Inspired by conversations with many local friends who work in businesses involving animals, I decided to crowd-source a few questions for friends around the world who also work with animals. I asked them to describe their businesses as they operated before COVID-19, then to explain how they adjusted once the pandemic began. I wanted to know, “What worked, what didn’t?”
I asked: “Did your business survive in more or less its original format? Did you end up changing everything? Are you okay with the changes?” Every answer tells the story of one person’s experiences, with their family, with their business. On the whole, they are stories of hope and perseverance, like many stories we all can tell about our first year of living through a global pandemic.
Dawn Heaton (United Kingdom) Thriving! I went straight online—moved all classes to Zoom and basically grew from there! Mantrailing [scent-tracking training] was still able to go ahead, apart from during higher tiers and total lockdown; that’s my biggest loss in revenue, but we are managing to stay afloat with Zoom classes and monthly subscription challenges.
I have actually found puppies are doing much better with online classes before joining a face-to-face class, as they can learn the skills in low-distraction environments before having to deal with all the distractions in addition. How many times do we say in puppy class, “Don’t panic if puppy is really distracted, but make sure you practice this at home.” Now they get to practice at home, with expert guidance, before adding distractions in the real world!
I will be continuing Zoom even when we can return to normal again! I have loved it!
Dawn Elberson Goehring (Hawaii) My business is bigger than before. Prior to shutdown, I had a few group classes and several private clients per week. During the shutdown, I took time to take online classes and webinars to re-evaluate and re-build my business. I went virtual, but that wasn’t really popular here in Hawaii. Most clients just wanted to wait. I was able to pull in only a few clients in a week. I also did email newsletters that I had not offered before.
Once I was able to resume outdoor private clients, I found I was getting more calls than before the shutdown. Not for any unique issues—same as before. I find groups have slowed down, even though we meet outdoors with plenty of room. People seem to prefer the private. I do still offer virtual and, due to my schedule, many of my first consultations are on Zoom; then we meet for lessons.
Erin Saywell (Maryland) We’re struggling. We changed to owner drop-offs instead of picking up. But some people can’t do that with their work schedules. Some people dropped us because they can’t afford daycare now. Then we got COVID in October and had to shut down completely for two weeks. It’s still a struggle, as we don’t want to be going into people’s houses as much.
Photo by Christie Keith
Abigail Witthauer (Alabama) I founded, own, and operate a training, daycare, boarding, and grooming facility and a large professional service-dog training school. Prior to COVID, we ran in-person training, drop-off training, and board-and-train. We ran a very full schedule of group classes and private lessons as well an active business of daycare, boarding, and grooming. We raise and train service dogs with volunteer puppy raisers and weekly classes for the puppy raisers.
We did survive. It was very, very scary.
I credit our survival to having an amazing core team of employees. Because I am disabled and we serve the disabled community, we were COVID-wary quite early. So we pivoted about four to six weeks before many of our colleagues did. We identified our core team and tightened our belts. We didn’t lay anyone off, but we had been about to do some hiring and we held off on that. We all worked crazy hours and pulled double duty on every area of the business. We cut our outside PR company and brought it in-house. We immediately shifted to curbside service and Zoom lessons. My team was absolutely amazing. It was hard and scary but we communicated effectively with our clients and were able to have a moderately smooth transition. We barely kept our heads above water for several months, but we did it. We didn’t cut any services, but we did shift to a lot of online consultations for training and behavior modification, and moved everything to curbside pickup and drop-off with PPE.
I really like a lot of the changes we made. I feel as if our team got very close. I feel that we really prioritized what we wanted the business to look like and we made smart changes to protect and grow those areas. I love curbside service! It’s so much less stressful on the animals. While I do miss lobby visits with our clients, curbside seems much calmer and more efficient. I also absolutely love online consults. I don’t intend to return to in-person training/behavior consults myself, although some of my team members will begin offering in-person training as we are able to be vaccinated. The biggest change I didn’t enjoy was the change to our service-dog program. I am anxiously awaiting going back in public with our service-dogs-in-training without so much careful planning and selection, and spending in-person time with our recipients. One vaccine down, one to go!
Christina Boling (Oregon) Veterinary industry—not only did it survive, it’s thriving and we’re all exhausted.
Julie Ellingson (California) Grooming is much the same!
Inna Krasnovsky (New York) I am in New York City. Everyone either adopted a dog or bought a puppy. I am overwhelmed with clients. I am doing virtual private lessons, virtual classes, and lessons at our local parks.
Ann Watt (Scotland) In Scotland, we have been busier due to everyone buying pups.
Sadie Goldman (California) I’m a trainer. It was slow near the beginning of COVID, but now it’s busier than ever. Lots of people got new dogs and many aren’t socialized at all.
Ann Marie Hoff (Arizona) My animal communication has been about the same, but pet art has nose-dived. I haven’t done an art fair in over a year.
Tiffany Copley (Ohio) Positive dog training. My business more than tripled!
