667: Safety Systems That Prevent Pet Sitting “Oh No’s” with Scott Black
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What does it mean to truly care in your business when you’re busy, scaling, and running on fumes? In this conversation, we talk with Scott Black about how complacency shows up quietly—skipping the notes, assuming nothing changed, letting small red flags slide—and how that leads to “oh no” moments. We dig into why consistency isn’t boring, it’s protective: for pets, for clients, and for your team. Scott shares practical ways to raise the bar through screening, documentation, and clearer boundaries around what you will and won’t do. The goal is simple: stay professional, stay prepared, and keep your head in the game.
Main topics:
Complacency vs. consistent care
Documentation that prevents mistakes
Screening for risk and fit
Insurance, liability, and boundaries
Emergency planning and preparedness
Main takeaway: “If you’re consistent, you won’t get complacent.”
That line hits because complacency rarely shows up as a big decision—it shows up as a skipped step. You stop re-reading the notes. You assume the meds are the same. You let a red flag wait until the meet-and-greet. Consistency is what keeps your head in the game when the schedule is full and your brain is tired. It’s not about being robotic—it’s about building a repeatable standard that protects the pets, the client, your team, and you.
About our guest: Scott Black is a veteran pet care professional with 20 years in business, known for his thorough, safety-first approach to pet sitting and client communication. He emphasizes consistency, documentation, and preparedness as the foundation for preventing avoidable emergencies and liability issues. Scott is passionate about professional standards, ongoing training, and helping newer pet sitters avoid mistakes it took him years to learn. He regularly shares insights in industry groups and encourages pet care pros to keep the “P” in professional pet sitting.
Links:
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Pet Sitter Confessional, its hosts, or sponsors. We interview individuals based on their experience and expertise within the pet care industry. Any statements made outside of this platform, or unrelated to the topic discussed, are solely the responsibility of the guest.
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Pet sitting, safety, consistency, complacency, client communication, documentation, liability, emergency preparedness, professional standards, team management, pet care, business growth, insurance, special needs pets, standard operating procedures., Pet sitting, communication, consistency, transparency, client screening, pricing, customer service, professional credentials, safety, liability, business growth, work-life balance, social media, industry challenges, client relationships
SPEAKERS
Collin Funkhouser, Scott B.
Collin Funkhouser 00:02
Welcome to pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today, we're brought to you by our friends at tying to pet and pet sitters International. Today's episode is also eligible for one CEU from psi and apps. So listen to the episode, take the quiz, get the email, get the credit. What does it mean to truly care in your business? What habits? What systems can we have in place to prevent problems from coming up? Whether that's with our clients, with that's with the pets or our team, what does it really take to prevent the Oh nos of what we do today? We're really excited to have Scott black back on the show to talk about how he approaches safety and consistency in everything that he does, while keeping it simple, make sure you've got something to take notes, because we dive right into this conversation. Let's get started. I think a lot of it too. Scott, is the questions about, How do I handle busyness, and how do I handle growing, and how do I grow, handle scaling, and how do I handle staffing? Also, like those are kind of the sexy questions. I think those are the ones that people like to hear and talk about, talking about, how do I handle a slower period? Or, hey, is everybody else experiencing this downturn where, like,
Scott B. 01:29
that's not fun. I, and I am painting this with a very broad paintbrush, and I need somewhere in our talk today, I need to put a disclaimer out there. I'm not anti coach, and I'm not anti scaling and growing and but i Our business has become so focused on the bottom line that this is where we become complacent with all the other things about running a business. I'm not anti coach, you know. I know there's a lot of people out there that that you know, work with with Michelle, or work with Janie, or work with Doug, or work with whoever. And that's great, that that there are resources there, but we can't just focus on the bottom line when everything is about money, then we're no longer in pet care, I feel. And I'm saying this to you because I think you understand where I'm coming from, and maybe because, as a solopreneur, you know, my my business is so niche that there's times that you know, to me, it's not about, you know, making an extra $26 for doing a last minute visit. Or, you know, it's about the relationship sometimes. And you know, to me, it's never been about the money. Yes, I've been profitable from day one, as profitable as I want it to be, not always, but I've always, you know, been profitable. But you know, to me, it's never been about the bottom line. It's about providing quality care and being an honest business person.
Collin Funkhouser 03:08
Well, so you know what I mean? Well, I want to kind of dive right in there, Scott, because, you know, you talked about, you mentioned that. Well, you mentioned the complacency, right? And I think, like, Why? Why is it that that complacency comes into our business. Because, you know, I see that all the time. And from my perspective, I see businesses that should know better, have done better in the past, know better and then, kind of like, they kind of get off at some point along the way, and then the, I don't know if it's the care or if it's the desire or drive or capacity right to take care of things or whatever, but like, Why do you think that complacency comes in? We, we, we get lazy and and, you know,
03:57
I think a lot of
Scott B. 03:58
times, and I will say that I am guilty of it sometimes that if it ain't broken, don't fix it. But you know, sometimes we do need to make changes in our business, and whether it's policies or pricing or not. I mean, again, I don't take every client that comes along. Not every person is my ideal client and and for specific reasons. You know, I've always talked about liability and safety, and you know, a lot of you know, I think complacency, you know, falls under that category. You know, to me taking a job just for the money when there's too much risk involved, that's a deal breaker. It's a deal breaker for me and and, you know, I celebrated 20 years in business this past July, and believe me, I've learned a lot in 20 years, and if I can help. Help newer sitters or newer business owners, whether they have a staff or just solo like myself, if I could help you avoid making some of the same mistakes that it took me 20 years to figure out. You know, in your first couple years of business, I'm proud to do that, and more than happy to do that,
Speaker 1 05:16
but you know it you need to again.
Scott B. 05:23
You do what you say and say what you do in many ways. And you know, complacency can fall under so many categories, whether it's in the day to day, going to a client's home, you know, especially Monday through Friday, dog walks. You have a dog five days a week, you go in, you do the same thing day in and day out. And you know, the dog's happy to see you, or the dogs are happy to see you, but you know, do you fail that client and that dog by just not adding any thing to the mix? You know? All right, come on. Let's put your leash on. Let's go for a walk. Let's come in. It's time for your treat. You know?
06:03
It's it.
Scott B. 06:07
I don't know. I like to mix things up a little bit, you know, but, but it's like, I guess, when you have a kid, you get up. Your kid has breakfast, they brush their teeth, they get dressed, you take them to the school bus, you know? It's rinse and repeat. And in our industry, you can't have rinse and repeat, right? Because anything can and well, you know that, yeah, and that's where I that's where I think. I don't want to say we dropped the ball, but, but I think we might fall a little short
Speaker 1 06:39
of of raising the bar,
Scott B. 06:43
so to speak, when it comes to, you know, repeat business, and I don't care whether it's, it's a midday dog walk or a client that might use you twice a month because they travel for work on weekends, or, or, you know, have a beach house or, or, you know, whatever the needs are, fly. I have a lot of clients that are flight attendants, okay, or pilots. You know, they do a back to back trip, so they need you for a few days. And you know, it's a couple of weekends a month. And you know, you love visiting with the dogs or the cats, but it be, it could become very routine. Now that said routine is good for not stressing an animal out. But, you know, every now and again, it's nice to add a new type of enrichment, or, you know, if a client introduces a new toy or a new treat or or, you know, God forbid, a dog or cat needs to start taking medication. You know, these are things that we also need to be aware of that,
Speaker 1 07:43
you know, is this something again, I'm comfortable doing,
Scott B. 07:47
you know? I know there's lots of questions and things you may have, and I may have answers that
07:54
you know, fit well for me, but I know we had
Scott B. 08:00
kind of talked about some stuff ahead of time, and I tried to, again, paint this with a very broad paintbrush, not so much focused on on a solo business model. But, you know, I don't have a team. I would imagine that the things that I think could could impact a business would apply whether you have a team or not, yeah, and I know communication is probably number one, is probably number one on the list well.
Collin Funkhouser 08:28
And I was just thinking even like, so we do have a team. And I think about, where do we? Where has complacency crept in? And I think about like, when Megan and I were it was just her and I, and how we didn't let anything slide like nothing slid, like if we were on problems we were on, we were we were so preactive, proactive. But as as the busyness kicks in, it kind of becomes easier to just be like, Okay, I don't have time for that right now, or exactly I got. I just don't have the brain capacity to deal with this again, and then the the walking into to visits. I know that's something that we work a lot with our staff on Scott because I don't, it's like, I don't care if you've done Layla 100 times, always review the notes before you go in, right? Like you can't. You can't just walk in and assume nothing has changed. Well, because, yeah, that's a big that's one that we see that falls down.
