119: Back to Basics- Boarding
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Summary:
On today’s episode we go back to basics and cover boarding! We break down how we operate boarding a small number of dogs in our home, how we approach cleaning and up keep, as well as dealing with the chaos of feeding times and schedules. Natasha answers the question, “How do I take my business to the next level?”
Topics on this episode:
Who is boarding for?
How to make it work.
Cleaning and yard work.
Ask a Pet Biz Coach with Natasha O’Banion
Main take away? Clients LOVE an in-home boarding option, see if it’s something that could work for you.
Links:
Our. meet and greet episode: 115
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
dogs, home, boarding, clients, pet, pet sitters, check, yard, stay, sitters, toys, owner, people, cleaning, house, smells, clean, eat, area, regularly
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
Collin 00:17
I'm Collin
Meghan 00:18
and I'm Meghan. And this is pet sitter confessional, and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Episode 119. Hello, today we are going to be going back to the basics and talking about boarding in our home, we would like to say thank you to pet sitters associates for making this show possible. And for our patrons who are supporting us every month with the price of a cup of coffee. Thank you so much. If you would like to learn more about how to support us and continue to providing content for you guys, you can go to pet sitter confessional.com slash support.
Collin 01:01
Before we get started, we did want to mention that tomorrow is Election Day. For those of you listening and living in the United States. We know that many people are scared and unsure what the future holds. So check in on others. And really important here, check in with yourself to see how you're holding up. The next several days will be an emotional roller coaster like we've never seen before. So if you need to reach out, give us a call
Meghan 01:29
at 636-364-8260.
Collin 01:33
Vote and let your voice be heard.
Meghan 01:35
Now on to today's topic of boarding. This is what we offer the most of right now and our most requested service for the past several years. It's a really awesome option to add if you are a walker. And you want to keep some of the dogs at your home because it really adds income. And it's an easy way to scale. If you're maxed out on walks in a day if you can only do so much. And you don't want to hire
Collin 02:01
there are a lot of different ways to think about boarding but what specifically what specific style of boarding are we talking about here
Meghan 02:07
in your home in the sitter's home, you can decide if you will create or not. And you can ask the clients what they want ultimately be consistent with what they do. If they want to create and you don't want that or can't provide that option, then the client may not be the best fit for you.
Collin 02:26
Yeah, we we only keep one extra crate on hand, if needed. And in case a client forgets there's otherwise the dogs are free to roam around. But if that's what they do in their home, our home is their home
Meghan 02:39
boarding will really work for those sitters that have the space for it, including a yard, it's not necessarily a requirement. But it is certainly easier than having to leash up the dogs to go potty every few hours, right and
Collin 02:52
many owners will want to see their dog running and playing off leash in a yard, especially with some other pups. We know that the dog gurus recommend that you should typically shoot for around 100 square foot for each dog. I think that's for large breeds, but it's just a good rule of thumb. And this is typically not a problem for most homes. But be aware that it also includes the play area for the dogs as well. So this would be the yard and making sure that it is fenced in and safe for them to be there.
Meghan 03:22
You must check your local ordinances This is really important boarding dogs may not even be allowed or they may limit it to three to four dogs in a household for any reason at all. Also checking insurance, checking your business insurance checking your homeowners insurance, these are really important. Most business insurances will say that you cannot have more than 10 dogs at a time that you cannot be watching 10 more than 10 dogs at a time. And you cannot have more than five overnight.
Collin 03:52
In our experience. Many clients will seek out this kind of boarding if they have dogs with special needs. We've also seen them ask for this kind of thing if their dog has mild separation anxiety, who you know, they don't like being left alone. And maybe the clients didn't necessarily get them crate trained early on. We see this an awful lot with dogs that need medication, especially at really set times and may need to be monitored after or before giving of medication to make sure that it's being effective. We take care of a lot of older dogs this way as well. It keeps them more comfortable and keeps more eyes on them for longer periods of time. Especially if they're kind of towards the their end of life there and they just need to be monitored really closely. On the opposite end of that. We also have seen the lot of puppies who are too young to go to a larger facility or maybe who haven't been especially potty trained yet and need that really enforced by their owners are away. And then there are the clients that just like the idea of their dog being in a home while they're gone. This is really how we pitch to potential clients. Your pet will be around our family and be treated like our own pop and be welcomed.
