By now you’ve heard the story about how a military working dog played an instrumental role in chasing down the leader of ISIS and helping to prevent major injury to everyone involved in the mission. But did you know that working dogs have been a part of government procurement for decades?
Well-trained working dogs can locate drugs, bombs, people buried under rubble, smuggled food, pipeline leaks, game animals, and cancer. And their versatility, especially for security purposes, is driving a global spike in demand. So when it comes to procuring their services, agencies are increasingly competing not only among themselves but also with foreign governments.
According to research from the Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, branches of the U.S. military and sectors of the federal government are having trouble acquiring sufficient numbers of dogs to meet their needs. This is an issue that aligns well with our mission here at Public Spend Forum, and through our innovative government market research tool, GovShop, we hope to make a positive impact for buyers who are looking to procure the services of working dogs.
We’ve been using GovShop to conduct research into this marketplace and have compiled the results into a market segmentation of the working dogs’ industry. Our hope is this market map will help buyers identify suppliers of working dogs by organizing the marketplace into logical segments and mapping suppliers to those segments.
We will be discussing this research in our webinar, but if you can’t wait that long then you’re in luck because we’re giving you a sneak peek with this breakdown of our market map.
The entire market for working dogs can be broken down into four primary categories:
- Dogs Only
- Working Dogs Services
- Dog Training Solutions
- Dog Equipment
And within those 9 categories are three groups of suppliers that are worth keeping an eye on.
Startups and emerging companies
- ExcelsiorK9 is a woman-owned small business (WOSB) offering working dogs and obedience training.
- TWG Group offers training services for canine handlers and dogs through its Canine Handler Course, plus single purpose narcotics canines and explosive detection canines through its Next Generation K9 subsidiary.
- Shultz K9 Enforcement offers dog training services, pet boarding and care, and sells trained dogs to buyers.
Companies that are making moves and closing deals
- K2 Solutions in Southern Pines, NC offers pairs its working dog services with its security and defense solutions to offer solutions on three different government contract vehicles, which can be accessed via their GovShop profile. They’ve closed four significant government deals in 2019 with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
- Highland Canine Training has annual revenues in the mid-seven figures, closing two deals in the past six months with the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons.
- Cobra Canine, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business headquartered in Virginia Beach, landed a major contract with the US Special Operations Command to provide multipurpose canine support services and supply.
These “blueblood” suppliers are well established in the public sector UAS space
- Worldwide Canine, a Veteran owned business that has been in operation since 1994, provides working dog services, training programs, and trained dogs for sale.
- K9 Global Training Academy (dba K9GTA) has a 25-year history of providing working dogs and related services for facility security, bomb squads, and police patrols as a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business.
- US K9 Unlimited offers nearly everything you could need to support your working dogs program, from training of dogs and handlers, certification courses, and has been in business since 1989.
All of these featured suppliers provide capabilities in the working dogs, but if you’re sourcing for something specific, check out how we’ve broken down working dog offerings in our PSF Market category, and make sure to join us for our webinar on this exciting market!