Alyssa Butler (Indiana) I gotta brag on us a little, cuz I’m super proud of all we’ve accomplished in the last year. In February of 2020, my boyfriend and I sold almost everything we had in preparation for hitting the road as full-time performers, living out of vehicles and everything.
Once COVID started to become more concerning, he and I thankfully had the foresight to know that our dreams might not come true this year. We immediately found a house, moved in, settled down (with the very last dollars in our savings) and started a website for We Speak Dog, our new training company. We spent all of March and most of April in 2020 researching and reaching out to potential clients. It grew slowly, but by the end of 2020, we were suddenly a six-figure company.
Now we’re hosting seminars, partnering with rescues, training dozens of dogs per month, and we get to work from home and make our own schedules. We are even being featured on a TV show soon! Honestly, we’re thrilled with how well we were able to do even though our business is one year old and didn’t really start making money until May.
Stacy Braslau-Schneck (California) Dog trainer, already doing private lessons and day training (no group classes for years)—I’m doing okay. Went to virtual early on, had some outdoor in-person sessions during the summer (when it wasn’t too hot or too smoky). I have a lot of clients who are waiting for me to do in-person private lessons, but my schedule for in-person day training (starting next week) is pretty full. A lot of people got puppies or dogs this past year, and many of them have never owned a dog before.
Kat Camplin (California) I was doing in-home privates or co-op semi-privates prior to COVID. I shut down as required and tried to promote virtual sessions, which was not well received locally. Our community didn’t really get hit hard by COVID until September, plus we had some wildfires over the summer. I had the equivalent of part-time work until September, primarily because, I think, people were confused about who could and who could not operate. As our local cases grew, so did new dog ownership, primarily rescue dogs in first-time dog homes. I do in-person outdoor sessions with very few exceptions—like grandma had to move in, is using a walker, and is getting bitten by the household dog. Since January, it seems as if everyone in the county got a puppy. Many haven’t had a dog in years, or they are first-time dog owners or first-time puppy owners. I’m currently booking a month ahead, which is difficult when puppies need help early on.
Linda Adams Brennen (Colorado) Busier than ever. It seems everyone got dogs during the pandemic, or they were staying home and seeing more of their resident dogs’ issues firsthand. We were closed for six weeks last March, then opened up with limited class sizes, everyone masked, cleaning between classes. We are at half capacity now. I am still not doing in-home private training. All sessions are at my training center, which limits my availability as we also have classes evenings/weekends and day school on weekdays. I am now booking new clients for mid-May.
Melissa McCue-McGrath (Massachusetts) Lots of pivoting. Everything went online, started some other projects, and had to get creative personally. It’s been really rough as a mom, a person at higher risk, and trying to stay afloat. However, by moving things around, I got to have a rethink as to what was important, how to be truly more accessible, and to think about how to go forward in a different day.
Dianna Stearns (Maryland) I’ve been busier and made more income this past year than in the 18 years before. I had seven training inquiries just yesterday. I believe it’s the combination of the many puppy/adult adoptions during the pandemic and people being home with their dogs full-time, finally noticing behaviors they should have addressed before.
Colette Kase (Mexico) My business started again in the last year. I had retired 15 years ago and decided to use my skills to raise money for a local charity. Throughout the lockdown here, I did online puppy coaching and gave 100% of the proceeds to a local charity that was feeding poor families at the time. Now I’m doing one-on-one puppy training again, having never thought I’d be back in the business.
Lori Leah Monet DVM (Colorado) I’m a veterinarian. My business did survive. We changed a lot and not for the better. Curbside is a pain in the . . . It takes twice as long and the clients don’t like it. Talking to someone on the phone isn’t like seeing them. When I am with a client, I “banter” with them. We talk about more than the patient. You can learn a lot about the pet that way. And secondary questions and information come up and can be addressed right then. My techs are not out in the cold.
I am old-school. I like to see and talk to my doctor.
Cindy Wilmot (Vermont) I am currently struggling. There are a couple of reasons for this. First: COVID. Second: Major relocation.
I started my training business in 2015 in rural central Illinois and did well. I focused mainly on private in-home training with some board-and-train and a few rounds of group classes at the local parks department. COVID hit and I switched to mainly board-and-train. I’m not the most tech savvy, but I started offering virtual consultations and sessions and I was limping along.
During the summer, election preparations were in full swing and I started to see some yuckiness around me. I have a three-year-old son and I just couldn’t bear to see him raised/exposed to it. We were rural and the predominant attitude was not in line with our values. We had been thinking of relocating for quite a while and we finally took the plunge. We bought a house in Southeastern Vermont. We absolutely love it here, but now I am building a business in a brand-new location, during a pandemic. I am not complaining, not at all. I am very grateful for the opportunity to rebuild in such a wonderful community.
Some day, I will sit down and write a short story about the trip here from Illinois. We bought an old RV to transport our four big dogs, three cats, six chickens, and a fish. Wild ride, for sure!