Meghan 05:05
But if you need more separation between work and home, boarding is probably not the best option for you. And know that going into it because you're boarding in your home. So doing things like updates, and renovations can be really tricky. If you have clients dogs around our yard last winter was a disaster so much, but it was very muddy, and then COVID hit. So we had six weeks of really being able to grow our grass again. And it was very nice,
Collin 05:36
it was so luscious. It was awesome.
Meghan 05:39
Because an onboarding is typically less structured than a facility, you'll need to decide if you'll require vaccinations or not, your insurance should require you to do so. So you need to have your clients sign off on that as well. And obviously, it's a great idea to require them as really trying to disinfect your home for any disease will be really cumbersome and unpleasant.
Collin 06:02
So if you think that boarding is going to be something that you're interested in, or you have clients that may be asking for it, one of the things that you're really going to want to focus and think about before you do this are the cleaning and maintenance requirements for your home in your yard. As we just talked about the the yard can be a real real issue here. So in our mean greet episode, we also talked about making sure that your home is clean and presentable to people who are coming in because they're going to want to see that space and see you working in that. So that the exact same thing applies to here, making sure that you're vacuuming, picking up things and generally making your house look tidy. This can be difficult if you have a family that's also in your home. But you can you can welcome them into your home and allow the people to see what your home is going to look like how the children are going to be where the toys are, you can make that a part of the meet and greet and it will appeal to many people.
Meghan 07:01
But if you don't like cleaning, this may not be the service to offer. You may not want to offer it right. Also checking air filters is a great idea. Definitely have one in your main living area. And then in other areas where the dogs will be change those furnace filters more frequently than recommended because there's going to be a lot of pet hair, a lot of dirt. Dogs play a lot happens and those will get clogged frequently.
Collin 07:31
You'll be surprised how frequently they get clogged up quickly they do.
Meghan 07:36
Also make sure your home smells good light a candle, put some oils and a diffuser, have a Sensi going whatever you do to make your home smell good bake chocolate chip cookies, whatever you do. I love when people comment on how good our house smells, or they can tell that it's peppermint in the air. Because a lot of times I feel like it just smells like wet dog in our house. I don't want that when the clients come over, obviously.
Collin 08:00
And that goes to having lots of air circulation and cleaning regularly vacuuming and deodorizing things not just trying to cover up the smell but actually using things that get rid of it. We've already mentioned here the yard is the exact same of making sure we've taken care of it. mowing the grass regularly pulling weeds, trimming bushes save away cobwebs on our on your porch That happens a lot for us, especially now during this season. There are a lot of spiders out there and just keeping that area clean and presentable.
Meghan 08:30
And the big one picking up. So much poop if you're boarding and doing daycare. Yeah, so yard care, you will get pee spots. plants will get dug up paths will get worn in your grass. Make sure you're taking care of your lawn have strong resilient seed mixes when you go to plant in the spring.
Collin 08:50
Yeah, making sure that those seed mixes are specific to where you live. Whether you are in northern or southern climate. There are specific and good mixes that you can get that will match that and will be really resilient.
Meghan 09:03
Some other tips for yard care our water at least once a day in the warm months, it will really help many who bored in their home decide to go with artificial turf which can be really expensive, or just wood chipping their entire yard to prevent maintenance but be careful with that because some dogs will actually eat the woodchips we put mulch down some woodchips down in a small part of our yard. And there are a couple dogs who will just go over there and start chewing on that those wood chips
Collin 09:30
infinite wood imminent to toys.
Meghan 09:34
So be really cautious of that. And then like I said the turf can get really expensive really fast. It's it's a great way to have less maintenance but it's very costly up front. We've decided to just stay with natural grass and just work really really really hard at keeping it healthy and strong. Check your yard for toxic plants. If you want to landscape plant only non toxic plants because they will get eaten
Collin 10:00
I'll also add here to check your fence for holes and gaps frequently, once a day, especially if you've got a lot of dogs coming in and out to make sure that there's no weak spots, they're not pushing on boards or they're not trying to dig underneath. And then as always check after storms, check after high winds, because you never know when things are going to get loose. And you need to stay on top of those things, especially if you have back gates, anything like that, regularly checking that walking the perimeter to make sure everything is as as it should be.
