007- Boarding

On Episode 7, we start off discussing what the 80/20 rule is, and why we need to use it when thinking about which clients to go after. We then dive into what its like boarding in your home, and what you need to consider. We end the show talking about why we really like boarding vs house sitting, and how our kids have gotten in on the pet sitting fun!

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

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Unknown Speaker 0:16

I'm Collin. And I'm Megan.

Collin 0:18

And this is pet sitter confessional. An open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter.

We are recording right now

Unknown Speaker 0:27

and just need to say this one thing. Yeah.

Collin 0:34

You've been holding on to that one this whole time having you

feel real proud of yourself.

Meghan 0:43

Welcome to this episode number six where we're going to talk about boarding. This is where the pet comes to stay in your home. Before we get there, we wanted to cover a brief mini topic. This is just us wanting to remind you the pet sitter that you Provide a great value to the customer. Don't forget why you started pet sitting in the first place. You've got independence, you've got freedom. And you don't have to make yourself miserable. A lot of times you can catch yourself in the complaining about what's going on and those terrible people that are around you, and terrible client, the terrible dog, all that stuff. But I know that you can say, No, that's what that's the power that you have. That's the important of those meet and greets, to know that it's not just you interviewing the client to see if you're a good fit for them, but it's also making sure that they are a good fit for you. And what this really boils down to is something known as the 8020 rule. Now in business, and this typically means that 20% of your clients are going to provide 80% of your income. It also means that 20% of the sitters in your area are going to be About 80% of the services. And this figure lines out through all sorts of industries, across the board, from volunteers to schools to all sorts of civic activities as well. The flip side of this is that about 80% of your problems are going to come from 20% of your clients. So that should really help you keep in perspective of where you should be investing your time and your energy, that 20% that's going to be providing that 80% of your base income. That's where you need to be investing your time. That's who you need to be making sure is going to be happy and then cut out that other 20% that's causing 80% of your problems. Yes, like Collin said, you can and you should say no. So you want to set those boundaries early and reinforce them often. As an independent pet sitter, you should consider yourself a high end boutique service. And so you can charge prices, higher prices, and pick your clients. You are delivered Not trying to sit every single dog in your city because that's not feasible anyway. So you're being selective and picky about what you do and do not want to do. So remember, if you don't like a client or an owner, for that matter, you don't have to take them on. Sometimes the pet or the owner just isn't a good fit, and that's okay. So it's wise to set those expectations for time as far as when they're dropping off and picking up the dogs. So that ultimately it's respecting you and your time. Because you're not just sitting around waiting on them. You have other clients to serve and other clients to take care of. Right. We've just being perfectly honest, we have lost clients to other centers for a number of various reasons. The most common reason that we typically see is that the client doesn't want any other dogs around their dog. That is just something we cannot and honestly do not want to provide. We would have to change our entire business model. business practices to accommodate those. And that's just not worth it to us. So know, going into this, that you as a center can't and shouldn't want to try and meet every single client's exact needs. And that is the beauty of this style of pet care of that this community is involved in that it is so niche, and so specific for not just the client picking their exact sitter, but again, as we mentioned, it's also allowing the sitter to pick their exact and desired client.

Unknown Speaker 4:35

Now let's move on to our main topic of boarding. Like I said before, this is where the client comes to your home and you take care of them in your home. The benefit of the client is that you aren't a candle. So a lot of times the candles will have concrete rooms and outside access, but usually only about an hour a day, or some provide walks for an extra fee. But you give a more personalized attention to the pet and that They will be in your home so you'll be able to interact with them a lot more than a traditional candle would. An important aspect of boarding in your home is cleaning and maintaining your house and yard. We talked about in the meet and greet episode about making sure that your house is clean. So the same rules apply here. Make sure that you vacuumed picked up things and generally just made your house look very tidy and neat. And also check those air filters definitely have one in your main living area and then another in areas where dog where the dogs will be. You want to change your furnace filter more frequently than it's recommended because of all the added pet hair and dust and dirt that it comes in with bringing the pets in and out and your yard is the same way to feel grass mow it. You want to pull weeds, trim bushes, sweep away cobwebs on your porch and definitely pick up poop. We do that sometimes multiple times a day because wives get it and kids step on it.

Collin 5:58

Dogs around through through gets bad.

Unknown Speaker 6:00

And so some general yard maintenance is good too, because you will get pee spots on your yard where the pH is changed the grass grass.

Unknown Speaker 6:10

Oh my God, what a

Collin 6:11

nerd.

Yeah, the soil pH anyway.

