The Business of Pet Care (Aired 09-19-26) Pet Care Staff Training: Building Safer, More Accountable Teams

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Did you know that the pet care industry is a billion dollar industry and it is continuously growing? But are the people who care for your pets growing as well? I'm Dara Forleo, and on the business of pet Care, we are going to talk about what really goes on behind the scenes of those grooming tables, those daycare walls, and those social media filters. Welcome to the business of pet care, where we examine the systems, strategies and decisions that are shaping modern pet industries today. Modern pet businesses today. I'm your host, Dara Forleo, and today I am thrilled to be joined by Eve Molzan. She is founder of Dog Handler Academy, owner of Fun for Pets, and Possum Pet Country Club. With over two decades of working with dogs, building pet care businesses, and her daycare as it has grown, she has grown operations and encountered all the problems that so many of us business owners run into today. This is what we are here to talk about, those challenges that have become the foundation for Dog Handler Academy. Welcome to the show, Eve. It is great to have you on. How are you today? [00:01:29] Speaker B: Thank you. I'm excited to be here. You know, you hit the nail on the head, right? Like, two decades of challenges working in the pet care industry. There's a lot, [00:01:40] Speaker A: a lot. And there's a lot of people not teaching what to do. I know, coming from the grooming side, I see it in the exact same way you do, just on a different part of the industry. So I know trial and error. It has been trial and error for me as well and trying to pass that knowledge on when. So was Fur Fun Fur Pets, Was that your first company? [00:02:07] Speaker B: It was. It was my first dipping my toes into dog daycare and boarding. Prior to that, I had been fostering for a service dog organization and then became a trainer and then started doing hunting dogs. And it was built out of needing to get the dogs out of my house that I was training. So, yeah, I wouldn't say that I was super knowledgeable on how to operate an animal care facility. However, I did tour 22 other facilities in three states prior to opening my own. So I asked the questions, if you had to do it over again, what wouldn't you do? And I learned a lot that way. [00:02:51] Speaker A: So I. I'm intrigued by that. That is, you were actually able. They invited you to come in once you made that intro and was like, hey, I'm gonna do this. Can I come see your facility? And they're like, yeah, sure, come on in. [00:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it was, you know, I would. I would take a Saturday Afternoon or a Friday and road trip. I always made sure I was at least four hours from my home. So that way there, you know, there was no chance that I was going to be a competitor. And those front desk people, they want to tell you the tea. They want to tell you all the tea. So I learned retail. I learned, should I offer cameras? What's the best slip leash? What's the best cleaner? Turf. No turf. I learned all of those things by just asking the question, if you had to do it over again, what wouldn't you do? Because it's pretty easy to know what you should do, right? Like, make sure everybody has water, make sure they have food, make sure they take their meds. But it was all the, what shouldn't I do? That I didn't know and that a [00:04:04] Speaker A: lot of people don't want to share those because it's kind of like protected. I mean, that's. That's stuff that it's like, why should I tell you? I had to learn the hard way. Why should I let you have a hall pass on this information? So it is good that you, you took that initiative first and foremost to say, I'm going very outside my range. And being open, you probably still have a lot of those relations and connections. [00:04:34] Speaker B: I do, I do. There were several of them that were just excited to share their knowledge, to be honest. Some of them had only been open a few years or less. And a few of them, you know, they were old school, their facility was out in the country. They started boarding for their friends, and then it just grew from there. And they told me a lot about their trials and tribulations that they went through. So that way, when I opened, I really, I would say I was quite a few levels ahead because at least I knew things I needed to work out ahead of time and things I needed to plan for right away to ensure that I didn't have those same headaches and that I could develop a good team and develop processes that were going to work the first time. [00:05:29] Speaker A: That's really interesting. How so? When you started, you started with Fun for Pets Possum for. For our viewers watching and listening, Possum Pets Country Club. Is that another physical location or tell me about the, the dynamics between these three companies that you