269: Being a Flight Nanny with JP Anunciacion
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Summary:
What does it take to be a flight nanny and how does someone get started? JP Anunciacion, owner of Dog Days & Cat Naps, who was previously on Episode 180, joins us to shed light on this growing niche service in pet care. JP outlines how to find clients and what to take into account when pricing your services. He also walks through how he prepares for the flight and what kind of gear he likes to have with him.
Topics on this episode:
What is a flight nanny
How to get started
What does pricing look like?
How to prepare for a flight?
Main take away: We have to continue to evolve and provide a better pet service as client's needs change.
About our guest:
With a background in call centers, customer service, and business processes, JP Anunciacion knew it was time for a new life and a new setting for his family. JP moved his family from the Philippines to Florida and purchased Dog Days & Cat Naps to start living truer to his ‘why’. Since then he has continued grow and expand the business and won Bold City Best Pet Sitting Service 3 years in a row!
Links:
Website: https://www.dogdayscatnaps.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DogDaysCatNaps/
Email: admin@dogdayscatnaps.com
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
nanny, flight, puppies, pet, pet sitters, fly, people, airlines, travel, calling, pets, business, clients, airport, gift, dog, nice, tickets, bag, cargo
SPEAKERS
Collin, JP
00:10
Hello, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin and this is Pet Sitter confessional an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter
Collin 00:17
brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials. Have you heard of a flight nanny? It's a aspect of pet care that not many people talk about or even know about is an option. We're really excited to have JP back on the show. He's the owner of Dog Days and cat naps, and was previously on Episode 180, where he talked about what it was like buying a business and integrating and expanding the business past that. But today, he walks us through the ins and outs, the legalities, the insurance, the process of flying a pet on an airplane for a client. Let's get started.
JP 00:49
Thanks for having me again. Um, yeah, everyone listeners, if if you are a great fan of calling I am one do I short intro I am the owner of Dog Days and cat naps pet sitting company here in Northeast Florida. You know, the company has been around since the year 2000. So it has been our 21/22 year I am a new owner, I am not going to take full credit on my previous show. Calling and I have talked about you know the the ins and outs of buying a business and I'm taking over a pet sitting company and and the success story that I had through that process and that transition process. So this company has been in business for years, I've been the owner for five years and have been growing this business exponentially. And and you know, luckily I was able to take over a couple years before COVID was able to survive the two years that we got stung by COVID and, and the evolution of the business that I'm in and the topic that we're going to discuss today would call in as far as how and why I got into the whole flight flight nanny stage.
Collin 02:11
Yeah, I know many of us think of pet transportation, and that's usually getting a dog or petting our car and driving them across town. This is a little bit more involved. So what actually is, is a flight nanny. And what are some of the roles and tasks that you do with that?
JP 02:29
That's that's a great question. You know, um, a lot of people have this as a new thing. I think I think back to started off, back then the whole transportation business of guts was mainly on, on even our company we call it Pet Pet vaccine, which is from the from the taxi with your pets and and by the way calling I was I was trying to Uber my way in and out of Chicago recently and I found out that Uber actually has an option on your on your app that you could have rides with your pets. So that's that's very, very interesting. Oh, yeah. So but yeah, we we are company we're in Jacksonville and St. Augustine. So we connect recover the business portion of the type of service that the previous owner I took over which was pet vaccine. It's like exactly what Coleen said we transport mostly right now. From the clients houses, we pick up their pets we transport them to either to their vet visits or to their groomers. Or some of them we have to a lot of them we partner with daycares or board reviews because we are not a kennel facility where, believe it or not, they want us to pick up from their house, drop them off for a daycare the whole day. We pick them up at night when the daycare is about and then we we stay overnight with a client's house and then it's repeat the next day when we wake up we bring those dogs again we pet taxi them to the daycare and and this we have quite a few clients that are like that, and that's what we call pet vaccine. Now going back to what the flight nanny is, the story behind it was I live my collars people know I got into this miniature Huskies what we call pomskies. And I'm great, great fan of those. And I started breeding responsibly tried to research and breed myself, you know, and when I had a litter during COVID I was thinking what am I going to do? How am I going to transport this puppies to their homes. And most of the new families that I found on social media or the internet is are from out of state. They're not from Florida. And so there was a need for me to Find a way to transport this puppies to their homes. And back in the good old days, the traditional way of transporting is what they call pet cargo. So for many, many years pet cargo was there. What a pet cargo is is you? Like, like your regular cargos. You check them in, and then they have to be in this crates does huge plastic