Meet the Franchise: DOGPerfect Founder Rob Emery on Building a Better Pet Retail Experience Through Franchising

Rob Emery has built successful businesses in wireless retail, insurance and consumer products, but when he and his wife, Linda, launched DOGPerfect in 2019, they found something different: a business fueled as much by passion as entrepreneurship.

After growing DOGPerfect to six stores in Sarasota and Manatee counties, the couple decided in 2025 that franchising was the next step. Emery has been deliberate about the pace, using the time to refine the model, document how the business operates and make sure future owners can deliver the same customer experience.

“If I didn't truly believe a franchisee could succeed with it, I simply wouldn't sell it,” Emery said. “I'd rather keep operating it myself than put someone into a business I wasn't completely confident in.”

Emery recently joined 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills on an episode of the “Meet the Franchise” podcast to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, what differentiates DOGPerfect from traditional pet retailers, and why patience is one of the company's biggest competitive advantages. A transcript of the interview appears below. It has been edited for clarity, brevity and style.

Nick Powills: Rob, I have one scripted question. Everything else is off the cuff. I know part of this answer already, but I'm looking forward to hearing the whole story. How did you accidentally fall into franchising? What's your franchise backstory?

Rob Emery: I really did accidentally fall into franchising. The first time was around 2001. I was a wireless retailer, and a franchisor approached me about bringing my 13 Verizon Wireless stores under its umbrella. I joined their franchise system and became a territory developer for Michigan and Indiana. I did that for a couple of years, and that was my first experience with franchising.

The second part of the story is a little longer. Linda and I started DOGPerfect in 2019. Through 2020 and beyond, Linda dealt with some significant health issues, so the stores were somewhat on the back burner.

As she began feeling better in 2022 and 2023, we had a conversation one day about what we wanted to do with the business. At the time, we had three stores, which is kind of an awkward size. We sat down and asked ourselves whether we wanted to sell them, grow them or find a partner.

We decided we wanted to grow the business while exploring partnership opportunities. We met with several companies in the franchise industry to see if there was a brand that would be a good fit for us, but we simply couldn't find anyone who shared our philosophy.

After one of those trips, I came home, and Linda said, "Why don't we just do it ourselves?"

That conversation happened about 14 or 15 months ago, and it's been a whirlwind ever since. It still is.

Powills: Going back to your wireless business, did you eventually sell it to a franchise, or did you convert it into a franchise?

Emery: I did. It's actually a pretty unusual story. We were a Verizon Wireless retailer in Michigan with 13 stores. I joined the franchise group and, while I was doing territory development, I sold some of my stores to another operator.

The people who owned that company eventually breached their agreement with Verizon. I remember the day vividly. A friend and I were fishing in the woods one September afternoon. When we came back to our phones, both of our voicemails were overflowing. This was 2003 or 2004, so it wasn't like today, where everything came through text messages.

We drove into town and started calling people. We learned that Verizon had revoked the company's contract and literally shut off all of their stores in the middle of the day. There had obviously been issues happening behind the scenes that no one knew about. The company had grown to around 85 stores and was moving in the right direction, but everything collapsed almost overnight.

Fortunately, because I had maintained a great relationship with Verizon, I was the only operator who got my original agreement back. I was able to recover my stores, restore my recurring revenue streams and survive what was a devastating event for most of the other operators.

Powills: You were really on the front end of wireless franchising. Looking back, did you ever consider franchising your own wireless business?

Emery: Not really. What happened during that experience actually ended up shaping the rest of our careers. One thing we noticed inside that franchise system was its cell phone warranty program. It was terrible. The customer experience was poor. The technology was poor. Everything about it was designed to deny claims whenever possible.

We looked at it and thought, "If they can charge customers $50 for this, why can't we create something better?" So we started offering our own warranty program in our stores. Instead of trying to deny claims, we'd simply repair or replace customers' phones when they had legitimate issues. That became our way of learning the warranty business.

In 2006, we spun it off into its own company. We operated that business until 2012, when we sold it to a publicly traded insurance company. That became my exit from the warranty business. Then I sold my wireless stores in 2013 and eventually entered the pet industry after making an investment once I had some personal capital available.

Powills: When you look back at your career, how do you see yourself? Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur? An operator?

Emery: I think my greatest strength — and probably my greatest weakness — is that I love creating things. I'm always building something new. That can become a problem if you're constantly creating without taking the time to build a solid foundation underneath it. That's probably one of the biggest lessons we're learning with franchising. We're spending an enormous amount of time making sure the foundation is right before we grow.

Powills: Does walking into a DOGPerfect store feel different than walking into one of your wireless stores years ago?

