A modular office in Knoxville.

PetSafe began as a fence that was not a fence. In 1991 Randy Boyd started Radio Fence Corporation in a modular office in Knoxville, Tennessee, according to the company’s own history; its first product, the Radio Fence, was an electronic pet-containment system that kept a dog inside a boundary without a physical barrier. The private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, announcing its purchase of the business in May 2020, likewise described it as “founded in 1991 by entrepreneur Randy Boyd,” and the company’s own 2020 announcement called him a South Knoxville native.

The name changed quickly. In 1992, the company says, it became Radio Systems Corporation, in anticipation of bark collars and remote trainers, and opened an office building on National Drive. From 1993 it worked with manufacturing partners in China, and it later opened a development centre in Shenzhen in 2005 and set up PetSafe Shenzhen Ltd. in 2009, by its own account. (Its 2024 press release shortens the story to “founded in 1991 as Radio Systems Corporation.”)

The PetSafe name itself arrived later. The company dates the creation of the PetSafe and Guardian brands to 1998, the year after its first acquisition, Austin Innovations, which brought ultrasonic training products. In the same year it bought Johnson Pet Doors and U.S. Pet Products and moved its headquarters to the road now called PetSafe Way in Knoxville. In 1999 a European marketing partner, PetSafe Limited, joined, which the company says let it sell internationally under the PetSafe name.

Fences, doors, litter boxes.

PetSafe grew mainly by buying other businesses and folding them into a family of brands. The company’s timeline is unusually detailed. In 2003 it formed SportDOG for hunting and training dogs. In 2005 it bought Fencemaster and the British pet-door maker Staywell, Ltd. In 2006 it acquired Invisible Fence Technologies, which the company says brought full-service fencing and pet-proofing, and added Innotek training products. Microchip pet doors from Pet Porte followed in 2009.

The year 2010 brought Premier Pet Products, Veterinary Ventures, Pet Loo and others; in 2012 it acquired the ScoopFree self-cleaning litter boxes and FroliCat toys from Lucky Litter, and opened an office in Dundalk, Ireland. Pup-Pee Solutions pet toilets came in 2013 and Piddle Place potty products in 2016, the company’s 25th anniversary year. The result is a brand that sits on fences, doors, collars, litter boxes and feeders rather than on a single signature object.

It also built a public campaign around its name. In 2011, the company says, PetSafe launched Bark For Your Park, a programme to fund community dog parks, which it expanded in 2016. The same year its SportDOG brand introduced TEK, a GPS tracking and remote-training system.

Other pieces filled in the network around the brand. In 2004, the company says, Radio Fence Distributors, the installers behind its PetSafe Pro containment service, joined the business; products from Contech, MultiVet International and Lucky Dog Equipment were added in 2008; and in 2009 it set up Radio Systems Corporation Japan for Asian markets. In 2013, by its own account, Invisible Fence introduced a wire-free containment system using GPS — a return, in new form, to the problem the first Radio Fence was built to solve.

The founder’s profile rose outside the business. Wikipedia records that Randy Boyd was appointed Tennessee’s commissioner of economic and community development in 2015, ran in the Republican primary for governor in 2018, finishing second to Bill Lee, and became interim president of the University of Tennessee system in November 2018, a post made permanent in March 2020. Wikipedia also records that he bought the Tennessee Smokies minor-league baseball team in 2013.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all pet names: PetSafe, KONG, Chuckit!, West Paw, Ruffwear, Kurgo and Butternut Box. Between them they cover much of what an owner buys for a dog beyond the animal itself — toys, ball launchers, beds, collars, leads and harnesses, gear for car journeys and outdoor trips, and food. Pet brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from founder-run workshops to labels that now belong to much larger groups, and a single name can be sold everywhere from a specialist shop to a supermarket aisle or a delivery subscription.

A pet brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single product than by a name, a colour, a pack and a tone of voice, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, moved its production or grown far beyond the town where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its products are actually made.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its products are made and how its packaging and advertising have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A brand name becomes the company name.

Ownership changed in 2020. On 12 May 2020 Clayton, Dubilier & Rice announced that funds it manages would acquire Radio Systems Corporation, naming PetSafe, Invisible Fence, SportDOG, ScoopFree and Kurgo among its brands; terms were not disclosed, and the deal was expected to close around June 2020. Boyd, then founder and chairman, agreed to stay on the board, and the company said its headquarters and senior staff would remain in Knoxville. CD&R-managed funds have owned the company since 2020.

Four years later the consumer brand became the company name. On 19 March 2024 the company announced that “Radio Systems Corporation® is changing its name to PetSafe Brands™.” Its chief executive, Rob Candelino, said the new name “reflects a new energy in our company and a strong conviction”; the announcement listed Invisible Fence Brand, Kurgo, PetSafe, SportDOG and Premier Pet as its brands, and offices in Ireland, China and Vietnam alongside the Knoxville headquarters. The trade publication GlobalPETS reported the change on 26 March 2024.

That move from engineering name to consumer name is the identity story. “Radio Systems” described a technology; “PetSafe” describes a promise to owners, and it now covers both a product brand and the group that owns its sister brands. On manufacturing, the company’s history points to its partnerships with manufacturers in China from 1993 and its development centre in Shenzhen.

For a design guide, PetSafe shows how a house brand can grow into the name of the whole company. Compare Kurgo, the travel-gear brand in the same group, and Chuckit!, another American dog-gear name built around one idea. For this guide we use a deep teal and a yard green with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep PetSafe’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.