August 4, 2025 • 32 mins
In this insightful interview, Isabel chats with Scott Black, a seasoned pet sitting professional with over 19 years of experience. In the episode, Scott shares valuable tips, stories, and best practices for pet parents and pet sitters. Scott also shares personal anecdotes that illustrate these points, providing a rich, experience-based perspective on the pet sitting industry, one that has evolved dramatically in almost 20 years. Isabel and Scott have so much to discuss and share about the pet sitting industry; this episode is the first part of a two-part interview. Check back to listen to the conclusion of this fantastic discussion. Enjoy the show!
EPISODE NOTES: Tails from the Trade: Inside Professional Pet Sitting - Part 2
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/covered-in-pet-hair-a-fun-late-night-boozy-pet-podcast--6667884/support.
EPISODE NOTES: Tails from the Trade: Inside Professional Pet Sitting - Part 2
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/covered-in-pet-hair-a-fun-late-night-boozy-pet-podcast--6667884/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is a two part episode, So if you're checking
in here and haven't heard part one, go back to
the feed check out part one before you listen to
this portion. Respect is one of those things that's really
funny to me. And when I was the keynote speaker
at the NAPS conference, and one of the things that
I said during my keynote the first night was, you know,
(00:42):
people think that this industry pet sitting is cute. They're like,
oh my god, you're a pet sitter, and they have
absolutely no idea what goes into it. It's twenty four
to seven, it's seven days a week, it's in people's
homes when they're not there. It's unsupervised access to what
unfamiliar pets. But it is dangerous, it is vulnerable. It
(01:03):
is emotionally and physically taxing. There's so much more to it.
And I said, joking around, I was like, you know,
our clients are like nine to fives with benefits, And
if anything is cute, that's cute being a nine to
five where you show up, show up to work, do
your thing, and leave and you get benefits. That's adorable.
(01:24):
Because a business owner has a lot more grit than that.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, and being self employed, if you don't work, you
don't get paid, right exactly. So after nineteen years, you know,
I mean, I've had people say, oh, we're so glad
you're taking time off, and then there's other people that like, well,
it's labor day weekend, you can take labor dy weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well I can, yeah, and I will like wats thread?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Oh I did that once. I took labor Day. In
one year, I took fourth of July off, And it's like,
you know what, no one has promised to tomorrow. I
love what I do and I always the lady from
the rescue years ago that helped me get into this industry.
She always said, when it stops being fun, it's time
to get out. Yeah, And to me, there's many more
(02:12):
pros than cons of being a professional pet sitter, you know,
but there are some days that you just kind of go, man.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
This is a lot of it's a lot of work,
and I think anybody who's looking at it's for getting.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Like you said, I don't think Joe Q Public and
I'm not saying that in a derogatory way. I don't
think mister and missus Jones really understand what it is
we do and how invested we get into their pets,
just like rescue and veterinary care. The capassion fatigue that
runs rampant, I think in our industry, it's not so
(02:48):
much burnout, is more of compassion fatigue. Yeah. So the
pet loss alone, it's like losing one of your own.
It really is. And you know, maybe it's I'm just
a little more sensitive to that. But you don't want
a pet sitter that is just looking for a paycheck, no, because.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Then they're in the wrong industry. Anybody who's looking for
just a paycheck is in the wrong industry. Like I
always used to say when I was interviewed in things
when I ran my professional pet sitting business, I was like,
I speak three languages fluently. I could be doing anything
anything I wanted, But I've chosen, you know what I mean,
like to be a professional pet sitter. There are so
many people who were CPA's attorneys, banking professionals, all these
(03:33):
things that have chosen the professional pet sitting industry because
it fills them. It's our calling, it's our passion, it's
our vocation. But it doesn't diminish who we are as professionals,
And it does not mean we don't have other options.
We have plenty of other options. It just happens to
me that this is where our joy is. And I
(03:54):
really do say that. You know, there are a lot
of people who get a lot more respect in other
industries or make a lot more money and their industries
that are not half as dedicated as a professional petsitter is. Oh,
and that's why I like to bring attention to the
industry because it's such it's like the ugly stepchild of
the pet industry, like it really gets no love, no respect.
(04:14):
Like dog trainers are like so important. Obviously, veterinarians are doctors.
You know that techs have some kind of medical training.
Rumors have to be so technical and they have to
know all these you know, cuts and reed cuts and things,
and like, no disrespect to all of those people. They're amazing.
But so are professional pet sitters.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Well, you know what, because I'm not fear free certified,
but you know, there is a whole fear free thing
that groomers in vets and pet sitters are responsoribles for everybody.
But I think experience, you know, and having dealt with
behavioral veterinarians, you know, at conferences and having trainers and
behaviors doing that continuing education about considerate approach and you know,
(05:00):
how do you approach a dog or a cat or
this or that. You know, these are things that we
apply or that we've been doing for years and never
even realized we were doing it. You know, now it's
kind of juice to you know, the forefront, but you know,
these are things that hopefully will you know, I joke
with people and say, look, I am not a dietitian
and nutritionist, a vet tech or a veterinarian, a behaviorist
(05:25):
or a trainer, and I've never played one on TV,
but you know my years experience between my own personal
pets who were rescues and had their quirks, and some clients,
you know, families of dogs that were working with trainers
that when I'm there, you know, midday clients, well, what
are you working on? What can I do to help
(05:46):
reinforce this behave.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yes exactly in the home, in the same place where
they're learning the skill that's so important, with a different
hand exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
I met with a new client the other day. I'm
going to start care with the tomorrow and one dog
eats in another room because she will, you know, shark
the smaller dogs. And she has a command that says,
you know, go to your bowl, and she will literally
go to another room in the house and wait there
for her bowl to be put down. Oh, and I'm
(06:18):
happy to say that she's a rescue that was adopted
from a Doberman rescue that I helped support for years
when I used to do the sand because I walked
in there and I'm like, those are Adapt Rescue Martingale callers.
I know them anywhere. She's like, yeah, we adopted Taylor
from ADAPT. I'm like, oh my god, So that may
be had. But you know, I you know, like you said,
(06:41):
pet sitting is not for the faint of heart. Pet
sitters are a breed unto ourselves, and we're to pet
parents out there. You know, we don't want to be difficult.
We want to be good at what we do. And
by being good at what we do, sometimes we have
to ask the difficult questions and make the difficult decision.
(07:01):
And it's not a matter of want or have to.
Sometimes it's just not the right thing. And you know,
you don't want someone who's not comfortable doing something you're
asking to do. Now, Bush, your dog's gonna pick up
on that. Yeah, and who benefits in that? Sure, I'll
get a paycheck for you being done for a week,
(07:21):
but I'm not going to come into your house three
times a day and stress your dog out.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Or stress myself out, like it's not worth it. So
it's funny because I feel like petsitters don't get that
much respect. I've been in the industry for sixteen years now.