Emery: One hundred percent. What's funny is that I didn't even grow up with dogs. I got my first dog around the year 2000, so I came to the dog world pretty late. But once you experience having dogs become part of your family — living in your house, sleeping on your bed, being with you every day — it changes everything.

Linda and I aren't in the stores every day anymore, but every time we're there, it brings us joy. We've intentionally designed our stores to be incredibly dog friendly. On a typical day, we might see 30, 40 or even 50 dogs come through the doors. Watching all those different dogs come into the store genuinely makes both of us smile. Linda would tell you that every time she sees a Great Dane available for adoption on Instagram, I'm sending it to her asking, "Is it time yet?" She always reminds me that we already have three dogs, and that's enough.

Powills: I want to make an observation because I've gotten to know you outside of this podcast. When I look at your career, I see a pattern. In the wireless business, you recognized that warranty programs were broken. Companies were taking customers' money without really helping them. You built something that solved that problem, and ultimately it became successful enough to sell to a public company. Now, when I look at DOGPerfect, I almost see the same thing happening. For years, pet nutrition and wellness have almost been treated like an afterthought. It feels like you're trying to solve that same customer experience problem, but this time for pet owners instead of cell phone customers.

Emery: That's actually an interesting comparison. I hadn't thought about it that way before, but I can definitely see the parallel. I've been fortunate throughout my career because I seem to have stumbled into industries that were experiencing tremendous growth. Cell phones were exploding. The warranty business was booming. After selling that company, I spent a couple of years with the publicly traded insurance company that acquired us, so I gained a deeper understanding of that industry.

Later, when I started investing, I looked for businesses with long-term staying power. I invested in a mechanic roll-up business. I invested in a brewpub restaurant, which had a fantastic run for about 10 years before we exited.

Then I invested in a pet toy company. We turned it around, and it happened to align with the huge surge in pet ownership during COVID. I've been lucky, but I've also intentionally looked for businesses that people continue using regardless of the economy.

People always have phones. People always need their cars repaired. People continue drinking beer. And whether the economy is good or bad, people treat their pets as well as — or sometimes even better than — their children. That's really become my style. I like businesses that continue thriving through every economic cycle.

Powills: You've certainly picked the right industries. But you've also been successful across several completely different businesses. Obviously, you need a product people want, but does success ultimately come down to how well you serve customers?

Emery: I really think it does. One thing I've always tried to do is pay attention to what customers are saying. I try to understand what they're experiencing and then figure out how to go above and beyond what they expect. That philosophy carries directly into DOGPerfect. Customer service has always mattered to me, and it's one of the biggest things we're trying to build into this company.

Powills: Fast-forward to today. Looking back, what did you expect franchising would be like? And how does the reality compare? What's been exciting, and what's been more difficult than you expected?

Emery: The exciting part is that our entire team genuinely loves what we're building. Linda, me, Linda's son Ethan — who's become a huge part of the business — and everyone else involved are excited every day. It's challenging, but it's fun. The difficult part is that we started with a seven-year-old operating business that was never designed to become a franchise. Now we're taking everything we built and converting it into something someone else can successfully own and operate. That's incredibly challenging.

Powills: When you decided to franchise, you're obviously an experienced entrepreneur. But was the amount of foundational work required much greater than you anticipated?

Emery: Absolutely. It's constant. At the beginning of this year, I made it a point to learn as much as I possibly could. Every morning, I'd get on the treadmill and watch franchise podcasts. I watched your podcast. I watched every podcast I could find. I probably spent close to 100 consecutive mornings doing that. I also started reading books — which is funny because I hate reading. For me to finish a book is a major accomplishment. But I wanted to learn everything I could. I talked with people throughout the franchise industry. I asked questions. I listened. I don't think that process ever ends.

Our stores are so centered around creating an exceptional customer experience that we have to keep improving. The competitive landscape is constantly changing. You have online retailers. Direct-to-consumer brands. Traditional retail competitors. Consumer expectations continue rising. Improvement has to be continuous.

Powills: You're strengthening the business, but you're also delaying expansion to make sure everything is right.

Emery: That's exactly right. When we decided to grow, we opened another company-owned location. Ironically, we opened it only about 2.8 miles from one of our existing stores because it was such a great neighborhood in Sarasota. Shortly afterward, we decided to franchise.

Looking back, I wish we hadn't opened those stores so close together because it doesn't really represent the type of territory we'd typically award to a franchisee. Ironically, those two stores became our biggest and our smallest locations. Later, we built another store in Parrish, Florida, about 12 miles away from the nearest location. That store has become our prototype. It's close enough to benefit from existing brand awareness, but it has enough separation to function the way we envision future franchise locations operating.

