As pet parents, it is normal to want the best for our dogs. However, in this fast-paced era, several things can hinder us from reaching our goal of becoming amazing dog parents.
Enter Dogdrop.
Launched around two and a half months before the COVID-19 pandemic that upended everyone’s lives across the globe, Dogdrop offers daycare services for pet parents who temporarily need someone to take care of their pooches.
But that’s not all; Dogdrop is not your typical dog daycare. Co-founded by Shaina Denny, who also serves as the company’s CEO, Dogdrop is everything that is the opposite of what you’d come to expect from traditional dog daycare.
As Shaina explains in the podcast,
“We’re launching very small retail locations based around the quality of care and convenience. It’s a membership model. Our staff are all pet professionals, so it’s not just anyone who can watch the dogs. Everyone has experience in dog care.”
This, she adds, is what makes Dogdrop different from other dog daycare services.
Despite the lack of standardization in the pet service space, Dogdrop makes sure that they provide a very high quality of care by hiring competent staff who are certified in CPR and have other credentials and training experience.
Unlike most of its competitors, dog parents who avail of Dogdrop’s monthly membership plan can just drop off and pick up their pets at the location whenever they want.
They don’t have to pay for all-day daycare services, too, since the company offers hourly options, although you will still have to pay a monthly subscription fee.
According to Shaina, the idea for Dogdrop came to life after she herself experienced how incompatible the traditional daycare service was with her lifestyle.
She used to work from home even before the pandemic, but her work setup wasn’t ideal for giving her dog the mental stimulation that her pet needed.
“What I ended up doing was going to a traditional daycare, and I would drive there. I would drop her off for one hour…and then I’d work at the Starbucks next door…Their system was only set up for a half-day or full-day. It wasn’t really flexible or hourly, like she (the dog) really only needed one and a half hour of playtime and socialization,”
Shaina shared.
This is why, for Dogdrop,
“We really just wanted to provide whatever people needed, especially right now. We have so many pet parents who go out more than ever and aren’t able to care for their dogs and watch them at home. We’re giving them the engagement they need and also allowing the parents to focus on what they need to do,”
she added.
Despite the lack of prior experience in the physical retail or pet care industry, Shaina believes that the years she spent attending a business school in China and working with early-stage technology companies provide a lot of value.
Compared to pet care experts, she saw things as an initial consumer and pet parent, which gives her an edge as far as solving problems goes.
This is also how they thought of making use of up-to-date software to improve their operational efficiency.
“We didn’t see any daycare management system that met our kind of quality… What we saw was outdated and also not customizable…so for us, we completely developed a software from the ground up. It provides a great member experience for our members, where they can upload all of their pets’ critical information. We can also communicate with them. It’s also really important that they can track their membership or time utilization. So, everything just makes it simple for the pet parent.”
Aside from the flexible daycare service, Dogdrop’s mission to provide better and more accessible dog care has also paved the way for them to develop high-quality products that pet parents need, such as poop bags and on-the-go dog bum wipes.
When asked how she saw Dogdrop changing the pet daycare landscape, Shaina replied,
“For us, it’s decreasing the barrier to pet parenthood. People without a dog, when you ask them why they don’t have it, the two most common answers are that “I work too much” or “I drank too much”. And for most people…that’s kind of the biggest barrier. They don’t believe they have the time or attention, that they can really provide to give the dog a good life. And for us, by having Dogdrop, we really solve that need.”
Learn more about Dogdrop!
Check out their website at www.dogdrop.co.