candle type crates. And then they go into a cargo. And have I used it? Yeah, I've probably to my puppies once from Utah and one of my Huskies from Ohio, they both went here many years ago using PET cargo. And was it scary? Absolutely. But it you know, it work, it was the only option that we had, because it was too far to drive. People that will drive 812 hours for a puppy, but not when you're across the country like Utah to Florida. So a lot of people use the pet cargo. But there's a lot of even back free COVID. There's a lot of limitations to that. Because you know, like for Florida, there's an embargo, there's what they call the weather variable, where during the summer months when it's hot, you can't transport a puppy or any pets at all true, true flying, if it's more than 80 degrees. So the only way that we could have puppies in and out of Florida during the summer is if it's after hours, maybe nine o'clock at night. So maybe five in the morning where the temperature is is not above 80 degrees. So I would imagine back in the days when I had my puppies, I had to wait till midnight to pick them up. Because that's the only time that this flights would bring this pets to Florida. And maybe the same thing, I don't know, maybe it's the same thing with those winter months. And in the in the northern states where I would imagine they wouldn't fly puppies in and out if it's too cold. So it's probably the opposite. So, again, when I had a litter of pomskies, I told I gotta figure out how to fly them. So I research and I realized there's flight nannies what flight nannies are, instead of putting them in cargo and flying them cargo. Airlines allow you to bring pets in cabin and fly pets in cabin with you. Um, and that's where it all started, you know, they're there. I research it, there's a little bit of basic, you know, restrictions that are involved. You know, the first rule that I find with most airlines is, obviously they have to have their help papers to go with. And they have to be at least 10 weeks old, some airlines I mean delta for one eye flight Delta, they're strict with it, then we called policy. So a puppy has to fly 10 weeks or older. Some airlines may differ, you know, I know United is 12 weeks or so. So they wanted to make sure that they follow those age rules, they want to make sure they have the health certificates, vaccinations, that records and all that. And then also the the maximum that they could have size wise is 20 pounds. So if even if you have even if you have a puppy that's 3456 years old, people could fly with their pets only if they're less than 20 pounds. So that's the thing me you have to have a pet approved carrier so you have to have your bag that is fed approved by the airlines. I usually just buy them out of Amazon Amazon would would say this is airline approved carriers that carriers that you could bring with you. And they you know obviously they have to fit under the seat. So the only pets that are allowed in cabin that are free range from not being in a bag under the seat is if they're on their service animals, right so if you see a bigger lab or you know bigger dogs that flies in an in cabin an airplane, they have to be service animals. You know two years ago they were allowing emotional support animals, but a lot of people kind of you know they people got greedy they were using that as an excuse. It was so much easy to get an emotional support certificate. And they say Oh, this is cheaper than being a bed cabin fee. And that's the other one. Pet cabin fee airlines charge $125 per ticket per way. So say calling you went to Texas with Megan, if you were to bring a pet with you that is flying in cabin with you going to Texas, you have to pay $125. And going back home, you have to pay another $125 on top of your airline tickets. The flight nanny started during COVID When the variables were set where I can't transport my puppies, true ground transportation or to pet cargo. So I braved myself to say, Hey, I even brought my two sons with me, by the way, which is by maybe bad parenting 101. But uh, yeah, so I brought my two boys with me because we have four puppies. So you're allowed to have a maximum of two puppies in one bag. And they have to be of the same breed. Like, that's the restriction you have to be the same breed. And as long as they're both less than 20 pounds, he could have two puppies in one bag. Unfortunately, we had four puppies that we fly together. So I brought my three signs and we all fly and we kind of learn the ropes from there. And then, um, yeah, and then it got famous on social media that people whoa, okay, JP knows how to fly puppies. So one breeder after the other that I met, and my name got out there. And I would have people contacting me that, hey, can you fly my puppy or, Hey, I got your number from a breeder. I heard your flight handy. Can you fly your puppy for me? So I've been doing that was it 2020 2021. So maybe this is my second year that I'm flying puppies. Now as a flight me. Um, and I know I have two other flight nannies my pet sitters that are, you know, very flexible in flying as well. So I have two of them that have helped me. And, and it was a good evolution an add on service that you could, you could add on top of what we normally do as a pet sitter. So it kind of makes sense for us, because we're already experienced and taking care of pets. So flying them was just, it was it was easier, relatively easier because we're so used to taking care of pets is what I'm trying to say. Yeah.
Collin 12:29
Well, again, hearing that and going well. This is kind of born out of necessity of I can't do anything with these dogs unless they get to their client get to the people who want them. And now kind of backing it into and kind of expanding that a little bit. Did you did you need any sort of did the airlines want to see that you had any certifications or licensing or anything like that to be transporting the dogs? No, really?