Scott B. 09:28
So here's a perfect example. Okay, and again, I'm kind of, you know Evelyn wood version, but I you know, you know me. I know quite a few pet sitters, and we are all what I refer to as accountability partners. And I love of that term, because there's days where someone will call me and say, Hey, Scott, what would you do? Am I overreacting or, or I'll do that with someone. Am I overreacting like and I hate to say it, you see it all the time on. Facebook, right in the pet sitting groups. You know, a lot of us go on there to rant and vent and because we all understand, you know what's going on, but you know, it is that particular poster overreacting, or are they just angry because the client you know called them out on something that you know, it really wasn't the client's fault. It was the pet sitters fault. Again, did someone read the notes? You know? Maybe not, you know. And again, consistency and communication is key. But I had a situation where someone called me and said, Scott, what would you have done in this situation?
10:40
They have a team. Okay,
Scott B. 10:43
so again, out of my out of my wheelhouse, because, you know, I am a one man team. But apparently there there were multiple sitters, and one went in and made a comment, or, you know, called the business owner and said, You know, I don't know what you do about this cat? The cat
11:01
looks really skinny and,
Scott B. 11:06
you know? And the business owner said, well, is the cat eating, cat, drinking cat, using the litter box, you know? Is there a lot of clumps? Is there diarrhea? Is there this? Is there that? No, no, no, no, no. Well, you know, I didn't the pet sitters, I think we should call the client. Well, this pet sitter had not seen the cat in a while. You know, the one that was there. And, you know, again, good observation. But is it something that you need to freak the client out about? I mean, to me, that would be a wait and see. You know is is? You know? Is the cat bleeding? Is the cat? This is the cat. Lethargic. No, no, no, no,
11:43
no. But you know,
Scott B. 11:47
having had multiple cats through the years, I know sometimes, as cats get older, they have a tendency to lose a little weight and get a little leaner and saggy your bellies and but you know,
11:57
if, if,
Scott B. 11:59
physically, if what you're seeing, and I'll credit Arden Moore, you know, she always talks about be a mutt diver, you know, looking around, look, look at around your surroundings, and see, you know, you know, again it. I mean, I don't want to say there's not anything wrong with that cat, but if it's not presenting with the problem, you know, maybe see if there's anything different at the next visit, or at that point, do you notify the client? I mean, I'm one of those people that, if you see something, say something. But you know, hey, you know, we're here. We're here with fluffy. And, you know, it's been six months since we've been here, we noticed fluffy looks a little thinner, you know. Is there anything we need to know? And you know, the client may say, Oh yeah, you know, she's lost a little bit of weight. She's getting older, you know, but, but there's nothing wrong, you know, something like that. Or there was a post the other day about a pet sitter finding like a lump or a bump on a client's pet, and do I contact them and ruin their vacation? Well, I don't think you'd be ruining a client's vacation by saying, hey, you know, Charlie was getting belly rubs. I noticed he had a little bit of a lump, but it feels like a fatty tumor. Now, again, I'm not a vet, but you know, my dog has had a lot of them, and you know, just wanted to make you aware of it. And nine times out of 10, a lot of the clients say, oh, yeah, we know about it, but thank you.
13:24
Yeah, you know, I
Scott B. 13:28
again communication, whether it's with the client, whether it's between the team and the business owner, or, you know, the team, you know, again, with teams, the same sitters not going to be coming all day, every day. So you need to have that open dialog for, you know, whoever's coming to do the dinner visit, you know, or documenting medications if you have a dog or cat on medication.
13:51
You know, I
Scott B. 13:52
know I don't use software, but I would imagine there's a whole section where you can update the client and put any information in into notes for the next person, like you said, read the notes. Read the you know, we get to the point where it's like, All right, well, I got to go give Charlie his pill, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, did you even notice if the pill bottle, if the prescriptions been changed to a higher or lower dose than the last time? Or, you know, do, do, do the if the pet owners don't, you know, update their profiles. The I again, I think I have it a little easier, because as I'm getting older and pets are getting older, I'm caring for a lot of special needs pets now, and anytime someone with a special needs, pets, books, me, I always say, Okay, hang on. You know Charlie was taking Bena, and you know he's got congestive heart failure. You know, he's taking this, this, and this is everything still the same doses. Is he still getting this twice a day? One, you know? And they'll say, Yeah, okay, you know. Or a diabetic. Animal, hey, my last record show fluffy is getting one unit twice a day. Is that still correct? Yes, you know, I because you they could have upped the dose, right and and didn't update it in your in your
Speaker 1 15:15
portal, and then you look at the new bottle of
Scott B. 15:19
insulin, or you might have the old bottle of insulin, but they've just upgraded the unit, and you're the label says, Give one unit twice a day, where now the cat's getting two units twice a day. I mean, again, communication is key, and I think we as business owners fail
15:39
sometimes to
Scott B. 15:46
sorry, I have two little visitors to to to take that extra step, and that leads to, I mean, again, liability, could it make? Lead to a trip to the vet for giving the wrong amount of medicine or not the right amount of medicine. Or, you know, it could go in so many ways, and I realized we're all
Speaker 1 16:10
busy. But, you know,
Scott B. 16:14
I think I have the luxury again of being solo, that if I have no one to blame but myself, and if I don't communicate with the client, something goes sad. Sal I own it. I mean, there.
Speaker 1 16:26
I can't blame anyone you know, and with the team, I think it
Scott B. 16:32
the more people involved. And I've always said this when I've talked to people about insurance, I said, you know, the more people involved, the more you expose yourself to liability. And you know, businesses with a team, you've got multiple people going in and out of a client's home. They've got the codes, they've got the key, they've got this, they've got that. You know you expose yourself, you know what I mean, and you know that that's a whole nother
16:58
complacency issue.
Scott B. 17:01
Or or an oh no issue is understanding your insurance coverage. You know if a pet should get sick, and you've been in enough conferences and have heard David Pearsall talk about claims, and you know pets that are taking a dog or a cat to the vet saying, Oh, I'm covered for a million dollars, do what you need to do, and the vets are going hot damn. You know, we're gonna run every test and and technically, they're not covered for a million dollars. They don't understand, they don't understand their coverage. And you know that that's a huge financial risk to to your business, because at some point you're going to end up paying out of pocket for that if the client you know refuses to pay the bill. But also know your deductibles, you know little, little things, you know, things get broken. I mean, I was washing a dog, a ceramic dog bowl years ago, and it slipped out of my hand, and it hit the sink right at a right angle, and it cracked right in here. And I immediately went on to Amazon, ordered another one that looked just like it, and had it delivered to the client's home. And again, this was a flight attendant, and I messaged her and said, Hey, I'm really sorry I said, but when you get home from your trip there, you know there may you supposed to be a bull delivered ship, Scott, you didn't have to do that. I got a cabinet full of them. I said, Look, it happened on my watch. It was a $6 bowl. I didn't care. You know what I mean to me, it was the right thing. But, you know, sometimes it's cheaper to pay out of pocket, you know. And I'm sure you've seen them in your group. You know about when to file an insurance claim, when not to file insurance claim. And you know, depending on on who, who you have your coverage with, I've been with the same provider for entire length of my business of 20 years. Okay, I know there's other providers out there, but I'm very happy with my provider. But you know, I've never had to file a claim. Thank God. I've come close a couple times. But you know, anything that that was minor, that that I may have dropped or broken, I remember going into a client's home my first visit was a bedtime visit, and the house was dark, like no lights were left on for me, and in trying to find the wall switch, I knocked over a candlestick, which knocked over something else. And it was a glass, a cheap glass candlestick, and I took a picture of it, and I said, Hey, I'm really sorry. Where did you get this? I'd like to replace it. They said, Scott, it's a cheap, $3 Pier One candlestick. You know, it's our mistake, because we didn't leave a light on for you. You know, don't worry about it. But I'm
Speaker 1 19:40
honest when it comes to that, you know, it's, you know, paying out of pocket is is easy when it comes to to, you know, owning, owning a mistake,
Scott B. 19:54
you know, and hopefully you never want to use your insurance.
Collin Funkhouser 19:56
I'll also add the insurance. One a place of complacency that creeps in is you never look at it again. You just kind of re auto renew your insurance policy. Because, like, what you the insurance policy you have when you start, like, especially if you get certain clientele where you're going into more million dollar homes, or you're dealing with more high end dog breeds, are you dealing with more stuff? All of a sudden, that insurance policy that you got 567, years ago might not be sufficient to now cover those costs. And you're right, Scott, of like, you may have this idea of what you're covered for. Another one is what services you can provide. This is, this is one where, you know, obviously, we're always, we're small business owners. We're entrepreneurial. We're always thinking of other things we could be doing. And it's really easy to see what other people are doing in the industry and go, Oh, well, I'll just do that too. Instead of going and looking first to your insurance policy doing, can I do adventure hikes? What would it look do? Am I covered for pet transportation? Am I covered for this kind of thing? Am I? And it takes just a little bit of research and one question to clarify that, but we don't well.