I'm a journalist and writer now specializing in the pet industry.
But for twelve plus years I was a professional petsitter.
We did one hundred thousand pet sits in over ten years,
(07:46):
and I managed all that. I was the founder and
general manager. And the other day I was having coffee
with friends and one of my friends was sharing a
frustration with her new dog that they just rescued. They
found her on the street. They took her in and
she's a ape artist. And the first question I asked
was is she Spade? And my friends were surprised that
I asked such a good question. She is not Spade.
(08:08):
She's looking for boyfriends. And you know what's funny, my
friends were shocked that I had such a good question
to ask, and I'm like, do you know what i'd
do for a li So it's one of those things
that people don't understand until it's like one of those
situations where you intrinsically just know the answer. You intrinsically
know what to ask, You intrinsically know how to approach
(08:30):
the dog because you have nineteen years of experience. So
it just works. Whereas the kid next door who's calling
himself a professional pet sitter, who's nineteen years old, doesn't
have the life experience, the pet experience, the home experience
that you would have at sixty one, nineteen years in.
So I feel like, if anything you can take away
(08:52):
from this, like if there's one thing you can take
to the bank from this episode, it's experience matters. It
makes us the professionals that we are. The years actually
do count. But we say in Spanish, the devil is
the devil, not because he's the devil, but because he's old,
and like because he has that life experience. The devil
(09:13):
knows what he's doing because the devil is old. And
it's really true, like we know what we're doing because
we've been in it for as long as we have
nineteen years. Bravo.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
There's three words that I don't like. Normal, perfect, and expert.
There's no such thing as normal because everybody's norm is different, right, true.
There's no such thing as a perfect person or perfect
dog or cat, or never or expert. Back in my
youngen days, one of my first jobs I worked as
a recruiter. I'm a headhunter for data for computer programmers.
(09:47):
I knew absolutely nothing about computer programming, but you know,
I had my little script and do you do this
and do that? And I remember the person that ran
the agency said Scott. He's like, don't let any of
these programmers tell you they're an expert in anything. And
I'm like, okay, and he goes, let me tell you
what an expert is. An X is nothing more than
(10:10):
it has been in a spurt, is a drip under pressure.
He said, don't never let them tell you they're an
expert in everything. So look, I am not an expert
in professional pet sitting. I am not perfect. I'm human,
but I would like to think I'm very I'm good
at what I do, yes, sehyr since here, and I'm
(10:31):
very detail oriented when it comes to getting all the
facts about people's pets when I meet them and their house,
and you know, again, what I'm comfortable doing, what I'm
not comfortable doing. And anybody that's just going to go
to a potential pet client's home and just go uh
huh uhh, that may not be the person for you either.
(10:55):
I don't want to give people pushback, but like I said,
if I'm not a hundred percent comfortable doing something, Look,
I don't like shared care. I don't like someone else
being in the home when they're gone. You know. I
worry about pool services and yard services because of gates
and things like that. It is what it is. I mean,
I'm not going to tell someone you cannot have someone
(11:19):
in your home. But in my service contract, I have
a third party liability clause that they have to initial
acknowledging that I will not assume my ability to their
home or their pet. You know. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
The only dog that ever got lost at the wag
Pack was a dog that was led out to the
yard by the new door people like they were installing
new doors, new sliding doors to the backyard, and one
of the other guys left the gate open in the
backyard and I got there to walk the dog, and
he was gone, and he was fifteen years old and
should not have been on an adventure around the neighborhood.
(11:51):
And thankfully somebody found him before yat hit by a car.
But yeah, like there are again. The devil is the devil,
not because he's the devil, but because he's old. Like
we learn by doing, and by doing, we know that
these landscapers, as much as they tell you that they
will be careful with the door, they're not. They don't
have a routine of being careful with the door, so
(12:11):
they may make a mistake and your pet could pay
the ultimate price for that mistake.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Absolutely. Yeah, No, I mean driving around town, you know,
I keep telling people, you know, I drive around in
circles all day and go nowhere, but the stock's along
the way or FuG I mean, I can't tell you
how many dogs I have picked up thank god they
had collars and tags on that did get out because
the pool service was there or the yard service was there,
and people like, oh, no, he's in our backyard. I said, no,
(12:40):
he's not. They might crr, you know, And then I say, oh,
and by the way, I'm a pet sitter. Here's your dog.
And here's my card. You know. Nice. No he's in
the backyard. No he's not. You know, Oh lord, it's
your dog name, you know, Charlie. Uh huh yeah. Is
he a black lab? Uh huh? Does he have a
blue collar on? Uh, he's not in your backyard. You know.
(13:03):
We see it all and again, you know, when you
talk to people, it's a I think experience matters. I
am a totally different pet sitter than I was in
two thousand and five. I'm a different pet sitter I
was in twenty twenty two. Oh of course, I joke
and say, you know, we become shape shifters sometimes, you know, yeah,
(13:24):
in more waste than one. But things that happen you
kind of have I don't want to say an epiphany,
but you have those aha moments and you say well wow.
You know, and living in the Houston area with hurricanes
and things like that, you know you have to be prepared.
And again, a deal breaker again would be a client
(13:45):
that's not on board with a backup plan. Yes, I
had a client during hurricane we were without power for
two weeks. They're like, well, we're not coming back to
leam power.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There's sense of responsibility when you're a professional in somebody's
home is really big. It's a really big sense of responsibility.
It's a big ask to have somebody in your home
who's supposed to be there three times a day to
now become your handyman, your you know, your emergency contact.
I remember we had an earthquake in northern Virginia, which
(14:19):
is not common, and my dog walker was like I
went to everybody's basements to make sure that everything was okay,
Like I you know, we didn't sign up for that.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I have a thing on my intake form, you know
about an HVAC company, a plumber, and an electrician. You
know how damn hotty gets here in the summer. I
would hate for a house to get to ninety plus degrees.