have. [00:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah, so Fun for Pets. I started that one first. It's 15,000 square feet daycare, boarding, training, and we dip our toes in the bathing for exit baths. And then Dog handler academy actually came about during COVID when I had to lay off half my staff. I had 125 empty suites. And I went from 80 dogs a day for daycare down to 30. So I couldn't keep everybody on staff, so I laid off half my staff and I went, oh my gosh, if this truly ends tomorrow, how am I hiring 12 potentially brand new people and training them all succinctly and making sure that they all have a comprehension when it's most likely just going to be myself doing that training? And so I started shooting videos and I sent them off to a few dog daycare friends of mine. I was like, hey, I'm thinking about doing like a YouTube channel. Would you find these beneficial? They were like, oh my gosh, how much can I pay you for this? And so Dog Handler Academy was born. And we've not stopped. That's continuing to grow. I'm continuing to create more content. And then Possum Pets Country Club came about after Covid when everybody went and got a dog. And I was like, I am busting at the seams in 15,000 square feet. I need some other place that I feel comfortable recommending to my clients to take their pets. And I didn't have that in any of my competitors and I had seven of them. So I bought a lot and built a brand new facility from the ground up. But I wanted to be different. I didn't want to compete necessarily with my other location 20 miles away. And so we are membership enrichment based at that second facility. And it's only called a country club because we're right next to a country club. Other than that, I'm not the bougiest of people, but it just fit. So I have traditional daycare, boarding training, lots of training programs, by the way, Dog handler academy, employee training. And then my second location is membership and enrichment based. [00:08:05] Speaker A: So you got a lot of stuff going on here. [00:08:09] Speaker B: You have been all of the above, all of the above. [00:08:13] Speaker A: I, I, I love it. I love it. That, that is good. Keeps you on your toes, keeps you fit, fresh, very, very innovative. I love that. Because you know what, there's a lot of the, the same out there going on over and over and over again. And you see it making the same mistakes and doing the exact same thing. So I love the innovation that you have brought into that. And I mean, just to, to go for. Are, am I right? Are you in Chicago, [00:08:45] Speaker B: Wisconsin? So I'm actually in a city of 55,000 people. Our county has less than 100,000 and we have 10 dog daycare and boarding facilities. [00:08:56] Speaker A: That's a lot of stuff going on. Wow. Wow. A lot of options for a fairly small community. [00:09:04] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. So how do I, you know, standing out and being different. Certifying my staff through dog handler Academy and offering traditional daycare and enrichment daycare. So trying to accommodate both types of clientele that I would. Would want to solicit. [00:09:22] Speaker A: Can we go back? Because I, I do want to ask about when you were talking about COVID because it kind of goes into this next question. And I think that's why I thought you were in Chicago because there were a lot of areas that were deemed essential. So your community was not deemed essential. [00:09:41] Speaker B: So our. A lot of grooming facilities were deemed not essential and they had to close. We were deemed essential because we are right next to both hospitals. And so those hospital workers needed us to watch their pets for their 10, 12, 20, 24 hour shifts. And I was able to convince our county health department to allow us to be open during COVID And I pivoted. I did bring back all 12 of. Actually 11 of my 12 staff. And we pivoted into dog training. And I rented space out to all of my local groomers who couldn't keep their shops open because as long as a dog could come for daycare or boarding, they could get groomed. [00:10:28] Speaker A: Oh my God. Are you serious? You really did that? [00:10:33] Speaker B: I did. I had six groomers. Yeah, I did. I brought in, I called all the local groomer groomers and I'm like, here's what we can do. Your. Your folks have to pay for a half a day of daycare. They don't have to go into daycare, but they have to. I have to show that they came for daycare and then you can groom them. And. Yeah, so we, we cleared out my maintenance room. We set up tubs. We. We made it happen. Yeah. So I went from a walk in shower in one one tub to six. Six lovely people in there just trimming hair and talking smack and making it happen for the community. [00:11:10] Speaker A: Well, from the grooming community, thank you for doing that. I do not know anyone who reached out an olive branch to the, the groomers that this affected. I mean, it was tough and to not be prepared for something like this as a small salon. So many were