Well, it's true, the soil pH will change because of the urine. And so you'll need to either water those more or just take care of them. plants will probably get dug up paths will get worn in the grass. And so you just want to make sure that you're taking care of your yard both if you have on both the front and the backyard, and you want to use a strong resilient seed mix. So lots of watering to avoid those be spots, and non toxic plants or when dogs inevitably try to eat them. You also want to check your fence for gaps and holes frequently to make sure that dogs don't dig under. And this is all applicable to household. So if you live in an apartment with no yard and no offense, obviously this does not apply to you three words extra cleaning supplies, so many cleaning supplies. Make sure you have those on hand because they're going to be poop, there's going to be P there's going to be accidents, there's going to be vomit, that kind of stuff happens. Make sure you've got belly bands on hand just in case, you get an aggressive marker that goes around your house and just starts marking on everything. We've had that many times. Yes, that that is a very common thing. And so those those really do help. Also on that note, having extra doggie pads on hand because sometimes owners don't realize their dog is going to be in heat while they're staying with you. And let me tell you, trying to make a makeshift diaper out of a towel and duct tape is not something you want to find yourself doing either late at night or really early in the morning.

Unknown Speaker 7:47

But you have done it I have done

Collin 7:48

that that was not a lot of fun. But yeah, so I just having those kind of things on hand is good to have as well. You got to make sure you're talking your house with lots of toys, extra bowls to go around the You're keeping clean, maybe a dog bed or two of various sizes. Keeping in mind that this is a vacation for the dogs or cats, we want to make sure they are feeling right at home. That's something that you can ask the owner as well is do they have a bed Do they have favorite toys, making sure that they bring those over. So again, the pet can feel at home when they're with you. Something that we had to consider whenever we moved into our house was whether we were going to have a separate section just for the dogs that we were boarding or whether we're gonna have a dedicated dog room with kennels and supplies. We ultimately landed on that our house is the dogs house. So when the dog Stay with us, they're going to have free range of our house because it's their home to so that we can be around us at all times. They're allowed on the couch and on our bed, but a lot of sitters don't want them on their couch or bed. It's just personal preference, right? So this also means that we are limited by some dogs and we will not accept dogs if they have a lot of anxiety. around other dogs, or ones that have to be kept separate from others. So if there's any sort of food aggression or toy aggression, or any, any anxiety, we've got to work that out and talk about that in the meet and greet and get pretty serious about that before we take them on because we don't run separation in our house. That's just something we decided on because it's easier to manage for us that way. We're not set up for separating. And that would be a major disruption to our business and our livelihood as well. We want this to work seamlessly with how we work and live. And that would just be too much into Kendall ish in our minds and we want to make sure that we're staying away from that because that's the service again that we're providing of this is a home and the dog is going to be at home and the dog is here. But again, that also depends on what size home you have. If you have a large home and you can accommodate the separation of you have a separate dog room with dog kennels and all the doc supplies. That's great, right? We have just chosen not to do that. So if the And anxiety and separation does come up for the dog, we will recommend to the client that we will go into drop ins or overnights in the client's home. And those are topics. We've already talked about drop ins in previous episodes. But we are going to be covering housesitting in a future episode. And that way that dog is going to be best cared for their their anxiety is going to be lower, it's going to be less stress on them and the owner as well. along that same line, and we may have touched on this in the Getting Started episode is that you want to know how many dogs that you can accommodate in your home at any one time. That's both legally, what is the ordinances? What are the ordinances in your area that are going to allow you to do that,

Unknown Speaker 10:40

and what you're most comfortable with?