JP 12:56
No no, not at all. On there is in fact a Facebook group that just mainly a group of flight nannies. I think it's flight nanny something on Facebook. I'm a part of it. And people would post there all the time. I need to flight nanny from here and there. So you'd see a lot of individuals that does it. Um, there's no, there's no licensing. i There's an insurance though. Sure. So there's an insurance policy that you could buy. So I contacted you know, most of the pet sitters, all of us that owns maybe go through psi or do business insurance to suit Carolinas they don't cover it. They don't do flight nanny that anything as long as involved in flights or going to an airline. They don't. They don't give you coverage. I may be wrong, but I've already inquired with them. I asked them, hey, I want to add flight and need my service. And they did not so I actually change. I actually changed insurance carriers last year. So the new insurance carrier does cover flight nanny for insurance. You know, it does cost a little bit more than your traditional petsitting obviously, but if you're charging a lot more than then Yeah, absolutely. It's worth it. That extra peace of mind as we all know, in the petsitting world. I always educate everybody being licensed, bonded insured there, you know, liability is always nice to have yourself covered. So they do not especially these puppies are expensive. Most of the puppies that we fly, I have flown a very expensive puppy for an NFL player. You know Jalen Ramsay was a Jacksonville Jaguars player. And I was contacted by his breeder that hey, can you fly this puppy? You know, when I found out this from Jalen Ramsey, I mean Yeah. 100% So I did And, you know, I brought a puppy and, and he was with LA Rams now and you know, in fact, he won his first Super Bowl last month. And yeah, I flew in stocky for him. And it's one of those experiences that you would never forget the, you know, be part of. But yeah, to answer your question, it's definitely a plus to have down insurance as we all know liabilities, they're having an extra peace of mind, something happens, you know, you're covered.
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Collin 16:09
Yeah, well, especially having a dog in your possession across such a wide variety of scenarios, right? Not just Yes, driving, you're doing multiple transitions, you're going across state lines, there's just there's a lot more involved with that.
JP 16:25
Sometimes they stay with me, no hotel, there's layovers that got like, especially on winter times where you miss flights or flights gets canceled. So now you gotta you know, you gotta be in, you know, hotels with them and stay in hotels for them. And those stuff. So, you know, it's not it's definitely not easy. But, you know, if you really very passionate with pets and know what you do it it could be a fun, fun game. You know, I travel places that I've never thought I'll be you know, I'm here in Missouri, right calling. Yes. Are you so I I went through St. Louis airport, one of my favorite airports and Kansas City Airport, one of the I would say easiest airport you go in and now you know from because it's a big letter you horseshoe just be sure you're not from one end to the other LCME walking half a mile. You know, airports, I get to know airports now because I traveling and it's a great you know, if it's the summer I bring my kids with me. You know, we we know a breeder that has a ranch in Iowa and I brought them for a week and teach this voice the farm life you know and and you know, you could you could sell it to flight nannies that I know they they make it fun by making travel you're, you're more some of the flight attendants. He even talked to me and said I'd rather have your job. So I think diving, I think diving into those who are interested in doing I know, I had a few friends that asked me Oh, how could I be a flight nanny? So I know. And they started to research and go online and some companies out there that open up a bigger company of flight nannies a lot of them get stucked at a question that which airline do you work with? So I mean, why why? Why is it a? Why is it a question or a big question in applying to be a flight nanny. I'll tell you why. Most of the flight nannies out there calling are working for the airlines, most of them are flight attendants. Because they get to fly for free. So it's majority more than 50% of the flight and he's out there are working for the airlines because they're taking advantage of the free flights. Then they get to charge customers the flight nanny fee. Like for example for me my average flat fee for flying up of these $575 but then, you know, the end of the day do the math. I don't work for the airlines. So I buy my own tickets round trip. Right and then it's your time. At the end of the day some of the people that I educate it oh, this is what you do is to tell and then they come back to me. How do you do it? It's not worth it. I'm like so I come back so well. That's the same thing with debt sitting sometimes. People ask me like, why do you pets it? It's like it's a lot of work but there's a little money as in Well, you're in the wrong industry you're enrolling this is if you don't have the passion or the heart for the animals then then you should find another job. You know, same with same with flight nannying. The only reason I can make it work is that You know, I, I, for one work from home, or should I say work online. So as long as I bring my computer with me, I can bring my work with me. So I'm able to multitask, and delta, I pay, I think I paid $50, somewhere in common with Delta, I get, I get free Wi Fi when I'm on the air. So I get to bring my work with me wherever I go. So even a