Six months ago, Stacy Stubblefield was talking about her beagle, Samantha, with a friend who also owned a beagle. They were comparing stories about how smart their dogs are.

“We were talking about all sorts of things our dogs could do,” Stubblefield said. “We started wondering if there’s any way to measure their intelligence.”

Stubblefield began researching dog intelligence and came up with a kit to test a canine’s IQ. Within a month, Stubblefield, with 56-year-old Shlomo Gonen, founded Pooch IQ, a Beverly Hills-based company that manufactures and sells dog intelligence kits online at PoochIQ.com.

Gonen, Stubblefield’s partner, provided funding when Stubblefield launched the company, and continues to act as a mentor.

The Pooch IQ Kit tests a dog’s memory, persistence, ability to see similarities, instinctive and obedience intelligence, and problem-solving and reasoning skills. Upon completion of the test, dogs are given an intelligence score between 55 and 150, similar to the human IQ scale.

As president of Pooch IQ, 26-year-old Stubblefield oversees every aspect of the company’s business, from processing orders to talking to potential buyers to dealing with the media.

It’s been only five months since she founded the company, but she knows what it is like to be an entrepreneur.

“One of the best things about running your own company is that you have a lot of freedom, and there are no set hours or a boss,” Stubblefield said.

Keeping up with everything is her biggest challenge, she added. “There’s so much going on right now. We have limited resources and expanding them has been very difficult.”

Over the past few months, Stubblefield learned how to outsource. She also made a habit of writing down everything on her calendar to keep track of her schedule.

“There’s not enough sleep involved at this time,” Stubblefield said.

However, she cannot picture herself working for another company as an employee. After she graduated from USC’s Marshall School of Business in 2004, Stubblefield worked on various business projects to get established as an entrepreneur.

It’s not easy to be an entrepreneur in your 20s, but it would be even harder to start a business at the age of 40, she said.

“When you are older, there are people who have faith in you. This makes it difficult to start your own business. Right now, I have a lot of freedom and energy, which means that I am allowed to take risks.”

Yoo Mi Chin

Stacy Stubblefield

, 26, President, Pooch IQ, Beverly Hills

Business: Maker of IQ test kits for dogs

Employees: 4

2007 Revenues: $200,000

Fact: Started her business a month after a conversation with her friend about their dogs

Quote: “There’s not enough sleep involved at this time.”