When I look at that store today, I can honestly say I'd feel completely comfortable selling that model to someone else. If I didn't truly believe a franchisee could succeed with it, I simply wouldn't sell it. I'd rather keep operating it myself than put someone into a business I wasn't completely confident in. We changed almost everything in that location. You still know it's DOGPerfect when you walk in, but we redesigned the cabinetry, updated the layout and incorporated every lesson we'd learned from our earlier stores. The early performance has been outstanding, and we're really encouraged by what we're seeing. We're hopeful that's the blueprint for future franchise growth.

Powills: If you were evaluating DOGPerfect as an entrepreneur who had nothing to do with the business, what would you say is the biggest point of differentiation?

Emery: I think the biggest differentiator is the customer experience. We've tried to make every part of a visit to our stores feel intentional. Our team members wear professional uniforms. They wear name tags. Every customer is greeted with, "Welcome to DOGPerfect." The stores are exceptionally clean and well merchandised. Even the layout has been designed with purpose. You can stand at the front of the store and see all the way to the back. When you have a lot of dogs coming into a store, that's important because dogs don't always behave the way you'd expect.

People will say, "My dog has never reacted to another dog before," but then two dogs unexpectedly meet nose-to-nose around a display, and things can happen. Even the decals on our front doors are intentional. We don't cover the lower portion of the glass because we want dogs entering and leaving to be able to see each other before they meet. Everything has been carefully thought through. Customers may not notice every little detail individually, but they absolutely feel the overall experience.

Powills: What's the vision over the next couple of years? Where do you see DOGPerfect heading?

Emery: Slow and steady. That's really our approach. Linda and I are about to sign another lease for what we're calling another spec store. Our hope is that we'll eventually have a franchisee step in and take over that location. It's in a phenomenal market, and it's going to become our next-generation prototype. We're taking everything we've learned from our existing stores — every lesson, every adjustment we'd make if we were starting over — and building it into this location. I don't necessarily like calling them mistakes because they're really just improvements.

For example, in our busiest store, we only have one self-wash station. If I were building that location today, I'd probably install four or even six.

The store we're building in Parrish is about 2,100 square feet, which represents our smaller-footprint model. The next location we're planning near Fort Myers will be closer to 3,800 or 3,900 square feet, which is much closer to the size of our highest-performing stores.

We're going to build it differently than anything we've done before. It will still feel like DOGPerfect the moment someone walks through the doors, but everything inside will reflect what we've learned over the past several years.

Take the dog wash area, for example. When it's designed correctly, it becomes much more than a service. It becomes a community gathering place. People meet one another. They talk about their dogs. Someone asks, "What breed is that?" or "How old is your dog?" It creates conversations. It creates relationships. Some weekends, our busiest self-wash area has six or even 10 people waiting in line. That's why I say I'd install four or more if I were designing that store again. Those are exactly the kinds of improvements we're making before we grow through franchising.

Powills: So you're intentionally going to be methodical with franchise development. Is that because you're trying to make sure your first franchisees are exactly the right people?

Emery: Exactly. It has to be the right person. We already have a few very serious prospects. Some of them already own franchises in other industries. One is in the pet industry. Another comes from restaurants. It's exciting talking with experienced franchise operators because they're evaluating us while we're also learning from them. Someone joining DOGPerfect today has to want to be part of building something. They're joining a young franchise system.

Powills: Listening to you, it almost sounds like you're building a club rather than simply selling franchises.

Emery: I couldn't agree more. That's exactly what we're trying to build. We want to be deeply involved with our franchisees. Everything starts with the documentation we're creating today. The operating manuals. The training systems. The smallest procedures. We're documenting every little thing because everything has to become repeatable. You can't rely on people simply remembering how something was done before. You have to build systems that work the same way every time.

Powills: When I think about franchising, I always come back to people, process, data and technology. It seems like you've been steadily building all four. Now it's really about finding the right operator. The message I hear is that you've already made the mistakes. You've already learned the lessons. Now you're documenting everything so franchisees don't have to repeat those mistakes. You're building strength around them before they ever open their doors. I think that's really compelling.

Emery: That's exactly how we think about it. When I look at the pet industry today, we're in a really unique position. There are companies adjacent to what we do, but when you look at our revenue mix and how we approach the customer experience, we're different. Recently, Tractor Supply announced it was closing dozens of PetSense stores. There's one near us, so I decided to visit before it closed. I wasn't surprised. The experience just wasn't there. It was rows and rows of shelving. Products everywhere. No atmosphere. Today's customers expect more than that. In Florida especially, we serve both retirees and young families moving into the market. Those groups are very different, but ultimately they both want the same thing. They want a great experience. At the end of the day, that's what everything comes back to.