bump up in the air on a three, four hour flight, I got Wi Fi up there. So and then a second motivation for me obviously, the first is to, it feels great to be part of this. That's first time joining a meeting their new owners, I've seen the the reward is once you deliver a puppy, and you meet them, usually we meet airport to airport. So you pick up, you pick up a puppy from the airport from the breeder, or example, pick up the puppy you check them in into the gates, then you fly to puppy would you usually once you're up into air wants to air or something about the the motion of the air aircraft's, they're going to be falling asleep. And that flight, once you arrive to your destination, I always need people in the baggage claim area, that's the easiest meeting point, I'll tell them, hey, here's my flight number. You could always check if we arrive. And most passengers go straight to baggage claim. So let's just meet the baggage claim. I meet them there. And then seeing this family's excitement of meeting a new puppy. And being a witness of that journey, and you're being part of that journey. And you've been able to make that reality that they've been dreaming to have this puppy and finally they're going to meet this puppies for the first time. It's it's an amazing feeling. You know, I've seen, I've seen people that just cry tears, tears of joy. It was very rewarding to have that, you know, obviously the the income or the money. And it all comes next, but it's very rewarding. And then the second for me to motivation is I travel a lot. And I only use delta because as you travel more you earn miles obviously, I have I have probably about 650,000 miles by now. And I'm I'm now in the diamond medallion status, which is the highest medallion status with Delta. Which is nice because when I travel with my kids or my wife, I get bumped up to first class for free. And then you know, we get access to the club lounges. So you're, you're now traveling in style. But then at the back of my head, you know, I'm not I'm not a CEO that flies all over the country for work. I'm, I'm a CEO that works for puppies and fly these puppies all over the country, you know, which is fine. Yeah, but those those comes later, those are extra perks. Now I have this tons of miles that I can use for my family. You know, I may not have made a huge profit dollar wise, but I've earned as I've learned this, you know, through the process. And and like I said it, it did help to keep myself busy during the whole COVID time because a lot of us that sit in companies really got hit bad during COVID. So we get to do what we need to do to survive.
Collin 23:44
You kind of adapt and see what's out there. And then as you said, like, it's not just a one benefit. And I think many times we try and make decisions and try and see oh, what do I get out of it. But if we don't broaden our minds and think of oh, there's actually multi facets to this, there's four or five different things that I end up getting back, some of them non monetary, right, but we can focus on those as a motivation at times to make those kinds of decisions.
JP 24:09
Yeah, absolutely. In some of them would pay. Like like the NFL player, like I said, you know, because you're a petsitter day end up calling me sometimes that hey, can I'll fly you to La Can you watch my dog for a weekend? You know, stuff like those. So, again, he dies down back to what you are is your you're a pet sitter, you know, loud, loud and proud you're a pet sitter, you're good in taking care of pets. And and you know, it's just surprisingly I would get text messages now that are being spreaded by other people that you fly for because there's readers, they're always going to have puppies. They're always going to have virus now they're not limiting themselves to just being able to rehome them locally. Now they have the option to rehome them wherever they want to because they have a trust. said reliable pet fight nanny. So they're out there. It's like our pet sitting business. It's naturally a repeat business. It's a natural, recurring business. And we all want to be in a recurring business, we all want to be in a business where it's not a one time deal. You know, you don't want to be a wedding photographer, because you're only going to be there for their wedding. And then you'll be lucky enough that they'll use you for their baby pictures. Maybe not, you know, so you want to be in a business where, like I said, it all started with my own litter of puppies that I fly. And it only took for other readers to see that, hey, he was able to do it. Now, the one, can you do it for me? And then you end up working with a network of four or five different readers. Before you know it? You're busy. So you know, and I have people who wants to do my job. I have people that that's pretty cool. I want to do it, you know, so, because it could be fun. You know, I mean, I had pet sitters that flight place where I said, I would have never imagined that this puppies are the reason why I was able to ride an airplane. So being able to have that opportunity to travel is great. I even had one flight nanny that traveled to Brazil, and had an all it's so fun. She had an all expenses paid ticket to Brazil, and she got $500 for pocket money. So she had an all expenses paid hotels, tickets there. And she was paid 500 bucks. I mean, who does not want to do that job? And you are snuck you're snuggling their puppy along the way? I mean, come on.
Collin 26:53
Well, so on that, you know, I know, you said that you have a flat fee. And then sometimes you buy your own tickets. Is that does that kind of negotiation happen with the client? Who's who you're transporting the puppy for? About what? Who's gonna cover what?
