Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Covered in Pet Hair, a boozy show for
pet lovers on Pet Life Radio. I'm your host Isabelle Alvazerana,
and today I have the pleasure of having a drink
in a chat with a nineteen plus year professional pet
sitter who's gonna give us an insider's view to the
life of a pet sitter and how you can find
the perfect pet sitter for you and your pets.
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Speaker 4: Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Covered in Pet Hair. I'm your host
Isabelle Alberzerana, and today I have the pleasure of having
a drink in a chat with a pet parent, a
professional dog walker, a professional pet sitter, and an entrepreneur.
He's an adventure seeker, a win snob, a coffee lover,
and a big time cruiser platinum on Carnival, if I
might add, He's originally from New Jersey now lives in Kingwood, Texas,
near Houston. He husband to Hale. They have been together
for forty one years. He is dog dad to Bucky,
Chatto and Lola, and he is founder of Personal Touch
Pet Sitting. He is Scott Black. Welcome, Scott, my friend,
It's great to see you again.
Speaker 5: Hello, Hello, Hello, I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 2: Well, I am thrilled that you're gonna give us an
insider to you into how to pick a professional petsitter,
what to look for, what to avoid, all the things.
But before we get into the nitty gritty, I want
to introduce our drinking game today. So anybody participating in
our drinking game at home, anytime you hear this word.
Speaker 1: The secret word is gale.
Speaker 2: Take a drink of whatever you're enjoying, but please be
over twenty one in the US to partake in an
alcoholic beverage, Never drink and drive, and always drink responsibly.
So I have a sneaky suspicion that you might be
between pet sitting business. So I'm going to assume that
you are not having an alcoholic beverage today.
Speaker 5: I am not. I am actually enjoying an afternoon iced
tea out of my Texas Pet Sitters Association to.
Speaker 2: Doke up not, I love it a little shout out
to the Texas Pet Sitters Association. You were a founding
member of the Texas Pet Sitters Association, Is that right?
Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2: Well, I always introduced this show with a game, and
I'm actually having a margarita in inspiration for my cruise
ship adventure that's coming. But before I drink all of
this and get a little tipsy, I want to get
into what it is that pet sitters do for pet parents.
And I've come up with a game. It's called Petsitter Checklist,
because if you don't even about pet sitters, you know
that there are a lot of checklists. We do a
lot of checklists in a pet sitting industry. So this
is gonna give you, while I drink my margarita, two
minutes on my handy dandy clock to tell me all
the ways in which you have helped pet parents. Are
you ready to play?
Speaker 5: Didney?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 2: Sounds good to me. Let's get started. Here we go
three two one joke.
Speaker 5: Sitting isn't rocket science. The science is making it happen
all day, every day. And I don't mean that lightly.
You know, No, two days are the same for me,
because I'm a one man band. Today, my schedule is
different than tomorrow, and tomorrow is going to be different
than Friday, and so on and so on. And in
order to meet the needs of each pet in each home,
you need to make sure you have the bandwidth to
do that. And you know, going on to nineteen years
from July, I would like to think the success of
my business has been you know, my passion of course
for this because you know, I mean, this is a
it's not a Monday through Friday nine to five job.
It's weekenders, holidays. You know. Sadly we have dealt with
the happy side of pet care and the not so
happy side of pet care, and it goes with the territory.
But I would like to think my big success is
my honesty and transparency. I kind of joke with potential
new clients and say call me mister self because I'm
gonna put it out on the table and if I'm
comfortable doing it, great, But if I'm not comfortable doing it,
I'm gonna let you know as well and need to
have that two way conversation because they may be something
that I might say that could raise a red flag too,
you know. So again, the name of my business is
Personal Touch pet sitting. I take it to more of
a personal level where my screening and onboarding is all
done through a phone call to make sure we're a
good fit before we take it to the next level,
because they may want me to do something. I just
actually literally got off the phone with someone that has
a young puppy first time. They're leaving her and they're
looking for someone to spend the night. I don't offer
overnight service because of what I have going on in
my home. So, you know, I felt bad in saying, well,
I'm sorry, I can't help you, but I hope I
pointed them in the right direction to find someone that could.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, how did you get into the pet sitting
industry nineteen years ago? Because it is more popular now
that it was twenty years ago, it wasn't as common
an industry to get into So tell me about that journey.
