Growing a pet care team and clientele is hard work, but you don’t have to do it alone.
The DogCo Business Summit is an annual conference for pet care professionals presented by DogCo Launch
DogCo Summit exists to bridge the gap between cutting-edge business strategy and the modern pet care business.
The 2026 Summit is focused on one major theme: building a journey that keeps your best clients in your business.
If you are looking to scale your business, it’s time to stop worrying about just getting new clients and start focusing on ways to maximize your current client base. The DogCo Summit is here to do that.
If you're feeling stuck in your pet care business, the DogCo Business Summit was curated for you.
You've got the clients. You've got a team, or the start of one. You're busier than you've ever been and somehow the needle isn't going anywhere. Same revenue ceiling. Same fires. Same you, holding it all up. Feeling stuck doesn't look like failure. It usually looks like success that stopped moving.
Here's what we know after coaching hundreds of pet care companies: being stuck is almost never a work-ethic problem, it's a support problem. You've been making every decision alone, with no one around you who's actually built what you're trying to build.
Different results require different actions. Being in the room with other pet care business owners who have the same dream as you is the action. These people are not your competition, they’re your people.
Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand AI and Coach Builder. He is the author of several books including the bestsellers Building a StoryBrand 2.0, Marketing Made Simple, Coach Builder, and How to Grow Your Small Business.
With conference programming centered on client experience and retention, Miller will deliver the 2026 DogCo Summit keynote address, sharing messaging strategies that position pet care clients as the hero of the story and ways pet care businesses can create experiences that inspire long-term loyalty.
For almost 20 years, Joey Coleman has helped organizations retain their best customers and employees. He is an award-winning speaker and the bestselling author of Never Lose A Customer Again and Never Lose An Employee Again.
Coleman returns to lead the 2026 DogCo Summit conference workshop, focused this year on client retention for pet care businesses.
Meet the Speakers
Dr. Christopher Anthony is the Director of Clinician Development for Tri-Synergy Corporate Care, delivering care to more than 15,000 employees and reducing recordable injury rates across manufacturing and service industries.
He'll show attendees how to reduce employees' risk of foot and ankle injuries, saving on medical costs and turnover.
Steve Beck has been a leader and student of teams for 40 years. For the past 15, he's doubled down on the dynamics of conflict and hard conversations.
His current focus is helping small business leaders learn the art and psychology of positive friction — the tough moments when clarity, trust, and good decisions are crucial for good relationships and results.
Rachel Bowers spent 15 years building and running Brooklyn Bark, a seven-figure pet care operation in NYC with 47 employees and over 200 visits a day. She learned the hard way that growth creates risk along with opportunity.
In her session, Rachel introduces the operational framework she wished she'd had — a practical system for helping teams catch weak signals early and make better decisions before small problems become expensive incidents.
Lauren Dunkle is the owner-operator of The Pet Lady, Ltd. What started as a family business became her mission to build a pet care company that's scalable, sustainable, and not held together by vibes alone.
Lauren joined the DogCo Launch team as a Success Leader in 2026 and fell back in love with data — client, marketing, behavior data, all of it. She owns her type-A energy and has a genuine obsession with writing SOPs.
Anne-Marie Kaden has been involved in animal and pet care for her entire professional career, building and running successful pet sitting businesses and now operating Tiny Paws Bookkeeping.
She built her own pet sitting business in North Carolina from scratch to six figures in five years, sold it in 2022, and now supports pet sitters, dog walkers, groomers, trainers, and bakeries as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor and Bookkeeper Launch Certified bookkeeper.
Michelle Kline is the founder of DogCo Launch and host of the DogCo Business Summit — spaces for pet care professionals to grow and scale their businesses.
Michelle founded DogCo Launch to bring real business education that centers the owner's well-being alongside growth, and built the Summit as a place for in-person learning and community.
Dave Peterson is the former Email Marketing Director for Utah-based ad agency Creatably, and has helped dozens of brands automate and scale revenue through email.
Now based in Maryland, Dave runs Bethesda Dog Walkers and brings industry-specific insight to pet care businesses of all kinds.
Maris Miller-Sonnabend is the founder of House of Paws Pet Care, one of the largest and most trusted pet-care companies in St. Louis, with a modern, premium service model that commands higher pricing without competing on cost.
A top-5 finalist for Pet Sitters International's 2026 Pet Sitter of the Year, Maris is a Certified Professional Pet Sitter, Fear Free Certified Professional, and Certified Pet First Aid & CPR Instructor. Her "work smarter, not harder" approach has been featured on Pet Sitter Confessional, Pet Marketing Unleashed, DogCo Secrets, and Pawsitive Hiring Academy.