Powills: One thing that really stands out to me is the opportunity to transform the independent pet retail market. It reminds me of something you mentioned earlier about the mechanic business. There are a lot of independent operators who have built good businesses, but they may not have the capital, systems or resources to evolve with changing customer expectations. That seems like a tremendous opportunity for DOGPerfect.

Emery: I think so. When I was involved with the mechanic roll-up business, we'd look at independent repair shops where the owner was ready to retire. Maybe the kids didn't want to take over. Maybe they hadn't kept the best financial records. The business itself didn't appear to have much value on paper. But we knew how many cars were coming through the shop every week. We knew what that customer base was worth. I think similar opportunities exist in the pet industry.

There are a lot of smaller operators who haven't had the opportunity to modernize their merchandising or customer experience. If I asked you to close your eyes and picture what a traditional pet store smells like, you could probably imagine it immediately. Most people have that image in their heads. It's good enough. The people are usually knowledgeable. They love animals. But maybe they didn't have the capital or the systems to create the kind of experience today's customer expects. I think that's going to create opportunities for us across the country.

Powills: That's a really important point. Some of those independent operators have actually built great businesses. They just don't realize how much bigger they could become with the right systems and support behind them. Those businesses could become excellent conversion opportunities. Instead of starting over, they could join a brand that's already solved many of the challenges they're facing.

Emery: Absolutely. There are some fantastic independent operators. Some of them don't even realize how good they've become. They're wonderful people who've built solid businesses, and with the right support, they could continue growing.

One thing that surprised me when we opened our first DOGPerfect store was how difficult it was initially to win customers. We thought we'd build this incredible store and people would automatically come. It didn't work that way. In the beginning, it felt like hand-to-hand combat, earning every customer one at a time. That's because pet nutrition isn't an impulse purchase.

If someone walks into our store today, they're probably not switching dog food immediately. First, we have to build trust. We answer questions. Maybe they buy a toy. Maybe they buy some treats. Over time, they come back. Eventually, something happens. Their dog develops a stomach issue or another concern, and they ask us for advice. That's when we earn the opportunity to recommend a different food.

Those changes don't happen overnight. For years, people have been told to feed one brand of food for their dog's entire life. We don't believe that's necessarily the right approach, but it's what consumers have been taught. Changing those habits takes education and trust.

Powills: That's a really interesting point. Consumers have been trained that certain brands are the only right answer. It reminds me of the old recommendation that everyone needed an oil change every three months. People simply accepted it because that's what they'd always heard.

Emery: Exactly. The large pet food companies have done an incredible job marketing their products. They've also built very strong relationships with veterinary schools. When veterinary students spend years seeing the same brands throughout their education, those products naturally become the ones they trust after graduation.

So when someone walks into one of our stores and says, "My veterinarian recommended this prescription food," we can't simply tell them their veterinarian is wrong. That would destroy trust immediately. Instead, we have to educate customers over time. We're constantly thinking about how to help our teams answer those questions thoughtfully and respectfully. That's something we'll probably continue refining forever.

Powills: I wonder if someday you'll have veterinarians becoming franchisees. People are becoming much more intentional about nutrition, preventive care and overall health. That creates a tremendous opportunity for a brand like DOGPerfect.

Emery: We're already seeing that happen. There are companies doing an excellent job talking about grooming. Others are talking about fresh food and nutrition. But nobody is really bringing all of those elements together. Our vision includes nutrition, grooming, supplements, enrichment and everyday essentials. Everything that contributes to raising a healthier, happier dog. That's actually our slogan: "The Happy Healthy Dog Shop." If it were up to us, dogs would drive cars and carry credit cards. Life would certainly be easier.

Powills: Even when dogs get angry, they get over it pretty quickly. If they were driving, there probably wouldn't be much road rage.

Emery: Exactly. My dog just perked up when you said that. I think he agrees.

Powills: Rob, I really appreciate what you're building. What stands out to me isn't just the business itself. It's your patience. A lot of entrepreneurs put enormous pressure on themselves to grow as quickly as possible. You keep returning to the drawing board, improving the business and making sure everything is right before expanding. I really respect that.

Emery: We're intentionally trying to avoid putting that pressure on ourselves. We don't want the wrong franchisees. Franchising is an expensive undertaking. We're investing in people before their roles even exist. We're training employees before they're serving franchisees. We're upgrading our existing stores. We're rebuilding systems behind the scenes. We're documenting everything.

It's a tremendous investment. Of course, we'd love to award franchises and begin generating that revenue. But we want the first ones to be the right ones. If that means it takes a little longer, we're perfectly comfortable with that.

Watch the full podcast interview here.