JP 27:10
Correct. So back in the good old days, everything was cheap. You know, when I say good old days during the COVID. So I had the luxury of flying, calling during COVID, where I could you know, there were flights that I was the only I was only guy in the aircraft. It was oh, that's the tickets were cheap. Yeah, it was. And then I think I think for about six months, I'd say about maybe more, that they were spreading out seats, like it's every other seat. So they were selling, they were back to flying, they were back to flying, but they won't have any two person sitting together. So it was fun. I mean, I would buy tickets round trip tickets from from Florida to San Francisco for ease, maybe 150 bucks, it was so cheap. So yeah, going back to that. That's the going rate more, or just 575. It's usually about 500 600 bucks is what people pay for flight nannies. But then be realistic. I like if there's a if there's a request for me to fly and do the mat. It doesn't make me any profit. There are two only ways to do it. Number one is I'll ask them, Are you fine to wait until I find another puppy that I could make during that route? Say I'm going to Texas, I'm going to find another plane, I needed to go to Texas coming back here, then it makes it worthwhile to buying a ticket that's round trip. Because, you know, I've instead of one way round trip and I'm making more into that. Then the second if it is really just one round trip, I'll I'll be honest with the clients, hey, this is the price of my ticket. You know, I can't do it because I you know, either you cost I usually do cost plus, say I'll be honest with them, I say okay, I can't do it at 575 and there are clients that are okay with that. My ticket price is 600 And then for my time I'll charge 200 Just for example. Some clients will be fine. I say like okay, I'll pay you 800 bucks then I'll do it. You know so like I said you probably made $300 for a one day job. But then like the non monetary side of things kicks in, you earn miles you know you you rack up your miles you're you're gearing up through your airline medallion statuses that you get to enjoy the perks later on. And like I said, you know the nonmonetary follows but yeah, there's there are rules. for negotiation, especially now that, oh, the flights are back right now the tickets are outrageous again. So, you know, but I was able to, I have a friend that works for the airline very nice gentleman. And I was able to keep him busy. You know, those those. So what I did was, I partner with him, I told him, dude, those that I can't find myself, because the tickets are just outrageous would do the jobs for me. So he kept like, for the months, like, you know, I would probably do three flights, someone and then during those times that I have a request that I can't do I pass it on to him because he works for the airlines and you are able to do it for relatively a lot cheaper than I could do, then it kind of works. So and then I have a network of flight nannies that I work with, which is kind of great, because we're not just like for me here, that's what I do. I try to collaborate with other companies, air, you know, dog, and bad to the bone. And same thing we do over here in Florida. I mean, I contact him many times that, Hey, I can't do this like and you help me out. And you know, she helps out the same thing you borrow some of my pet sitters is like, hey, I need people can you help me out. So we're kind of like, that's kind of a mentality in business. We're not here to kind of divide and conquer. We're kind of here to collaborate and work in advance of the day you end up getting more, you know, they say, they say if you want to reach your destination, fast, do it by yourself, you'll go there first. But if you want to reach somewhere farther, do it together. I always learned I always learned that, hey, what's your goal? Do you want to be in this? Do you want to be the first then dad, by all means? Do it by yourself? You know? But is that really your goal? Do you want to reach for further destination? Then you can't do it by yourself? You have to do it together and have somebody do it with you. So
Collin Funkhouser 32:10
well. It definitely is a team effort, as you said of like, you might not be personally able to do that particular flight or it doesn't fit in with the schedule or pricing and trying to figure out okay, how can we make this service work to get that dog to where it needs to go. But when you when you get a request for a flight nanny, what goes through your mind in preparing for that flight,
JP 32:32
it's very, very nice experience in the pet sitting world. So I give them a form field like what I do with my pet sitting company I give like a go to this form field, fill out the fill out like a contact us form, like fill out the details basic information I need, like, who they are, what their name, what kind of dog it is, what how old they you know what the airport pickup, what's the airport drop off when it was basic information. And then I prepare and go at the airlines I go Expedia or see what kind of tickets are there and see it's doable. And if it's me personally, or it's a theme of pet sitters, that works as finance for me do it. So doing that logistics. And to prepare ourselves we now again going back because we have the experience in the petsitting world. You know, we send them an email template, hey, we are happy to be your flight. And here's what a list of things that we need to do to prepare prior to your flight. You know, where we usually provide our own pet carrier bag. I always educate people that those bad carriers are always constantly changed. You know, after two three