Is Bigger Bad?

I’m a member of several online discussion groups regarding the pet care industry.  Like everything one reads online (and perhaps everywhere today), one needs to approach what is written with a critical eye and open (also critical) mind.  This is especially the case in one of the online discussion groups where people are permitted to post and to comment anonymously.

Recently in this anonymous-permitting forum, there was an initial post) and subsequent comments in support) that asserted that any pet care facility that was “big” was “bad.”  The baseline assertion was that if you had more than a few dogs (this was a dog group) under your care there was no way you could see everything, and care would suffer.  Honestly, I agree with the 1^st part of this statement; if YOU have more than a few dogs under your care, YOU cannot possibly see everything.  Heck, I have 2 personal dogs and raised 4 kids (including triplets) and there is no way I see everything my dogs do and I’m somewhat relieved I didn’t see everything my kids did.  The point is that you can’t see everything all the time.

I suggest that this is the reason that as a pet care business grows it needs to hire quality employees, commit to employee training and development, invest in infrastructure, and develop systems.  I also suggest that being a robust business provides the business and the pet parent(s) with certainty that things will be taken care of even if one person falls short.  I have read way too many posts of “boutique” operations which wonder “how do I tell my pet parents that I’m too sick to do day care today?” or “some piece of equipment broke and now I can’t do X.” or, just the other day, “I got called to jury duty and have dogs I’m supposed to watch – what do I do?”

Of course, no business (like no person) is perfect.  Businesses, at least for now, are still run by humans, and we make mistakes.  Big or small, a pet care facility is simply bound to not be perfect. But big or small, a pet care facility needs to ensure that it is doing everything it can to provide the best possible care for the pets under its care.  If some of these smaller shops want to spend a day at Pet Camp, see how we operate, our QA/QCs, our check lists, our SOPs but more importantly our amazing counselors – come on over.  You won’t see dogs sleeping on my personal bed (not even my two Newfoundlands do that, even if there was that much room on my bed) or dogs playing in my postage stamp sized back yard, but you will see amazing pet care.

If you do want to read about how big (I mean really big) business is bad, might I suggest “The Curse of Bigness,” by Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu.  It’s a pretty quick read, sometimes way too one-sided in its attack on big business and not related to pet care at all.

Thanks for reading.

Pet Camp is a proud San Francisco small business.  Family owned and operated for 28 years, Pet Camp provides overnight care (boarding) for dogs and cats, dog day care, dog training, bathing/grooming and pet transportation.  If you are a San Francisco pet parent with questions about your dog or cat, give us a call.