Scott B. 21:10
But in addition to that, and this is where I get into my whole safety and liability thing, and a big Oh no, even if you're covered for something like that, taking an adventure hike or removing I mean, yes, we go to a client's home. We take them for a dog walk every midday, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, yes, it's their area. So we are removing the pet from the home. But if you're going to take a pet from the home, put it in the car, take it to a park. I'm not talking about a dog park, just a public park for some sort of an adventure or different things,
Speaker 1 21:42
you're exposing yourself to more liability.
Scott B. 21:46
It's a strange place. There's people you don't know. There could be other pets there, you know, I don't understand why businesses expose themselves to more liability. Yes, they want to add add a service, okay, and I think that's great, but do the do the benefits, you know, outweigh or do the positives outweigh the negative when it comes to exposing yourself to liability? I'm one of those people that I don't do anything off leash, you know, kudos to people that do off leash, back walks and hikes and you know, I I would never sleep at night, knowing being afraid of a dog, seeing something and taking off just me. You know, I had a client once that wanted me to take their dog out the front door to get the morning paper so he could go to the bathroom. And I said, do you take him out on a leash? He goes, No, he won't go to the bathroom on a leash. I said, I'm not the right sitter for you. He goes, What do you mean? I said, I'm sorry if a dog is outside in an unsecured area, they're on a leash. And I said, I don't think I'm going to be the right pet sitter for you. So, you know, and they didn't see that as you know, this guy is thinking with his head, and he's thinking about safety. They saw that as me judging them, and you know, I don't judge people. Look, if this is what you do, fine, but it's not going to happen on my watch. I know that sounds very selfish, but as a professional pet sitter, I'm here to provide professional quality pet care, and your pet safety and your home safety needs to be first and foremost, and my safety too. Because, believe me, I'm not getting any younger. If something happens to me, I'm no good to anybody. And asking me to walk a reactive dog or a dog who doesn't have leash manners, no, and I know my area that there are a lot of people that think it's okay to walk their dog off leash because they have a friendly dog. Not, not all dogs are friendly, and I don't want to encounter that where, where I may have a dog that may be friendly to me, but may be protective of me too, that if I'm out on a walking trail and someone on a bike sneaks up behind us, or a skateboard or a jogger. You know, I don't want to expose myself to that dog biting, because then there's a third party involved. And, you know, I again, I we've talked about this on previous interviews when we've talked about safety and liability, that that that also is part of our complacency that, you know, I don't think a lot of people see the risks involved with just taking every job that comes along. And I realize we're in a situation where people need to make money, you know, and but taking a job just for the paycheck,
24:40
that's complacency
Scott B. 24:41
to me, because you're not doing your own due diligence.
Collin Funkhouser 24:44
Have you heard of time to pet? Doug, for a bad to the bone, pet care has this to say,
Doug 24:49
time to pet has made managing my team and clients so much easier. Our clients love the easy to use app and scheduling features, and our sitters love being able to have all of their information organized and easily. Accessible. My favorite feature is the instant messaging. By keeping conversations on time to pet, we are able to monitor our team and ensure nothing ever falls through the cracks.
Collin Funkhouser 25:09
If you're looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show will save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional you know, this is definitely a different way of thinking about business. Is this something that you have, like always done, or did you have something happen in the beginning days that kind of made it click and go, Oh, maybe I need to approach this in a different way.
Scott B. 25:37
Yes, one of them was when I updated my third party liability my contract, I mean, granted, I can have a client acknowledge that if anyone else has access to your home, why while you're gone? I don't assume liability. Will it hold up in court? Maybe that. Here's their initials, they acknowledged it. But you know, contracts are only as good as what the paper they're written on, right? I mean, better to have one than not. But you know, will it hold up in court? I don't know, but that's one of the things I make. They initial it at my meet and greet. On my contract, I have bullet points that go read it and let's discuss it. But yes, so that was when I was taking care of a beautiful chocolate lab, and she was created between visits. And, you know, they were gone for long hours a day. So being new to the industry, and I'm like, wow, you only want two visits, and she's created every 12 hours. That's a long time, you know, and, but if that's what she was used to, I said, Okay, you know, I'll do a morning and an evening. And, well, I went for my second visit one day, and the dog wasn't in her crate. The back door was open a little bit, and every book in, like a lower, lower shelves of a bookcase were chewed up and shredded. And she was sitting there with, like the biggest smile on her face, like, hey, look what I did. And I'm like,
Speaker 1 26:56
All right, who was here? I know she was in her crate, because
Scott B. 27:01
I'm one of those people that I will go back and check to make sure a crate door is locked, or even a back door is locked, because I pull on it. You know, I'm sure we all do things that we don't even realize we're doing it. You know, when we leave a client's home and I'm like, All right, I said, Something's not right. So I called the parents, and they said, Oh yeah, you know, we asked our neighbor to come over and let her out midday. And I'm like, Well, can you talk to your neighbor and find out if she was here today or someone else was here today? The neighbor sent your kid over when he got home from school, he was like, a nine or 10 year old kid. And I'm like, This is not good. So that's when I had an aha moment about, nope, you know what? No one other than myself, I'm not going to assume liability. I mean, I cleaned up the mess, and I told them that, and they were a little offended by that, and I said, Look, I'll finish out the job. I said, I love your dog, you know, but I'm not going to do this anymore. You know it's either maybe me or, you know, you can have your neighbor take care. And then you heard the story at the conference. You know the wild ride theme. You know that that was another
28:16
like just eye opening.
Scott B. 28:22
No experience for me about a client just not being honest with me. And you know, I think you know, we talk about being transparent and honest with our clients, but are they honest and transparent with us?
28:39
Had I known
Scott B. 28:42
that they were going to stop giving that dog his medication prior to their trip, I would have said, Look, if you don't want this dog any longer, I'll be more than happy to take him and let him live out his life with me. Give me, you know, but they just decided on themselves. And I know there's people listening that aren't familiar with the story, but the Evelyn wood version is a client stopped giving a dog his medication about a week before they went on their trip, and I he had congestive heart failure, and I showed up for two visits one day, and he was fine, and the third visit, he had passed away. And the clients, you know, were not honest with me about any of that. And you know, it was just it again, it was another gut wrenching experience. You know, we think on our feet. And you know, I had other bedtime visits to do, you know, and there were other pets in the home that needed to be cared for. And again, you know, this is something Are we prepared to walk in for that? No, and I hope anybody listening to this never, ever, ever has to deal with that. I just hope and pray that you can be in any your business and never have to deal with the pet that's passed in your care. But when someone tells you, you. Know, I have a thing on my my intake form about special diet, special medical needs. You know any of that? And you know, when they go, no, no, no, no, no, and I'm like, okay, and then when I find out that they lied to me, like, is that? Is that an ideal client? Because what would have happened if I as the pet sitter? Let's flip this around, or you, as the pet sitter, or one of your team members, again, got complacent and just said, Spencer didn't want his pill tonight. I'll just start up again in the morning. Well, by him not getting that pill at night, you know, what would you have found in the morning? You know. And then you know, well again, when was the last time he got his medicine? Oh, I forgot to give it to him last night. Again. Do you document that I have a medication sheet that I leave on the counter when I take care of pets with with medications and the time of day, the medicine, the dose, and a little check mark, you know, did they get am? Did they get PM, especially insulin or, you know, that's for me, and then I leave it for the client, saying, Okay, this is when, you know, Max got his beds, or this is when fluffy got her insulin. Or, you know, a lot of times we come into a job where a dog is on an antibiotic, and we finish the antibiotic out right? I always save the empty pill bottle and I turn it upside down and I put a note and say, Okay, this is the day we get and I always, I don't like clients when they leave pill bottles on the counter. I always put them up in a cupboard somewhere, just because, if there's a cat in the house, they always knock the damn bottles, and the dog tries to eat the whole bottle of the pills. But again, these are things do you look around? I mean, I know I'm all over the place here, but these are things that we get so complacent, and I don't want to say lazy, but we get into such a routine that, you know, are you looking around? Are there things that could be a potential hazard,
Collin Funkhouser 32:00
you know, and pill bottles are first and foremost.