Collin 10:42

And, more importantly, what's your comfort level, even if the city ordinance says you can have five dogs and you may already be comfortable with to only take two, right you don't want to be pushing your comfort level. Because this is going to be a pack mentality that you have to be the alpha of in that you have to be leading. And if you're not going to be leading it well dogs aren't going to have a good day. Well, and also these are dogs that are going to be staying overnight as well. So you're going to have to be potentially up all night with dogs that may have separation anxiety, or just different various needs medications, if it's an older dog having to go out multiple times, making sure you're caring for them in that way. So it is something to make sure that you have in mind of what is your limit, and what are you most comfortable with. As we've mentioned several times previously in other episodes is if you're going to be doing a boarding, make sure you're including those amazing pictures in different settings. So we want it we always trying to make sure that we're including both inside and outside photos of the dogs, both playing, resting, playing with other dogs cuddling in bed, getting toys, playing, getting treats, showing their their time that they're here with us and covering all aspects of that. definitely make sure that the owner provides the food as well for the panel. Switching diets could lead to upset stomachs. And you definitely don't want that to happen. And you don't want to be in the business of buying food for all the dogs that are coming in your door, making sure that the owner provides enough as well when the doctor drop off, and sometimes even more, because if they're playing with a lot of other dogs getting out a lot of energy, they're sometimes going to eat more than a little bit more than they normally would. Additionally, it's just a safety net to if the owner gets delayed in coming, you want to make sure that there's extra there for another night or two just for that safety net. And of course, you want to make sure that the owner brings any medication that the pets need. And we require that the owner bring the leash and harness. A question we asked the owner at the meet and greet is if the pet is canceled at night or if they sleep with the owner. And we try to mimic that as much as possible. So if the pet is canceled at night, and we asked the owner to bring the kennel or the boarding, we've also had clients that say that their dog is most comfortable in a kennel so they will bring it over and we will leave door open just throughout the day so that all can go in there and lay down whatever they want to. So we want to make the pet feel comfortable and right at home in our home. And so we just asked the owner include whatever will make the pet feel right at home. The first thing you want to consider and make sure is that if the pet can be left alone unattended, there are lots of stories of dogs being put in kennels that weren't kennel trained, and the pet sitter leaves for 30 minutes and comes back to find their home destroyed. blinds torn down doors to Drew. You want to make sure the dog is entertained while you are away. Especially if it's a puppy. Lots of toys game. I know they have a dog TV channel, a noise machine in the background to prevent excessive barking perhaps. And then in case of an emergency if if the dog were to destroy something in your home or eat something and just something that isn't good What are you going to do in case of an emergency if a pet gets injured in your house, that's why it's so important to have an emergency contact and vet information on hand. And on that note, make sure that the owner has you on file as a caregiver for the animal so that you can be there and get the dog admitted and start making some decisions for that care. An additional note on the emergency is, remember, the dog is now in your home? What happens and how will you accommodate if there is an emergency to the house? So I tend to think of what happens is if the house catches on fire, and we have three dogs here, what is our escape route? How are we keeping the dogs under control? How are we keeping the clients informed of what's going on? And how do we make sure that that situation doesn't get out of hand very quickly. And we are planning a future episode to go over details of planning for emergencies and making sure you have a good plan in place before you get to that session. Aereo Lastly, a lot of pet sitters to require proof of vaccination. So obviously kennels and boarding facilities will have that setup as well. And so will you require proof of vaccination? Or will you require the pets to be on flea and tick medicine,

we do we say yes to both of those as something is very important because we do sit multiple dogs at the same time, because we do have a dog of our own. We want to make sure that everybody is going to be healthy and taking care of and that there's no possibility for exposure to diseases or ticks or fleas because that's just not something you you really want in your home that you want to be around either. We've been predominantly pet boarding in our home since we've moved and it has been quite a great experience. And I can honestly say we've only had a handful of issues with some dogs that have come into our house and mostly those are dogs that are not well trained in in the broadest sense of some of them seem to barely know their name. And so keeping them under control, especially when they're puppies and very hyper has been difficult in the fact that we've kept them for several days at a time. And then it is the things of making sure we're keeping up with the cleanliness, making sure that the house smells nice for whenever we are doing meet and greets and pickups and drop offs and all that stuff so that clients and dogs are having a good experience in our home. And then again, because we live here, we want to make sure our home is clean as well. So that's been a big thing that we've had to adjust to. Since when we've gone from drop ins. And when we met when we've gone from doing predominately drop ins and housesitting to now doing predominantly boarding in our home, it's just a change of duties as we've shifted into that,

Unknown Speaker 16:45

which do you like more?

Collin 16:49

I honestly like pet boarding more because it means less time away from home means less time away from family and I'm most comfortable here like a dog. I'm most comfortable in my I own home. So I like being here. And it means I can control more things. Whenever I'm doing it in my own home. I agree. And especially since we've had kids, it's a lot harder to pack everybody up and go sit at somebody's house. So yeah, really enjoy allowing dogs to come over and for the kids to take on some responsibility and learn how to take care of dogs. Yeah, that's been a lot of fun watching our two and four year old, take responsibility, give out treats, give dogs, lots of pets and loves and learn gentle hands and really take ownership of that. And we jokingly every time we see somebody walking a dog by our house will look at Megan and say, actually, she'll look at me and say, do they need a pet sitter? It's funny now because now our kids say that when we're out in public, it just happened the other day, we're out to dinner and someone had their dog on the patio. And I know our youngest looked at us and said pet sitter Pet Sitter, and he was asking if the dog needed a pet sitter. So that's been that's been a real treat and enjoy. Enjoy. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode on pet boarding. Next week we're going to cover the business side of pet sitting so that includes staying organized. Tracking expenses, miles taxes, all of that good stuff. You can follow us on Facebook at pet sitter confessional on Twitter at PS confessional on Instagram at pet sitter confessional and we also have a Facebook group sitter confessionals, please subscribe, wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you enjoy listening to us, please rate and review. We really appreciate you listening. And that's a wrap

Keywords: dogs, client, pet, home, pet sitter, owner, boarding, sitter, house, hand, greet, yard, care, confessional, kennel, staying, toys, drop, episode, emergency