Dog daycare and boarding franchises: Dogtopia, Camp Bow Wow, Hounds Town, The Dog Stop and more

The comparison set for a dog daycare or boarding franchise starts with Dogtopia, Camp Bow Wow, Hounds Town USA and The Dog Stop.

Zoom Room belongs to the same pet-franchise world, but it franchises a dog training model rather than daycare or boarding.

It appears in the table below so you can see how a training-led format's published economics read next to the daycare brands — not as a direct alternative.

What separates the brands is the service mix each model asks you to build and staff.

Before you compare a single price, make each franchisor state exactly which services its model includes.

The list — dog daycare, overnight boarding, grooming, training, retail — decides the size of the building, the hours you staff, the equipment you buy and the revenue your week can hold.

The figures divide cleanly into two groups.

Dogtopia and Hounds Town USA publish investment figures on their own franchise sites, and this page quotes those figures with their dates.

For Camp Bow Wow and The Dog Stop, our research could not verify current investment figures from the franchisors' own pages, so this page quotes no numbers for either brand.

Their current Franchise Disclosure Document is the document that decides, and the FTC guarantees you time to read it.

Here is the side-by-side, with each brand's figures kept to what that brand itself publishes.

Brand	Initial investment (as published)	Franchise fee	Royalty	Stated minimums
Dogtopia	$664,355 – $1,478,820¹	$49,500	7% of gross sales	$300,000 liquid capital; $1,000,000 net worth
Hounds Town USA	$667,610 – $1,122,153 (2026 FDD)	$49,000²	Not stated on the pages we read	$250,000 liquid capital; $500,000 net worth; 700+ credit score
Camp Bow Wow	Not verified by our research — request the current FDD	—	—	—
The Dog Stop	Not verified by our research — request the current FDD	—	—	—
Zoom Room (dog training)	$302,523 – $464,712	$49,500	Not in our verified figures — see Item 6	$200,000 liquidity

¹ Per Dogtopia's franchising page, accessed October 2026; the page does not state which FDD year its figures reflect. ² Per Hounds Town's FAQ, which says the fee is included in the initial investment range; verify both figures in the current FDD.

Zoom Room's figures are its own, for a training franchise.

Treat every number in that table as one brand's own published figure at one date — not a market rate, and not comparable across document types.

A franchisor's marketing page, its current FDD and a competitor comparison table on another franchisor's site are three different sources.

A competitor comparison table on another franchisor's site is that franchisor's marketing, not the rival's disclosure: verify any rival's numbers against that rival's own FDD before they reach your spreadsheet.

What the table cannot show you is the recurring cost and the earnings story — the royalty and advertising fees each brand charges for as long as you operate, and any Item 19 performance claim.

The next section walks the FDD items that decide whether the published range is anywhere near the whole cost.

One document decides the cost question: the Franchise Disclosure Document.

Under the FTC Franchise Rule (16 CFR 436.2), a franchisor must give a prospective franchisee its current FDD at least 14 calendar days before the buyer signs a binding agreement or pays any money.

That window exists so you can take the published figures apart before any money moves.

The FDD organizes the numbers by item.

Item 5 discloses initial fees.

Item 6 discloses the other recurring fees — royalties, advertising funds and anything else that continues after opening.

Item 7 is the Estimated Initial Investment table, the low-to-high range the marketing pages quote.

Item 19 carries any financial performance representation, and Item 20 gives outlet counts for the last three fiscal years.

Item 19 is where earnings claims live, and it is optional: a franchisor that makes no financial performance representation must say so, and one that makes a representation must have a reasonable basis and written substantiation for it at the time it is made.

Two brands' own franchise pages quote Item 19 figures, and both show why the subset matters.

Hounds Town's franchise site, citing its 2026 FDD Item 19, reports a top-performer revenue of $1,359,016 and an average net revenue of $842,716 — for locations open 5+ years.

Zoom Room's economics page, citing its 2024 FDD Item 19 for mature locations of its training franchise, reports an average net profit of $184,482 and an average net margin of 26.5%.