I have a lot of the brachiophaslad pets, you know,
a lot of frenchchies and bulldogs and some boxers that
I care for that you know, they just don't do
(14:49):
the heat well you know, and well they can't no,
you know. So I mean I don't want to be
in a ninety degree house either, But you know, I
mean I tell people, look, I can't fix these things,
but I could prevent them from getting worse. And you
know when people travel and they're on a cruise ship
or out of the country and there's time differences, or
you know when some people just don't want to be
bothered while they're gone. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, if you're praying for a premium service, you know,
you know that you're gonna get that right what you
paid for at least right. And then what you choose
the right person, you know you're gonna get even more
than if there's an emergency. Okay, so we've got to
wrap it up now. But how can my audience learn
more about you, especially if they're in Kingwood, Texas well?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
My website is petsit dot com slash PTPs for Personal
Touch pet Sitting. I'm on Facebook for both Personal Touch
pet Sitting and Scott Black, you know, and I am
very passionate about what I do. If that hasn't come
across and I just love to talk about the pet
(15:52):
sitting industry. Even if someone was considering getting into the industry,
I would be willing to speak with you about out
what you need to do first, do it right. I
wish I knew than what I know now, And actually,
between you and I I am seriously thinking about reaching
out to solopreneurs now, not as a mentor or a coach,
(16:14):
because I don't want to get paid to do this right,
but more of an accountability partner that, you know, let
me help you not make the mistakes I made years
ago or even now. You know people starting out in
the industry. Don't make it more work than it is,
you know, don't overfake it. I think you know as
(16:34):
well as I is. Sometimes keeping things simple works best
across the board. You know, in my business, these are
my policies. I don't have packages. You're paying for thirty
minutes of my time at this price. Midday dog walks
for thirty minutes. If it's too hot, we are outside
for ten inside for twenty or in the backyard of
the shade drop in pet visit thirty minutes, three or
(16:57):
four times a day, same price. You know you only
need me twice a week instead of five days a week.
Is this price I don't discount. You're paying for my time,
you know. Yeah, my policies are pretty upfront and straightened forward.
What I'm comfortable doing, what I'm not comfortable doing. Keep
it simple.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, you went through the process of having policies enforce them.
And if you hire a professional petitor with policies, expect
them to enforce them, because I remember one of the
funniest conversations I had with a client was I understand
having policies but enforcing them. And I was like, why
wouldn't have policies if I wasn't planning to enforce them?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Talk about a deal breaker. And I don't know if
you're going to edit this in or out, but someone
call me. You come so highly recommended. I went to
your website and it says you're insured, and they're like, yes, sir,
I am how much you ensured for? I'm like, that's
none of your business.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Hmmm. They're trying a lot of commit insurance fraud there.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Well, either that or like this guy is a leggious,
you know, person is looking to find something wrong that
I just don't think we're a really good fit.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
No, of course not. It's not a good fit. And
you know when it's not a good fit when people
start fighting you already. And if you, as a pet
parent have like a really important buying factor where you
really do have a pet with a specific medication that
has to be given at some time, specifically during the
(18:23):
day and your pet sitter, the person you're calling is
not willing to work with you, then that too is
a deal breaker. So there's deal breakers on both sides.
The idea, and i'll wrap this up since we've been
on for so long, but the idea of a professional
pet sitter, in my opinion, and I think you'll agree, Scott,
is that you do that whole intake and you get
to know each other initially, but then it becomes a
(18:44):
long lasting relationship. So there's no backendory. You did your
due diligence at first. And so now for me, it's
five years later and I still have the same pet
sitting company because I did my due diligence then and
now I.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Just go on.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
I email them, I request you know the dates. The
same person comes over. He knows what we do. I
know what he does. We have an established relationship. So
that's really the goal. The goal is not to you know,
make something work. The goal is to find a good
match kind of like data where it will be a
long term relationship.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Well, and you know again, part of my whole process
is like I don't even go and do a meet
and greet. I don't put dates on my calendar until
I have a meet and greet scheduled, because that's a commitment.
But I tell people, I said, look, even though you've
given me a bunch of information about the routines and
this and that, I said, when I come, I said,
I am not going to rush through this. Let's at
(19:40):
least schedule a minimum of an hour. I know pet
sitters right now, if they heard this, their heads wild explode.
They do a thirty minute, forty five minute meet and
greet and they're done.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
That's long. I mean, honestly, that's long. I remember some
of my pet sitters would go in and out in
fifteen minutes. Like the pet parent was like eye bye,
and I'm like, no, you didn't, do you do you
know where the recycling bin is? Do you know where
the extra bags?
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Well? You talk about a dog that may not let
you in the house, right, yeah, So I'm like, well,
you know what, the longer I'm there, yea, the more
comfortable he or she may. They can hear me, they
can smell me, they see that I'm not a threat
to the house. Oh my god, that this dogtail or
(20:24):
she brought me, I mean I got that. I was
afraid of her. I mean, Doberin's are the biggest babies.
But she brought me a tennis ball, and then she
brought me another one, and then she went and got
him and had two tennis balls in her mouth. I said, oh,
you're so mean and vicious. You know. No, But to me,
I say, please, let's a lot the time. I said,
I'm not going to rush through this. This is only
(20:44):
going to benefit.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
The pets and myself, everybody.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
And you know what, I don't charge for the meat
and grease. I know that's a hot topic in the industry,
but you know what, who benefits at the end, the
pets and I do. Yeah, I'm not going in their stressed.
They're not going to pick up on the stress. Again.
To me, it's a win win. I'm one of those
people that I don't want this. You know, I want
(21:09):
this and you know, whatever I need to do that
there's some things, like I said, I may not agree
to do and then that's just not my ideal client,
you know. And then then we get into the whole
ideal client thing is you know, to me, the ideal
client is the person that respects you as a business owner,
at respects your experience, and your knowledge, but keeping in
(21:33):
mind that you're not a veterinarian and you're not this
and you're not that. But the credentials you have hopefully
support what I would consider what a true professional pet
sitter is. And you know your experience, you know, I mean, yeah,
someone doing this for ten years versus five years, or
(21:56):
fifteen years versus ten years, or hey, I know, sider,
and you know some of these people too, from the
organizations that are doing this up to thirty years already, yes,
or pet sitting was even a thing. Yes, they had
no place to find out how to do this, and
we you know, we're lucky. I mean I look back
(22:17):
and say, man, if I knew then what or if
things were available then that are available to people now,
it'd be easy peasy. But no matter how we slice it,
whether you have staff or your solo, you know, you
were the face of your business and I'm the face
of my business and I'm about it's hard to separate
(22:39):
the two. I think when you're solo, because you are
the business and the businesses you. But getting back to
the respect is when people respect the fact that I
need to remove myself from the business to take some
time for Scott. There's some people that just don't Is
that your ideal client, or you can't take a holiday?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I can no. My ideal clients were always the ones
who supported the business. So they would obviously schedule if
we had If we had an event that we were supporting,
they would support it too. If we did a podcast,
they would listen to it. If we sent out a newsletter,
they would open it. Those were my ideal clients because
(23:21):
they understood that I was putting so much effort into
building this business and into providing these services, into training
my team, into meeting everybody's expectations, that they wanted to
just celebrate and benefit from all the effort that I
was making. So like I can think of specific clients
that I will forever remember who sent me checks during
(23:44):
the pandemic. It was like seven hundred dollars here to
tide you over. Maybe we'll schedule something in the fall,
Like you know, like that's the ideal client, the one
that believes in what you're doing is so important.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
I had a client during COVID that zeld me money
and I'm like okay, and I looked at the amount
and I was like, oh my god. So I called
her and I said, hey, I think you hit the
wrong contact or payee, I said, She goes Scott. She goes, we,
you know, had to cancel these trips and I said yeah.