Scott B. 32:05
I want I had just finished a job with the client. They have five cats. I got to their house for the first visit, and on their little end table they had two bags of open dove chocolates sitting there. I'm going. All it was going to take for one of these cats was to knock a bag over, and they would have had a ton of little hockey pups right now, whether they would have eaten it, probably not, because they were foil wrapped, but there would have been chocolates all over the house. I just picked those suckers up and put them in the pantry. I said, Oh, hell no. But are we aware of what's going on in our environment? And our environment changes all day, every day. You know what I mean. These are things that
32:46
you know i
Scott B. 32:48
But by getting, getting back to the the the honesty and all of that, it's a two way street and and, you know, if you you ask a client something, and they answer you,
Speaker 1 33:00
you know. You know you, you have to
Scott B. 33:04
make sure you feel 100% comfortable that they're giving you the right answer, but if they also give you an answer that you're not comfortable with, you know, you need to make a decision. Is it worth the risk, or do I really need you know, the the money for the couple of visits. And I understand a lot of times, you know solo, solo business owners, you know, they're a one man band. They may not have a spouse or significant other, where it's their their income and they've got to pay their rent or their mortgage and their health insurance. And I understand, but you know, not every client is your ideal client, and I think, you know, we talk about that a lot, and if you can have a client list of ideal clients, you know, I think you stand less of a risk of any issues by keeping that line of communication open, whether, whether it be in written form through a pet sitting software, whether it be I know a lot of pet sitters, old school pet sitters like myself have a notebook at clients homes that they write a little update for their midday midday clients about, you know, what they did and what did or didn't come out of the dog at that visit, you know or you know, and that's fine, but as long as you're communicating Now that said, if the client isn't reading that or isn't going into your software to update things or check your updates at a visit, you know, there's only so much you can do as the business owner or the pet sitter or dog walker. You know what I'm saying, but I think your standard operating procedures need to be implemented and in effect, every day, all day, every day. And, you know, we talk a lot about SOPs and this and that and, you know, but our. Is your team following those procedures? You know, am I as a solo business owner?
35:10
No, like
Scott B. 35:11
I when we get off, off this interview, I've got my midday visits to do, and there's four of them today, and one of them is, is a dog that needs to be fed in a Bailey chair. Okay? I need to be on my game to make sure I time everything her first pill. And then there's a three minute wait once she's in the chair, and then she can eat. And then there's a six minute wait before she can drink a thickened, small amount of water, okay? And then there's a 10 minute wait before she can be released from the Bailey chair. So there's a whole process there. If I got complacent with her visit, I could screw that up. And then she could swallow something. She could aspirate. She can, you know, God forbid, she starts choking while she's eating. I gotta take her out of the chair. You know, there's a whole process, you know, again, that's something that I wasn't sure if I was able to take that on, like, did I want to assume that liability or responsibility? But I've known this dog for years. She's comfortable with me, the parents, the pet parents, are comfortable with me
Speaker 1 36:19
and and, you know, I said, you know, let me try it.
Scott B. 36:24
I said, I'll be 100% 110% honest with you if I don't feel comfortable doing it. And so basically, you know, I go a couple of times a week for her, when, when they won't, when they need to be away from the house, because one of them can work from home from time to time. So, you know, they need someone there at lunchtime. And yeah, I'm more than happy to do it, but I had to make sure I was 150% comfortable quit doing something like that. But I also take care of dogs that are victims of IVDD that have had the surgery. Some have been successful. Some haven't, but they need to have their bladders expressed. Okay, that's something that I won't give a cat sub q fluids, but I don't have a problem squeezing a bladder. There's just certain things that you know, but the vets in the area know that, and you know, I they give my name out and, and, you know, these, these dogs that need to have their bladders expressed. You know, I love them like they're my own, and I've known them for years. And you know, there's just things that that come up that again, if I was complacent in my care for these dogs that needed to have their bladders expressed, that that could create a problem. If I, you know, failed to, if I missed a step feeding Bella, you know, with in the belly chair, you know, that could lead to a whole medical problem, you know. So, so we need to be on our game and again, in the mix of doing three other midday visits today, where one requires a walk, one doesn't, one is losing his sight, so it's kind of out in the yard on a leash. Let's just sniff and do your business, you know, and and yet, you know, each one has
38:23
its its little idiosyncrasy.
Scott B. 38:27
You know what I mean? Like, each pet is different in each home. One, one's a huge english bulldog. He can't be out in the heat all that long, and he likes to go outside and literally lay on the hot concrete and warm himself up. And I'm like, Dude, you know you need, we need to go in, you know, but we have a routine. He rolls over. I rub his belly, and then I say, okay, come on, let's go inside. But, but you know, you need to know your dog breeds. You need to know their quirks. And you know, it's still pretty hot here in Houston, you know, for October, and I don't want to put that dog in harm's way of him being, you know, exposed to the heat, you know, of course, with this mushy face, you know. But there's not one house I visit today where I could call it a plain vanilla visit, where, you know, you just walk the dog, or you just let the dog out. Or, you know, there's something with each pet in each house that that I have to pay attention to.
Speaker 1 39:28
And do we on a different basis? Yeah, that that links.
Collin Funkhouser 39:33
That's probably not for being honest, but like, like, that's where that you mentioned that documentation is so important. And, and you like, you walk through basically three big areas of where we have to document. And so like, like, you have to document, first and foremost, your comfort level, of what you are willing and willing to not do, and where those boundaries are for you, documenting your policies, what you're supposed to be doing, what's your standard, and then documenting your actions. And I love that you mentioned. Mentioned that too. Of here's what I did on what day and in what order I did, and here's when, here's the day the pill bottle ran out, and here's the day that I moved this. Or here's like, that kind of documentation really points back to something, because I know for me, my first instinct for all of those, my comfort level, my policies or my actions, is like, Oh, I'll remember it. I've my my brain is perfect. I will remember all of these things, but I have to remember that my brain is like a steel trap, but it's rusted shut and it's hard to get things back out. And so especially if it's like, okay, am I going to remember all this in a week's time? In a month's time? No, and that's where we start to slip. Things become inconsistent, and then that like it's harder to and harder to keep up.
40:50
And again,
Scott B. 40:52
I think proper screening, you know, the communication and documentation from the get go. And I know we talked about this on the last time we spoke for a podcast was about, you know, someone filling out a client information sheet and a pet information sheet. And I think you had an experience, a situation where someone had said you would question about, you know, does your dog have a bite history or aggression, or this or that? And they had commented to be discussed in person, like, how is that not a big red flag? Like, no, that's something we're going to discuss now, not like, put it off till the meet and greet. Like, why even do that? If there's going to be a potential problem, right? And I think that also is, you know, I again, I'm painting with a very broad paintbrush here. I'm not saying every pet sitter does this, every pet business does this, but I think in 20 years, and I want to say, in the last few years, I've seen it more and more,
41:56
where it's,
Scott B. 41:59
I don't want to say the Scarlet O'Hara thing. Well, you know, tomorrow is another day. I'll do it tomorrow. But you know, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. If you see a red flag, don't say I'll deal with it at the meet and greet, or don't say I'll deal with it later. You need to deal with it now, because that will bite you in the ass. And excuse the three letter word there, but you know, we want to avoid getting bitten by a pet. We don't want to get bit in the ass by a client, not being honest. And we've all been there. We've all been there, and it's not a good place to be. It's not a good place to be. And you know, it's okay to say no, no is a complete sentence. It is. And you know people don't want to say no because they were afraid, you know, I'll get a bad review. Well, how can someone give you a bad review for saying no, I'm not available to take care of your dog or No, I'm not comfortable asking or doing what you're asking me to do to me. That makes you a professional. You know, again, if you're in this industry just for a paycheck, you're in the wrong industry, because we pet sitters are a breed unto ourselves. We work crazy hours, we work holidays. We make so many personal sacrifices to do what we do.
Speaker 1 43:25
You know, we don't work. We don't get paid. You know, we don't get vacation pay.
Scott B. 43:33
I mean, you know, I mean, I don't know what you offer your team, you know, as far as you know, any type of benefit, but I would imagine most of the businesses with the team don't have quote, unquote, full time employees that are working 40 hours a week, that'll get overtime and paid sick days and holidays. Most people are hiring part time people to avoid that, to stay profitable, but that's out of my wheelhouse. But again, there's so much we can do to avoid complacency. And another C word is consistency. If you're consistent, you won't get complacent. And I know my in the past, I always talked about the S word simple, well, consistency is part of my key keeping things simple plan. It's part of my standard operating procedures. You know what I mean? It's, it's, I handle each client exactly the same way, for intake, for meet and greet, for communication, and then documentation, depending on what documentation is needed. You know, again, what the client's preferences are. You know, you guys can go into your software and do a visit update after every visit whether the client chooses to read it or not. You know, you can't control that. You can't control that. But again, if there's a situation. Question that arises, you know, do you have the client's permission to reach out to them directly? You know that a text message or a phone call might be like, Oh, wow. Collin needs that. They may be a problem. You know that you know. Or when do you know when the right time is
45:20
to make that phone call.
Scott B. 45:22
And again, pet sitting software is wonderful,
45:28
but you need to use it to your benefit.
