When childhood memories and a shared love of building collided, engineers-turned-entrepreneurs Cam and Dom set out to reimagine how pets and their families experience the outdoors. Their company, Dog-DOK, has quickly gained attention for products like the inflatable Dog-DOK ramp, designed to make water activities safer and more inclusive for dogs of all ages, as well as the Party-DOK line that grew from a simple safety concept into a platform for family fun.

Dominic (Dom), a former materials engineer, now finds his Zen in nature’s beauty. He has cared for countless senior dogs over the years and today shares life with his rescue cat, Sam.

Camron (Cam), once a mechanical engineer and now an e-commerce expert, thrives in the great outdoors with his wife and four children. His senior black Lab, Jet, serves as the family’s unofficial product tester, offering a canine consultant’s approval on new designs.

Both co-founders credit their engineering backgrounds for shaping the way they approach product design, equal parts problem-solving and practicality, while their personal experiences with senior pets provided the emotional compass that guides their innovation.

In this conversation, they share what it’s really like to test products with dogs, and how they balance their strengths as business partners.

What inspired you both to transition from engineering careers into pet product innovation?

What inspired us to transition from engineering into pet product innovation was really a mix of passion and purpose. We’ve both always loved building things—there’s nothing quite like taking an idea from your imagination and turning it into something you can actually see, touch, and use. A lot of the products we’re designing now come from a single “Hey, wouldn’t this be cool”.

At the same time, we wanted that creativity to have an impact, and pets felt like the most natural place to start. Seeing the feedback from TigerToes stories about senior dogs walking with confidence again, has been incredibly rewarding. And with Dog-DOK, it’s been just as fun to hear about families out on the water, making memories with their dogs.

Can you share the “aha” moment that sparked the creation of the Dog-DOK?

The original inspiration for the Dog-DOK was a permanent ramp you could leave in your pool in case your dog ever escaped into your backyard/pool unsupervised. Dom’s childhood dog tragically died when he snuck into the backyard and ended up falling in the pool while the family was out. When we first started developing the Dog-DOK, the product was only meant to live in the pool as a permanent safety fixture. We started adding more features to the product, and it quickly morphed into something that resembled a fun inclusive water product rather than a standalone safety ramp. Not only could the Dog-DOK now serve it’s original purpose (safe pool exits), it could also be used with a boat, on lakes/rivers, and anywhere you could tie it up to. Once we perfected the design for dogs, we thought that the ramp system would be perfect for the whole family after Cam went to the lake with his family. While there, the kids all wanted to play on his inflatable dock, but they had no way to get back on after they jumped off. This family outing inspired the development of the Party-DOK line.

How did your personal experiences with senior pets, like Jet and Sam, influence the products you design?

Senior pets require a much different approach and responsibility to their younger counterparts. The reality is, you’re going to be cleaning up poop/pee more regularly, changing diet/supplements based on your pup’s needs, and navigating steep declines in mobility and activity. These very real problems become frequent, and there is a huge lack of advice as well as products dedicated to helping.

The truth is that caring for a senior animal is a lot of work and usually pretty messy. Our goal here was to make both the pet’s life easier as well as the owners' when their dogs enter the golden years.

Cam - Jet’s a black Lab who was 12 when we started DOK. Her hearing and eyesight were fading, but she still wanted to do what she loved: retrieving and swimming. Designing for senior dogs isn’t easy—what works for a young pup can frustrate an older one. Living with Jet made that real. I noticed the small moments that matter, like an easier exit from the water and steadier footing on a slick floor. If something made life better for Jet, we knew we were on the right track for other families. She showed us what worked and what didn’t, and had a major influence on the small design tweaks we made before launch.

Dom - A lot of my experience with senior pets comes from my brother and his wife, who have only adopted senior animals for over 15 years. At any given time, their home has been full of two or three senior dogs and a couple of senior cats. Whenever they traveled, I became the go-to caretaker (animal uncle), and that’s when I saw firsthand how limited senior pet products were. Caring for these fragile—but incredibly full-of-life—animals often took up a huge part of my day outside of work. That experience made me realize there was a real need for products that could help senior pets regain some independence while also making it easier for owners to care for them.

The Dog-DOK is the first inflatable dog ramp with complete traction coverage. What challenges did you face in creating this patented design?

The tricky part here was balancing aesthetics with a truly functionally superior product. DOKs approach has always been function first and looks second. The true magic comes when we’re able to blend function and visual design. For the Dog-DOK, the PVC (inflatable) material gets very slick when wet. We know how excited dogs get when they’re out on the water and how their own safety and awareness goes out the window when they see a ball. We wanted to make sure dogs have the most amount of traction possible while also having the product keep some unique visual identity. The full traction deck that gave the appearance of a dock really became the perfect solution.

How did your engineering expertise shape the way you approached safety and usability?