Speaker 5: Prior to moving to Houston, Hall and I lived in
New Jersey, That's where I'm from. I worked for City Bank.
He worked for Bank in New York, but he was
in New York all the time. I worked in both
New Jersey and New York, so we would have to
commute into Manhattan on those days. And if you've ever
been to New York or New Jersey, there's the Path
train that takes you from Hoboken into New York. Our
train stop was the World Trade Center. Okay, Well, in
two thousand and one. We moved to Houston. In ninety eight,
two thousand and one, I was working for a mortgage
company here, and when the towers went down, so did
the mortgage rates. Well, knowing now what I wish I
would have known then, the company I worked for was
pretty shady, and they wanted me to pretty much just
get people that were in bad loans into worse loans
and you know, profit from I couldn't do it. I
did it for a few months, and I was making
a ton of money, but I'm like, I can't profit
off the back of less fortunate people. I mean, fortunately,
that mortgage company is no longer in business. But I
woke up one morning and had a panic attack and
said I can't do this, and one sick day became
too and anyway, I got the help I needed, and
during my little sabbatical, as I'd like to call it,
a dog came into my life. And it was a
neighbor's dog that they had found. They couldn't keep it,
and they asked me if I could come over and
check on it while they were gone. My first pet
sitting job, right, I mean, other than when I was
a kid and the neighbor's bunny, you know. And I
just I said, well, you know what, why don't we
just bring it to our house because she won't be
let alone all the time. And it was a little
Dalmation puppy, you know, about four months old, and this
dog just stole my heart. And when they got back,
I said, well, are you still going to try to
find the owner? And they said, well, we've tried for weeks.
You know, she wasn't chip, she had a collar, but
no tad's it was springtime. I'm sure she was a
Christmas puppy. Got her eye. I said, well, she's not
known anywhere, so I named her Domino, which was a
big mistake because you never name a dog with no
on the under their name because she never heard it.
But that spotted paint in the butt was my inspiration
for starting my business. But she was the best medicine,
so to speak, for a time in my life where
things where I was just trying to figure stuff out,
you know. And she led me to start volunteering with rescue,
and I did some pet sitting for the rescue. Perfect
case you adopt a dog from you know, of my
foster dogs, and then you want to go on vacation,
We'll say, well, can Scott take the dog back? Well,
Scott's on his ten foster dogs since you adopted your dog,
you know, no, he can't, right, And he just said,
you know what, what if there's these people are local
to Kingwood? What if I pets that for them and
they make a donation to the rescue. Because I was
getting some assistance on an SSDI type thing, and I said,
I don't want to mess that up, but I would
love the opportunity to help raise money for the rescue.
So that's how that started, and they were getting such
positive feedback. She said, Scott, you need to start doing
this for yourself. And this was a woman who I
used to pet sit for her crew and her foster
dogs when she would travel for her job. And she
just said, you just need to run with this and
start making money for yourself. And that's kind of how
it started. I mean, it's totally reinventing yourself. So that
was two thousand and three, two thousand and four, and
I took it very slow. But July one, two thousand
and five, I was a legitimate company, you know, with
the State of Texas in short bonded. You know, I
joined PSI back then, I at least I never know
who PSI was that time. There wasn't like you were saying,
this wasn't a lot of help back then. I'll give
Patty Moran's book a plug. You know, I read her
Pet Sitting for Profit book. You know, I think as
every pet sitter did. But I have been a member
in good standing since two thousand and five, and you know,
also proud to say I was a top five finalist
for Petsitter the Year in two thousand and seven, in
two thousand and nine, and I finally became Petsitter of
the Year in twenty ten, So third time was the
charm for me. But you know, I embrace organizations like
PSI in NAPS because you know, they're all about making
us better at what we do. Names have changed, but
I have got to see dogs, puppies and kittens through
their life, you know. And I even think it's funny that,
you know, I'll go to the grocery store and I'll
run into a kid who's not a kid anymore, and
they say, hey, Uncle Scott. I became Uncle Scott. And
they'd say, you used to take care of Madison when
we would go on our summer vacations and blah blah blah.