Scott B. 45:32
And just putting something in the software where a client may or may not read it could lead to a potential problem, you know, and I think we need to know when, when it's right to notify the client. No one wants to spoil their vacation, or, God forbid, they had to go out of town for a funeral or a wedding, or they have a new grandbaby or whatever. But again, if there's a potential risk to their house or their pet, you know, you say, Look, you know, I just observe this. Is there something I should do? Or, you know, my intake form, I get an HVAC company, a plumber, an electrician, you know, who do you use? You know, do you have a service contract? I mean, it gets out here, someone's AC goes out in the middle of August or September. It's hot, you know, I can't fix it, but if I can call someone and say, hey, you know, the funkhousers are out of time, out of town, I'm watching their dogs. And, you know, they asked me to give you a call all I mean, I'll be more than happy to meet you here if you can come here. And in the interim, I'll have them touch base with you or or, you know, you'll call your age rep company and say, Hey, Scott, my pet sitter can meet you, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, What time can you be there? You know, I'm willing to do that for a client, as long as it's feasible. But I don't want dogs in a hot house, you know, because then it becomes my problem, and if they're not going to come home, or they can't get home to fix it, you know, it's like a plumbing issue. And again, it's natural disasters. It's not just a house thing, you know, we might get complacent in in, you know, living in Houston, I've dealt with a lot of stuff in 20 years, hurricanes and freezes and floods, you know, and situations where I wasn't able to leave my own subdivision where I live because of water or trees down, or wires down, or or icy roads, which you would never think we'd have icy roads in Houston, right? And you know, people can't drive here when it's 80 degrees and sunny, get a lot of ice on the road. Thank God. I grew up in New Jersey. I learned how to drive in the ice and snow, but, but still it, what risks Am I putting myself at trying to get to a client's home and and, you know, we need to think about that. And, and I know we had talked or had communicated about some issues and about, you know, disaster preparedness is key. You know, take, take a class on disaster preparedness. I know it's offered to some of the pet sitting organizations. Take a pet first aid in CPR class. Okay, none of us are vetting variants, you know, or dietitians or obedience trainers or not. Let me back that up. I'm sorry. Some pet sitters may be Vet Tech. Some might have a also be obedience trainers.
48:24
Some may have taken
Scott B. 48:25
classes on nutrition, but I think sometimes we step out of our lane when a client asks us about something. And you know, I always say you should talk to your vet, or have you worked with an obedience trainer about this problem? You know, I can share my opinion, but I think we're some pet sitters are so quick to, I don't want to say, practice veterinary medicine or offer legal advice, or, you know, we're not attorneys, we're not accountants, we're not, you know, veterinarians. And you know, I could always say, in my experience, you know, I have taken care of pets. I have had personal pets like, you know, having my blind, deaf dog, Chado, who I lost in June, that dog, for a dog that couldn't see, he opened my eyes to so many things,
Speaker 1 49:19
and I think it's made me a better pet sitter,
Scott B. 49:23
because now as I'm caring for more senior dogs that are losing their hearing or losing their sight, or when someone says, you know, I have a deaf dog, and I go and, you know what? Okay, okay, cool. You know does can your dog see me? Uh huh, you know. So. So these are things that you know, are we okay with something like that? Because if you're not, you know, don't take the job. I mean, it's there's so many things we can we can say yes to and not be comfortable with.
49:59
And. And then you regret it, you know.
Scott B. 50:04
And again, does that happen?
50:06
Because we're just complacent
Scott B. 50:10
and saying, Well, yeah, I'd love to take care of your dog. And then you find out that the dog needs, you know, multiple medications a day. Well, is your dog good about taking pills? No. Well, you know what I you know, will he take it in a pill pocket? Well, can I just put it on his food? No. Well, how do you give it to him? Well, we kind of have to cram it down his throat. And this is a, what, 80 pound Tyler, or a Doberman, or, I hate to say it, our new little addition, Luna is a little chihuahua mix. I knock wood. I've been very lucky with chihuahuas, but there's some crazy chihuahuas out there. I ain't gonna stick my hand down a dog's throat that's gonna take my hand off. You know what? I mean, like again, there's a liability there. Are you gonna get bit trying to administer medication to this dog or cat?
Speaker 1 51:00
Yeah, I again, it's
Scott B. 51:03
a safety liability thing, and then you're opening yourself up to to a bunch of of by not asking the right questions up front, and again, by not asking the
Speaker 1 51:17
you know is that, because it's just, we just go through the motion.
Scott B. 51:24
And do you know what I'm saying? It's, and I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but I am one of these people, somebody, well, someone once accused me of being a very negative person. And I said, really? And they said, Well, you always look at worst case scenario. I said, Yeah, worst case to best case. So I'm prepared, you know. And when I do a meet and greet, and when I talk to clients, they say, God, you're so thorough. I said, God, how long have you lived in Kingwood, you know, my service area? I said, How many hurricanes have we dealt with over the last 15 years? We had a freeze, we had a flood, we had this I said, I've had people out of town that couldn't get home, and I had to try to get to these pets. Believe me, I'm prepared. I'm an i dotted, T crossed, kind of guy, and having an emergency contact is great. But if you're in the middle of a hurricane, they may be dealing with their own problems. It's you. Hi.
Speaker 2 52:23
This is Beth at pet sitters International. The Pet Sitting industry is growing fast, and so is the need for professional pet care providers like you. Whether you're just starting out or scaling a multi team company, you don't have to figure out everything alone. Since 1994 psi has helped 1000s of pet care professionals like you build reputable, profitable and sustainable businesses. If you're thinking about joining visit petsit.com, forward, slash, PSC, to learn more and get a special promo code.
Collin Funkhouser 52:51
We've thought about that a lot too, of what's what? What really is the role of that emergency contact, like, really, like, with what, under what circumstances, not just do we, but can we contact that person, and then in the event where, you know, for us, we get a lot of tornadoes, extreme bad weather and ice here in the Midwest, so it's going, Yeah, okay, like if I can't get there, unless, the unless the emergency contact is the literal next door neighbor, it's very unlikely that they're going to be able to get over there anyway. So within you have to ask, what's the next plan? What's in? And I will say that that that kind of multi level and continual thinking can definitely feel like a burden. I know Megan and I have had the experience where, especially whenever we've got a lot going on and we're tired and we're kind of getting burned out, you know, we'll ask ourselves, like, seriously, like, seriously, we'll ask ourselves, is this always our job? But do we always have to be the people who are thinking of the third thing and the fourth thing and then the fifth thing, and are we? Do we have to be the ones going with the questions and asking about the notes and reviewing things and like, and every time we come back down to the point of the answers, yes, yeah, that that is our role as professional pet sitters, as our to keep our promises, to our team, to our employees, to our clients, to their pets. That falls to us to do, because that's what the client is wanting from us.
Scott B. 54:21
And no, I agree. And a good friend of mine, a fellow Pet Sitter who's probably got 30 years experience in the business, we always talk about keeping the P in professional pet sitting, because sometimes it disappears from time to time. And I think what you were saying is, yes, is it your responsibility? Yeah, it comes down to what, what being a professional pet care provider is, or a professional dog walker and, and I know within the last week, psi came out with these global. Standards, and I actually listened to your Megan's podcast yesterday. I loved it. But, you know, I read through this and I'm going, huh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been doing this for 20 years, but, but, but,
Collin Funkhouser 55:17
if you look at that and you say, these are things that will help me
Scott B. 55:23
not be complacent. These are the things that will keep me i that'll keep my head in the game that if I take something like, like, you know, you guys said, you know, if you're at 80% there, how do you get to 90% or 100% you know, you take one item and you go, okay, when you get to 100% you move on to the next one. You know, I've said for years that, you know, regulation is good and bad. I'm kind of a guy half the glass, half empty, half full. I see both sides of it, you know, but I do think that, you know, credentials are very important to me. Not every person is going to be a member of an organization. Not every pet sitter is going to take pet first aid and CPR, not every pet sitter is going to become a certified professional pet sitter through an organization, whether it be psi or naps. I think it's wonderful that they offer that to their members, and I highly recommend it. But you know, having you know certain criteria and certain credentials, you know, I I have a presentation notebook, and when I meet with clients, I, you know, after we do all the paperwork, I said, Okay, here's my time to brag a little bit, you know? And I said, when we spoke, you went to my website, you saw all of my credentials listed there. I said, but here's proof, here, here, here's, you know, my my proof of insurance, here's my current I run a background check on myself.
Speaker 1 57:08
Okay? I do. I need to, no, but I
Scott B. 57:15
want them to know that I have a clear criminal background. You know, I show them my pet first aid training. I certificate that I do take every two years. A lot of pet sitters take it once, and think they're certified for life. They're not. And again, in my opinion, you're trained. You're not certified. You're trained in it's a certificate of training. You're not certified. But that's my little pet peeve.
57:41
No, seriously, yeah, you're not,
Scott B. 57:43
you're not going to take a five or six hour class and be certified in anything you want to teach pet first aid. And, yeah, you'll be certified to be an instructor over the course of many days of training. But you're not going to, you're going to be trained, you know, to the what you need to do to administer first aid or get a pet to the vet safely.
