Unusual Pet Career - Pet Friendly Landscaping

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Pawfriendly Landscaping Inc A backyard designed with your pet in mind - what a great idea! Pawfriendly Landscapes Inc based in Colorado specialize in landscaping your yard around the needs of your pets.

They take an inventory of your pets habits (good or bad), work up a custom design for you, and do the full installation. A practical yard for your pets and a beautiful space for you.

Their website shows examples of backyard designs that include innovative pet features such as:

Outdoor cat litter boxes

Doggie Hydrants made with stones

Dog Racetracks

Odor Neutralizing Mulch

Cobbling beds with stone to deter digging

Raised beds to deter trampling of plants

Prickly planting to deter chewing of plants

Latice structures above fences to deter jumping over fences

You don’t have to live in Colorado to take advantage of their design service. You can send them plans and photos of your yard, and descriptions of your pets habits and they will custom design a landscape for you and you can take their plans to local contractors to quote the construction.

If you are good in the garden and want to start a pet related business but don’t want to work hands on with pets this could be the business for you. Make your own designs or use their service to get the design work done and then provide the construction service to clients.

For more business tips subscribe to my free weekly ezine Pet Business Power Tips.

Tags :dog friendly landscaping, pawfriendly landscapes, pet friendly landscaping, Unusual Pet Careers

Starting a Pooper Scooper Business: The Inside Scoop…

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Today’s article is by guest author Tammie Peters.

A professional pooper scooper service involves cleaning up and removing dog waste from peoples’ yards. This home-based business idea has grown in popularity over the past few years as a result of the relatively low start-up cost, the growing need for the service and the potential to make good money. These were some of the very reasons that I started my own pooper scooper business called The Scoop on Poop. The business was in full operation over a period of 3 years—throughout which time, I learned a great deal. Most people hear of the success stories of others in the industry and feel that starting a pooper scooper business of their own will produce the same results. Although this can happen, based on my experience I know it is not as simple as it might seem. There is much to consider besides cleaning up dog poop if this is a business venture that you are currently exploring.

Research and Planning As with any business, it is important to complete all of your research and planning prior to investing any time and money into the venture. To start a pooper scooper business from home you will have to find out if any special zoning and/or permits are required. You will have to investigate your options and plan for waste disposal as well. This is one of the challenging aspects of a pooper scooper business: what do you do with hundreds of pounds of dog poop? How much will it cost your business to dispose of the waste?

Physical Demands Scooping poop is physically demanding, hard work, unsanitary and can be offensive at times. If you’ve ever cleaned up after your own dog(s), imagine doing this for 8 hours or more each day. It can produce an enormous physical strain on your back because of the constant bending over. Lifting heavy bags of dog poop all day (especially in the spring when the poop is wet) can be very tiring. You will want to be in good physical condition if you’re going to scoop poop for a living.

Seasonal Challenges One of the benefits to this type of business is the outdoor work, but this can also be a downfall. Scooping in extremely hot, cold or rainy weather can be difficult and this is why it is essential to dress appropriately. The condition of the poop will change according to the weather and different tools, techniques and approaches are required to scoop the poop efficiently.

Service Pricing For regular service, most pooper scoopers charge approximately $8.00 to $15.00 per week to clean a customer’s yard where only one dog is using the yard. Additional dogs will usually increase the price by $3.00-$5.00 per dog. Other frequencies offered are: bi-weekly, twice/week or monthly. One-time and first-time clean-ups will cost the customer considerably more as these jobs often take 2 workers 1 to 3 hours to complete, especially if a “blanket” of wet waste is covering the yard. Other things to keep in mind are: how large of an area you will offer your service in, whether you will operate it full-time or part-time, your customer payment policy, hiring employees and whether you’ll offer regular scooping or just one-time major clean-ups.Having said all of this, owning your own business can be very rewarding and with hard work, persistence and creativity there is potential to make a considerable amount of money with a professional pooper scooper service.

For further information and a detailed step-by-step guide on starting a pooper scooper service, please visit www.pooperscooperinfo.com.

Tags :dog waste removal, pet business tips, pet waste removal, poop scooper, poop scooping, Unusual Pet Careers

Unusual Pet Career - Making Natural Dog Shampoo and Soap

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Natural Dog Shampoo Natural pet shampoo and soaps are growing in popularity as pet parents are becoming more aware of the effects of chemicals on the environment and on the health of their pets.

Pet shampoos and soaps can be made in your home and marketed to pet owners as a great home based pet business. This is another example of a pet business that can be launched with very low overhead and start up costs.

You can find many recipes for natural pet shampoos online - here is a simple one that I found at Care2.com:

2 cups water

2 teaspoons liquid castile soap

2 tablespoons aloe vera gel

Up to 1 teaspoon vegetable glycerin or vegetable oil

Combine the ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Shake to blend. This recipe is especially good for soothing skin irritations.

