Unusual Pet Career – Making Natural Dog Shampoo and Soap

Natural Dog ShampooNatural 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.

101 Pet Care Careers 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

Owning a pet business does not guarantee you success, but it is generally not difficult to set up your own pet business adn many who own pet businesses love the hard working lifestyle and the closeness to pets. You will have to compete with those who may be better trained, may have lower cost structures and those who “pretend” to have your skills and experience when they do not. (eg not all those who advertise themselves as groomers are actually Groomers).

There are also key skills that all dog industry professionals should possess. Here are some of the most critical skills and abilities for those hoping to work with dogs professionally: Basic Dog Handling and Training Skills, ability to recognize behavioral signals.

Animals can be somewhat unpredictable when they are under stress or in an unfamiliar environment, like when they visit the veterinary office or the grooming salon, so it is important to be attentive and stay aware of the animal you are handling at all times.