Only Julie Andrews Is Mary Poppins

I belong to a few pet care industry discussion groups online. They’re meant to be places where operators share ideas, ask questions, and help each other navigate the occasionally chaotic world of caring for other people’s beloved pets.

Sometimes they are exactly that.

Other times… not so much.

A common theme pops up whenever something goes wrong at a facility somewhere:

“That would never happen at my place.”

Or my personal favorite:

“We hired someone from a competitor, and you wouldn’t believe how badly things are run there.”

Here’s the thing – pet care facilities are run by humans. Hopefully humans who absolutely adore animals. But humans all the same.

And humans make mistakes.

Now, not every mistake is unavoidable. Good leadership, thoughtful training, proper staffing, and solid systems prevent many problems before they start. But no workplace -veterinary hospital, airline, human as well as dog daycare, or dare I admit it, Pet Camp -operates without occasional challenges.

The real problem begins when we convince ourselves we’re immune to such challenges.

When we believe “that couldn’t happen here,” we stop learning. Even worse, we discourage others from sharing their hard-earned lessons. If admitting a mistake means public criticism, most businesses simply won’t admit anything at all.

That helps no one – especially the pets.

Pet care is certainly competitive today. Independent businesses like Pet Camp increasingly share the landscape with large chains and consolidators. But despite the competition, there are still plenty pets to go around.

There’s no need to bash one another.

In fact, the healthiest industries are the ones where professionals learn openly from both successes and failures. (Check out Black Box Thinking for more on this – it’s a fantastic read.)

Because if an issue hasn’t happened at your facility yet, it doesn’t mean it never will. It usually just means your turn hasn’t come.

And that’s okay — as long as we’re paying attention and learning together.

After all, unless Julie Andrews herself has opened a pet care facility somewhere, none of us are practically perfect in every way.

But working together, we can keep getting better – for pets, for teams, and for the families who trust us every day.

Thanks for reading.

Pet Camp has been providing amazing pet care since 1997.   While not practically perfect in every way, we do provide award winning overnight care for dogs and cats, dog day care, dog training, bathing/grooming and pet transportation.  If you are a San Francisco pet parent with a dog or cat that IS practically perfect in every way (or even if not) give us a call with any pet care questions.