uses, I give it away to my to the new owners because I want something new because you know puppies are very prone to Giardia or cook CD or any Parvo knock on wood, you know those those kinds of diseases. You just don't want to have a bag full of diseases, you know, so soon as we get home, we make sure that we wash those bags, you know and sanitize them. Um, I usually give them some breeders would give them a sedative. I don't I because I know how to kind of make them a little bit more relaxed with the flights I have mastered the art of not using us possible not use that station in the airports because they're, they're dirtier and whatnot, the dog barks, you know, so what I use is, I find the nearest family room in the airport. And those family rooms are are not the traditional cubicle. You know, when you go to your restaurants, you have cubicles that that you could see through under by the ankle down, you know, this family rooms or door shut kind of, you know, when you change your diapers, kind of family rooms where you could lock yourself there. So I would lock myself there and I would, you know, drop some pee pads and make sure I have pee pads in me and I have those collapsible water bowls I would have done, I would have Bully Sticks to keep them occupied. I normally don't suggest feeding, I would ask the families that, you know, if it's a flight IO, I would ask the readers not to feed them three hours before the flight because a lot of them would have motion sickness in the first thing is they throw up, you end up cleaning them. I've never had a poop accident. Knock on wood. If it's more than three hour flight, again, I would go to this tiny little bitty laboratories in the aircraft. And I would let them just kind of space out and roam around and a pee pad. You know in there are bags that I use that are collapsible in a way where you can open the side pockets and those bags and it becomes bigger. Normally, I would lay pee pads inside of that. Those are useful. CBD I usually use CBD treats if it's okay with them, it helps calm them down. But like I said more often than not, I 90% of the time once that aircrafts take off, they just sleep through the flight. And I don't know it's definitely the motion that the aircraft make them sleep in. And I hope that's the same for babies because it's not easy to travel with babies and kids so but yeah, that's that's kind of how I prepare myself like tell them the same thing. You know, me get the luggage claim. Make sure you have your own transport bags or leash or harness or ring towels and what have you. And that's it. We kind of live that way. And then just like the pet sitters, we get them a lot of text message with pictures, dates, and all those fun stuff. Yeah, you
Collin 37:19
can kind of bring them into again, help that experience of making them a part of that journey, as you said of like this is we are getting to meet your new puppy. Here they are. We could tell that story of puppies first flight to bring it to them I can definitely see how that'd be, that'd be super cool.
JP 37:35
They would have they like pictures with the flight attendants. They like pictures during the check in they like pictures during the flight. You know they, you know, we've learned this roach as pet sitters that we know that our clients they enjoy that they enjoy getting feedback with with pictures and reports step by step they just enjoy knowing that hey, my puppies being well taken care of so.
38:02
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Collin 38:59
Well so you've done you know most of your all of your flights have been with dogs. Are there a flight nannies that do other pet transportations or yes okay.
JP 39:10
Yeah there there are cats no problem really would and it's funny he said that coin because here in Jacksonville airport I went one of the nicest cleanness I hate to be biased but one of the nicest one of the nicest pet station is here locally where we are in Jacksonville. When I say nice because they have our astroturf and they have a view of the runway. And they have they got rocking chairs through and not just that they got they got litter boxes. So go into that topic. Wow a pet station with litter box I mean like so true enough. I've been to flights before that. They have cat cats and and and we all No dogs are as equal as cats are people, in fact, probably have more cats than dogs in one household. You know, because they can afford them multiple cats than multiple dogs. So they travel that the only restriction we have with that coin is that I'm getting more, I'm kind of more still hesitant doing that, because we all know even pet sitters when you transport a cat, it could be nice watch on YouTube, on the challenges of vet clinics on how just basically getting them out of the carrier, they are going to be panicking, the moment you open the carrier from traveling from the home to the vet, is just that's why they asked that's always asked you Oh, can you please put towels on your carrier? Because they they don't want to be shaken. They want to make sure they call to something. Because the first sign of taking them out of that cares, they're gonna call on you. Yeah, it's gonna be panicking. So I would figure, that's the main reason because cats, but I have seen people that I met that flew with cats, and they were able to do it. But I would imagine those are the people that this cats are experienced. And they they've been to car rides before or, you know, the traditional household cat. Anything, put them inside a car, you know, they would cow. So yeah, no, I haven't, I haven't personally gone into DoD or venture into that. But mostly just puppies.