(24:17):
I said, it's not your fault. The country of Italy
shut down. I said, there is no way I'm sending
this back. She said, don't you dare? Yeah, she goes,
we want to make sure you're okay. And I said, well,
when things open up again, you're going to have a
hell of a credit. She goes, oh, no, we won't.
She goes, I will ask her my key back. Don't
(24:39):
go there. We want to be able to help support.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
They were self employed too, but he was still able
to work. He was in construction and good big building construction.
He was still able to work. You know. She's like, no,
she goes, we want to help you. And I had
another daily client. She was only a three time a
week client, and he kept paying me, will you please.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Theop Yes, And we had that too.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Ease please, I said, I appreciate it, but you know,
we're okay. You know, once we started getting the stuff
through exactly, you.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Know, the department labor or whatever it was.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I said, thank you, but we're good.
We're good. I had more people check it on me.
How are you doing you okay?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Like those are the idea lions.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yes they are, they are. And there's something about this
industry where where it is hard to stay within the
boundary of keeping it professional. But most of these people
that reached out to me were people that started with
me years ago. Yeah. That I've seen their dogs go
from puppies to seniors exactly, and their kids graduate high
(25:47):
school or get married, you know, or so they are
family in many ways. And I appreciate people check it
up on.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Me, absolutely absolutely, and they appreciate you because it's symbiotic.
They appreciate you too, because we see as professional pet sitters,
like you said, cancer diagnoses, surgeries that lay people up
for weeks. We see divorces, we see children struggling with addiction,
We see a lot of things. Because you become part
(26:19):
of the family. You are part of the pet care team,
but it's an in home pet care team. So you're there.
You might overhear conversations, you might see suitcake this.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
We are like a bartender and a beautician. You know.
People just feel comfortable. Top tip us.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
So here's a little tip though, real quick. Okay, the
pet parents tell them not to buy a plane or
a train ticket or book a hotel until they check
with their petsitter first.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yes, exactly, I have mine trained.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
I said, please, don't buy a plane ticket and then
call me and say you're going away.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Check with me first, especially not a non refundable ticket
or non changeable ticket. Agreed. Wait, don't wait till the
last minute. Plan with your pet sitter. Always know that availability.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
I have someone reach out to me for Thanksgiving, her ready,
and she goes, is it too early? I said, it's
never too early. I said, God will and I'll still
be breathing, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
But you're one of those you know.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
We didn't take stuff that far out because most of
our business was midday dog walking, so for pet sitting,
I wasn't necessarily sure about my staff, so I didn't
want to book out more than two to three months.
But like the second that go opened up, it was
like Thanksgiving is open, start requesting.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
You know. Back in the day, I used to hold
spots for people that traveled every holiday, and then they
stopped traveling. I said, I'm not doing that anymore. Yeah,
first come, first surf exactly, and people know that, so
that I fill up quick. And you know that I'm
only going to be able to do what I can do.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You're one person exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Okay, Well, and that's just it. And I will never
compromise the quality of care over quantity. Yeah, And I
always want to make sure that when that client calls
me and says, Scott, we've got a sick family member,
someone passed away, I want to be able to say
I got it covered. Go not Oh my god, I'm
(28:14):
so overbooked as it is, to be honest, as I'm
getting older, I had a little bit of an epiphany
during covid Is. You know, as a solo sitter, I
was doing eighteen twenty twenty two visits a day between
mid day dog walks and you know, dropping pensils. I
don't want to do that anymore. You know, I'm good
with about sixteen as a busy day. I'm shaking my moneymaker. Girl.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Ah, that's a lot. That's a lot, so long as
it's sustainable, where it's like a short period of time,
but it's not sustainable. Three hundred and sixty five days
a year.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Oh no, No, it wasn't like that every day. But
there were some days that, you know, the holidays and
stuff like that, but exact Geordie short period. But you know,
for the most part, like right now, today was a
very light day for me. I do have to go
back out in about an hour, but you know it
overall it's a light day. But you know, I embrace
(29:06):
those two because it gives me time to kind of
just regroup, you know, the mornings that I don't have
bedtime visits and have to get up for a morning
visit where I could sleep in a little bit with
my own dogs, it's even better. So then you're busy
during the day and then you know, someone says, hey,
we're going to be in town, can you do a
dinner visit for us? Well? Sure, you know, And that's
(29:27):
another thing too that I think pet sitters need to
share with their clients. Again, depending on their business model,
I guess don't do midday dog walks and vacation sitting.
If you become an established client and you know, God
forbid you get stuck somewhere. Yeah, you guys just are
gone for an extended period of time and need a
mid day letout, or you want to go to the theater,
(29:49):
but you work downtown and you're just going to go
right to the theater from work. Sure, I'll come and
do a dinner visit, you know. Yeah, I'm not opposed
to going out for one visit if I'm a ready
you know, if I'm already out making other dinner visits now.
But you know the con sitters out there that just
won't go out for one visit or won't do this
or won't do that, and you know, I think that
(30:10):
one visit could become a longtime client. Or those that
only will do a minimum of three midday walks a week,
you know that they're not going to take on business.
Well you know those midday clients are going to become
vacation clients. Yeah, don't rule that out, you know what
I mean. So to me, there's no job too big
or too small for me. But if I can provide
(30:31):
quality care, whether it's one visit a day for a
cat or one mid day visit walk a week because
that's they only work one day a week, or they
volunteer at the hospital and they're gone all day, you know,
or whatever else is. You know, I mean to me,
it's a win win. I'm still providing a service to
someone that di ses the value in it, and that's
(30:51):
what it comes down.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
To, absolutely, And I just want to propose a toast
to you because I really do think you've painted the
picture of what this relationship between a pet parent and
a pet sitter should be. It should be symbiotic, it
should be a win win for everybody. So cheers. Thank
you so much taking the time to share your story
with me.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
My pleasure, my friend.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I also want to propose a to host to my
executive producer, Mark Winter. Thank you, Mark, and to our
audience for joining us for these awesome conversations. This is
a deep dive into pet sitting because you are looking
at two people who love the pet sitting industry and
want to see it thrive and want to see more
pet parents take advantage of the benefits of having a
long established relationship with a professional pet sitter, elevating the industry,
(31:36):
elevating pet parenting, elevating everything that matters to all of
us with Chase a life Covered in pet Hair, because
there's no better way to move cheers. To learn more
about Covered in Pet Hair, please visit covered in pethair
dot com or petlife radio dot com. Thanks for watching,
and don't forget to rate us on Apple Podcasts and
(31:57):
wherever you get your podcasting shows, because I want to
reach more pet parents and the more five star ratings
you give us, the more pet parents I can reach.