affected by it. It is just such a. That, that was devastating to. So, to just everything. Just everything about it. All right. We don't even need to dredge that up anymore. But thank you for doing that because that is spectacular and I want to showcase that in the this because I think I don't know anybody who's done anything as nice as that. Yeah. [00:11:56] Speaker B: Collaboration. And that's the way to look at it. Collaboration. Yeah. [00:12:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I, I just love that. Oh, my gosh. I'm gonna be fixed on that now. So before we have to take, we, we have got to switch to a commercial break right now. But really quick, what is something, what is one thing, one experience that a owner can rely on? [00:12:25] Speaker B: I think training your staff to the level that you want them to, but you have to hold that expectation and that boundary, and that's something that you can then rely on the fact of you've trained, you've held them accountable, and you can move that dial forward. [00:12:43] Speaker A: Excellent. Thank you. We are going to keep talking training because it's what I love too. So we're going to keep moving into that after this break. [00:13:13] Speaker B: Foreign. [00:13:18] Speaker A: Welcome back to the business of pet care. As you guys all know, we talk about this a lot. Training is not just simply completing a video or having an employee watch a video. You don't even just review a checklist or sign off on that document. The real part of this is whether the employee can, can actually perform the task correctly during the shift around the dogs and under operating pressures. So we are going to get back into this with Eve because I love this so much. You guys all know that we go hand in hand here. Dog training, boarding, daycare. Everything about it revolves around grooming. Just as well. Eve, you said it. What, what can you. When employee hears two different things from a manager, from somebody else, an owner, from their past and, and habits they brought with them. How do you design a training program to just bring it all together? [00:14:30] Speaker B: Yeah. And I, and I had that problem when I first opened. I did, I couldn't be there all the time. And my, my first facility, we were open. Well, we're open 5:30 in the morning till 10:30 at night. So I couldn't be there physically that entire time. And that is where, you know, looking at how people learn is, is one thing. Right. Some people are audio, some people read. 80% of people learn best by watching and doing. So they watch a video on how to do it and, and then you make them go practice it. But the checklist piece, that is for them and for us, Us as training. Right. Because we think, oh, I showed them how to do the laundry and now they should know how to do that. Yeah. But they were half listening because it's their first week on the job and they're terrified and they're trying to take it all in. They're only absorbing 65 to 75% of anything that they're learning. So having a consistent way to train people and also understanding how are they going to learn best. I try incorporate all of it. Here's our employee operations book. Read that. When you can't sleep at night, watch our training videos, take a quiz for comprehension, and then we're going to physically go through it, and then I'm going to check you off my checklist. So that is what I have found has worked best in training my staff. And. And it's not just in our industry that people learn best this way. They've proven it in manufacturing plants and processing plants and in a lot of the alternative educational programs too, where you're dealing with people who, you know, are struggling to learn. What is the best way to teach them? [00:16:23] Speaker A: Yeah, consistency and yeah, it's when you're very visual. You don't think that, or at least this is what I hear from my side of it is I need the hands on. But you have to have everything else to go with the hands on because then you don't understand the why. So that's. That's really interesting. Just out of curiosity, how long are your. Do you do the videos? How long are these videos? How much time? What. What do you think is like a good time frame for an onboarding? [00:17:05] Speaker B: So great question on the videos. And it's gonna vary. They say that under 10 minutes. So the max I try and make my training videos are eight. But you hit on a key word there, why. And that's where those videos really come into play. Because you're able to take a moment and explain the why you are doing this. I mean, in the grooming world, why are you using this scissors and holding your wrist at this angle to where when you're physically showing them, you're just showing them the actual movement? One of my training videos is how to mop the floor correctly. You don't push the mop front and back. You move it in a circle eight. Therefore it's catching all the dirt and circling it back. If I just showed somebody to mop, I would totally miss the why. And the why is really where you're able to utilize those videos. [00:18:00] Speaker A: Earlier you said because they're on the job, they're trying to absorb and kind of we relate it to, oh, hey, let's go wash this dog. Okay. Wash, wash, wash. Oh, hey, did you know that the life cycle of the flea is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Do you know how many coat types you're touching right now? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, I'm just trying to wash the dog, Dara. Like, yeah, can I take in when I'm just trying to figure out where my hands are? So they, they gotta know that why too. And, and hey, for all our viewers out there listening, you have to know the why. That's what school is, [00:18:40] Speaker B: 100%. Yeah. I mean, when we're talking dog body language, especially, right, if you're bathing the dog and it's doing the whale eye, while you're explaining to them the coat type, you might be missing the whale eye because you're doing the, the bathing. And same thing when we've got dogs in group play. If I have a new hire, and even if it's 10 dogs and we're in a group and I'm trying to point out different body languages and communication that's going on, I'm going to be missing some other things because I'm so focused on educating to where having somebody wearing earbuds, looking at a tablet, watching video where I'm specifically calling out, what is whale eye? Why is the dog in this scenario doing really helps solidify for them what it is, why a dog does it, and what is our next step as a handler to make that dog feel more comfortable and de escalate. [00:19:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I couldn't agree, couldn't have said it any better. I mean that, that is exactly how it, it should be. Do you have a. So when you're doing this, and I know you, you're, we're getting really into the dog handler academy here, all those connections that you made when you were starting, have they embraced this and have they really come around and gone, thank you for doing this? Because how many people think this way, you know, and go, oh, I, I need to do this? Because we're, we're really an industry of loosey goosey, anything goes. There's no rhyme or reason why we do anything. And people get into this, people, because I love dogs, I love cats, I love pets, I can do this. And it looks easy. And then it's like, oh, wait, what did I get into? [00:20:34] Speaker B: Yeah, and you're exactly right. It looks so easy. And especially if you've gone into a facility and it looks well run and it smells great, right? You're like, oh my gosh, I could do this because I love pets. I thought the same thing as a dog trainer, that I would be just fine in a pack of dogs. Heck no. It was a rude awakening. And not only, you know, my experiences as a dog trainer doing service dog Work and hunting dog work and then starting my facility. I also travel to eight, minimum of eight different seminars a year. And I've been learning and learning and learning. I love to learn. My philosophy is I don't know what I don't know, so therefore I want to know. So Dog Handler Academy has become the culmination of all the things that I'm learning over the last 30 some years and the last 14 years owning my first facility. And the key thing that I always come back to is your lawyer tells you do everything in writing, have your SOPs, you gotta have that manual. It's a pain in the butt to write it. I actually hired someone to follow me and my staff around for four days and she wrote our entire SOP manual. Highly recommend that you do that and then take it to the next step. Do videos and then your checklist. What does first day look like? And in the perfect world we know that you're going to get interrupted and things happen. But when I created Dog Handler Academy, my goal was just to hurry up and use it for my own staff. It's now in 15 countries and it's translated into three languages. So the need is out there for good educational training for our staff. And whether you're purchasing it for something that somebody else is doing or doing it in house, good training is a necessity and it creates good culture within your company. And whether you're a two bather, one groomer system, you've got a full grooming shop, full daycare facility, boarding facility, culture is everything, right? We've all had those bad employees. And so if you want good employees, they want good training, they want to be empowered to do right by your business. [00:22:58] Speaker A: That again, you keep saying like you and I speak the same language when it comes to all of this because I, I keep preaching it out the, you know, you can only do I, I think one thing that our industry, and I say my industry, grooming, it's all about the end results. The, there's so much training revolves around the haircut. The haircut, the haircut, the haircut that we forget about everything else. And it's very frustrating as someone who's trying to change that language and get away from the haircut