Collin 41:46
Again, there's there's probably more need for that service as well, then there are typically for cats and their transportation across for you know, in this kind of style. And this doing this doing it this way,
JP 41:57
I would say do a lot of research, try to do it once first kind of get to know if it's something that you would do get to learn the ropes. You know, research, there's different Facebook groups for flight nannies out there, put yourself in there, you know, contact breeders first that that might need help for flight nanny. And then all it takes is just one, one job, do a great job on it. And then they'll always gonna repeat and repeat and repeat because there's really a finite amount of flight nannies out there. The flight attendants now are getting reprimanded by the airlines for abusing their their, their their, their free flights. So okay. So now and then the the downside of hiring a flight attendant is they always fly standby. So they can never give the new owners had definite timeline. And that's not nice, right? So like, imagine. I tell you calling them bringing a puppy tomorrow, but I'm not sure what time I'm arriving. So that's gonna be hard. I know you're gonna block up. Yeah, you're gonna be walking off your entire day not knowing if, you know, because again, they fly standbys. So and with the busy season that we have right now, there's not enough airlines, there's not enough seats. There's not enough workers everywhere. I've had one time that I was stuck in an airport, because there's no, there's not enough aircraft crew. So you know, the world that we're evolving right now is just different. So yeah, do it, I would try. My best advice is I would try to contact local breeders. Because then it it serves the purpose of hiring you as their flight nanny, because you fly local, you're basically not trying to travel to Missouri to pick up then you child San Francisco, and then go back to Florida. So I would, I know a lot of people in Missouri, because that's kind of like, you know, that the corn Haven and there's a lot of land, there's a lot of cows. So there's a lot of readers out there. So and I know a lot of readers out there so it'll be nice to know and start with that and know that let me start with my local because they know that I mean a fly in and out of the local airport worker in so it's cheaper for you to do it. You know, say you and Megan has to do it. That's what I would I would contact local breeders around the air Hey, you know, I would like to be your friend and you know and kind of discussed and it takes one from the other that kind of spiraled from there.
Collin 44:58
Who is this a good fit? For as far as who should kind of pursue this? Do they have to have certain things set up in their business to make this work? Or, you know, or, or anything like
JP 45:08
that? The weird weird that I could tell you is that majority of actually that does this or, again, more than 50% that I know work for the airlines. The flight attendants, I think, logistic wise and the numbers wise because they could fly free. Now, but if you ask me who is this for, I think this is a perfect fit for our industry as pet sitters. You know, if you love pets, and you know how to take care of beds, this is a great opportunity for you. Number three is if you like to travel. So if you're a traveler, this job is for you. This is like a dream job for you. It's the best of both worlds. So you get to have the cuddle time with the puppies. And at the same time you get to travel then, yeah, this, this would be a perfect job for you. So or you could be like me, who's like an online entrepreneur who have multiple companies that as long as I'm in front of a computer with internet, I'm in business, I'm at work. So yeah, those are just probably some of the stuff that I'd say, I know, I have. I know I have some flight nannies that are not flight attendants. And that's all they need. They just want to travel without worrying where to travel and to pay for the travel. So it's a great, it's a great job.
Collin Funkhouser 46:42
Yeah, especially I know, you had alluded to a little bit earlier of going well, we can make this trip into more than just point A to point B, right. So that's another part of, if you like to travel, if you're interested in seeing other places, you can start stringing some of these things along and go, Well, I always wanted to go to San Francisco anyway. So if I can get a dog there, now I can spend a week and then come back and, and work it that way too. Like that's, that's you can start using this as part of your plan and your travel ideas.
JP 47:10
Correct when the COVID in and I knew that my boys are going to be in virtual school. The we went to San Francisco, for example. I, my we traveled my, my youngest son and I, my wife and I went straight to San Francisco from Florida. And then my other son and I went pick up puppies there in Iowa. And then we met them in San Francisco. Because my son and I were caring about four puppies, do the math, it was more than enough to pay for our entire trip to San Francisco with the entire family plus the hotels. So we made a trip out of it, you know, I've had flight nannies before that I would pick up in the Midwest like Missouri for example, if I go to St. Louis, that would fly to LA or to Seattle, then on the way back I would pick up again and and in the mid areas then I would go east then I go home you know so you could make sub points pick up and then make it but at the same time you know like April my wife and I are going to Pennsylvania because there are two poodles that means to be flying back home here Florida so I told my wife it's our and the hotels are are cheaper for us both you and I to make a weekend out of it you know and you know which is what we're doing so like I said it's it's a great a great thing to do if you're like traveling you don't have to worry about paying for your bills to travel then that's is it this is the job for you.