Thanks again for watching and I'll see you next name.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlifradio
dot com
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is a two part episode, So if you're checking
in here and haven't heard part one, go back to
the feed check out part one before you listen to
this portion. Respect is one of those things that's really
funny to me. And when I was the keynote speaker
at the NAPS conference, and one of the things that
I said during my keynote the first night was, you know,
(00:42):
people think that this industry pet sitting is cute. They're like,
oh my god, you're a pet sitter, and they have
absolutely no idea what goes into it. It's twenty four
to seven, it's seven days a week, it's in people's
homes when they're not there. It's unsupervised access to what
unfamiliar pets. But it is dangerous, it is vulnerable. It
(01:03):
is emotionally and physically taxing. There's so much more to it.
And I said, joking around, I was like, you know,
our clients are like nine to fives with benefits, And
if anything is cute, that's cute being a nine to
five where you show up, show up to work, do
your thing, and leave and you get benefits. That's adorable.
(01:24):
Because a business owner has a lot more grit than that.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, and being self employed, if you don't work, you
don't get paid, right exactly. So after nineteen years, you know,
I mean, I've had people say, oh, we're so glad
you're taking time off, and then there's other people that like, well,
it's labor day weekend, you can take labor dy weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well I can, yeah, and I will like wats thread?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Oh I did that once. I took labor Day. In
one year, I took fourth of July off, And it's like,
you know what, no one has promised to tomorrow. I
love what I do and I always the lady from
the rescue years ago that helped me get into this industry.
She always said, when it stops being fun, it's time
to get out. Yeah, And to me, there's many more
(02:12):
pros than cons of being a professional pet sitter, you know,
but there are some days that you just kind of go, man.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
This is a lot of it's a lot of work,
and I think anybody who's looking at it's for getting.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Like you said, I don't think Joe Q Public and
I'm not saying that in a derogatory way. I don't
think mister and missus Jones really understand what it is
we do and how invested we get into their pets,
just like rescue and veterinary care. The capassion fatigue that
runs rampant, I think in our industry, it's not so
(02:48):
much burnout, is more of compassion fatigue. Yeah. So the
pet loss alone, it's like losing one of your own.
It really is. And you know, maybe it's I'm just
a little more sensitive to that. But you don't want
a pet sitter that is just looking for a paycheck, no, because.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Then they're in the wrong industry. Anybody who's looking for
just a paycheck is in the wrong industry. Like I
always used to say when I was interviewed in things
when I ran my professional pet sitting business, I was like,
I speak three languages fluently. I could be doing anything
anything I wanted, But I've chosen, you know what I mean,
like to be a professional pet sitter. There are so
many people who were CPA's attorneys, banking professionals, all these
(03:33):
things that have chosen the professional pet sitting industry because
it fills them. It's our calling, it's our passion, it's
our vocation. But it doesn't diminish who we are as professionals,
And it does not mean we don't have other options.
We have plenty of other options. It just happens to
me that this is where our joy is. And I
(03:54):
really do say that. You know, there are a lot
of people who get a lot more respect in other
industries or make a lot more money and their industries
that are not half as dedicated as a professional petsitter is. Oh,
and that's why I like to bring attention to the
industry because it's such it's like the ugly stepchild of
the pet industry, like it really gets no love, no respect.
(04:14):
Like dog trainers are like so important. Obviously, veterinarians are doctors.
You know that techs have some kind of medical training.
Rumors have to be so technical and they have to
know all these you know, cuts and reed cuts and things,
and like, no disrespect to all of those people. They're amazing.
But so are professional pet sitters.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Well, you know what, because I'm not fear free certified,
but you know, there is a whole fear free thing
that groomers in vets and pet sitters are responsoribles for everybody.
But I think experience, you know, and having dealt with
behavioral veterinarians, you know, at conferences and having trainers and
behaviors doing that continuing education about considerate approach and you know,
(05:00):
how do you approach a dog or a cat or
this or that. You know, these are things that we
apply or that we've been doing for years and never
even realized we were doing it. You know, now it's
kind of juice to you know, the forefront, but you know,
these are things that hopefully will you know, I joke
with people and say, look, I am not a dietitian
and nutritionist, a vet tech or a veterinarian, a behaviorist
(05:25):
or a trainer, and I've never played one on TV,
but you know my years experience between my own personal
pets who were rescues and had their quirks, and some clients,
you know, families of dogs that were working with trainers
that when I'm there, you know, midday clients, well, what
are you working on? What can I do to help
(05:46):
reinforce this behave.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yes exactly in the home, in the same place where
they're learning the skill that's so important, with a different
hand exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
I met with a new client the other day. I'm
going to start care with the tomorrow and one dog
eats in another room because she will, you know, shark
the smaller dogs. And she has a command that says,
you know, go to your bowl, and she will literally
go to another room in the house and wait there
for her bowl to be put down. Oh, and I'm
(06:18):
happy to say that she's a rescue that was adopted
from a Doberman rescue that I helped support for years
when I used to do the sand because I walked
in there and I'm like, those are Adapt Rescue Martingale callers.
I know them anywhere. She's like, yeah, we adopted Taylor
from ADAPT. I'm like, oh my god, So that may
be had. But you know, I you know, like you said,
(06:41):
pet sitting is not for the faint of heart. Pet
sitters are a breed unto ourselves, and we're to pet
parents out there. You know, we don't want to be difficult.
We want to be good at what we do. And
by being good at what we do, sometimes we have
to ask the difficult questions and make the difficult decision.
(07:01):
And it's not a matter of want or have to.
Sometimes it's just not the right thing. And you know,
you don't want someone who's not comfortable doing something you're
asking to do. Now, Bush, your dog's gonna pick up
on that. Yeah, and who benefits in that? Sure, I'll
get a paycheck for you being done for a week,
(07:21):
but I'm not going to come into your house three
times a day and stress your dog out.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Or stress myself out, like it's not worth it. So
it's funny because I feel like petsitters don't get that
much respect. I've been in the industry for sixteen years now.
I'm a journalist and writer now specializing in the pet industry.
But for twelve plus years I was a professional petsitter.
We did one hundred thousand pet sits in over ten years,
(07:46):
and I managed all that. I was the founder and
general manager. And the other day I was having coffee
with friends and one of my friends was sharing a
frustration with her new dog that they just rescued. They
found her on the street. They took her in and
she's a ape artist. And the first question I asked
was is she Spade? And my friends were surprised that
I asked such a good question. She is not Spade.