Meghan 10:32
And as we keep talking about cleaning supplies have extra cleaning supplies on hand. So many cleaning supplies, you will be cleaning up pee and poop in your house, you will be cleaning up sometimes vomit in your house, it happens. Check your cleaning supplies very carefully, thinking about toxic or noxious fumes. When cleaning, we clean with all plant based organic products. We also don't use any paper products because of the immense waste. We use dedicated cleaning cloth instead. And we wash those.
Collin 11:04
And we use this as a way to differentiate ourselves and how we clean and prepare our home we take we stayed you know we take that extra step two, clean, and prep the house that way because we want us and we want their dog to be healthy and happy then I would say plan at least one day a month to do a really deep clean and disinfection of your entire home. Top to bottom just do a whole good nice reset for the entire house so that you can stay on top of it and it doesn't get away from before we continue. I do want to talk about our sponsor pet sitters associates. As pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members, pet sitters associates is here to help. For over 20 years, pet sitters associates has provided thousands of members with quality pet care insurance. If you work in the pet care industry or want to make your passion for pets into a profession. You can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom in running your business. Learn why pet sitters associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote today at pet sit llc.com. You can get a discount when joining by clicking membership pet sitter confessional and use the discount code confessional at checkout to get $10 off today. Check out the benefits of membership in insurance once again at pets it llc.com.
Meghan 12:22
When boarding you're going to want to stock your house with lots of toys, lots of extra bowls, a dog bed or two and maybe even some exercise equipment for dogs in the backyard. This is the dog or cat's vacation. So you want to make sure they feel right at home with you just as they would in their own home. You should want to hundred percent ask the owner to also bring their dogs or cats favorite toys or their bed along however they will forget, especially the bowls, they always seem to forget the bowls. So wash these toys and bowls with warm soapy water frequently and swap them out to minimize passing bacteria back and forth
Collin 13:04
well on on the toys there. This is a great way to provide extra enrichment, especially if the owner is working on a particular training habit or working on something with their dog. So you can have you can decide how you want to schedule your day with your dogs are you going to have periods of activity of play time outside and then rest time inside different play areas different as I mentioned enrichment activities that you'll work with of the dogs throughout the day. That's wonderfully, totally up to you and how you want to run it. Or on the opposite side there. You could choose to run it as just a normal household with no really extra enrichment. It's just the dogs are going to live with you as you would be in a home. Some people really just want that aspect of it. Others may want a little extra enrichment added and just ask the client what they're expecting, and then meet that the best you can.
Meghan 13:57
Something else to think about is will you have a separate section of your house just for the dogs or maybe even have a dedicated dog room with kennel with kennels and supplies. We consider our house as their house. So the dogs have free range when they stay with us. But this also means that we will not accept dogs that have severe anxiety around other dogs or ones that need to be the only dog and kept away from others. We have found unfortunately that this is very common, at least in the people who approach us for our services. But that's not something that we're really set up for. And it would really be a major disruption to our life. We have small children. We we do have an upstairs and downstairs where we could separate but it would just be too much for us. But if this does come up with our clients, we really recommend that we do drop ins or how sittings for them and their home so that the dog can be better cared for there. And the dogs that we are boarding aren't put in any danger of being attacked. Think about the flooring,
Collin 14:58
dogs will have access too, if you have carpeting, you will need to invest in a really good vacuum carpet cleaner and clean at least once a month again to stay on top of this, especially if you've got mud in your backyard and dogs are coming in and out. Otherwise, you may consider replacing it with a hard flooring or even better stained concrete. I know that's a really common option. If you do have wood flooring, though, need to be thinking about how you'll handle the scratches and gouges that come up with it not just like how you're going to care for those but mentally, how you're going to cope with seeing gouges and marks as they come up on your hardwoods. So waxing encoding them regularly, we're getting again, when we're boarding in our home, we're increasing the amount of maintenance and the frequency with which we do it so that we can accommodate those dogs.
