Angie: Thanks for joining us for the Angie’s List podcast. I’m Angie. We’re talking about one of my favorite categories: pooper scoopers! As the one in charge of lawn mowing in my family, hiring a pooper scooper was at the top of my list when we got a dog. Tristan Schmid, host of List-en up, talked to some pros about the business of animal waste removal and why pooper scoopers serve such an important need.
T: Thanks, Angie! According to an Angie’s List poll, more than half of our members own dogs. Those pets create an awful lot of Scooby doo-doo that has to be cleaned up somehow — but what if you don’t have time to deal with it? A professional pooper scooper like Denver’s Sam Johnson will do the “turd herding” for you.
Johnson: Most of our clients hire us because it’s a time saver more than anything. It’s an opportunity for people to take advantage of a service, similar to a house cleaning service or just about any other service.
T: Johnson, “Scoop Master” & president of Pet Scoop Services, started his business cleaning up dogs’ business 14 years ago while going to college.
Johnson: My mom just couldn’t believe I did this because I used to hate doing it as a kid. Now, we actually have kids pay us with their allowance to come out and clean up for them.
T: Animal waste removal is not an enjoyable thing— I know from the all-too-personal experience of cleaning up regularly after my three rather large dogs. What would possess someone to get into such a poopy profession? Phil Wade, owner of Poopie Puppies in Indianapolis, says that his love of dogs, combined with his background as a wastewater treatment professional, makes animal waste removal a natural business to be in. I couldn’t help but ask how Wade stands the smell.
Wade: I’m kind of immune to it, for the most part. You’re out in the open with fresh air; typically it’s not too bad of a problem.
T: Sam Johnson says safe disposal’s more of a concern for professional scoopers.
Johnson: The most important thing with dog waste is to get it out of the yard. It’s not safe to be in the yard and let rainwater carry it into storm drains. The best way to dispose of it, because it does not make good fertilizer — there’s really no good use for dog waste, in particular — is to dispose of it in a waste-approved container. Generally it goes to the landfill where it can be managed and degraded there.
Between houses we sanitize our equipment with a kennel disinfectant, which kills just about any kind of a dog disease, like parvo or giardia, so it doesn’t carry those diseases to the next yard.
T: Bill and Nicki Walters, owners of Pooper Trooper in Seattle, started their company as a service not only to humans, but also to dogs: they give more than 5% of their profits to animal welfare agencies. Bill warns that it’s not safe for people to use dog doo as compost or fertilizer.
Walters: They could be running a risk if they were to use it to grow tomatoes or some other vegetables or something. Dog waste contains lots of different harmful bacteria and parasites. Kids go out there and play in the yard, and the next thing you know they touch something or put something in their mouth and then they’re sick. So it’s important that it gets picked up on a regular basis.
T: Karla Hangsleben hired Pooper Trooper to clean up after her dogs.
Karla: We have a lab cross and we have an American hairless rat terrier. It has whiskers and that’s it.
T: There’s one main reason Karla and her family hired Pooper Trooper.
Karla: Actually to keep family sanity. We’ve got a small child and he wants to play in the backyard all the time. It always turned into “whose turn is it to pick up the dog poop so our son can play?” And nobody ever wanted to do it. So it seems to be the best way to keep sanity and not be outrageously expensive to do it.
T: She says it’s important to know that a scooper’s disposal practices are in line with local regulations.
Karla: Make sure that you’re asking them how they’re going to dispose of things. Pooper Trooper double-bags it and leaves it in our trashcan, and others from my understanding haul it away.
T: There’s a lot to know about animal waste removal. The Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists, or aPaws, was formed in 2002 to increase the level of awareness in the animal waste industry, and also to raise the level of the public’s awareness of the scooping profession. Deb Levy, president and one of the cofounders of aPaws, gives us an idea as to why professional pooper scoopers are so important.
Levy: The American Pet Association estimates there are 71 million dogs in the United States, producing over 4.4 billion pounds of waste. They say that is enough to cover 900 football fields with 12 inches of dog waste.
T: With that much waste produced every year, it’s good to know pooper scoopers can help us out. According to Levy, scooping prices generally range from $9 to $18 a week per dog.
Levy: What goes in must come out. Depending on the size of your yard and how many dogs, and the use of your yard, you do want to keep it picked up on a regular basis.
T: She says it’s important to scoop year-round.
Levy: One lady thought “You know, I’m going to quit for the winter time, save some money.” She called me back hysterical — she has white carpeting. Dogs don’t look where they walk. They look at your yard and they view it as a toilet.
T: In addition to her duty with aPaws, Deb Levy is owner of Yucko’s, a scooping business in St. Louis. She says that regular scooping is also one way to help monitor your dog’s health.
Levy: You can see a lot in a yard. You can see what they’re eating that they shouldn’t be eating. Sometimes you see different-color crayons, sometimes money. They should have a good, firm stool. And sometimes they get runny, sometimes you see worms in it, you know, lots of things that we can tell the homeowner. And it has saved lives.
T: aPaws, the only association of pooper scoopers in the country according to Levy, holds its 5th-annual conference this month.
Levy: Scoopers gather together along with other people in the pet industry. This year we’ll be in Atlanta, Georgia, January 25th-27th. We have different speakers, we talk about different topics, things to help us in the industry. And we have a “turd-herding” contest. The turd-herding contest is to see who’s the fastest turd herder. Each scooper has a different technique. Some actually will pick up by hand, then we have the different tools that are available out there. Some people are rake, and some people are shovel. It’s an ongoing thing between scoopers saying “this works better,” “no, this works better.” So we put it to the challenge.
T: For those of you who clean up after your dogs yourselves, Poopie Puppies’ Phil Wade says using a common kitchen product on your scooping tool of choice can make your backyard chores easier to handle.
Wade: I like to use baking spray on it. It helps with cleanup, and the waste product will slide off a little bit easier.
T: Sam Johnson of Denver’s Pet Scoop Services says certain scooping tools can make the job easier.
Johnson: There are probably 100 different kinds of products out on the market. A lot of people just use a shovel and a bucket — whatever works best for them is great. We make our own scoops, and it’s based on some of the other designs out there. I recommend a two-piece pan and a scraper. That is the easiest: you don’t have to get close to the waste; it’s the most efficient way to clean up your backyard. And then just bag it real good, and depending on your local area ordinances, that’ll determine how you dispose of it.
T: Johnson had one customer whose dog may’ve disposed of more than just its waste in the backyard.
Johnson: I had a client come out and say that she was missing a $100 bill one time. She was wondering if we could kind of keep an eye on the waste because she thought her dog may have eaten that $100 bill. We never did find that $100 bill.
T: Poopie Puppies’ Phil Wade says his job isn’t all about the cleanup — it’s also about the dogs themselves.
Wade: I do have one dog that just loves to play fetch. I can’t even get out of my truck because he’s up there wanting to play. I probably spend about 30 minutes in that yard just playing fetch with him.
T: Throw us a bone! If you have comments about this ep-poo-sode and would like to share them with other listeners, visit angieslistpodcasts.com and click the “Comments” button next to the episode’s title. You can also find links to the companies and organizations mentioned.
Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to List-en!
