DogCo Secrets

Running a pet care business can be so independent that we get used to working without much connection to other owners. As the DogCo Business Summit begins, I’m sharing why bringing people together matters to me beyond...

Should you pay your dog walkers and pet sitters per visit or by the hour? I’ve used both models, and while I prefer hourly pay for most team-based pet care businesses, there are situations where I would leave a working...

Getting your money’s worth from business education doesn’t mean consuming every lesson or implementing every idea. I’ve seen pet care companies get more out of a program by focusing on a specific problem they need to...

In this throwback episode, I am sharing three honest truths that I wish I could tell coaching clients when they are deep in the struggle. These are insights I hold closely in my own business, and they shape how I coach...

Every meaningful goal comes with a trade-off. That does not mean we should assume success has to be painful, exhausting, or destructive, but it does mean that the time, focus, money, energy, and attention required to...

When I owned my pet care company, I put a lot of energy into bringing in new clients. Looking back, I would have focused much more on keeping them. A new booking is only the beginning of the relationship, and the real...

Growth is usually treated as the obvious goal in business, but sometimes pushing for more revenue, more clients, and a bigger team is exactly the wrong move. If the foundation underneath your pet care business isn't...

The more I’ve learned and grown as a business owner this year, the more clearly I’ve been able to see everything I still want to improve. What I didn’t expect was how easily that awareness could turn into insecurity...

If you want to grow your pet care business, you need to know exactly how much additional work your team can handle. Staffing capacity is one of the most important metrics in a team-based pet care company, yet most...

Most business owners collect feedback reactively. Something goes wrong, a client complains, or a team member brings up an issue, and suddenly everyone starts trying to fix the problem. But feedback can become one of...

Should you run paid ads to grow your pet care business? In this episode, I’m breaking down what I’ve learned from testing paid ads inside DogCo, why paid acquisition is not the easy lead-generation shortcut many...

Dave Peterson bought Bethesda Dog Walkers at the end of 2023 and quickly discovered that the business had major structural problems. Payroll was too high, pricing was inconsistent, services were overly complicated, and...

Building a team can unlock tremendous growth, freedom, and opportunity in your pet care business. It can also create some of the most expensive and complicated problems you will ever have to solve as an owner. In this...

If this year has gone a little sideways, or if you simply want to make the most of the final five months of 2026, this episode is about resetting with clarity instead of forcing yourself to stick to goals that may no...

Growing your pet care business doesn't always require more leads. Sometimes the biggest opportunity is already sitting inside your existing client list. In this episode, I share the thinking behind DogCo's first-ever...