With over 18 years in the pet care industry, Robert Strickland is an entrepreneur and automation strategist helping pet business owners streamline operations, save time, and scale effectively.
As founder of NextLevel Pet Businesses, Robert leads a community of pet industry professionals on leveraging automation, AI, and technology — while still owning and operating his own pet sitting and dog walking business.
Together, Cathy and Phillip Vaughan grew, operated, and ultimately sold Bluebonnet Bunk'n Biscuit, a seven-figure pet care business built from the ground up.
Their session covers what makes a pet care company truly valuable, how systems and staff impact sellability, and what buyers actually look for. The Vaughans have also run Cathy's Critter Care since 1998, now celebrating 28 years in pet sitting.
Back by popular demand, Collin Funkhouser returns as this year's emcee. Collin is co-owner of Funky Bunch Pet Care and co-host of Pet Sitter Confessional, a leading podcast for pet care professionals. With over a decade of experience, he's passionate about elevating industry standards and making business ownership more sustainable.
Speaker List
What do others have to say about the DogCo Summit?
Who is the DogCo Business Summit for?
You know the look. You tell someone what you do, and you get "aww, that's cute."You're managing payroll, client retention, margins, and a schedule that would break most people and half the world thinks you have a hobby.
The Summit is for people who know they are building something great. It's for the business owner with two staff members wondering if she's "big enough" for something like this. (She is.) It's for the owner with 20+ team members, wondering if anyone else's payroll keeps them up at night. (It does.) It's for the walker who just hired her first sitter, the solo operator who finally crossed six figures and is tired of doing all the work themselves.
Everybody in this room knows exactly what it takes to grow this business because they're carrying it too.
What everyone here has in common isn't revenue. It's that they take this business seriously enough to spend three days working on it instead of just in it.
You won't explain your industry once. You won't justify your ambition once. These are your people. Get in the room.
Frequently Asked Questions
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In-person tickets are non-refundable on purchase. You may transfer your ticket to another individual up til 9/15. Tickets purchased for in-person attendance cannot be downgraded to digital tickets.
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Lunch is provided on both Saturday and Sunday. Attendees need to plan for their own meals for breakfast and dinner. The VIP social will include appetizers and handheld bites.
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Yes, the convention center is wheelchair accessible. If you have specific accessibility questions, please contact us ahead of time and we will be happy to help.
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Digital tickets are non-refundable on purchase. You may transfer your ticket to another individual if you would care to do so.
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The Joey Coleman Workshop is livestreamed live on Friday, October 2 (1–5 pm EST), with the recording delivered within 1 week of the Summit. Recordings of all Summit sessions (October 3 & 4) will be delivered within 2 weeks of the Summit to your email inbox that you enter at checkout.
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No, the Workshop (Friday, October 2) and the Summit (October 3 & 4) are separate tickets, for both in-person and digital attendance. Want the full experience? Grab both.
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In-person tickets close September 15. Digital tickets are available through October 2. After September 15, digital is the only way in, so if you want to be in the room, don't wait.
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No. The Summit is built for pet care professionals who take this business seriously. Whether your team is just you, two people or twenty-two, if you're working on your business, you belong in this room.
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The Summit is held in Winston-Salem, NC. Check our Travel page for venue details, hotel recommendations, and everything you need to plan your trip.
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Come comfortable! This is a working conference full of pet care people, not a gala. Business casual, jeans, your company tee: all of these work.
WHAT IS DOGCO LAUNCH?
DogCo Launch is where team-based pet care companies grow, scale, and become businesses that work FOR their owners, not the other way around.
Through coaching, resources, and a community of serious operators, DogCo helps pet care companies navigate growth in an ever-changing industry with real business education that prioritizes the owner's end goals.
Our 2027 programming announcement is coming soon: stay tuned. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on.
Disclaimer: Individual results vary and anyone who promises you specific results should give you pause. I make no guarantee about what you'll achieve from The Bootcamp or any DogCo Launch program. There's no such thing as an overnight success in pet care, and nothing I teach is a shortcut. The results I share, my own and those of DogCo members, come from years of hands-on work building, running, and selling a real pet care company, and from owners who actually implemented what they learned. Your results may be similar, smaller, or bigger. I genuinely hope they're bigger. But your outcome depends on things outside my control: your work ethic, your follow-through, your team, your pricing, your local market, and how consistently you apply what we cover. I'll bring the playbook. You have to run it.