Meghan 15:46
Which is why I think a lot of people have a separate section in their home for their dogs for the dogs that they're boarding,
Collin 15:52
right because they try and separate their living area from where the dogs will be so that they can differentiate that maintenance. We've had many instances of clients asking us to board their dogs for extended periods of time. And one of the things that we have to be mindful of is, are these are the kind of pictures that we show in the pictures that we send over to them and really trying hard to include different pictures from various settings around our home and in our yard. We know that the clients will want to see their pet doing different activities, playing with different dogs playing with different toys playing inside, playing outside, going on walks cuddling on the couch, cuddling in the bed, that Megan, this is something that you are awesome at you are really really good at this. Well, thank you. I struggle with this. I never knew we had so many different photogenic settings around our house in our yard until I look at the kind of pictures that you take. Because when I look at my photos, there's only like five or six places that I ever take. Take pictures of dogs, and you find a ton of really cool places.
Meghan 16:55
Well, I think that's just because I think about what I would want to see if Coby our dog was being boarded in somebody else's home. I would love to see him sleeping on the couch playing with a squeaky toy exploring the backyard. And I know that some clients just want the you know, quote, proof of life photos. But the quality and the variety of photos and videos is a way that we and other sitters can stand out from other sitters.
Collin 17:25
Yeah, and add to that telling a story of the pets stay with you. Putting it maybe some time talking about in the first person of how their day has gone What friends they have gotten to play with, okay of treats, they got exciting smells or things that they saw the squirrel in the backyard that they can never attach catch. telling those kind of stories will really help set that apart too and allow the owner to see a little glimpse into their stay with you.
Meghan 17:49
This is something that should be discussed at the meet and greet but what should the owner be bringing over. We already talked about the toys, the the bed, the water bowls, but make sure the owner provides the food switching diets could really lead to an upset stomach and you definitely don't want to be dealing with the diarrhea in your house. Make sure that they bring the leash and harness that you are going to be using. If you say no retractable make sure that they bring something else and of course medication as well enough for the stay and then extra as well in case their flight gets delayed. Or their car breaks down when they're driving. any emergency you want to have enough medication right
Collin 18:29
and then I know something we always ask is where does the dog like to sleep at nighttime. Most of the time the owners will say wherever or they'll say in our bed, but if the dog does like to sleep in their kennel or at least have access to that make sure that they do that bring the Kim over for those those instances and that the owner brings that over. If the pet has a favorite toy or favorite blanket those are great to bring over as long as the dog isn't aggressive or possessive over the toy. We like them if they bring over a blanket or a bed because it brings their smell with them and it is an area of familiarity that they can already have in our home. Again, we're trying to help the dog feel right at home in our home. So anything that owner can bring or include as they bring the pet over. They should do that to help make the dog feel up as home as possible
Meghan 19:18
part of boarding in your home is dog proofing your home. So they say when you bring home a baby from the hospital. Your home should be baby proof. Same thing here your home should be dog proofed. Make sure you know if the pet can be left alone and attended. And this is a huge thing because many owners like the idea of in home boarding for their dogs with separation anxiety. However, unless you are okay with being at home 24 seven, you want to make sure that you can leave to go to the grocery store or grab a bite to eat somewhere because there are lots of stories of dogs being put in kennels that weren't kennel trained and the pet sitter comes back to find their home destroyed the blinds ripped up the couch cushions just fluff everywhere. So make sure the dog is entertained while you are away, make sure you know if it can be left alone or if the dog can be left alone or not, especially if it's a puppy, lots of toys, games, maybe dog TV, a noise machine in the background to prevent excess barking if you have neighbors around. And then also knowing if they bolt around doors, it's a great idea to have multiple gates or entrances to prevent escapes, if you have one front door, maybe consider adding a storm door in there just to prevent them from going out,
Collin 20:33
right. And then also part of dog proofing your home. If you have multiple dogs in your home and you that's how you want to run it. really putting forethought and planning into feeding time. This is typically this can be a hectic crazy time, especially if you have a handful or more pups in your home, having a set structure that you stick to every single time will really really help especially if you as you have dogs that stay with you over and over, they will learn those routines, it will become less chaotic over time. So obviously, we would suggest that you screen dogs for food aggression beforehand, so that nothing of this is a surprise. But beyond that, it's always a good idea to feed dogs as separately as you can to again reduce the chaos and reduce the chances of any sort of aggression between them. So beating them in different rooms, feeding some we have some dogs that come over that only like to eat in their crate. So they bring their crate over and the only time they go in there is when they eat so we put them in there. And the other dogs can eat around the more in different rooms. We also split dogs between inside and outside on the good weather days
Meghan 21:43
with any service that you offer. But particularly with boarding, you need to think about what you're going to do in case of an emergency. If a pet gets injured in your house, if a weather disaster comes about, this is why it's so important to have not only an emergency contact on hand, but that info as well. Can your car handle the dogs for transportation? If the dog gets injured in your care, you're only having to deal with one pup. But what if a natural disaster happens? a hurricane comes in and you need to transport multiple dogs. Are you even insured for that. And speaking of insurance, make sure you're fully insured and your family is also covered if they're going to be around the dogs as well look into your homeowners insurance, and your business insurance to make sure you're fully covered. But what happens if you need to evacuate? Again hurricane season, we knew pet sitters who had to pack up their entire house and their dogs for two or more times. And they had to get on the road and go to stay in different hotels. You'll need to have crates for all the different pups, food, water and medications for two weeks. And then think about how you're going to communicate all of that to clients. Where would you stay? have a backup plan and know how you would handle those in case of an emergency at home? If a fire suddenly breaks out? How would you get the dogs out out in a panic would you know where all the leashes and the collars and everything is make sure you have that all in one central location and not spread out through your house?