And I'm like looking at these kids and I'm like,
oh my god, you guys have grown up. I mean,
I've watched kids grow up and graduate college or get
married or you know, in all different stages of when
I became uncle Scott in their house. And you know,
I wasn't smart enough back in the beginning to call
myself Uncle Scott. It started with a fine that got puppies,
and they got the puppies and stayed home with them
for a week, and then they had to go back
to work, and they kept saying Uncle Scott's going to come.
And I was visiting these puppies at ten weeks of age,
you know, three times a day while they were at work.
And you know, I house trained these dogs and I
taught them how to walk for the leash, and these
folks are still clients like family to me. But I
was just happy to do what I was doing. But
I wasn't smart enough to say, well, Uncle Scott, you know,
and now I wear it with like a badge of honor.
Speaker 2: Absolutely well, I want to actually get to dig into
how some pet parents have reservations, but in home pet sitting,
I know some people have stranger danger. I know some
people have these preconceived notions where they can't imagine meeting
a stranger and then they become Uncle Scott to the
whole family. So before we do that, we do need
to take a break. We'll listen to our sponsors, and
when we come back, let's talk about that. Let's talk
about how you go from a complete stranger and eventually
become Uncle Scott and such a huge resource a part
of the pet care team for this family. There's so
much going on, so don't go anywhere. I will be
right back with Scott Black.
Speaker 5: Begging to hear more of your favorite show.
Speaker 6: All full episodes of on our shows are avaisible on demand.
Go to Petlife Radio dot com to fed our entire
lineup of possum pet podcasts. Also dig us up in
iheartradiodan iTunes, Let's Talk Pets Lived only from pet Life Radio.
Speaker 7: Let's Talk Past, Let's Done pet Life Radio, Headline Radio,
petlve Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Covered in pet Hair. I'm your host
Isabelle Alberzerata, and today I am speaking to my personal
friend and professional petsitter, Scott Black, who is based out
of the Houston area, Kingwood specifically, and he is a
solo pet sitter that provides outstanding PetCare for people in
his community. He has been in the industry as a
professional petsitter for nineteen years, so I know this guy
knows a thing or two about professional pet sitters and
how my audience pet parents can find the perfect pet
sitter no matter where you're located. I'm a huge pet
sitting industry advocate. I was a professional pet sitter for
twelve plus years. I ran a professional pet sitting business
and I don't think that it is being leveraged by
pet parents as much as it should be, because in
home peck Care is the best pet care there is.
I will say it and I will stand by it.
Your pet doesn't want to go to a boarding facility.
Your pet doesn't want to go to daycare. Your pet
loves their home, wants to stay there, and wants a
super capable, trustworthy person to come keep up with their
routine when you can't do it. So I'm speaking to
the pet parents here. Listen to what I'm telling you.
In home pet care is where it's at, so Scott,
because I know for a fact there are a lot
of people who just heard me say that and are like,
but I don't want a stranger in my home. We're
going to play a second game and it's called Stranger Djroit.
So I'm gonna ask you a few questions and you're
gonna tell me how you approach these hang ups that
people may have, How you finesse this relationship so that
you go from a stranger to a truly reliable pet
care professional. That really saves the day sometimes when people
get sick, when people are injured, when people are traveling,
when people are overwhelmed. Here comes your pet sitter to
save the day. But at some point everybody starts as
a stranger, right, all right, here we go. The first
question that I have for you for this game is
how do pet parents get more comfortable with the idea
of having a stranger in the hall in general? How
do you persuade them to open their mind to this possibility.
Speaker 5: Part of my initial screening. Let's say I don't use
pet sitting software to screen my clients. I'm very old
school where I pick up the phone and talk to
them and one of my first questions is, hey, how
did you get my name? Because you sit for my
neighbor or I'm so and So's sister in law, or
pet ranch who's a local independent retailler. They do grooming
and pet supply and food and stuff. They gave me
your name. Well, ipet sit for the owners of this company.