being the end result because owners are different, they're looking for different now. They're asking better questions because there are too many injuries. And you probably see that in the daycare world also. [00:23:54] Speaker B: A hundred percent, 100% good training empowers your staff to make the right decisions and then that right decision might be this Dog is not appropriate for group play. But they're great for a solo play activity or things like that. Right? But they don't know what they don't know. You hire Johnny off the street who says, I love dogs and I grew up on a farm with farm dogs. And you think, great, he's got experience, he's got experience with his dog, but not with Susie's dog and Jimmy's dog and Max's dog and, and Celine's dog all in a group. So that training really, really has to come into play. And I focus on all the things you don't want to see in your facility because good play is good play. But how do they know to identify bad play when a dog is being muzzle punched, when a dog is being checked frequently, when a dog is escalating, that might move into something else. So yeah, I preach though, what you don't want to see in your daycare. I've got the videos for you to help train you on that. [00:25:00] Speaker A: Nice. That's wonderful. We gotta take a break. Eve, real quick. Give us where the best place to find you is and then we will be back after this message. [00:25:10] Speaker B: All the social medias of Dog Handler Academy or our website doghandler academy.com. [00:25:19] Speaker A: we will be right back. Welcome back to the business of pet care. Pet care businesses are growing like crazy and you should not want to miss a moment of this show or any of our NOW Media TV favorites, streaming, live or on demand, wherever it fits your schedule. Don't forget to go and Download that free Now Media TV app on Roku or ISO and find additional podcasts and programming all at Now Media TV. We are streaming and available 24, 7 a day. So all the conversations you care about are always within your reach as. And we are back with Eve from the Dog Handler Academy. And yeah, we've been talking about all kinds of stuff, everything I love, training, education, professional development, all that wonderful stuff. So Eve, tell me, does the pet care industry currently have a consistent understanding in your opinion on what qualifies someone to work in independently [00:26:55] Speaker B: in its current state? No, I really wish we did. And I can say we're working towards it and growth is good, right? So like we're getting there, we're moving forward and trying to create that standard, that standard of care, that standard of professionalism and the acknowledgement, I think too in our industry and as a groomer, you're going to agree with me here, right? It is a skill set to work with animals. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Yeah, there it is. And I, I agree with you on that. I think there are a lot of people who don't agree with us on a lot of other things, but they definitely agree with us that what we do, you do, how we operate, it is a skill set and it's not something that just happens overnight. [00:27:45] Speaker B: No, no, it, it takes a lot of training and, and the training, you know, varies. As we were talking about, right. Reading it, learning it, hands on, watching videos. I think the, the, the key thing with our industry, pet care industry as a whole, is how are we acknowledging the pets in front of us and they're attached to a human. Right? The dogs just don't walk into our facilities by themselves. So how can we care for that pet and acknowledge who they are as an individual, they're a breed, then their name and then move on to the pet parent. And some of that goes into, again, that training. How are we training our staff to communicate well with the dogs and how are we training them well with the humans that are attached to the leash? [00:28:41] Speaker A: Do you find that there is, outside of your, what you're doing in the people that you work with, do you find that there's still a lot of kickback [00:28:58] Speaker B: to a certain level? I think the kickback is the people that are not evolving their facilities. You know, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, if you said, oh, I'm going to take my dog to doggy daycare, you'd be laughed at by your friends and family, right? They'd be like, what are you talking about? Dogs have always been groomed, so at least you got it going there. And then daycares were just wide open spaces where dogs got to frolic and there might be 50 dogs to one handler. And then things have evolved and now we're segregating into playgroups based on size, based on play style. Now we're doing enrichment based daycare and training based daycare. So we're evolving what is known as dog daycare. It is no longer a free for all, like letting a bunch of teenagers romp in a, in a gymnasium. It's now focusing on how can we exercise the dogs physically and mentally and do right by