never done that before, but that's a phenomenal idea.

19:32And we work together to come up with how we're going to do it and the blueprint for that. his location in Wellington, Florida was the first location to pre-sell. They did a phenomenal job of that and they taught us and we developed a playbook together. Now it's a brand requirement that you cannot open for business until you have a certain dollar amount of pre-sales so that we know you know how to get out in your community and shake as many hands as you can. I tell all of our franchise owners. You should be the mayor of your market. The more hands you shake, the more money you make. That is a really great example.

20:12How do you think about additional services or revenue streams for franchises? Maybe that's not necessary, but I think about you gave the example of meeting with a veterinarian earlier. Can there be vet services? I know there's now a recognition that dogs can have anxiety and other mental health issues that might require treatment or addressing during the day? Or maybe you've already thought about this, but is there an opportunity to have add-on services for dogs? I think right now, and obviously that could change in the future, we're trying to keep it simple. And it's pretty interesting because since we opened 20 years ago, we actually earlier this year celebrated our 20-year anniversary of the brand.

20:52But since we opened, we've maintained the same services, right? Dog boarding, dog daycare, and then bathing. Those are the three services that we have. We keep it simple. It works for us. The model is thriving. That doesn't mean, you know, in the beginning, we tried some retail that didn't work. We tried some other things. It just doesn't work as well. And we want to be experts at, you know, two or three things and not a whole bunch more. So for right now, I think we're sticking to those main services. But our franchise owners are really smart individuals. They're always coming up with new creative ideas that we kind of debate back and forth.

21:33And I'm sure in the near future, there's going to be something that we're going to launch. Jason, congrats on the 20-year anniversary, the growth of your business. And thanks so much for joining me today. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

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