If you're getting a referral. And nineteen years in, I mean,
I'm going to say the majority of my business is
word of mouth. Now I don't have to market per se.
I educate about professional pet sitting now on I'm out
of public versus you know, trying to get de clients.
Years ago, I had some helpers, and I decided it
wasn't for me, and I went back to a solo model,
and you know what, I sleep better at night. That's
another layer of putting people at ease. You know. Of
course businesses with staff. You had a business with staff.
The nice thing that a solo sitter can do is
give them that consistency where it's the same person coming two, three,
four times a day. Where there's some dogs that wouldn't
care who walked through the door, but the other dogs
are cats that may not. So that is another layer
of well, you know what, it's going to be me,
and you know, I understand that your cat may not
come out right away and just say leave your card
off hall you when I'm ready, but I don't take
it personally, and I don't cut visits short. I will
not sit on their couch once my duties are done
and put on like a YouTube video of like cats
me oweing or this or that, and before you know,
you know, little head folks around the corner. You know,
but I'm going to make a liar out of that
of these people and say you'll never see my cat,
you know. So there's just something about talking to people
and then they say, well, do you have pets shave
of your own? Well, yeah, let me tell you about
my blind deaf guy and you know this and that,
and I think just having that conversation of just circle
back to the first question you asked about, what is
a professional pet sitter? Credentials are very important to me,
even as a consumer. If I was going to hire
a contractor to do work in my home, are you
a short and bonded? Is the electrician and the plumber
you're gonna send here? Are they licensed? Background check, insured,
bond I mean, I don't need to be bonded, but
I am bonded because I think it gives peace of mind.
I mean, again, to any potential clients out there, I'm
not gonna steal from you. I have my own flat
screen TV. I mean, you may come home and find
a ransom note because I fell in love with your
dog or cat. But I joked, I joked, I joke.
I as part of my service offer taking in the mail,
picking up newspapers that are tossed on the drive. But yeah,
putting out trash or pulling in your trash can, alternating
lights and blinds or drapes to give your home that
lived in luck. Like, you know, I just show up
like I'm supposed to be there. And again, I do
not advertise on my car, and I do not wear
branded clothing when I'm working, because I just want to
show up and like I'm supposed to be there and
not raise attention to the fact that Maggie out of town.
You know, there's a whole debate about that. You could
put ted pet sitters in her, and I will say
do it, and five will say don't. And you know what,
there's no right or wrong.
Speaker 2: It's the right is whatever the client was exactly.
Speaker 5: And you know it's funny. I had a long time client,
another client from years ago who has since passed. She
got very sick right at the start of COVID and
it wasn't COVID related. She always said to me, Scott,
if I don't come home, promised me if you can't
keep She always called her cats the babies. If you
can't take de babies yourself, promise me you'll find a
good home for them. Right. Well, when she got sick
in March of twenty twenty, she passed May of twenty twenty.
She was a twenty twenty or twenty twenty one. COVID
was twenty twenty mm hmm, okay, so it was May.
She actually and these cats were older now, all senior
kidney cats. She cut her son out of the will
and made provisions to these cats and bed Town and
I to take them. She's like, I've made provisions like, well,
no one's going to adopt senior kiddies with kidney issues.
And so we took the three of them in and
sadly they've all since went home to meet Bamba. But
it was a very interesting experience. I bet you know.
I'm not in a position to do that for every client.
But the stranger danger goes from stranger danger to peace
of mind.
Speaker 2: You've made it really like, obviously anybody watching this who's
a human is like on board, Like, obviously this person cares,
Obviously this person has experienced, Obviously this person is reliable.
Obviously you've covered all the bases. But what about for
the people who say, like, what, my pet's not going
to be comfortable with a stranger coming in the door.
What do you say about them? How do you win
over the pet while the human's gone?