Speaker 1 58:01
But I take it every two years
Scott B. 58:04
for my own pets and for my clients pets knock what I've never had to do CPR, and I hope I never have to, but that that has taught me, you know, whether it be Arden or Denise or a pet tech instructor, the one thing I've learned through all the years of taking pet first aided CPR is to take a step back, assess the situation, and go, Okay, what do we do? You know? And that's something that I have, I think I just do without thinking. Now, I walk into a client's home and I go, something's different, you know what I mean, or, and you look
Collin Funkhouser 58:38
around, or,
Scott B. 58:40
you know, a cat that always comes to greet you at the door doesn't or, speaking of that here, here's a situation where there might be multiple pets in the house, you know, you haven't been there in a few months, and then the
58:57
you're looking for the third
Scott B. 58:58
cat, and you can't Find it, and you contact the client and say, Oh yeah, fluffy died six months ago. Well, thanks for letting me know you know. Again, communication, and that's something that when a client books, you know, is everything still the same. I mean, I don't know if you know, again, not having software, when a client books, when you do the confirm, when you confirm the appointment or the booking, you know, is there a way for you to put in there? You know? Is everything still the same with with fluffy and rover and where it gives them the opportunity to say, oh, Collin, we're so sorry we forgot to tell you, you know, fluffy passed away, you know, or something like that. Again, we get complacent. We take the booking, and we know that there's always been five pets in that house, and then you show up and there's four, and you're looking under beds and in closets and doors that are closed, and and then you come to find out that the pet has passed and and again, that that that stinks for so many reasons, because we never get close. Sure with that pet, you know the compassion fatigue, you know, I wish I had known, I would have sent a card or offered something or, you know, that's who we are, no matter how you slice it, that's who we are. You know, our hearts. We think with our hearts a lot of times more than our head and and I think we there are times we have to think with our heads to be good, good at our business and be good at what we do,
Speaker 1 1:00:25
but we also need to, you know,
Scott B. 1:00:30
I don't think we would be, any of us would be doing this if we didn't have
Speaker 1 1:00:35
a passion for animals and,
Scott B. 1:00:40
you know, I tell people, you know, through the years, this has become more of an advocation than an occupation for me. And I know I mentioned this in other in other interviews, but you know, I got into this because a dog came into my life years ago,
1:00:54
when I was not
Scott B. 1:00:58
in a happy place, I was in a job that made me ill, and I had to take some time off. And this dog came into my life, and she was the best medicine
1:01:07
that that anyone,
Scott B. 1:01:10
no pill bottle was going to give me, that you know what I mean, and and through her, I started to volunteer with the rescue. And through the rescue, was how my pet sitting started. So my Domino, you know, she's no longer with us, but she inspired me in 2003 to think about pet sitting. And in 2005 July, 1 of 2005 is when I opened my doors. And it's been 20 years now, and that spotted pain in the butt is to blame for it, but, but, you know, I wouldn't change a thing. And, and, you know, we all get into this for different reasons. I know we all say, Oh, we love pets, but, you know, we need to, we need to also think about the human side of this. And, you know, I look, I'm 62 I'm very old school. I didn't have a lot of what was offered is being offered today, when I started, you know, psi was there. Thank God, you know, Patty Moran's, you know, pet sitting for profit was there. Thank God, you know. And, and I slowly, you know, started my business and figured things out on my own, you know, but, you know, so much has changed in 20 years. But the one thing that I always my mission statement was always quality pet care for the animals and peace of mind for the pet parents. And that's something I never strayed from, and and complacency, you know, that's something I think about, that if I don't give 100% or more at every visit,
Speaker 1 1:02:59
am I? Am I sticking to my mission,
Scott B. 1:03:05
you know, and that that could be getting lazy or getting complacent or, you know, I mean that this Bulldog that I'm going to go visit today, I send an update, a photo to his parents every day when they're at work, and they look forward to it, because I always take the most obscure pictures of this dog doing the strangest things, and then I have a thing on my phone where I can edit it and put little cartoon bubbles over the over their heads, and put something in there, and they just laugh. And and they, you know, thank you for capturing this, you know. Or they look
Collin Funkhouser 1:03:43
forward to it. They look forward to it,
Scott B. 1:03:48
you know. And you know, in again, it's a way of communicating that, that I was there, that the dogs are happy,
Speaker 1 1:03:57
you know. So the pets are happy, the people are happy. I'm happy.
Scott B. 1:04:04
And that's also something that I think we need to look at going into taking a new client. I call it a three way comfort level, you and Megan bring me in, or I go and do a meet and greet with you guys. And you know, my thing is, okay? Are you guys okay with me, are your dog or dogs okay with me? And am I okay with the dogs? And being in your home, I'm sure you've been in some homes where you just don't feel comfortable being there, whether it be they're not tidy or they should have velvet ropes, because the dog can't go here, the dog can't go there. You can't go here, you can't go, you know, I have a question on my intake form. You know, are there areas of the home that are off limits to the pets or pet sitter? Because, you know, everybody's got cameras now, and I'm okay with it. I wish every house had cameras everywhere, because I'm not a nosy person by nature. But you know, if something that sounds does. Sound right or look right. I'm going to check it out, and I want their permission to do that. I mean, I had a client years ago, and I may have shared this with you, but when I asked this question, you know, they said, Well, I don't care if my house is on fire, please don't ever go in that room. And I'm, of course, inquiring minds want to know, okay, what's behind the door now, you know, and ironically, and you know, you could edit this out if you want, but it was right around 50 Shades of Gray time, and I'm thinking, what's behind there? Like, is there a red room back there, you know, or, or, you know, do they have a meth lab or something? And this was a client that I thought was going to become a longtime client, but they were a one and done. And then I'm thinking, Oh, maybe they were part of the witness protection plan or something, you know, they just weren't there long but, you know, it makes you think, like, what's behind that door? And, you know, I just do that because I want to make sure. And I, believe me, I've discovered leaks. You know, in Texas, sadly, they put water heaters in our attics. We don't have basements. Everything's built on a slab. Why you would put something that holds gallons of water up where, if there's a leak, it's going to drip down, right? But, you know, I've discovered leaks, things coming from water leaking into a bedroom with carpet, and the carpet is absorbing the thing. And then before you know it, it's seeping into the subfloor. And then I'm in the house and water is dripping from a recessed light into the kitchen, and I go in there and go, did you pee? Did the dog pee in the kitchen floor, you know? And then you go to clean it up, and you're getting water dripped on your head, you know? It's like, hey, I want to go check this out. Been there, done that, you know. And again, it's not your fault. It could happen. It's happened in my own house, where we had a leak, a tiny, little pinhole leak in a pipe that was wrapped, you know, for insulation that the water built up. And before you know it, it came through one of our recessed lights in our in our entry foyer. And I'm like, I can't fix it, but I could stop it from getting worse, you do you know what I'm saying. And these are things that you know if you don't ask the right questions. And I think thorough screening. And like I said earlier, people have told me you're very thorough. I said, it's my job to be and and again, I don't have a magic wand that I can make your dog eliminate every midday. You know, hopefully they'll do it while I'm there. But I don't have a magic wand. You know, if your AC goes out, yes, if I can't get a hold of you, I know who to call. Okay, it can hopefully prevent it from getting worse. If you're a pool like I don't take on any I will throw a chlorine puff in someone's skimmer basket, or empty a skimmer basket if it if it's very Leafy, you know, or things are falling, and we gotta have these huge pine trees here so we get the pine stroke that falls. I'll be more than happy to empty a skimmer basket. But when it comes to any pool stuff, if they don't have a pool service, I'm at, you know, like, I don't want that liability. I don't want that liability. I had a situation during Hurricane Ike. We were without power for two weeks. Client was out of town, and they refused to come home. They're no longer a client for many reasons, but they refused to come home until power came back. And I, you know, cleaned out two and a half refrigerators for them so things wouldn't get stinky. And, you know, kept up with their pool, because I figured if power came back on overnight and the pool pump kicked on, you know, and there was all this debris in the pool, I never got so much as a thank you. But you know, these are things that, you know we can say, not my responsibility, but if I'm there with the dogs and they're out in the yard, and, you know, they're tired of being in the house, and believe it or not, it was cooler outside than it was inside during some of these power outages, you know, that I said, let me just, you know, skim the pool a little bit and get rid of some of the branches and, you know, just to prevent it, I guess it's just who I am. It just seemed like the right thing to do. But when it comes to anything mechanical, I'm out like, Nope, you know, I'm not a trainer, I'm not a vet, I'm not a nutritionist, I'm not, you know, a pool tech or an HVAC guy or a plumber. But if there's anything I can do to prevent the situation from getting worse, this is the time to tell me who I call, where can I find this? Where's the main water cut off in the house I had that during that hard freeze we had where a pipe broke and there was water coming in through through someone's
Speaker 1 1:09:27
guest bedroom ceiling fan. I went
Scott B. 1:09:30
in there and thank God the water was hitting, hitting the mattress, but I ended up getting hit on the head by a piece of sheetrock that fell from the ceiling and had a very anxious golden retriever, but I knew where the dog towels were, and I created a little barrier, and called the client, and they had friends come over, and they helped me clean it up. And you know, again, what do you do? What do you do? But I knew the house well enough to where the main water cut off was, where the where the pool towels were. For the dogs, you know, and just did what I had to do. It's, you know, sometimes we need to think outside the box and be prepared, and that's something that again, if being prepared every time you turn the key and walk into a client's house, that'll help us be the best we can be and not be so complacent. You know. Again, consistency is is key. I think in our industry, yes, we want to mix things up. It would be very boring if we did the same exact thing in every house. And to me, each house is different. I have a consistency plan for each house I go to, because no two pets are the same, no two houses are the same,
1:10:41
if that makes sense.