Revenue is not profit, a top performer is not an average, and mature locations are not startups — none of it predicts what your site earns.

Whether any other brand makes a representation is in Item 19 of its own FDD.

Read the Item 7 range against your own site, not against another brand's page.

Dogtopia's published range runs from $664,355 to $1,478,820; Hounds Town's runs from $667,610 to $1,122,153 per its 2026 FDD.

Both spans are wide enough that their low and high ends can describe different buildings.

Ask each franchisor what drives the spread for a market like yours — land against leased space, ground-up construction against a second-generation fit-out, outdoor yard work, ventilation and sound mitigation — and price your own site before you trust either end of the range.

The minimums are the franchisor's qualification gates.

Dogtopia states minimums of $300,000 in liquid capital and $1,000,000 in net worth; Hounds Town states $250,000 in liquid capital and $500,000 in net worth, plus a 700+ minimum credit score.

If your balance sheet falls short of one brand's gate, that is a real screen — apply to every brand on your list and see which qualification conversations survive.

The franchise fee is paid once; the royalty keeps running for as long as you operate.

Dogtopia's published royalty is 7% of gross sales.

The advertising-fund percentage and any technology, renewal or transfer fees are not published on the Dogtopia or Hounds Town pages our research read.

Item 6 is the only place to find each brand's real recurring load — read it line by line.

Two brands with similar investment ranges can carry very different monthly fees.

Two gaps to hold onto.

First, Camp Bow Wow and The Dog Stop: our research could not verify their current investment figures, so no number on this page stands in for them — request each brand's current FDD and read Item 7 yourself.

Second, dating: Hounds Town labels its figures to its 2026 FDD, while Dogtopia's franchising page does not state an FDD year.

Write the date next to every figure you carry out of this comparison, and replace them all with FDD figures when the documents arrive.

Start the cost conversation with the building.

A daycare and boarding facility is indoor play space, outdoor yards, boarding runs, entry control, drainage, ventilation and sound separation, and each of those line items is a question to put to a brand's Item 7 range.

Treat real estate as the first decision in the purchase, not the second.

Start with the public rules.

Zoning is controlled locally: the SBA's guidance is that zoning ordinances are set locally and can still apply even to a home-based business, so confirm the site's permitted use with the city planning department before you sign a lease.

Layered above zoning is state licensing — whether your state licenses pet animal facilities, and what its care and staffing rules demand of a daycare or kennel, is your state's law.

Colorado illustrates the layer: its Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act (PACFA) requires anyone operating a pet animal facility, premises used for boarding and handling included, to hold a pet animal facility license from the Commissioner of Agriculture.

What your state requires is its own question — our state-by-state guide to pet business licensing covers what each state asks of a grooming, daycare or boarding business.

Then the brand's process.

Franchisors differ in how much of the site decision they own, so ask four questions directly.

Does the brand approve the site and the lease?

Does it supply prototype plans and site-selection criteria?

Who pays for architecture and engineering?

And what does its investment table assume about the building — ground-up construction or a conversion of an existing retail or warehouse box?

Those two paths carry different numbers on the same sheet.

Territory is the piece of the deal you cannot see from the sidewalk.

Ask how the brand defines a territory — radius, drive time or population — what exclusivity it actually grants inside it, what happens when it sells the territories next door, and what your rights are to relocate or transfer the location later.

The answers sit in the FDD's franchise agreement, and they decide how much of your market is yours to work.

Overnight boarding raises the stakes on the building again: runs and sound separation, evening and overnight coverage, and the operating routines that keep boarded dogs settled while the daycare side of the schedule ends.

The independent version of that build is its own project — how to start a dog boarding business walks the facility and staffing questions without a franchise attached.

Plan the payroll as the operator.

The FDD and the franchise agreement set out how the brand divides responsibility between franchisor and franchisee, so read them to confirm who hires location staff, who sets their pay and schedules, who trains them and who carries the employment-law obligations of the payroll.

Then build the wage budget yourself rather than waiting for a number from the brand.