the dog and their welfare. [00:30:01] Speaker A: What for people who are looking can. Is there anything, I mean, I, I've never taken my dog to daycare. I've actually, I've worked in plenty of them and knew back in the 90s I never wanted to be in that environment because it was always too loud as a kennel daycare, even grooming in them was difficult for me, but, and then I was Like, I could never bring my dog. I have Littles, my guys are all under £10. Last thing I want to do is leave them in a kennel in the loud area when, when people are looking for this, I mean, how, how do they look, how do they know? How do they, how, what, are there any trust indicators that you can, you know, just besides, like, I get gut feeling, you know, you get that gut feeling that's like, oh, I'm not so sure about this. [00:31:02] Speaker B: But no, absolutely, I, I think. And there are some dog daycares that are still wide open, expansive spaces. And for those, if you're like, you know, it's a rural country, they've got three acres fenced in and Bigs and Littles are together. Great. How many staff do you have? Is there a rest time? You know, those are the key things to look at. If it's an indoor facility, they should be segregating bigs and smalls. So your teeny tiny dogs are playing together, your medium sized dogs are playing together and your big dogs are playing together. My facilities segregate into six and it's just going to depend on square feet, how many you can do. The other thing is, if you have a specific breed, look to see if there's a daycare in your area that really caters to that. I know several people who just do under 30 pounds for their daycare. There's a daycare over in the UK that just does sight hounds, so look for that as well. Certifications, look for, are they doing education for their staff? And if they're using my educational opportunities, there's certificates, there's stickers on the window, ask how much education or training do their staff receive. And if that front desk person kind of smirks or chuckles, that's a red flag for sure. But yeah, they should have some sort of an education program that they're touting, whether it's myself or some of the other ones, that's super important and it's readily available. The front desk person, whoever it is that you're talking to, should want to really talk to you about all the education that those handlers are getting. And truly, what happens if my dog is not happy at daycare? How is that being communicated? And you should be able to do all the other easy ones, right? How does it smell, how does it sound? And those, But I usually ask the questions of, you know, how, how are the staff trained and how are you communicating with me if there's a problem? [00:33:09] Speaker A: Good questions to ask. I, I, that's, that's what you got to get to. Now, you said something about looking at others that are similar to you. And I'm talking about the, the academy part. How, what makes you, what, what is your difference compared to some of the other companies? Is there anything that you are like, yep, this is our jam. This is why we do what we do? [00:33:37] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. As I said before, I am really big on showing you what you don't want to have in your daycare. So I also operate a rescue program at my facility. And so we utilize the rescue dogs in group play as safe as. As we can. Showing a dog getting muzzle punched by another dog. So we'll show you a dog that's going over the top of the other dog. We'll show you a dog that's sitting there at attention and really, you know, focusing in on somebody. So we're showing you all of those, as we like to call them, oh, no moments, so that way you can learn what those look like. That is a key takeaway. I operate a facility. All of our videos are live shot in my facility. It's real life. There's no AI animation. And then the second thing is it's automated. So the staff watch the video, they take the quiz. They watch a video, they take a quiz. I get a notification when they've completed their training. I also get a notification when they stop watching their training so that I can have a conversation as to whether or not this is the right job for them. Because training is a requirement. [00:34:46] Speaker A: Training's a requirement. Yes, yes, yes. Training is a requirement. I wish it was more, more prevalent across the industry because I think people, we forget that there's so many entry points to coming into the pet, pet care side of things. And somebody could have learned from somebody down the road and those habits just get instilled. And I think sometimes owners forget too, that we expect and tend to not inspect what we're expecting, if that makes any sense. [00:35:28] Speaker B: Absolutely. Assumptions are always wrong. Right. [00:35:34] Speaker A: Well, we have to take a quick break here. Tell us again where we can find you and where everyone can get in touch with you. [00:35:43] Speaker B: Absolutely. So social media is