Collin 48:53
And all it takes as you said is getting contacted with some local breeders or some even maybe even some local clients who are traveling around the country and want their pets taken with them as well
JP 49:03
feel free to contact me because I I can even you know if you're really serious about it I could educate you and maybe I could you know like I said we can network and I could let go I know the readers already so let you do the flying I'll do the talking hey you know I know this oh I can't do it calling could do it oh Megan can do it you know dog could do it you know it's it's like that but yeah it's it's really as all it takes is like I said my got my friend who works for Southwest now he's as busy as can be you know? So I'm just drawing people his way so and and that's all it takes is having this relationships and kind of planting seeds in it just continue to grow. So would I ever would I ever want to keep doing it. I told my wife I want to do it. Someone just to give my yourself the opportunity to get a sanity and go out there and do your little load time and travel. But if it continues to grow, maybe, maybe I don't know, maybe it could be a good retirement job, you know. And like I said, in April 1 230, my wife and I are going to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, because there's a demand for it, there's a need for it. So yeah, you know, you be able to do it.
Collin 50:26
I really love this idea. And I love how it's growing in popularity. And I totally agree that pet sitters are the ones who should be stepping up and offering that service because we have that experience, we have the credentials and the training, and why not right, and especially if it's something that interests you. So I'm very excited to see where this starts going.
JP 50:45
And it's easier for us to do because it comes out naturally comes out naturally works so good with animals and, and really is not like I have a neighbor, he's retired cop. He's been in service for 25 years, but they just got their first puppy, you know, first time, so he asked me, Can I be a fight and I was like, maybe enjoy your puppy first get to know how to handle your own puppy. And then it's just hard to jump from not having a pet, and then all of a sudden you're flying in it, you know, it takes a lot in a pet person to have patience in doing this, because it's not all rainbows and butterflies, you know, there's, there's challenges, you know, so you have to prepare for those challenges,
Collin 51:33
right, which is as a pet sitter, we, we encounter those quite a bit on our day to day anyway. So it kind of again, kind of comes naturally. Yes, absolutely. JP,
Collin Funkhouser 51:42
thank you so much for sharing and shedding some light on this part of the industry that's growing in popularity, and where we can get started and some tips about that. But if somebody does want to reach out to you and pick your brain and start making some of those connections, how best can they do that?
JP 51:59
Hey, you guys did you know contact me my website is Dog Days, cat naps.com. My email is admin at Dog Days cat naps.com. Calling, happy to share those information when you send out an email to this. But yeah, I think I always believed that our industry is ever evolving. And our pet sitters, I always tell people, we have to constantly adapt the whole flight nanny, it happened because, you know, I was struggling with a pet sitting business and COVID was there. But I took that opportunity to be able to turn that negativity to something positive. And I think as pet sitters, that's the takeaway, I think we should continue to to, to face those challenges and evolve, you know, we we have to find out what works and what is the demand and what those people need in order for us to provide a better pet service. So and and just white nanny came into the picture. So if you guys are interested, if you want to be a fly, believe me you do not have to be you do not have to work for the airlines to do it. You know, so you could do it. I don't, ironically speaking calling my flight attendant Oh. So if anything, she was more qualified than me. But she, you know, when she comes to me, she tells me one thing, I can't believe that you do this. It's it's not an easy job. But like that sitters, you know why? Because we love it's fashion. It was really our passion to do what we do as pet sitters. Again, I'm going back to what I said it will come out naturally.
Collin Funkhouser 53:49
I really believe that to JP, thank you so much for coming on the show. And I'll have links to your website and your email as well. So people can get in touch. So they can start networking and asking questions about this to see if it is going to be a good fit for them. And again, I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to do this. And really looking forward to seeing where this whole thing goes.
JP 54:11
Hey, thank you so much. Congratulations calling Megan. You guys are super well waiting. Hopefully you you do me again on your 1800. So
Collin 54:24
let me go ahead and get you scheduled in on I'll do okay. Yeah, we'll do that. That was awesome. That was awesome. JP,
JP 54:32
thank you. Thank you so much.
54:34
If you want to reach your destination, do it yourself. If you want to reach further, do it together. That's a really good reminder that in pet care and the services that we provide, we're not doing it alone. There are people that you can reach out to collaborate with whether that's in a local community or abroad on an international Facebook page. As we continue to evolve, we will provide better and better and more support specialized pet care service. So whether that is something like a flight nanny for a client, or whatever that looks like in five or 10 years from this point, we need to stay fresh. And we need to continue to think about the needs that our clients have both here and beyond what we currently offer, and whether that's a good fit for us whitening. It sounds like an amazing opportunity for the right person. So just because it's popular just because it's growing just because there's an interest in it doesn't mean it's the right fit for everybody. And that's something that we have to assess every single time these kinds of decisions come up. We want to thank our sponsors time to pet and pet perennials for making today's show possible and thanking our allergies for giving us a sore throat and tonsilitis. So thank you so much for listening today. And for your continued support. We'll be back again soon.
