Electric Guard Dog (EGD) was started in 1973 by founder Bill Mullis as a completely different type of business — an RMR-based guard dog service. Mullis found that the dogs were so hard to find (they had to be exactly the right temperament) that he couldn’t afford to sell them to customers. Instead he “rented” them, providing shots and food and everything the dog would need in exchange for a monthly fee. That was the business for close to 20 years, until one break-in changed everything.
“We had signs plastered everywhere and that kept everybody out, until one fateful weekend the gate was cut and some Rottweiler puppies were gone,” Mullis recalls. “Being in the trade, it hurt my feelings and made me real mad.” That first time he relied on a reward and the police to catch the perpetrator. But when it happened again just a few months later, he decided to take matters into his own hands.