We love this question. One thing we like to joke about is that Dom is always overly paranoid when it comes to the products he’s designing. One of the first steps in the process is figuring out everything that could go wrong with the design and then trying to replicate those issues. Most of the time spent in the early stages is trying to rip apart the design and poke holes (literally and figuratively) in each idea. Our engineering background makes us obsess over safety, but also forces us to think practically, and sometimes very simply, about the use case and usability of our products.

Were there any surprising insights you gained from testing the product with real dogs?

One of the biggest insights we’ve gained from testing with real dogs is that what seems perfect in theory doesn’t always work in practice. We often design products with what we think will be the ideal solution, but once dogs actually start using them, their motion mechanics and anatomy reveal challenges we didn’t anticipate. A great example was with the Dog-DOK ramp—we learned quickly that if the angle was too shallow, dogs’ back legs could get tangled in the mesh, but if it was too deep, they couldn’t pull themselves up out of the water. Being human, it’s easy to initially view a product through our own lens, but dogs move and interact with the world in such different ways. Testing with them answers questions we simply can’t on our own and always leads to a better final product.

What’s your favorite way to use the Dog-DOK with your own pets?

For Cam, the Dog-DOK has been all about family fun. His young kids and their senior dog, Jet, love using it together in the summer at a nearby lake—it’s become a go-to activity that everyone can enjoy (as most of Cam’s kids are still black lab-sized). Dom, on the other hand, has had a blast testing the Party-DOK and now the MEGA Party-DOK with friends. His cats politely declined the invitation, but it’s been a great way to experience the product in action with people and see how it brings groups together (Lot’s of onlookers saying “What the heck is that thing??”).

As co-founders, how do you balance your different strengths in running the business?

We see our different strengths and backgrounds as one of our biggest advantages as co-founders. Dom grew up in urban environments like LA and New York and brings a background in product development and innovation, always focused on designing solutions that improve life for pets and their owners. Camron had a more outdoor-focused upbringing and, as a father of four, brings expertise in marketing and brand building, grounding the brand in authentic storytelling and family-oriented values. While our life experiences are very different, we work collaboratively and challenge each other in constructive ways—balancing innovation with brand strategy to create products that truly connect with a wide range of pet owners.

We have a rule too (written in our founder’s contract) that if there is any issue (business or product related) we cannot work out collaboratively, we will flip a coin and let the coin decide. To date, no coins have been flipped.

What’s been the biggest lesson learned from launching a niche pet product in a competitive market?

ALWAYS listen to your customers. We weren’t the first, and won’t be the last to say this, but you really need to be customer-obsessed. The people using your products are the experts; they use the products every day and know all the best parts along with the quirks. Really listen to them and try to understand their issues. Not only will you understand your niche better, you may have a lightbulb moment through the process.

Our products are constantly evolving; each year we come out with new improvements based directly on what our customers are suggesting. If an overwhelming amount of people are saying something is too difficult - make it easier, if they’re saying they wish it had a specific feature - see if you can add that feature, if they’re raving about one aspect of the product - lean into that and expand upon it. This kind of information can cost thousands of dollars from 3rd parties while in reality it was freely in front of you the whole time. Don’t be afraid to change something that isn’t working or build upon something that is.

How do you see the future of pet lifestyle products evolving?

We think the bar keeps rising as pets are treated more like family. When people are willing to do more for their animals, they expect better design, safer materials, and products that actually make life easier. That push will move the future of pet products toward thoughtful, problem-solving products

You’ll see better designs, and materials will feel more like what you’d choose for your kids: durable, non-toxic, easy to clean, and built to last. Most of all, brands will build with their communities. Listening to customers and iterating quickly will be the norm, not the exception. That’s where we’re headed at DOK: safe, functional, & premium products that help families spend time with their dogs without all the work.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to combine their professional expertise with their love for animals?

First, just do it. The first step is always the hardest, and that's deciding you are going to fully commit & go for it. Pick one real problem a pet parent has today and build the thing that helps.

Second, find someone to do it with. There is nothing better than building a product with someone and sharing all the challenges and successes.

Take a good, hard look at your life with your pets and see if there is some area where you’re a subject matter expert. Is that creating the perfect concoction of blended ground chicken, sweet potato and blueberries for your dog? Or maybe you’ve found the best method of hoisting your dog in the car on trips to the dog park. Sometimes, the small homemade solutions you’ve made for your pet can translate quite well into actual products. In terms of combining it with your professional expertise, we’ll leave that up to you. There is incredible value in every career out there that can translate wonderfully into a business of your own. Trust yourself, and enjoy the journey, there is no failure - only the opportunity for a V2.

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Yvon Lux is the editor of her Apple News channel covering lifestyle news and current events. Her “blogazine” celebrates sisterhood and empowers women by focusing on women’s health, travel, lifestyle, and entrepreneurial news while also sharing the most coveted beauty news and style stories.

When she’s not busy writing about impactful brands, standout products, and lifestyle news, she and her husband can usually be found snuggling with their emotionally needy, perpetually sleepy golden retriever, or she’s chipping away at her Juris Doctor. Connect with her on Instagram and subscribe to her Apple News channel.