You can find several recipes for dog soap at About.com - for these you will need to purchase melt and pour soap mixes to be used as a base and molds in which the soap mixture can be poured to set. These can be purchased from “Nature With Love” or other online sites.

The dog shampoo and soaps could be marketed for the holidays as part of a gift basket or as individual jars, bottles or soap bars. During the year another great place to market soaps and shampoos is at your local grooming salon or doggie day care center. You could have a display on the counter where customers check in and out. When you were ready to grow your dog shampoo business you could also market them on Ebay or set up your own website to sell them online and ship to customers.

To find other unique pet business ideas I recommend 101 Best Businesses for Pet Lovers As the title suggests this book has 101 ideas for pet businesses and many of them are out of the box ideas such as careers as a pet food sampler, toy inventor, pet radio host, pet party choreographer or catnip farmer. The details of each career are described with qualifications needed for each, ways to get customers, and other helpful resources. Take a look now at 101 Best Businesses for Pet Lovers

Tags :pet health, Unusual Pet Careers

Unusual Pet Care Business - Pet Photographer

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Today I found a great interview with a pet photographer - Jamie Pfughoeft in the Seattle Times in their nwjobs section where they profile interesting careers. Jamie shares some fantastic information about how she became a pet photographer, the equipment she uses, what at typical workday looks like for a pet photographer, and how much competition there is in the pet photography market. She also shares some tips on getting started as a pet photographer and her favorite resources. You can find the complete interview at Seattle Times nwjbos.

Pet Photography My first pet sitting client was a cat photographer (Helmi Flick) who needed me to look after her cats while she travelled to cat shows around the country to photograph cats for breeders attending the shows. She took some great pictures of my cats that I love and hang proudly in my office. Here is one of both my Burmese kitties - Cozzy and Bouie.

Since taking my photos almost 4 years ago she has been invited to international pet shows and her photos have been featured on the cover of Cat Fancy magazine several times. Her business has grown in leaps and bounds.

Pet Photography is a specialized field as taking photos of pets required patience - pets don’t like to sit still for photos and have to be coaxed into position using toys or other distractions.

Pet photographers don’t only cater to the pet owner and breeder market but are also needed for commerical photographs that are used for pet product advertising online and in magazines, billboards, and on product labels. As the market for pet services and products grows so does the demand for great pet photos.

If you are interested to find out more about pet photography be sure to read the interview with Jamie at Seattle Times nwjbos

Tags :Pet Business Interviews, Unusual Pet Careers

National Pet Memorial Day and The Pet Cemetery - An Unusual Pet Business

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Today, Sunday September 9th, is National Pet Memorial Day. A day to remember pets and honor the memory of pets that are no longer with us. The day was established by the International Association of Pet Cemeteries in 1972 and is celebrated by most pet cemeteries across the US on the second Sunday of September each year.

One way to remember your pets is to create an online memorial for them at I Loved My Pet. At this site you can create a page that contains photos, audio, videos, and thoughts and memories about your pets.

It seems strange that I saw an article about this day of celebration this week as one of my pet sitting clients was just telling me about our local pet cemetery last weekend. I have never heard of pet cemeterys except the one in Stephen Kings famous book but when I did an online search I found that they are very common. When our Lab Mackie passed away 2 years ago we were able to have her cremated at the hospital where she was receiving treatment and we keep her ashes in an urn on our mantle.

Pet cemeteries give owners a final resting place for their pets or their ashes and allow owners to visit to pay their respects and visit the grave as often as they want. I can see how this type of facility can help owners ease the emotional pain of pet loss.

Many pet owners are also investing in elaborate headstones, caskets, or urns if they opt for pet cremation. There are many online vendors for pet urns and other memorial items.

The cost of burying a pet in a cemetary or cremation of a pet is often quite high. In a recent article about the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park a park spokesman said that

the cost to bury a pet starts at $549 and is based on plot size and type of casket. The price includes everything–casket, plot and maintenance, and can go as high as $1,205. Cremation costs are based on weight–$85 for a pet under 10 pounds; $245 for an animal weighing 151 to 175 pounds.

The need for pet cemeteries and crematoriums is growing as pet ownership grows and states start to impose stricter regulations against backyard pet burials. Many veterinary offices work directly with pet crematories for their clients pet burial needs.

If you have experience with cremation or cemetary management and want to work with pets you may consider opening a pet cemetary in your area to serve local pet owners.

To find out more information visit the website of the International Assocation of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories.

Alternatively there are many opportunities to create unique pet urns, caskets, or memorials and market to pet owners. You can browse one of the search engines to find out what types of products are being offerred to pet owners.