Scott B. 1:10:44
Yeah, you know what I mean, it's, you know, fluffy kitty, maybe a lap cat, but you know, rosy kitty might just sit there and look at you and go, don't move, because I'm gonna cut you, you know. But you know that ahead of time, so you sit there and toss her treats or play with her cat dancer, and that's your consistency with that cat. Another cat is gonna they're gonna fight you for the couch, and they're gonna jump in your lap before you even sit down. That's your consistency with that cat or the dog that is gonna drop and roll or bring you a toy. Or, you know that to me when I talk about consistency in our visits, yes, be consistent, but it's always nice to mix things up a little bit, as long as you're not creating a problem for for the pet parent, for the pet, or for yourself, or in a case where you guys have a team where, you know Sally's coming in the morning and Scott's coming for dinner, and you know Scott's going to be like, okay, you know, Charlie didn't do this yesterday at dinner time. Is something going on here that that I missed, right? Or, you know. And again, I know a lot of businesses with teams. I hear you guys talk about Slack and other things that are available for you guys to communicate amongst yourselves. But again, is that being communicated, you know what I mean, or is the sitter like if it was me? Is it my responsibility to contact you or Megan and say, Hey, I'm at the Smith's house, and you know, Charlie's acting really weird. You know, he wasn't like this yesterday at dinner. Did something happen this morning, that that I need to know about? Or, you know, did you know? You know? Let's say you did. You know, did? Did you know, whoever did the morning visit? Did they reach out to you and say that Charlie was acting weird? Or, you know, again, I don't know what your procedures are, but again, that could be just say, Oh, maybe it's just a one off and, you know, let's see how he is later. Or is there something that at the morning person may have missed or just didn't communicate. And I'm not saying that
1:13:06
to be, to be,
Scott B. 1:13:10
you know, like stirring the pot, but you know, communication, it works between the client and the business, and then communication within the business.
1:13:22
You know, where, if, if you don't communicate that,
Scott B. 1:13:27
you know, are you failing the client, or are you failing in your position as a pet sitter for this pet sitting company? And again, it's, I'm painting this with a very broad paintbrush. I'm not accusing people of doing this, but we've seen, we've seen it time and time again in the pet sitter groups. And what should I do? Or Have any of you ever experienced this? And I think it all comes down to, you
1:13:56
know, at the end of the day,
Scott B. 1:14:02
consider, consistency, communication, transparency, honesty, you know,
Speaker 1 1:14:08
if you can't do that at you know,
Scott B. 1:14:13
you might not be in the right industry. And again, I don't mean that as an insult, and I don't mean that to think that I have a chip on my shoulder. You know those. You know me well enough. Yes, I'm a smart aleck, and I'm cut up and and I but I think 20 years in, I'm very, like I said, compassion. I'm very passionate about this industry and and I don't want to see it go
Speaker 1 1:14:42
down the garden path to hell. You know, we, we, I don't see
Scott B. 1:14:50
rover and waggus competition because, you know, they're just, you know, I don't. I'm very fortunate that I don't have that.
1:14:59
It. I mean, I don't
Scott B. 1:15:02
see it, you know, taking business away from me. What I see taking business away from me are the next doors, you know, I'm looking for a pet sitter. Oh, my daughter, can pet sit or, you know? And I just go on there and say, you know, if you're looking for a pet sitter, I try to educate people always. And just say, You know what? Make sure you know, your pet sitter has credentials and and I, because I don't go in, as you know, I have a business, business page on next door, but I also have a personal thing, and I will just go in and say, Look, I highly recommend that if you're looking for a pet care provider that you use a professional that has credentials. And I will give the link to psi, you know, to pet sit calm or naps. You know, I'm not a naps member, but I know there are people that are members of both, or one or the other. So I want to give anybody the opportunity to find a professional pet care provider,
1:15:57
you know. But I
Scott B. 1:16:02
you know, there's just so many things that that you know that that this complacency or or safety and liability, or avoiding the Oh nos, or however you want to call this,
Speaker 1 1:16:13
you know, this can be a 234, part, you know, interview or, or, but, you know, I guess I just see more of it on a daily basis in social media.
Scott B. 1:16:32
And maybe I spend too much time on social media,
1:16:36
you know, but I,
Scott B. 1:16:39
I, I want to be able to help people, but I there's days I don't understand how someone could have let something happened. And I'm not saying that as an insult. A lot of what we do is common sense and and I tell people, you know, what I do is not rocket science. The science is making it happen all day, every day, because no two days are the same. And, you know, like today, my mid days are different. You know, I've got a dog that needs to be fed in a Bailey chair tomorrow, I won't visit her, so my day is different tomorrow. You know, it's you know, or you know, are my bedtime visits tomorrow going to be the same as they are on Thursday or Friday or you know, you know you you start, you stop, you continue. And it's very easy to go through the motions and and I think we need to be more than just businesses that go through the motions
Speaker 1 1:17:37
to achieve a bottom line or to achieve, you know, it's
Scott B. 1:17:44
more than a paycheck. And I'm sure, you know, before you and Megan hired, when it was just yourselves, you realized, you know, this is a lot of work, and then you're raising a family, and you're doing this and you're doing that, and, you know, I don't think people really understand when I say people, I mean, you know people that don't think we have a real job. What what it takes to run a small a small business, you know, and, and as a one man band, you know my my challenges are different than yours. And I know people with Team teams. You know, hiring seems to be a big problem right now is finding qualified people, you know. And in a way, I'm kind of glad I don't that that's one, one thing I don't have to worry about. Like I said earlier, you know, it's just me, and I'm okay with that. You know, am I going to grow, you know? You know, huge. No, I'm not, but at 20 years in, I'm right where I want to be. Yes, would I like to start to continue to take new clients, of course, but I'm going to continue to do it one client at a time, the way I always have, you know. And again, at this point, are they going to be my ideal client? And I think, you know, avoiding the Oh no's is thoroughly screening, and whether it be by email, by text, by picking up the phone, you know, I'm not going to, you know, get on my soapbox about software or no software, but you know, if you're there filling out information and it's
Speaker 1 1:19:16
incomplete, you know, complacency.
Scott B. 1:19:20
Are you gonna let it slide? Are you gonna see that red flag and say, Okay, I need to address this before we move forward about even setting up a meet and greet or, or, you know, if there's something that's that's, you know, again, if it doesn't look right, it's probably not right. And don't wait till it's too late. You know, you get to a meet and greet and you have no exit strategy, or people agree to to to taking on a job before they know all the information.