Collin 23:20
Yeah, it may be good idea to have a neighbor or two in your neighborhood that would be willing to take you in in case there was an emergency somewhere really close by where you could get all the dogs together, walk over to their home and bring them in so that they would be in a safe location and you weren't just standing on the street waiting for the fire department to arrive.
Meghan 23:39
Well, and obviously you would have to really know and trust this person
Collin 23:42
jack clearing it ahead of time and having that conversation with them and letting the clients know this is my backup plan in place I need to evacuate my home I have a local place to go to. And then the here's my long distance plan of getting away in case something happens like a hurricane or an earthquake or a tornado, those kind of things as well. So let us know how you handle boarding in your home. Or if that's even something that you have decided to offer. I'd love to hear how you operate and the kind of things that you take into account. Natasha is back this week to answer the question, How do I take my business to the next level?
Natasha 24:15
Look at what you currently have. First thing you do is look at your current process systems and what you have first thing is in my course to you besides obviously your dreams and your goals is like what do you what feels good to you in your business? What do you just love like this makes me feel amazing. Our staff love this. Our clients love this. This part of what we do is amazing. And then ask yourself what you do that you don't really like to drag out nobody books to service. You know, I remember when I first started I was like, doing all the things right? Like Okay, if I'm going to do this pet care business at hasha You have to eat dog walker. You got to be a pet sitter. You got to be a pet taxi driver. You got to be averroes like, that's what someone told me, you got to be all the things? Well, shortly into this, I realized I don't like all the things. So I needed to see what what are the things I really enjoy. And that would translate to my customer. And that would translate to the staff because they would see my love my excitement. And then we could scale it, right. So look at what you like, what look at what you don't like, and what you do, like start to expand. Obviously, people know my story, I operate in multiple states, because once you get that turnkey system, you're just duplicating and duplicating. And then you duplicate an employer that you love, and you'll love it. And you want to keep duplicating, you want to keep sharing, because that's the part that you really love. You want to share it. So look at what you have.
Collin 25:45
Yeah, cuz it is it's easy to scale things that you have passion for, because that's where that energy is. That's where that focus is. That's where that drive is that you can wake up and do every day, you can do that more and more. And so I've taken that step back and going really assessing going, what is it about my business that I enjoy? What if I did that 10 times what if what I enjoyed still, okay, let's do that.
Natasha 26:06
Exactly. And some people are very minimal, they enjoy just the fruits of what they're doing, you know, individually, but if you want to, like take a big scan at where you're going to improve or where you're going to go next, I would say to keep pushing what you enjoy, even when you're working with people, you know, try to niche down on your people who you enjoy working with, because that's going to go a long way and people can tell the genuineness of what you're doing.
Meghan 26:41
Natasha offers a variety of business coaching to help your business start scale or sale. So if you would like her to be your personal pet business coach, you can go to her website to start scale sale.com and use the code p s c 20 or 15% off any of her coaching. We would like to thank pet sitters associates for making this show possible as well as our patrons. Thank you. Ultimately, though, to you for listening, thank you so much. Every week you you show up and you listen and we are so appreciative of that. We hope you join us next time. Thank you
