Pet Industry Annoynces

[CharlieDog]

I could have worked at any one of these places. OMG, I'm laughing SO HARD.

My favorite is always having to kick out a repeated offender for biting. I feel SO BAD, but lady your dog put HUGE HOLES in another dogs neck! I don't CARE if he provoked her, that is NOT an acceptable response!

Or the lady that is seriously 15 minutes late every day. Like really!? We charge a DOLLAR A MINUTE over the closing time. She pays it, every week, like clockwork, but really, if you left just a LITTLE bit earlier, you'd save SO MUCH money.


And the clients who have no idea what their dog eats. Lady, I know your dog eats beneful/pro plan/whatever and how much they eat and they board like once a month. I only have to call you to authorize your card because we're certainly not paying for your dogs food this stay.

My favorite though, are the ones that never bring enough food, ever, and the dog eats something we have to go like five miles away to get at the specialty store, which we don't charge for, even though five miles in the city takes about thirty minutes, one way, on a good day, and then they want to bitch about the total of the bill when we charge them for the smallest bag of food to get them through the stay possible. Ugh.

[skittledoo]

Originally Posted by Emily

ETA: Hey, skittle, how about the clients who say, "Oh my GOD, you just must have SO MUCH FUN every day, just playing with the dogs. I bet it's not even like work."

Ack sorry. I just now noticed your eta. And yes Omg annoying. We get that ALL. THE. TIME! I get it outside of work too. Someone will ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I work at a dog daycare/boarding/training facility and they respond with, "oh you LOVE dogs so it must not feel like real work." Or when someone comments, "well you get to hang out with dogs all day. It's not like you have a real job with real work."

Excuse me? I clean up crap and pee ALL day. I clean up diarrhea all the time and throw up and I have to be quick or else other dogs will EAT it. I have to break up dog fights sometimes and give dog baths and do nails. I have to know how to clean wounds when needed and wrap wounds correctly if needed. I am a shift supervisor so I have to manage my crew which does NOT mean I sit on my butt and play with cute puppies. I take boarding reservations and daycare reservations, payments and create new invoices. I have to clean and scrub down the entire play area every single day and I get mopped with dirty poop water at least once a day unfortunately. I also teach training classes and so on so forth. It's not like I dance across rainbows with unicorns and puppies all day. It's hard work.

[skittledoo]

Originally Posted by CharlieDog

I could have worked at any one of these places. OMG, I'm laughing SO HARD.

My favorite is always having to kick out a repeated offender for biting. I feel SO BAD, but lady your dog put HUGE HOLES in another dogs neck! I don't CARE if he provoked her, that is NOT an acceptable response!

Or the lady that is seriously 15 minutes late every day. Like really!? We charge a DOLLAR A MINUTE over the closing time. She pays it, every week, like clockwork, but really, if you left just a LITTLE bit earlier, you'd save SO MUCH money.


And the clients who have no idea what their dog eats. Lady, I know your dog eats beneful/pro plan/whatever and how much they eat and they board like once a month. I only have to call you to authorize your card because we're certainly not paying for your dogs food this stay.

My favorite though, are the ones that never bring enough food, ever, and the dog eats something we have to go like five miles away to get at the specialty store, which we don't charge for, even though five miles in the city takes about thirty minutes, one way, on a good day, and then they want to bitch about the total of the bill when we charge them for the smallest bag of food to get them through the stay possible. Ugh.

A dollar a minute after closing time? OMG that's GENIOUS!!!!! I need to seriously run that idea by my boss... though she might not enforce it because traffic out here is so terrible that some clients really can't help being late... but ugh... I hate staying after when I really want to leave and go home because I have to feed my OWN dogs dinner.

[CharlieDog]

Originally Posted by skittledoo

A dollar a minute after closing time? OMG that's GENIOUS!!!!! I need to seriously run that idea by my boss... though she might not enforce it because traffic out here is so terrible that some clients really can't help being late... but ugh... I hate staying after when I really want to leave and go home because I have to feed my OWN dogs dinner.

Yep. We borrowed it from a child daycare in the city.

We're smack dab in the middle of midtown, lol, we DO make exceptions, especially if it's been raining, and we do give out a few free warnings. After the first warning we let them know we do charge late fees, and then if it happens a second time, we let them know what the late fee is, the third time it happens, they get charged.