1:19:49
Or another thing I see
Scott B. 1:19:54
is, again, this is on the oh no side. But you know pricing you. Are. Again, I'm not going to go down the, you know, argue, do you put your rates on your website or not? There's two different schools. I think I would keep moving on if I went to someone's website that didn't have prices or starting at that's just how I am as a consumer, whether it be for a plumber or a painter, an electrician, you know, whatever you go to someone's website, at least I want to know what the service calls going to charge, or, you know, whatever. But if it just says call for info, I'm not going to call, you know. But how many times have you seen, you know, I'm taking on this job, you know? And they've got five dogs and three cats and two bunnies, and I just don't know what to charge. Well, that's something you should have established already, you know, if you start at x and you know that, you know, that's something you discuss with the client and say, Look, this is going to take more than my 30 minute visit that we're going to need to, you know, add time. Or this I charge by my
1:20:53
time. Don't,
Scott B. 1:20:56
not give an S, you know, don't, don't wait to a meet and greet to give an estimate the client I would want to know up front, what, what
1:21:05
it's going to cost me, because
Scott B. 1:21:06
when I travel, you know, hell and I are doing a cruise in a couple weeks. Okay, first thing I had to factor in. I said, When are we leaving? When are we coming back? How many visits do we need for the dogs? And what's it? What is it going to cost for our center? That's part of my travel budget. I have to factor that in to, you know. I don't want to be told, you know, and have sticker shock, because, you know, my pet sitter waited to the last minute to tell me what it was going to cost, you know. And again, I know there's two schools like, I charge X amount for 30 minutes of my time. It doesn't matter how many pets are in that okay, if I can get everything done in 30 minutes, it's this, if I need to add 15 minutes, you get, you get charged an additional price for, you know, half of what my 30 minute visit is. Or if it's an hour, it's double my 30 minutes. I don't discount. I'm a straight shooter, very transparent. You know that, Mr. Cellophane and you know, you want an hour of my time. This is what it's gonna cost you. And, and, you know, I think pet sitters need to be very upfront about that, and not wait and say, Well, let me think about it and get back to you. No, you should be able to say, hey, Collin, Collin, you know, you've got, you know, you know, a menagerie. And you know, if the dogs don't need to be walked, if they need to be let out in the yard or whatever, and fed, and the cats are here, and there's multiple litter boxes. And, you know, I always ask clients say, Well, how long does it take you, normally, to feed your dogs? I mean
Speaker 1 1:22:33
that that's one of my screening questions, right? You know. Or, you know, do
Scott B. 1:22:39
you know what I mean, like, like, just to get a ballpark idea that you know, well, if you can do it in 20 minutes, I could probably do in 30 minutes. And it's not to say I won't be there for 35 minutes if I have to. I mean, I don't, you know, I set a timer for every visit I do. But you know, there's days where you're not as busy as others. And if I've got a dog or a cat in my lab. I'm not just gonna go, okay, get off. I delete,
Collin Funkhouser 1:23:05
but it's but it is part of setting those expectations, right? I think that's important. Of when you ask the client, that's just it.
Scott B. 1:23:15
You know, to me, it's also good customer service. You know, when you're starting, you know, a possible relationship with someone you know, being being very honest and transparent, you know. And I know, like, I don't take care of farm animals, and I know there's a lot of people that take care of livestock and chickens, and you know, kudos to them, because you know, that's much more time consuming then, you know, your typical dog or cat visit or midday dog walk, you know, and that's something that I would highly recommend that, you know, that's something that that a pet business may, may have to sit down and say, Well, okay, you know, for X number of horses or goats, or, you know,
Speaker 1 1:24:02
chickens, or you know, you know, as far as what
Scott B. 1:24:08
duties are you mucking stalls, or you're just going in and collecting eggs? Are you going twice a day and opening a coop and let feeding and letting the chickens out, and then going back when, before it gets dark to put them up at night and collecting eggs? You know, you could probably do that in 230 minute visits, where it wouldn't require extra
1:24:26
time. But you know, you know, are
Scott B. 1:24:28
there other animals involved? Are there dogs and cats in addition to what's going on out in your backyard, your chicken coop, or, you know, your your hen house, or, do you know what I'm saying, like it's all these are things that pet sitters need to be aware of so they can present themselves to this client and say, Well, you know what is the norm? How long does it take you to care for the chickens in the morning? How long does it take you to muck a stall? How you know what? What are your expectations of me? Because. Goes, we need to price this accordingly. And I do have a price list, but I want to be fair in giving you an estimate or just telling you this is what it's going to cost. To me, an estimate in pet sitting is is a slippery slope, because someone's going to come back and say, Well, you know, you said it was going to cost this well, and then you get there and you get there and you go, Well, I didn't realize it was going to
Speaker 1 1:25:24
be this much work. You know what? I mean, it's
Collin Funkhouser 1:25:28
that, it's an oh no that we can avoid by having that conversation up front.
Scott B. 1:25:34
Right? Of course, there's always going to be exceptions to the
Collin Funkhouser 1:25:37
rules, always, you know,
Scott B. 1:25:40
it's like the last minute booking fee. Okay, you know, I kind of look at it, and pet sitters will disagree with me on this, but, you know, I'm a one man band and maybe businesses with teams. You know, you charge that last minute booking fee is more of an admin fee to make sure you can get them scheduled and get a sitter out there, I get it. But for me, you know, to me, there's no amount of money that's going to make me more available if I'm not to take a last minute fee today for tomorrow. Now, that said, if it's an existing client and there's an
Speaker 1 1:26:16
emergency, of course you want to be there for them. But if
Scott B. 1:26:21
it's just hey, we're thinking of going, you know, down to Galveston tomorrow, the weather looks nice, you know, can you come? No, you know, I if I'm not available, I'm not available. And and to me, by charging you an extra 25 or $30 as a late booking fee is enabling a bad behavior, because if Scott says yes, and Collin sends me $30
1:26:48
and then two weeks later,
Scott B. 1:26:52
Collin calls me and says, Hey, can you we want to go back to whatever? Sure, what? What does it cost? It's your visit, plus another $30 you send me the money, you know, whatever. And then the one time you reach out to me and I say, No, Collin, I can't, you're going to be like but, but I've paid you in the past, and you've always said yes to me. I just think I'm enabling a bad behavior, because making someone pay for something that they think guarantees them a spot.
1:27:24
At some point you're going
Scott B. 1:27:25
to have to say no. And I just think that enables a bad behavior. I see it from both sides where, where, you know, for a business with the team, yes, you need to make sure you have someone that can go there, and you know you're going to have to pay that person, and you want to make sure, you know, I get it, but I'm a glass again, half full, half empty on that, that I don't
1:27:49
want to create a behavior again.
Scott B. 1:27:55
You know that, that it's a bad behavior. In my opinion,
1:27:59
I've created a bad behavior that that
Scott B. 1:28:04
that they think every time they do this, I'm going to say yes, and sometimes you just can't No, and you've
Collin Funkhouser 1:28:09
got to be okay, yeah, well, yeah, you have to be okay with that in setting those boundaries. And you have to be okay with knowing that this is part of controlling the Oh no's, and I appreciate, you know, the reminders that you've given of communicating early, staying consistent, but having that flexibility that you build in there, it allows you to, you know, take on or not what you can, and that just becomes part of that relationship that you've built with clients. And as you have the good clients around you, it makes that process a little bit easier. Oh, absolutely, because, because, then it just kind of keeps rolling along there. But I know that you know Scott, I want to thank you for coming on today and for sharing all of this and for encouraging us to to focus on these and to look in our own businesses and our and how we run to make sure that we're taking care of our clients well, but also ourselves. So I know there's a lot here for those who want to get connected with you, Scott, you know, maybe pick your brain or ask some questions about this. How best? How best can they do that and start, you know, running a better balanced and making sure they don't have the
Scott B. 1:29:23
I'm in quite a few pet sitting Facebook groups, you know, psi pet sitters forum, your group, the Robert Strickland's next level and then there is a group out there, pet sitter party of One for solo sitters that I'm a member of. But you know, my my email address is ptps@comcast.net you know, I have a personal Facebook page. You can message me. You know, I'm an open book. You know that? I mean, I, I love working with. Other pet sitters and, and it's funny,
1:30:05
you know, I,
Scott B. 1:30:08
like I said earlier, I would love to be able to help someone just starting out, or, or, or, you know, has been in the industry for a while, but if there is something I can share that it took me 20 years to figure out that I could save you the headache, you know, in two or three years, you know, I'd be more than happy to talk to anybody. You know, the great thing about our business is, is there's no right or wrong way to run your business
Speaker 1 1:30:38
however. You know,
Scott B. 1:30:42
as long as you're doing things that are going to keep you, know, your clients safe, the pets safe, their property safe, and, of course, protect yourself as the business owner. You know, we're not robots. We don't want to do everything the same way, all day, every day, and I don't want to contradict myself about the consistency, but you know, I think being consistent helps avoid complacency, and also consistency in the way you screen your clients, communicate to your clients, to your team, to whoever avoids some of the Oh no's that could cause too much exposure and a safety or liability situation, if that makes sense.
1:31:24
Yeah, that does. Scott,
Collin Funkhouser 1:31:26
yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on today, and as always, always, always a pleasure getting to talk with you. No. Thank you. Collin, if you're consistent, you won't get complacent. Consistency is what keeps our head in the game. It's what keeps us performing at a high level every single day. What support structures do you have to keep yourself consistent? What boundaries have you placed in your life? What policies, procedures, tools and resources are you utilizing to make sure that every phone call, every text message, every update, every photo, every interaction and touch point with you is consistent, or how you hold the leash, how your team does that? When we are consistent, it truly, genuinely shows that we care, if we truly care about the outcome, the quality, the sincerity of what we do, we'll put in the work to be consistent. Don't forget, this episode is eligible for one CEU credit from both psi and naps. So now that you've listened, go to the show notes, click the link, take the quiz, get the email. We want to thank today's sponsors, tying to pet and pet sitters international for making this show possible. And we also want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and we'll be back again soon. You.