(08:08):
She's looking for boyfriends. And you know what's funny, my
friends were shocked that I had such a good question
to ask, and I'm like, do you know what i'd
do for a li So it's one of those things
that people don't understand until it's like one of those
situations where you intrinsically just know the answer. You intrinsically
know what to ask, You intrinsically know how to approach
(08:30):
the dog because you have nineteen years of experience. So
it just works. Whereas the kid next door who's calling
himself a professional pet sitter, who's nineteen years old, doesn't
have the life experience, the pet experience, the home experience
that you would have at sixty one, nineteen years in.
So I feel like, if anything you can take away
(08:52):
from this, like if there's one thing you can take
to the bank from this episode, it's experience matters. It
makes us the professionals that we are. The years actually
do count. But we say in Spanish, the devil is
the devil, not because he's the devil, but because he's old,
and like because he has that life experience. The devil
(09:13):
knows what he's doing because the devil is old. And
it's really true, like we know what we're doing because
we've been in it for as long as we have
nineteen years. Bravo.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
There's three words that I don't like. Normal, perfect, and expert.
There's no such thing as normal because everybody's norm is different, right, true.
There's no such thing as a perfect person or perfect
dog or cat, or never or expert. Back in my
youngen days, one of my first jobs I worked as
a recruiter. I'm a headhunter for data for computer programmers.
(09:47):
I knew absolutely nothing about computer programming, but you know,
I had my little script and do you do this
and do that? And I remember the person that ran
the agency said Scott. He's like, don't let any of
these programmers tell you they're an expert in anything. And
I'm like, okay, and he goes, let me tell you
what an expert is. An X is nothing more than
(10:10):
it has been in a spurt, is a drip under pressure.
He said, don't never let them tell you they're an
expert in everything. So look, I am not an expert
in professional pet sitting. I am not perfect. I'm human,
but I would like to think I'm very I'm good
at what I do, yes, sehyr since here, and I'm
(10:31):
very detail oriented when it comes to getting all the
facts about people's pets when I meet them and their house,
and you know, again, what I'm comfortable doing, what I'm
not comfortable doing. And anybody that's just going to go
to a potential pet client's home and just go uh
huh uhh, that may not be the person for you either.
(10:55):
I don't want to give people pushback, but like I said,
if I'm not a hundred percent comfortable doing something, Look,
I don't like shared care. I don't like someone else
being in the home when they're gone. You know. I
worry about pool services and yard services because of gates
and things like that. It is what it is. I mean,
I'm not going to tell someone you cannot have someone
(11:19):
in your home. But in my service contract, I have
a third party liability clause that they have to initial
acknowledging that I will not assume my ability to their
home or their pet. You know. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
The only dog that ever got lost at the wag
Pack was a dog that was led out to the
yard by the new door people like they were installing
new doors, new sliding doors to the backyard, and one
of the other guys left the gate open in the
backyard and I got there to walk the dog, and
he was gone, and he was fifteen years old and
should not have been on an adventure around the neighborhood.
(11:51):
And thankfully somebody found him before yat hit by a car.
But yeah, like there are again. The devil is the devil,
not because he's the devil, but because he's old. Like
we learn by doing, and by doing, we know that
these landscapers, as much as they tell you that they
will be careful with the door, they're not. They don't
have a routine of being careful with the door, so
(12:11):
they may make a mistake and your pet could pay
the ultimate price for that mistake.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Absolutely. Yeah, No, I mean driving around town, you know,
I keep telling people, you know, I drive around in
circles all day and go nowhere, but the stock's along
the way or FuG I mean, I can't tell you
how many dogs I have picked up thank god they
had collars and tags on that did get out because
the pool service was there or the yard service was there,
and people like, oh, no, he's in our backyard. I said, no,
(12:40):
he's not. They might crr, you know, And then I say, oh,
and by the way, I'm a pet sitter. Here's your dog.
And here's my card. You know. Nice. No he's in
the backyard. No he's not. You know, Oh lord, it's
your dog name, you know, Charlie. Uh huh yeah. Is
he a black lab? Uh huh? Does he have a
blue collar on? Uh, he's not in your backyard. You know.
(13:03):
We see it all and again, you know, when you
talk to people, it's a I think experience matters. I
am a totally different pet sitter than I was in
two thousand and five. I'm a different pet sitter I
was in twenty twenty two. Oh of course, I joke
and say, you know, we become shape shifters sometimes, you know, yeah,
(13:24):
in more waste than one. But things that happen you
kind of have I don't want to say an epiphany,
but you have those aha moments and you say well wow.
You know, and living in the Houston area with hurricanes
and things like that, you know you have to be prepared.
And again, a deal breaker again would be a client
(13:45):
that's not on board with a backup plan. Yes, I
had a client during hurricane we were without power for
two weeks. They're like, well, we're not coming back to
leam power.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There's sense of responsibility when you're a professional in somebody's
home is really big. It's a really big sense of responsibility.
It's a big ask to have somebody in your home
who's supposed to be there three times a day to
now become your handyman, your you know, your emergency contact.
I remember we had an earthquake in northern Virginia, which
(14:19):
is not common, and my dog walker was like I
went to everybody's basements to make sure that everything was okay,
Like I you know, we didn't sign up for that.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I have a thing on my intake form, you know
about an HVAC company, a plumber, and an electrician. You
know how damn hotty gets here in the summer. I
would hate for a house to get to ninety plus degrees.
I have a lot of the brachiophaslad pets, you know,
a lot of frenchchies and bulldogs and some boxers that
I care for that you know, they just don't do
(14:49):
the heat well you know, and well they can't no,
you know. So I mean I don't want to be
in a ninety degree house either, But you know, I
mean I tell people, look, I can't fix these things,
but I could prevent them from getting worse. And you
know when people travel and they're on a cruise ship
or out of the country and there's time differences, or
you know when some people just don't want to be
bothered while they're gone. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, if you're praying for a premium service, you know,
you know that you're gonna get that right what you
paid for at least right. And then what you choose
the right person, you know you're gonna get even more
than if there's an emergency. Okay, so we've got to
wrap it up now. But how can my audience learn
more about you, especially if they're in Kingwood, Texas well?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
My website is petsit dot com slash PTPs for Personal
Touch pet Sitting. I'm on Facebook for both Personal Touch
pet Sitting and Scott Black, you know, and I am
very passionate about what I do. If that hasn't come
across and I just love to talk about the pet
(15:52):
sitting industry. Even if someone was considering getting into the industry,
I would be willing to speak with you about out
what you need to do first, do it right. I
wish I knew than what I know now, And actually,
between you and I I am seriously thinking about reaching
out to solopreneurs now, not as a mentor or a coach,
(16:14):
because I don't want to get paid to do this right,
but more of an accountability partner that, you know, let
me help you not make the mistakes I made years
ago or even now. You know people starting out in
the industry. Don't make it more work than it is,
you know, don't overfake it. I think you know as
(16:34):
well as I is. Sometimes keeping things simple works best
across the board. You know, in my business, these are
my policies. I don't have packages. You're paying for thirty
minutes of my time at this price. Midday dog walks
for thirty minutes. If it's too hot, we are outside
for ten inside for twenty or in the backyard of
the shade drop in pet visit thirty minutes, three or
(16:57):
four times a day, same price. You know you only
need me twice a week instead of five days a week.
