After training dogs to be ring bearers in mock weddings, Dog Training Elite hosted its own wedding for the first time at its Utah training headquarters—but instead of tying the knot for customers, it was two new franchisees who said “I do.”
Based in Charleston, South Carolina, Valerie Mosier and Steve Thompson signed for three territories in the South Carolina Lowcountry region. Wedding planning fell by the wayside when the couple traveled to Utah in May for a month of training, so they decided to simply find an officiant to marry them over a Zoom call after class one night.
But Robin Mestas, business partner and wife of Dog Training Elite Founder John Mestas, said “no, that’s not the way it’s going to be,” Mosier recalled.
On May 19, Mosier and Thompson came back to headquarters to find the training room decorated and set up for them to exchange vows.
“We had both of our dogs in the wedding,” Thompson chimed in. “Hank was the ‘Best Dog’ and Rusty was ‘Dog of Honor’. They even had two cakes because Valerie is gluten intolerant.”
Valerie Mosier and Steve Thompson adopted Hank last October, a mixed breed dog who served as the “Best Dog” in their wedding hosted at Dog Training Elite’s corporate training center.
When Mosier asked CEO Kelley Rosequist how much they owed the franchisor for the ceremony and celebration, the answer was nothing. “She was like, ‘you’re family, like of course we’re going to throw you a wedding,’” Mosier said.
John Mestas walked Mosier down the aisle, and Rosequist and her team were all in attendance, even though it was after training hours. “People could’ve been home with their families and they chose to be there with us celebrating our day,” Thompson said.
It was that community and sense of belonging that drove Mosier and Thompson, two former truck drivers, toward Dog Training Elite when first considering opening a business. Feeling burnt out by driving long hours, the pair adopted Hank, “a crazy dog that needed training” which spurred their investigation for dog training programs. Though they had both run businesses on an “extremely small scale in our past lives,” neither had experience with franchising.
“The biggest thing that stood out was just how welcoming the Dog Training Elite team is,” Thompson said. “We could feel that they wanted success for us as much as we wanted success for us. So it was hard to turn away from somebody, the founder of the company, telling us he basically was ready to go with us the whole mile.”
Another positive factor Mosier noted was Dog Training Elite’s pickiness when it came to vetting and choosing franchise partners. “They give you a lot of information so you can make a good decision,” she said. When glancing at potential other dog training franchises, “Dog Training Elite was so far ahead of anything the others offered that it was a very quick decision to not go anywhere else.”
Mosier and Thompson opened their first franchise on June 1 and had 13 sales in their first month, which Thompson said exceeded their expectations.
The obedience and specialized training franchise offers a wide range of services, from therapy dog training to advanced service dog training supporting people with PTSD, limited mobility, Autism, diabetes and people needing psychiatric support. Training for service work takes six months to two years with packages ranging from $3,000 to $7,000, while standard puppy obedience packages cost from $395 to $2,000 and take two to four months to complete.
John Mestas started Dog Training Elite as Arrow Kennels more than 40 years ago and began franchising in 2020, in partnership with Denver-based franchise sales company Raintree. The company has 73 stores open and more than 120 total territories sold, the majority of which are owned by multi-unit operators. The investment for the mobile franchise is $101,400 to $122,250.
Mosier and Thompson plan to grow their business to at least 10 territories in the next couple years. Plus, they want to continue contributing to their local communities through the Hometown Heroes program and The Malinois Foundation, DTE’s nonprofit that trains service dogs for veterans suffering from PTSD and physical disabilities, which Thompson appreciates as a veteran himself.