.
| Newcomers.. |
Litter mate
New player in dog-eat-dog daycare biz
| If a tired dog is a happy dog, then sleeping dogs don’t lie—they absolutely do not want to stay home alone. That’s why franchisor Jason Puleio wants to see The Barker Lounge come to a neighborhood near your canine companion. |
As a relatively new franchisor, Jason Puleio survived the dog days of summer, and now things are starting to fall into place for The Barker Lounge.
While his logo — a martini glass with a tiny dog bone "olive" — conjures up images of jacked-up terriers hitting on poodles while sipping toilet water in stemmed glasses, the lounge is actually a place for dogs to go for supervised canine companionship. After all, dogs, like people, are social animals.
As we've said many times before on these pages: Americans love, love, love their
pets. So, if you're wondering whether the country needs another doggy-daycare
franchise, the answer appears to be yes.
|
|
The Barker Lounge's first two franchisees in the greater-Philadelphia area were beginning development of their facilities at press time, and Puleio is on track to have four to five franchises onboard by the end of the year.
His leads are coming from nontraditional sources — places where dog lovers hang out, such as pet shows, rather than places franchisees frequent. He also works with canine rescue groups, which gives Barker Lounge visibility — and lucky dogs a place to stay while they wait to be adopted.
"We're trying to do this very slowly, carefully, and most importantly, right,' Puleio says. He's putting as much effort on the franchise side of the business as he did on designing the facility. He worked with Kay Ainsley of Michael Seid & Associates and Nick Bibby of The Bibby Group to ensure he had the proper franchise knowledge before soliciting franchisees — no writing sales numbers on cocktail napkins for him.
|
At a glance The Barker Lounge Year started: 2003 Started franchising in: 2008 Franchise fee: $25,000 Royalty: 5 percent Investment range: $136,000 to $283,000 |
"The Barker Lounge is an extremely well-organized and thoughtful operation," Bibby says, adding that he rarely endorses franchises, but sees this as a viable entry in a proven segment.
Ainsley, who helped put together the original strategy, says Puleio has been diligent about doing what's best for the dogs. Since he came from the software industry, he developed his own back-office software after failing to find appropriate management software already on the market, she adds.
Puleio also worked with Susan Greenbaum, an animal behaviorist who trains animals for television and commercials. "She once taught over 200 dogs to wipe their noses simultaneously," he says. Her role at Barker Lounge was to help reduce the stress dogs feel when they're away from home. "Five years ago when I got into it, it was common to put 50 to 60 dogs in a room and call it daycare," Puleio says. "Dogs need structure, routines; they need to be managed."
|
Jason Puleio is taking things slowly in developing The Barker Lounge. He even got some advice from a renowned animal trainer. |
For exercise, the dogs have bouncy platforms, tunnels, wading pools, slides and digging pits with buried toys. There's also downtime in an individual kennel with a chew toy. Overnight guests find a treat on their pillow and piped in jazz.
The centers look like a "loungey, New York industrial club combined with Romper Room," Puleio says. New dogs are greeted by staff members, who aren't adverse to rolling around on the floor with them to test their temperament.
Puleio financed his first center with stock options from his software online trading firm that was bought out by Ameritrade. He also raised funds from friends and family.
"From the first I knew there was more to it than one unit," he says about the franchise.
|
Dog's best friend isn't always man When Susan Greenbaum accompanied her client for his appearance on TV's "Dinner and a Movie," Henry sat in the plane's middle seat. That may not be noteworthy, except Henry is a Wheaton terrier, and doesn't mind flying coach. "His ego's not that big," Greenbaum says of her celebrity client. For the past 15 years, Greenbaum has trained dogs for roles in commercials and TV shows. When her retriever was cast for a "Saturday Night Live" sketch for Angry Dog dog food right before their vacation, the show's staff mailed a dead pheasant to her vacation spot so the dog could practice shaking it. Such is the life of a dog trainer. It's far from glamorous, Greenbaum contends. "Sometimes owners beg to go along (on photo shoots); no one ever goes twice," she says. "It's really boring. Our job is to make it fun for the dog." Like the route to a man's heart, the pathway to training dogs is through their stomach. "Use lots of food," the 15-year dog-training veteran says. When Jason Puleio was designing The Barkers Lounge, one of his employees recommended Greenbaum, who agreed to observe his operation and make suggestions. Her advice was to cut the noise level, design play yards to challenge dogs both mentally and physically and reduce the size of the play groups. Greenbaum says she was impressed Puleio followed her recommendation on reducing noise level, since it involved spending dollars on "something that won't make you money, but is the right thing to do."
And fortunately, people also like spending money on other beings, she adds. Why do we like dogs so much? "Because they like us," she states matter-of-factly. |