Is this price I don't discount. You're paying for my time,
you know. Yeah, my policies are pretty upfront and straightened forward.
What I'm comfortable doing, what I'm not comfortable doing. Keep
it simple.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, you went through the process of having policies enforce them.
And if you hire a professional petitor with policies, expect
them to enforce them, because I remember one of the
funniest conversations I had with a client was I understand
having policies but enforcing them. And I was like, why
wouldn't have policies if I wasn't planning to enforce them?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Talk about a deal breaker. And I don't know if
you're going to edit this in or out, but someone
call me. You come so highly recommended. I went to
your website and it says you're insured, and they're like, yes, sir,
I am how much you ensured for? I'm like, that's
none of your business.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Hmmm. They're trying a lot of commit insurance fraud there.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Well, either that or like this guy is a leggious,
you know, person is looking to find something wrong that
I just don't think we're a really good fit.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
No, of course not. It's not a good fit. And
you know when it's not a good fit when people
start fighting you already. And if you, as a pet
parent have like a really important buying factor where you
really do have a pet with a specific medication that
has to be given at some time, specifically during the
(18:23):
day and your pet sitter, the person you're calling is
not willing to work with you, then that too is
a deal breaker. So there's deal breakers on both sides.
The idea, and i'll wrap this up since we've been
on for so long, but the idea of a professional
pet sitter, in my opinion, and I think you'll agree, Scott,
is that you do that whole intake and you get
to know each other initially, but then it becomes a
(18:44):
long lasting relationship. So there's no backendory. You did your
due diligence at first. And so now for me, it's
five years later and I still have the same pet
sitting company because I did my due diligence then and
now I.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Just go on.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
I email them, I request you know the dates. The
same person comes over. He knows what we do. I
know what he does. We have an established relationship. So
that's really the goal. The goal is not to you know,
make something work. The goal is to find a good
match kind of like data where it will be a
long term relationship.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Well, and you know again, part of my whole process
is like I don't even go and do a meet
and greet. I don't put dates on my calendar until
I have a meet and greet scheduled, because that's a commitment.
But I tell people, I said, look, even though you've
given me a bunch of information about the routines and
this and that, I said, when I come, I said,
I am not going to rush through this. Let's at
(19:40):
least schedule a minimum of an hour. I know pet
sitters right now, if they heard this, their heads wild explode.
They do a thirty minute, forty five minute meet and
greet and they're done.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
That's long. I mean, honestly, that's long. I remember some
of my pet sitters would go in and out in
fifteen minutes. Like the pet parent was like eye bye,
and I'm like, no, you didn't, do you do you
know where the recycling bin is? Do you know where
the extra bags?
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Well? You talk about a dog that may not let
you in the house, right, yeah, So I'm like, well,
you know what, the longer I'm there, yea, the more
comfortable he or she may. They can hear me, they
can smell me, they see that I'm not a threat
to the house. Oh my god, that this dogtail or
(20:24):
she brought me, I mean I got that. I was
afraid of her. I mean, Doberin's are the biggest babies.
But she brought me a tennis ball, and then she
brought me another one, and then she went and got
him and had two tennis balls in her mouth. I said, oh,
you're so mean and vicious. You know. No, But to me,
I say, please, let's a lot the time. I said,
I'm not going to rush through this. This is only
(20:44):
going to benefit.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
The pets and myself, everybody.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
And you know what, I don't charge for the meat
and grease. I know that's a hot topic in the industry,
but you know what, who benefits at the end, the
pets and I do. Yeah, I'm not going in their stressed.
They're not going to pick up on the stress. Again.
To me, it's a win win. I'm one of those
people that I don't want this. You know, I want
(21:09):
this and you know, whatever I need to do that
there's some things, like I said, I may not agree
to do and then that's just not my ideal client,
you know. And then then we get into the whole
ideal client thing is you know, to me, the ideal
client is the person that respects you as a business owner,
at respects your experience, and your knowledge, but keeping in
(21:33):
mind that you're not a veterinarian and you're not this
and you're not that. But the credentials you have hopefully
support what I would consider what a true professional pet
sitter is. And you know your experience, you know, I mean, yeah,
someone doing this for ten years versus five years, or
(21:56):
fifteen years versus ten years, or hey, I know, sider,
and you know some of these people too, from the
organizations that are doing this up to thirty years already, yes,
or pet sitting was even a thing. Yes, they had
no place to find out how to do this, and
we you know, we're lucky. I mean I look back
(22:17):
and say, man, if I knew then what or if
things were available then that are available to people now,
it'd be easy peasy. But no matter how we slice it,
whether you have staff or your solo, you know, you
were the face of your business and I'm the face
of my business and I'm about it's hard to separate
(22:39):
the two. I think when you're solo, because you are
the business and the businesses you. But getting back to
the respect is when people respect the fact that I
need to remove myself from the business to take some
time for Scott. There's some people that just don't Is
that your ideal client, or you can't take a holiday?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I can no. My ideal clients were always the ones
who supported the business. So they would obviously schedule if
we had If we had an event that we were supporting,
they would support it too. If we did a podcast,
they would listen to it. If we sent out a newsletter,
they would open it. Those were my ideal clients because
(23:21):
they understood that I was putting so much effort into
building this business and into providing these services, into training
my team, into meeting everybody's expectations, that they wanted to
just celebrate and benefit from all the effort that I
was making. So like I can think of specific clients
that I will forever remember who sent me checks during
(23:44):
the pandemic. It was like seven hundred dollars here to
tide you over. Maybe we'll schedule something in the fall,
Like you know, like that's the ideal client, the one
that believes in what you're doing is so important.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
I had a client during COVID that zeld me money
and I'm like okay, and I looked at the amount
and I was like, oh my god. So I called
her and I said, hey, I think you hit the
wrong contact or payee, I said, She goes Scott. She goes, we,
you know, had to cancel these trips and I said yeah.
