In this week's podcast we introduced our podcasting partner, Emily's new gig as the owner of one of Tucson's premier pet sitting services, Casas and Critters. We also discussed my business that everyone here is familiar with, Empire Ridge Ranch, and my other one, The Dog Spot, with which you may not be as familiar.
First, to Emily. The pandemic has been hard on everyone for different reasons and Emily went into it with a great job for the outstanding Therapy Dog Organization, Pet Partners. However, unable to do large events, Pet Partners did not have the ability to continue the program that Emily headed. Emily, like I, has a long history working within the veterinary community, but also like me, she doesn't really want to return to the veterinary field. Thankfully for her an opportunity arose to buy an already established petsitting business here in town.
Casas and Critters covers downtown and East Tucson, and provides carefully vetted pet sitters for your pet's health and safety. We want to congratulate Emily on her new gig, and we hope that any Tucson peeps looking to either begin petsitting as a side hustle, or who is looking for a petsitter reaches out to Emily.
Here's a link to her website: https://casasandcritters.com
Of course we also talked about Empire Ridge Ranch, and I won't belabor that as much, but I do think I will talk about my other business, The Dog Spot.
The Dog Spot is my in-town location, and when I decided to begin training full time, I knew I needed an in-town, air-conditioned location from which to train. The Dog Spot (formerly Karen Garvin's in-town location) fell into my lap when the last tenant (not Karen Garvin who moved out a few years prior) skipped out on her lease.
I knew I needed Tucson location, but I also knew that there was no way I could support it myself. I rarely work weekends and that is when most trainers who do classes make the bulk of their income. So, I created The Dog Spot. The Dog Spot serves as a Co-op of sorts for trainers. The idea was simple: get multiple trainers into the building, help everyone lift one another up, build our businesses together, and help dogs and dog owners in the process. It was all very Kumbaya. But, two years in, it works. We have have multiple trainers in the building both for classes, to run drop-off or private training, and for workshops.
The trainers have all been incredibly giving of their time, offering classes and advice to other trainers within the building, often for no charge. We all grow when we share. I learned this from the veterinary world where a multi-doctor veterinary hospital that is free to share cases performs far better for difficult medical problems than single doctor hospitals, or hospitals where everyone hoards their cases. By sharing knowledge we all grow and get better, and we all provide better outcomes for the pets that we care about.
The Dog Spot turns two next month and so far it has been a thrilling ride. I wish all of our trainers, as well as Emily at Casas and Critters the utmost success.