the easiest at Dog Handler Academy or on our website, doghandleracademy.com Excellent. [00:35:52] Speaker A: We will see you in right after this break. [00:36:11] Speaker B: Foreign. [00:36:19] Speaker A: Welcome back to the business of pet care. Stay connected with this full lineup of Now Media TV programming. We are streaming live and on demand 24 7. Don't forget, download that free Now Media TV app on Roku or ISO for programming in English or and in Spanish. You can Listen to the podcast and discover more content at Now Media TV. We are around the clock, 24 7, ready whenever you are ready to watch. And we are back with. This has been a great episode. Oh, my gosh. In this, we're gonna get into what we just ended up. Assumptions. All right. We just assume some things. Management habits, all that. Let's get into this. Why Eve is verbal affirmation, an employee saying, yep, I got that. Yep. Understand that? Yep. I've done that before. Why is that not always such a reliable measure of readiness? [00:37:34] Speaker B: Sure. So, you know, if you say, hey, can you go do the laundry? Sure, I can do the laundry, but I've never used your washing machine. Right. So it's going to take me twice as long to figure it out. Versus if I said, yeah, I can do the laundry, would you like to show me? That would be great. Right? What are the settings? Do I need to clean out any of the rubber gasketing? Like, you know, what are the specifics? How. How much soap do I add? Where do I add it? In your machine? Do we use bleach? Do we use softener? All of those things are important. So when you say to somebody, hey, can you go do this? And they go, sure. Especially a new hire who's trying to impress the boss or the manager, of course they're going to say yes. And then they're going to go and they're going to screw it up, and then you're going to be like, why did you do it that way? Why did you make that mistake? Well, I thought I knew what I was doing. Nobody showed me. Nobody coached me. So that's where asking somebody, do you know how to do this? Of course they're going to say yes. Nobody wants to say no in that situation. Nobody wants to be embarrassed. And that's why it's so important that we, as a leadership team, right. We step up and we go, you probably know how to do laundry, but let me walk you through the steps on how we do it. [00:38:52] Speaker A: It's important. Those are just. It takes just a little bit of time. It's not gonna make or break. One thing I've been looking at a lot is how much it costs to replace an employee. For a business, people don't consideration what that looks like. All that, how much it costs to train, how much it costs to maintain them, how much it costs to lose them and then replace them. Again, it's better to keep. [00:39:27] Speaker B: Absolutely. And you brought up two pieces, right, the training part. So prior to dog handler academy, I went down the rabbit hole. And it was about $7,300 to train a new staff member. And it would take me almost four or five months because I would find inconsistencies. And how I said to load the washing machine and how somebody else told them to load the washing machine were totally different. Right. And so by creating Dog Handler Academy and doing the videos and then having that checklist where they have to physically show me that they've done it and I check off that they're proficient at it or I recoach them them. I'm down to under $4,000 in training a new hire and I'm able to get somebody up to speed in less than 60 days. So that is huge. But you hit on another key point, losing staff. Why do we lose staff? Number one, burnout. Right. They are tired of training new people. They're tired of having to clean up other people's disasters or other people making their job more difficult because they're not doing their part. So if we are training these new staffers well to be safe and effective, that takes that load off of your senior staff once they're trained. And now we've got that cohesive group of everybody rising to the level of standards, everybody operating in the same way, speaking the same language, mopping the floors the same way. And it really makes a true team environment. [00:41:12] Speaker A: How I, I, how did you, how long did it take you to figure out how long it cost you for this? You said the four months. Like what? I'm just, I'm thinking out loud. I know for me, but for other facilities that are listening that don't do this, take note here, this is huge information for you. [00:41:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. You know, well, it really starts with those first several weeks or months, you know, that they, this new hire has to be buddied with another person. Right. So now if I'm paying, and for easy math, let's just say I'm paying one person $20 and the new hire at 10. So that's $30 an hour for a seven hour shift. And they're working, let's say 30 hours a week or 40. Right. And week after week after week. So by not having a good process to train them away from that