These Aggies Are Leaving Their “Dog Heaven” to Aggieland. Sit, Stay and Read More.

Mike grew up on an East Texas farm near Shelbyville, 170 miles northeast of College Station. “My dad was a chicken farmer, and in high school, I was too busy worried about hunting and working,” Mike said with a grin, referencing that he had few collegiate designs following his graduation from Shelbyville High in 1981. Fresh out of school, he worked for his dad on the farm until he was 27. “My dad died, and the farm was sold. I moved to Houston to attend Houston Community College and then transferred to Texas A&M to study finance,” he shared.

Mike’s father had always spoken highly of Texas A&M, and that never left the young man’s mind as he mulled higher education. “If he had ever taken me to a football game at Kyle Field when I was young, I would’ve spent every waking moment thinking about Texas A&M,” Mike chuckled.

Later earning his MBA from the University of Chicago, Mike enjoyed a successful career in banking that took him from New York City to Houston and San Antonio. He met Kari, a Seguin, Texas, native and University of Texas at San Antonio accounting graduate, in San Antonio in late 2001 and proposed in spring 2002 under Texas A&M’s Century Tree on Kari’s first trip to College Station. The couple celebrated their engagement in true Aggie style: by playing dominoes at the Dixie Chicken.

Despite his triumphs in banking, Mike never strayed from his love of animals and love of the land. He has trained dogs for more than 25 years and is a licensed American Kennel Club Retriever Field Trial judge. Mike and Kari dove into a second career when they opened Kickapoo Ranch Pet Resort in 2010. They sold their successful venture in 2019 and opened Dobbin Dog Ranch in 2021.

When visiting the dog ranch, wide-eyed visitors are wowed by a prevalent interior color: white, which is by design. “Why would we want to cover it up? I want to show how clean we are,” Mike said of the pristine floors, walls and ceilings, adding that a surgeon once told him the dog ranch appeared more spotless than the hospital he worked in. Mike credited Kari’s unfailing attention to detail as one reason even surgeons note the ranch’s cleanliness.

And the Dobbin Dog Ranch floors aren’t just clean; they exude the Aggie Spirit. Mike lovingly installed the exact flooring in Kyle Field that leads to the stadium’s suites, as a nod to his love for Aggie football. On that note, the ranch regularly hosts the pups of Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko, in addition to other celebrity canines like the pets of multiple Houston Rockets, late astronaut Gene Cernan and former Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch, among plenty of others.