Speaker 5: Okay, so of course I don't take on anybody without
a meet Reek. First, we are going to see how
Beethoven or Gujo response to me coming in when I
come and meet the family, and where I live, nobody
uses their front door. Everybody uses a side door. They
come and go through their garage. Front door is stranger danger,
you know what. So in a lot of cases, let
me come in the door that they're used to you
coming and going from. And you know, if it means
you meet me outside and I walk in with you,
they're going to be like, well, okay, he might be okay,
you know, he's cool, you know. But I've also been
in situations where the dog will get between me and
their pet parents and they're just protecting them. Treats work well.
I always tell people, please have treats readily available. I'm
not going to bring anything because I don't know what
allergies your dogs may have. Just please have some available
because we need them. Well.
Speaker 2: Dietary restrictions oh yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah yeah. As a male part of my screening process, again,
I know I'm kind of all over the place, but
this question triggers back to when someone first reaches out
to me, how did you get my name? Where do
you live? Let's make sure, you're in my service area.
I'm a one man band. How does your dog do
with men? Yes, because if they're not good with men,
I'm in the community where a lot of people do
rescue box. A lot of dogs get dumped in Kingoin
and people end up keeping them, or they adopt from
local rescues, which I love. I'm a rescue guy. All
of my pets have been rescues, you know. So I
have a soft heart for rescue dogs. But you know,
if they're not good with men, I'm just gonna say, Look,
I am part of a professional pet sitting networks. Here.
I said, here's the name of three females. That one
is a large breed dog gal. She loves the big guys.
She likes big mutts, and you know I would give
her a call first, you know. Or so again, it's
part of offering a service, even though I can't help them.
It's no but you know, and I don't take it personally,
you know. Again, as a guy in this industry, I
don't want to say we have obstacles in our way.
I think the obstacles we have are dear because of
being a guy. Yeah, and the strange I don't it's
a strange man in mine. Now, well, okay, but do
you want a strange woman in your house or you
just don't want a stranger in your house? Right, I mean,
I'll go there, yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting because a lot of times people think
that the dog is or cat is not comfortable with
a man. But who's really not comfortable with the idea
of a male petsitter is the human. And I've actually
written for one of my clients. I wrote about how
she gets a lot of pushback because obviously she's an employer.
She needs to be a fair equitable employer, so she
employs males and females, and whenever she says, like the
name of the guy, she'll be like Todd Kyle, you
know Mark, They're gonna come over for the meet and greet.
She gets pushed back. As employers, we can't say like,
I can't hire you because you're male. That's the first
issue for me as a professional petsitting business owner. I
had to like explain to these to people. I hire
everybody who meets the requirements of my hiring and so
a lot of times it's not the pet, it's that person.
And maybe it's a female who has a you know,
a complex history with men.
Speaker 5: I understand that I don't take it personally.
Speaker 2: And sometimes it's the man, right, Like, not all men
are going to make your dog uncomfortable. There could be
something about the man. Maybe he was wearing a cap,
Maybe he was wearing a cap and sunglasses. Maybe he's
a really large man and they're not used to it.
But it doesn't mean that they can't become friends. It
doesn't mean that your pet is completely anti man.
Speaker 5: Hell and I fostered a dog years ago that supposedly,
you know, was not good with men. Of course we
foster failed and she stayed with us and best thing
ever happened to her. But you know, she she was like, yeah,
you guys are okay, you know yeah. Part of being
professional in this industry is to not take things personally.
Yeah okay, So when I ask that question, I want
someone to be honest with me. And the nice thing
about having that dialogue versus filling something out on a
pet information sheet in software, not that there's anything wrong
with that, but when I ask the question and there's
a little bit of a hesitation, the light bulb goes
on and go, huh, are they not being honest with
me or you know it. You can go both ways.
And again I don't take it personally. It's just not
worth it. It's just no, of course we're not it.
Speaker 2: There is a client for everybody, there's a pet sitter
for everybody. And that's really an important message here for
me is that there's always If you are looking for
a pet sitter, you need to start two months before
you're leaving minimum because you might need to interview a
few people.
Speaker 5: Or you know they'll be like, well, you know, we're
not just quite sure how he's going to do. We're gone,
Well we've got two months. I said, I don't want
to leave you hang in, but is it possible we
can schedule a couple of visits for me to just
pop in when you're not home and see if he'll
let me as the door and you know, can I
get them on a leash and can we go for
a walk, or can we go out in the yard
and I can get them back in, or said, you
don't have to be gone for hours.
