Zoom Room's Dog Training Gyms Post Back-to-Back Quarters of Double-Digit Growth as Pet Services Defy the Discount Game

The indoor dog training franchise says same-store sales rose 18.2% in Q3 across its 45-plus unit system, capping a turnaround year built on fundamentals instead of promotions.

By Good Company Editorial Desk

The News

Zoom Room Dog Training announced on October 5 that its franchisees delivered two consecutive quarters of double-digit same-store sales growth, accelerating from 12.0% in the second quarter to 18.2% in the third. Franchisees open more than a year posted 15.1% year-over-year growth across the combined Q2-Q3 period, according to the company's announcement, which was issued via PR Newswire.

The results cap a deliberate turnaround that began in late 2025, when the Los Angeles-based company paused new-unit development to, in its words, strengthen the foundation of the business. That reset included new leadership, new operating systems, and a renewed focus on the franchisee experience. The company has now resumed franchise development, with recent franchise sales expanding its footprint into Florida and Virginia.

Zoom Room's leadership overhaul reads like a pet industry all-star draft. Former Petco CEO Ron Coughlin, who is also a Zoom Room investor, joined as chairman. Darris Cooper, described by the company as one of the industry's preeminent training leaders, joined the training side, and Jackie Mendes took over franchise development. The company says it also built custom operations and marketing technology platforms and introduced new franchise management and support processes.

The company's model, which it calls Socialization-as-a-Service, is built around small group classes held in indoor gym environments, where owners train alongside their dogs using positive reinforcement, structured socialization, and enrichment. Unlike appointment-based training businesses that rely on one-off transactions, Zoom Room is designed around ongoing participation: dogs and their families keep coming back for classes, experiences, and community.

“2025 was a year of making smart, sometimes difficult choices about where we wanted to take Zoom Room,” said founder and CEO Mark Van Wye in the announcement. “We chose to pause development and invest in the fundamentals of the business: people, technology, operating efficiency, real estate strategy and the customer experience. Seeing that effort now translate into two consecutive quarters of double-digit same-store sales growth is incredibly encouraging.”

COO Don Allen added that the growth came “not through deep discounts or promotions, but by getting better at the fundamentals every day,” crediting franchisees and the company's support center team for stronger execution, better client experiences, and greater consistency.

Why It Matters

Zoom Room's numbers stand out because growth is genuinely hard to come by across both franchising and the broader pet retail environment right now. Many pet businesses are buying sales with promotions and discounting, which compresses margins and trains customers to wait for the next deal. Zoom Room says it grew without any of that, which suggests its unit-level economics are improving for real, not on paper.

The deeper story is about what pet owners are actually paying for. The company's pitch is that training, socialization, and enrichment are not one-time purchases but ongoing services, closer to a gym membership than a haircut. If pet parents keep showing up week after week, the business gets recurring revenue, predictable demand, and franchisees with far more stable economics than a transactional model can deliver.

It also matters who is behind the turnaround. Ron Coughlin ran Petco, one of the largest pet retailers in North America, and his public thesis is that Zoom Room has turned dog training “from a one-time transaction into an ongoing experience that brings pet parents and their dogs back again and again to learn, socialize and grow.” When a former Petco CEO puts his name on a franchise system's economics, other franchisors and investors pay attention.

The positive-reinforcement positioning is another tailwind. Zoom Room says its training philosophy is supported by guidance from the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB), which emphasizes positive socialization and reward-based training. As veterinary science and public opinion continue to move away from punishment-based methods, a brand built on science-aligned training carries less reputational risk than legacy alternatives.

The Numbers

• 18.2%: year-over-year same-store sales growth in Q3 2026 across the company's 45-plus unit system, up from 12.0% in Q2.
• 15.1%: combined Q2-Q3 same-store sales growth among franchisees open more than one year, the cohort the company highlights.
• 45+: units in the system today, a national footprint built since the company's founding in 2007.
• 1: Zoom Room's ranking among dog training franchises in Entrepreneur magazine's 2026 Franchise 500, according to the company.
• 2: consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, the company's stated proof that the late-2025 reset worked.
• 2: new markets opened through recent franchise sales, Florida and Virginia, as development resumes.

The company did not disclose systemwide revenue, average unit volumes, or profitability figures in the announcement, so the same-store sales figures tell a story about momentum, not margins. But double-digit growth across a whole system, not just a handful of flagship locations, is a signal that usually shows up well before those fuller financial disclosures.

What To Watch

The first question is whether the momentum survives the fourth quarter. Zoom Room says it achieved its growth without deep discounts or promotions, and the holiday season will test that discipline: it is the period when pet services businesses are most tempted to promote. Sustained same-store growth through Q4 would strengthen the case that the model has genuine pricing power.

The second is the development pipeline. The company deliberately paused new-unit growth in late 2025 to fix the foundation; it has now resumed selling franchises in Florida and Virginia. Watch whether the improved unit economics translate into faster franchise sales and, more importantly, whether new units open with the same operational discipline the reset was meant to instill.

The third is the competitive landscape. Dog training is a fragmented, mostly local market, and Zoom Room's gym-based, group-class model is structurally different from independent trainers and from the training corners inside big-box retailers. If its economics keep improving, expect imitators, or expect one of the big retail chains to take the format more seriously.

Finally, watch for franchisee validation. In franchising, the strongest signal is not what headquarters announces but what franchisees say about their own economics. Zoom Room's systemwide growth figure is a company-reported number; independent confirmation from multi-unit operators would make the turnaround story considerably harder to argue with.

Sources

Zoom Room Dog Training, “Zoom Room Reports Two Consecutive Quarters of Double-Digit Same-Store Sales Growth Following Successful End-to-End Relaunch,” PR Newswire, October 5, 2026 (via Morningstar): https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20261005cl64153/zoom-room-reports-two-consecutive-quarters-of-double-digit-same-store-sales-growth-following-successful-end-to-end-relaunch