AURELIUS - Fingerlakes Mall is going to the dogs.

Well, actually, the dogs are coming to the mall. Maxie Biggz, an upscale puppy store, is set to open next week and will offer 75 breeds of purebred puppies, as well as items to keep them - and their owners - entertained.

The chain is also looking to open new stores downstate this fall, at malls in West Nyack and Palisades.

Maxie Biggz is a subsidiary of Family Pet Centers. In 2003, a year after new management took over and saved nine Family Pet Centers from bankruptcy, Rufus, Inc. was formed. It opened Woof & Co. shops in Braintree and Saugus, Mass., outside of Boston. Family Pet Centers sells a wide variety of pets and pet supplies. Woof & Co., based in Edison, N.J., and Maxie Biggz are dogs only.

This will be the third Maxie Biggz store. There is a Maxie Biggz on Staten Island and another in New Hartford, near Utica.

Dustin Caufield will manage both the Fingerlakes Mall and New Hartford stores. The mall store, in the JC Penney wing, will employ between 10 and 15 people. He said the goal is to open 98 Maxie Biggz stores across the country by 2008.

The company is looking at growing retail hubs, such as Auburn, he said.

Caufield said Rufus Inc. Chief Executive Officer Don Jones had a new kind of vision for stores like Woof & Co. and Maxie Biggz which cater to dog lovers. Linda Povey, a partner at Kanter International, which created Woof & Co., called it a lifestyle store.

Rufus, Inc. will compete with breeders, not necessarily the "big box" pet store chains like PetsMart or Petco.

The store in the Fingerlakes Mall will be state-of-the-art, with a $40,000 ventilation system, and "really good breeders," Caufield said.

All of the breeders that provide puppies to the chain are licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said.

Like Woof & Co., Maxie Biggz gets its puppies from Hunte Corp., a Goodman, Mo-based broker for U.S. breeders. Prices range from $750 to $3,100, depending on the breed.

According to statistics in the industry, it's comparable to what someone would pay a high-end breeder, with about a 50-percent profit margin.

Caufield said Hunte does not breed its own dogs.

Each puppy has a three-year warranty against congenital and hereditary defects and a year warranty against health issues. Caufield said each store has a veterinarian.

Puppies travel by air-conditioned truck to stores, where they get 75 percent of retail space, according to a company press release.

High-end accessories get 15 percent and basics get 10 percent.

Puppies make up 80 percent of the sales.

Jones, who comes from management positions with The Gap, Target, Ikea, Filenes and Macy's, has indicated he wants Woof & Co. and Maxie Biggz to get away from the image of mall pet stores as places that don't take care of animals very well.

He told the American Animal Hospital Association in March that he wanted Rufus, Inc.'s stores to work with animal activists and veterinarians to ensure that the chain will enhance the communities where the stores open.

Caufield said the Massachusetts stores have worked to build relationships with animal shelters and the intention for the Auburn store is that it would have a relationship with the local shelter here.

He said the company did not see it as a competition to support an organization with the goal of adopting out older dogs, or mixed breeds, to people who may not be able to afford to buy a puppy from Maxie Biggz.

Staff writer Louise Hoffman Broach can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or louise.hoffman@lee.net.