Oct 22, 2026 · 32 min
Coastal Pines K9 turns dog training into a scalable business
How Two Dog Trainers Built a Nearly $1M Business
The episode shows how technical expertise, disciplined operations, and difficult people decisions shaped a canine-care company’s growth.
- 1Coastal Pines K9 grew from a garage operation into a 7,500-square-foot facility offering training, boarding, daycare, and grooming.
- 2Scaling required clearer hiring standards, consistent follow-through, lead qualification, and pricing that reflected unusually high facility overhead.
- 3The planned academy aims to expand revenue while creating a stronger path for training and compensating skilled employees.
Don't miss
Thomas Larity’s candid admission that he was initially a strong dog trainer but a poor business owner frames the episode’s central lesson about scaling expertise.
The brief
Thomas Larity and Heather Israel describe Coastal Pines K9’s rise from a garage operation to a nearly seven-figure canine-care business, crediting complementary strengths and the right team.
The company combines obedience, behavior modification, boarding, daycare, grooming, and police-dog preparation, while strict handling practices reflect the safety and liability risks of animal care.
Their scaling lessons are less glamorous than the origin story: hire for the right roles, separate friendship from management, qualify leads, price for heavy overhead, and follow through consistently.
The training discussion rejects hitting and simplistic dominance-based methods, emphasizing balanced techniques, appropriate pressure, reinforcement, and behavior management rather than promises of permanent cures.
The next ambition is a dog-training academy that could create another revenue stream, improve compensation for skilled employees, and turn the company’s methods into a lasting legacy.
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