upper level staff member, I'm just money, money, money. And let's face it, right? Like even when you're teaching grooming, if I have a shadow and I need to go handle something and it's not appropriate for that shadow to come with me, I'm gonna say, hey, go do dishes. And then I go do the thing. Then I come back and I go, okay, where were we in your training? Where's my checklist? You know, you, you lose your train of thought, you lose the momentum. So, yeah, I actually went down and, and looked at my payroll. And then how long did it take before I was comfortable allowing that new hire to run a group by themselves or to go do boarding by themselves? At what point was that? And it was after 60 days. It was after usual 90 days, depending on the person. You know, obviously there's those caveats, but that's what it was doing. And now that I've got the videos in place, the SOPs in place, and that onboarding checklist list, usually within those first two weeks a I know if this person's going to work out because I know that they've mastered the skills that I need them to learn in those first two weeks. Or I just need to say goodbye, cut my losses and start with a new, a new, new hire or how are maybe they learning? And then I can coach into that as well. So, yeah, I, I put paper to pen and it was hard. Like I literally wanted to cry about it because that's a big number. That's a big number when you're training a new hire and hoping that they're going to work out. So by having a good system in place with checklists, you'll know pretty quick. I hire fast and I fire faster. If it's not a good fit, it's not a good fit. Don't take the round peg and put it in the square hole. Find the round peg that fits in the right hole. [00:44:05] Speaker A: Yeah. So you were kind. Now I lost what I was gonna say. Oh my gosh, I hate when that happens. I, I kind of relate it. You had the two weeks time. I, I relate this to working in a restaurant. I try to kind of coach when I'm talking to groomers for their business. I'm like, have you ever worked in a restaurant? Have you ever been front of the house? Like, you have your shifts and you shadow someone for a full two weeks before you even get a set of tables. Like, they do not just pass off and go, okay, here you go, good luck. Yeah, you've served at other places. Doesn't matter. You still shadow. It doesn't matter how experienced you are. And until you get that checklist like you said, that checklist done, it lives. Check in as an opening duties, closing, closing duties, shift change duties. Like everything that you do to prepare and make life easier for the next person coming in. I I just don't think we talk about this enough in our industry to say that we're not as thoughtful to other employees coming in because we're like, we're done. See ya. Not my job. [00:45:19] Speaker B: Absolutely. And you know, in the checklist, and I was guilty of it when I first started too. I was like, here's your checklist. Go do it. And there wasn't like detailed instructions. There wasn't a, why is this important? It was just a, yep, go, go do this. And check the boxes. They'd be like, oh, yep, well, I wiped the window. Okay, check. I. I cleaned the door. Check. Not I did all of them or I did them in the way that we wanted it done. So no, that is absolutely it. It's. It's making sure that, that they've got a comprehension. And again, if you have this good training program in place, it makes your senior staff so much happier, so much happier they don't get burned out of having to overcompensate for the new hire. [00:46:06] Speaker A: This has been an amazing show. What should a facility owner change this week to create that stronger expectation? The accountability or just one big different outcome for their facility? [00:46:24] Speaker B: Whatever that they are seeing common mistakes in a procedure, a way of things that are, that are happening. Shoot a video of how you want it done. Have a staff meeting or send that video out to all your staff and say, this is the expectation. And then print out a list of all of your staff. And then throughout the next two weeks, go to each staff member and say, now show me how to do this. That will create buy in for all of your staff to be on the same page. And it's going to show you the benefit of having a very succinct training program with all of those key things. Hearing it, seeing it, practicing it, and then checking it off. [00:47:10] Speaker A: That is amazing. Eve, thank you so much for talking about this, for giving us this effective training technique and just reminding everybody that, you know, you gotta take the time to train and invest in your teams. That is what keeps a business growing. And when something repeatedly is going wrong, you gotta try to fix it. And the answer is not always to blame the employee. So sometimes it's the system and we need to be better about that. This has been the business of pet care. I'm Dara Forleo. We and everybody here look forward to seeing you next time.