We (I say we, I don't work there any longer) make a tidy sum off of late fees. The employees get a little of that back every few months in bonuses, but I wish they'd give a percentage to the ones who stay late, because inevitably, it's the same employees every time.

[Fran101]

People who want to buy cheap foods/treats and get mad that we don't carry science diet/dog chow/proplan/beggin strips "BUT THIS IS A DOG STORE!"

We are a small dog store that only has high quality food/treats.. we explain the reasons why, we have pamphlets on nutrition.. but some people still leave in a huff.

Sorry. We are not going to carry crap food so make you happy.

[Fran101]

"I need pet sitting for my dogs" "For when?" "Tomorrow!"

..are you kidding me right now?! and worse is that I ALWAYS do it. Our walking clients know that we love their dogs, know that we see them everyday and inevitably...will do it.

"Sorry..we don't have any sitters available, we need more notice"
"BUT I NEED SOMEONE TO WATCH HIM! BUT PLEASE!/Oh..that's fine. I guess I'll just leave some food and water out *pauses to let the guilt seep in*"

FINE!! Ugh. Another **** weekend I spend in someone else's house even though I DON'T WANT TO!

[Taqroy]

I am SO glad I don't work in a pet store/doggy daycare. You all have my sympathy. The people at the training place are bad enough - and most of them WANT to be there and WANT to do right by their dogs and they're still dumb.

ETA: Dumb sounds mean and isn't really accurate. Resistant is a better word I guess. Although why you would resist the teachings of a class you paid a considerable amount of money for is beyond me.

Originally Posted by Southpaw

Seriously I would be so beyond PISSED if I walked into a store with my dog and there was a loose dog. Like that is the kind of situation where I would probably think "oh Juno, you want to growl and lunge at that dog? Today, I will allow it." I mean okay it's not the dog's fault, but sometimes the idiot owners need to be smacked in the face with reality.

So...I had Mu at a private session the other day and when I went to take her out there was some guy walking his dog down the sidewalk in front of the building. Which is a huge no no, we have DR, DA, HR, HA, and status unknown dogs coming in and out a lot and we tell clients to leave their dogs in the car until we're ready. So I have someone go out and ask them to get out of the way and then I take Mu out. The guy moved three feet. Seriously, just out of the line of sight from the window. Mu ran out the door and lunged at him and his dog while barking like a jackass and the guy got this horrified look on his face. I TOLD YOU TO MOVE JERK. FACE THE WRATH OF MY SMALL ANGRY DOG. It's one of the only times I haven't apologized for her being reactive - that guy brought it on himself.

[milos_mommy]

People who put haltis or choke collars or worse....PRONG COLLARS on their dogs.



With a flexi lead.



(and it's not something I've seen once or twice. About half the dog owners in NYC do this...)

[Assamiea]

On the subject of math, there's a small mom and pop shop in my area that sells crickets by the dozen. Their signs say x amount of dollars for 12. The other day a woman came in to get crickets and her husband told her to get a dozen. So she comes into the store and tells the guy that was working there (who was fairly new) that she needs a dozen crickets. The guy looked at her all confused and says "sorry I can't give you a dozen, we only sell then in groups of 12". They both stood there in silence for a couple minutes and then the lady says "forget it, I'll have my husband come in and you two can sort it out."

The poor guy stood there dumbfounded for a minute, then shrugged and went back to work.

[Julee]

Originally Posted by MandyPug

Also I can identify some kibbles by smell and it weirds out some customers but some are really really impressed by it lol.

I can do this, too!

People who ask for discounts. Seriously? I charge the same as the boarding kennels in the area, all of which LEAVE THE DOGS IN KENNELS ALL DAY and make you pay extra for any walks or playtime. Here, the dogs get exercised regularly with mine, play with mine all day, and are only crated when nobody is home (NEVER more than half an hour) and at night if they're not trustworthy. Otherwise, they sleep ON MY BED. WITH ME.

It also irks me when people don't maintain the training I put into their "problem" dogs. People who feed bad food. People who don't listen when I say their dogs need to lose weight. People who insist on using shock collars, choke chains, etc. The list goes on.

I really the hate the "real work" comments as well. My boyfriend used to make them occasionally, and now that he lives with me and helps me out... not so much