Plan in role families rather than titles: supervision (a location or general manager), direct care (daycare attendants and playgroup staff, kennel attendants for the boarding side), front desk, and — where the model includes grooming — bathers and groomers.

For the attendant seat, see what candidates see on the dog daycare attendant jobs board, and how to hire a dog daycare attendant covers requirements, pay and screening from the employer side.

Mind the age floor early, because it shapes the applicant pool.

Under federal child labor rules, 16 is the general minimum age for non-agricultural employment.

The occupations the Department of Labor lists for 14- and 15-year-olds — office and clerical work, cashiering, selling, clean-up work and the like — include no animal care, dog bathing or kennel work.

Attendant and supervision roles are 16-and-up hires under federal rules.

Whether one particular task — front-desk cashiering, say, or vacuum clean-up — fits one of the listed occupations is a detail to confirm with the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.

State child labor rules can be stricter, and a franchisor's own hiring standards may be too.

Staffing ratios are a state question, not a brand question.

No figure on a franchisor's website replaces the rules where your site sits.

Colorado shows what a state layer looks like.

Its PACFA rules require daycare and boarding facilities that commingle dogs from different households to have written owner consent.

They also require at least one human supervisor aged 16 or older for every 15 dogs commingled in a common area, and no more than 60 dogs in one area.

Cameras, windows and staff busy grooming do not count as supervision.

Other states' rules differ; dog daycare staffing ratios walks through the states that have rules and how to schedule to them.

Budget for recruiting as an operating cost, not a one-time project.

Under BLS Employment Projections for 2025–35, employment of animal care and service workers is projected to grow 11 percent — much faster than the 3 percent average for all occupations — with about 69,400 openings a year, most from replacing workers who leave the occupation.

Projected growth that size is good news for demand; the replacement churn is why retention work pays its way.

Ask each franchisor what its training covers: initial training for owners and staff, ongoing programs, and who pays wages and travel during training weeks.

Treat whatever the brand provides as a starting point rather than a complete program.

The handling, sanitation and safety policies for your floor are yours to write and own.

The role-by-role hiring process — job descriptions, interview questions, pay plans — lives in our hiring hub for grooming and pet care businesses.

A franchise buys you a starting position: the brand, prototype plans, training and vendor relationships the FDD describes, plus a playbook for the daily operation.

What it costs is control and a share of the top line.

The recurring pieces are the royalty on gross sales — Dogtopia's published rate is 7% of gross sales — the advertising contributions Item 6 discloses, and renewal terms.

The upfront piece is build-out to the brand's specification, even where a cheaper layout would work for your site.

An independent daycare or boarding business keeps all of that control — services, pricing, hours, the brand you build locally — and takes on everything the franchisor would have supplied: the operating manual, the intake and temperament process, the marketing, and the mistakes.

There is no parent playbook to lean on and no Item 19 to turn to; the market research and the budget are yours.

Make the comparison like for like, or do not make it.

Put the brand's Item 7 range next to an independent build-out budget you price for the same market and the same class of building.

Run both through the same staffing plan and the same opening marketing plan.

Hold both to the same standard: confirmed figures, dated, from the document that governs them.

A franchise range set against an optimistic independent budget is not a comparison — it is a decision already made.

Hold the same discipline on earnings.

An Item 19 representation is one brand's own claim about a subset of its locations — revenue is not profit, and no representation predicts what your site earns.

Look down the road on both paths while you are at it: the FDD spells out the renewal, transfer and approval terms a franchise carries, while an independent sale is a straight business sale with no franchisor approval.

Both exits are worth understanding before you choose an entrance.

If the independent route wins the comparison, how to start a dog daycare business is the next stop, with the boarding guide linked above.

If the franchise route wins, your next stop is the FDD itself — delivered at least 14 calendar days before you sign anything — read with a franchise attorney and an accountant on your side of the table.

Owner information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Franchise figures on this page are the franchisors' own published numbers, dated, and they change; the Franchise Disclosure Document and the franchise agreement govern the purchase. Have a franchise attorney and an accountant review both before you sign, and confirm licensing, zoning and permitting with your state agency and your city or county.