(24:17):
I said, it's not your fault. The country of Italy
shut down. I said, there is no way I'm sending
this back. She said, don't you dare? Yeah, she goes,
we want to make sure you're okay. And I said, well,
when things open up again, you're going to have a
hell of a credit. She goes, oh, no, we won't.
She goes, I will ask her my key back. Don't
(24:39):
go there. We want to be able to help support.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
They were self employed too, but he was still able
to work. He was in construction and good big building construction.
He was still able to work. You know. She's like, no,
she goes, we want to help you. And I had
another daily client. She was only a three time a
week client, and he kept paying me, will you please.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Theop Yes, And we had that too.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Ease please, I said, I appreciate it, but you know,
we're okay. You know, once we started getting the stuff
through exactly, you.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Know, the department labor or whatever it was.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I said, thank you, but we're good.
We're good. I had more people check it on me.
How are you doing you okay?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Like those are the idea lions.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yes they are, they are. And there's something about this
industry where where it is hard to stay within the
boundary of keeping it professional. But most of these people
that reached out to me were people that started with
me years ago. Yeah. That I've seen their dogs go
from puppies to seniors exactly, and their kids graduate high
(25:47):
school or get married, you know, or so they are
family in many ways. And I appreciate people check it
up on.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Me, absolutely absolutely, and they appreciate you because it's symbiotic.
They appreciate you too, because we see as professional pet sitters,
like you said, cancer diagnoses, surgeries that lay people up
for weeks. We see divorces, we see children struggling with addiction,
We see a lot of things. Because you become part
(26:19):
of the family. You are part of the pet care team,
but it's an in home pet care team. So you're there.
You might overhear conversations, you might see suitcake this.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
We are like a bartender and a beautician. You know.
People just feel comfortable. Top tip us.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
So here's a little tip though, real quick. Okay, the
pet parents tell them not to buy a plane or
a train ticket or book a hotel until they check
with their petsitter first.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yes, exactly, I have mine trained.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
I said, please, don't buy a plane ticket and then
call me and say you're going away.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Check with me first, especially not a non refundable ticket
or non changeable ticket. Agreed. Wait, don't wait till the
last minute. Plan with your pet sitter. Always know that availability.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
I have someone reach out to me for Thanksgiving, her ready,
and she goes, is it too early? I said, it's
never too early. I said, God will and I'll still
be breathing, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
But you're one of those you know.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
We didn't take stuff that far out because most of
our business was midday dog walking, so for pet sitting,
I wasn't necessarily sure about my staff, so I didn't
want to book out more than two to three months.
But like the second that go opened up, it was
like Thanksgiving is open, start requesting.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
You know. Back in the day, I used to hold
spots for people that traveled every holiday, and then they
stopped traveling. I said, I'm not doing that anymore. Yeah,
first come, first surf exactly, and people know that, so
that I fill up quick. And you know that I'm
only going to be able to do what I can do.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You're one person exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Okay, Well, and that's just it. And I will never
compromise the quality of care over quantity. Yeah, And I
always want to make sure that when that client calls
me and says, Scott, we've got a sick family member,
someone passed away, I want to be able to say
I got it covered. Go not Oh my god, I'm
(28:14):
so overbooked as it is, to be honest, as I'm
getting older, I had a little bit of an epiphany
during covid Is. You know, as a solo sitter, I
was doing eighteen twenty twenty two visits a day between
mid day dog walks and you know, dropping pensils. I
don't want to do that anymore. You know, I'm good
with about sixteen as a busy day. I'm shaking my moneymaker. Girl.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Ah, that's a lot. That's a lot, so long as
it's sustainable, where it's like a short period of time,
but it's not sustainable. Three hundred and sixty five days
a year.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Oh no, No, it wasn't like that every day. But
there were some days that, you know, the holidays and
stuff like that, but exact Geordie short period. But you know,
for the most part, like right now, today was a
very light day for me. I do have to go
back out in about an hour, but you know it
overall it's a light day. But you know, I embrace
(29:06):
those two because it gives me time to kind of
just regroup, you know, the mornings that I don't have
bedtime visits and have to get up for a morning
visit where I could sleep in a little bit with
my own dogs, it's even better. So then you're busy
during the day and then you know, someone says, hey,
we're going to be in town, can you do a
dinner visit for us? Well? Sure, you know, And that's
(29:27):
another thing too that I think pet sitters need to
share with their clients. Again, depending on their business model,
I guess don't do midday dog walks and vacation sitting.
If you become an established client and you know, God
forbid you get stuck somewhere. Yeah, you guys just are
gone for an extended period of time and need a
mid day letout, or you want to go to the theater,
(29:49):
but you work downtown and you're just going to go
right to the theater from work. Sure, I'll come and
do a dinner visit, you know. Yeah, I'm not opposed
to going out for one visit if I'm a ready
you know, if I'm already out making other dinner visits now.
But you know the con sitters out there that just
won't go out for one visit or won't do this
or won't do that, and you know, I think that
(30:10):
one visit could become a longtime client. Or those that
only will do a minimum of three midday walks a week,
you know that they're not going to take on business.
Well you know those midday clients are going to become
vacation clients. Yeah, don't rule that out, you know what
I mean. So to me, there's no job too big
or too small for me. But if I can provide
(30:31):
quality care, whether it's one visit a day for a
cat or one mid day visit walk a week because
that's they only work one day a week, or they
volunteer at the hospital and they're gone all day, you know,
or whatever else is. You know, I mean to me,
it's a win win. I'm still providing a service to
someone that di ses the value in it, and that's
(30:51):
what it comes down.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
To, absolutely, And I just want to propose a toast
to you because I really do think you've painted the
picture of what this relationship between a pet parent and
a pet sitter should be. It should be symbiotic, it
should be a win win for everybody. So cheers. Thank
you so much taking the time to share your story
with me.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
My pleasure, my friend.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I also want to propose a to host to my
executive producer, Mark Winter. Thank you, Mark, and to our
audience for joining us for these awesome conversations. This is
a deep dive into pet sitting because you are looking
at two people who love the pet sitting industry and
want to see it thrive and want to see more
pet parents take advantage of the benefits of having a
long established relationship with a professional pet sitter, elevating the industry,
(31:36):
elevating pet parenting, elevating everything that matters to all of
us with Chase a life Covered in pet Hair, because
there's no better way to move cheers. To learn more
about Covered in Pet Hair, please visit covered in pethair
dot com or petlife radio dot com. Thanks for watching,
and don't forget to rate us on Apple Podcasts and
(31:57):
wherever you get your podcasting shows, because I want to
reach more pet parents and the more five star ratings
you give us, the more pet parents I can reach.
Thanks again for watching and I'll see you next name.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlifradio
dot com
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