Speaker 2: But you know, when it comes to the human, you
can't convince the human who doesn't want to be convinced.
So like if you're watching all this, you've besten to
this whole episode, and you're like, I still am not
comfortable with a pet sitter after everything Scott's told you,
after the experience, after the certifications, the insurance, the you know, safeguards,
the backup plans that you have, and all those things.
And this is pretty standard in our industry. To have
all these things from a professional pet sitter is pretty
standard in our industry. If you're finding somebody who doesn't
have a backup plan, who doesn't have, you know, some
kind of coverage of insurance, licensing, certification, membership to an
association like PSI or and APPS, then they're probably not
a professional pet sitter. So that's a whole other conversation.
It's really easy to get into the petsity industry, it's
not really easy to be a professional pet sitter. So,
you know, like entering the industry and thriving in the
industry to very different things. So as a professional pet
sitter former professional petsitter, I will caution pet parents from
assuming that every pet sitter is the same, so that
they have all these credentials that really make them professionals
in our industry. And finally, just know that professional pet
sitters also have deal breakers, just like the pet parents.
So I want to finish this episode off Scott with
your deal breakers. Can you come up with like top
three deal breakers when you're interviewing clients and what you're like, Now,
this is not gonna work. I'm putting you on the spot.
Speaker 5: You are you are, and I need to think this through. Well,
of course every other daycab visits are a deal breaker.
I won't do it. Or you know for cage pets, cats,
can you know, pocket pets and that kind of stuff.
Anything to do with your pet or dog off leash
not going to happen. Okay, we get up in the
morning and Max goes out and helps me get the
newspaper in the morning, and then he does his business
and we go back in. I'm like, well, I'm not
comfortable letting Max out off leash. Well, he won't go
to the bathroom. I said, well, we'll figure it out.
You know. I mean, a deal breaker to me would
be anything that someone asked me to do that could
put their pet and arms way got it? Leash? Noch
and I guess lack of respect.
Speaker 2: I was hoping you would say that.
Speaker 5: There are some people. Again, I mean, and this is
something that you know, I can pick up during that
phone conversation before having to go to meet them and
have it blow up at the table, so to speak.
You know, I am a business owner. Yes, I am
a pet sitting business owner. I care for pets when
families go away, but I do have a business acumen
and the policy that I put into place protect the client,
the pet, their home, and myself. And sometimes, like I
said earlier, you know, pet sitting is not rocket science.
The science is making it happen all day, every day.
But when you're dealing with old pets, young pets, sick pets,
it's so hard not to cross the line with a
human client. And I still don't like the word client
or customer because they become part of my family. Unble Scott,
you know what I mean, when they have something going on.
I've dealt with clients that have had cancer diagnosis, and
it's hard not to cross that line, but you do
what can I do to help. It's hard not to
think with your part sometimes, but we do need to
think with our head regarding the business, and I think
sometimes people also forget that we have a life outside
of what we do. We don't work up Monday through Friday,
nine to five job. And you know part of that
respect is don't text me at night thirty or ten
o'clock at night or midnight and expect me to reply
to your text. Right. I need to get sleep. And
you know I don't run my business for my cell phone.
I am very old school, as you know. I have
a separate business line that even if you are an
established client that has my cell number, I'm going to say, Isabelle,
if you're going to refer me to a neighbor or friend,
please give them my business line. Yeah, because that's how
I start screening my clients, because I want to see
if we're a good fit. Leave your name, address, phone number,
and dates or service needed one. I know where you
live or you don't live, whether you're in my service
area or not. I could check the dates to see
if I'm available. You know two strikes, you live in
my service area, but I'm not available, call se and
so you're out of my service area, call so and so.
I can still offer that customer service. But I start
screening my clients just for my outgoing message.
Speaker 2: Because Scott and I have so much to stay on
the topic of professional pet sitting. This is a two
part episode, and so stay tuned for next week's drop
of heart
Speaker 4: T Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on
petlife Radio dot com.