Almost ten years ago to the day, I published my first book, How to Be Your Dog's Superhero.

In the introduction, I dropped a simple but transformational truth bomb on pet owners that was guaranteed to get maximum attention. I told them that the secret to getting their dog to ignore a passing pigeon, a discarded cheese pasty, or a pee-covered lamppost wasn't a fancy whistle, a clicker, or a copy of Cesar Millan's new book.

The answer was four simple letters: BMFI.

I basically told them that if they wanted their dog to gaze at them like a 10-year-old boy meeting Spider-Man, they had to stop being a dull, predictable fun-sponge. They had to start giving their dog what the dog really wants: the opportunity to play, sniff, catch, run, explore, and find things.

They had to put the joy back into the relationship with their dog.

Most dogs get into mischief because they are bored out of their minds. They have no outlet for the amazing skills we bred into them over thousands of years.

I was perfectly placed to give this advice because, a couple of years before that, it was pointed out to me that when it came to dog appeal, I was as dull as ditch water. That lesson came just in time to save my first pet business from a near-certain disaster.

Let me take you back. It was early in my business journey as just six months earlier, November 2011, I had proudly and successfully launched Pack Leader Dog Adventures (at the time the U.K.'s first and only dog adventure business).

I had attracted a small but loyal set of dog owners who were happy to pay premium prices for a more experiential service. My USP was from day one I promised I would give each dog in my care an adventure instead of a boring stroll around the block.

So, I had a good business idea that filled a gap in the market, and because of what I'd learned in my previous role as a sales rep, I instinctively knew I wanted to be premium priced. The only teeny tiny problem I had was I unfortunately had zero control of the dogs in my care.

Despite being a dog owner for ten years, I didn't know enough about dogs. I was providing the exercise the dogs needed, but when they were let off lead I had no control of them.

I knew I needed to become a better dog handler so I enrolled on a 7 day Dog Behaviour course at the Darlington Dogs Trust, led by John Rogerson. John sadly passed away in late 2022, but is considered by many to be the forefather of modern dog training.

He taught me many things, but the main takeaway came from day one of the course which was you can fix a lot of dog problems by simply being more of a best friend to your dog. A best friend who plays with his dog, who the dog looks to as a source of fun.

This was the missing ingredient in my business, and I'm ashamed to say that at the time it was something missing from my relationship with my own dogs too.

Attending that course taught me so much. It added a whole new dimension to how I interacted with my pet dogs. And with the help of another dog trainer David Davies, over the next two years I practiced and perfected these play techniques and BFMI became my call to arms to dog owners everywhere.

And, today, I'm turning that exact same mirror around on you.

But, rather than examining your relationship with your dogs, I'm urging you to look at your business.

Time to take off the rose-tinted glasses and have a good hard look at your services, your marketing, the level of hospitality and the whole experience you provide in your facility, and ask yourself:

 

I'll be honest, most dog daycares are beige, predictable, and clinical. They operate like a prison day camp with better flooring: dogs go in, the dogs' activity gets managed, and dogs come out.

The problem with that is these days dog owners don't dream about sending their dog somewhere safe and sterile. There's too much competition for safe to be a USP.

Owners, and especially affluent dog owners, want fun, adventure, stories, excitement, relief, enrichment, personality, connection, and validation. They want to know they are a good pet parent who cares enough about their dog to send them to a Disney-style dog daycare rather than a Six Flags.

They want their dog to come home happy, fulfilled, and tired in the best possible way, and deep down they want to feel a little bit jealous too.

 

They want to think—and they certainly want to be able to brag to their co-workers around the water cooler: "Bloody hell, my dog has a better social life than I do!"

But most daycare marketing completely misses this. Every website says:

Congratulations. You've just described almost every daycare in North America and the UK.

 

Every dog owner wants safety, but safe isn't a USP anymore. Neither is "we love dogs."

 

That's like a restaurant proudly announcing, "We cook food."

 

I should bloody hope so!

No wonder so many businesses panic the second a new competitor opens with a new origin story, a bit of branding, and a shiny new logo.

 

The businesses dominating today aren't necessarily the cheapest, safest, or most efficient. They're the ones people can't stop talking about.

Disney figured this out years ago.

 

People don't buy Disney because they desperately need to stand in a queue dressed as Buzz Lightyear while paying $14 for a turkey leg.

 

They go because Disney understands something most pet businesses completely miss: people buy experiences.

 

They buy emotion. They buy memories. They buy stories they can tell other people.

Because that is the real question:

 

 

Because if the answer is "not much," your business is vulnerable.

And here's the dangerous bit:

 

Clients don't leave because they don't need your services anymore. They leave because somebody else became more interesting.

 

You stopped entertaining them, stopped surprising them, and stopped reminding them why you were special.

 

Indifference is a silent killer in business. You literally can't afford to be boring anymore. The battle for eyeballs is here to stay, and only the most entertaining businesses survive.

The future of daycare will belong to the leaders who are prepared to step into the premium space, claim the expert status, and become known for providing more personalized experiential Disney-level services.

 

They market themselves in a way that screams they are different and better. Their marketing reflects the experience they provide.

I'm talking about things like:

      - Story-led themed enrichment months.

      - Buddy walks with their best furry friend.
      - Graduation days with a welcome ceremony for new arrivals.

      - An onboarding process that feels like the Four Seasons.
      - Client appreciation evenings with awards for the most referrals.

      - An exclusive members-only club for your lifers.
      - Dog-centric scent adventures.
      - Weekly Round-Up emails that serialize the fun their dog is having.
      - A monthly client-only exclusive paper and ink newsletter (this has great pass-along value and will get stuck on the fridge as a constant reminder of the great work you do).

There is so much more you can do to elevate your business and put yourself in a category of one.

Are you excited to go and implement? Good... but first, here's the bad news.

You can't do any of this without first committing to being premium and targeting more affluent clients. Premium pricing unleashes creativity. Cheap or low-priced businesses are forced to become operational.

When you're undercharging and squeezing every penny out of 50 dogs just to survive payroll, the magic gets beaten out of the business. Everything becomes about:
     - Containment
     - Supervision
     - Logistics
     - Ratios
     - Efficiency
     - Survival!

You stop thinking like Walt Disney and start thinking like an airport baggage handler.

Meanwhile, the pet resorts who had the cojones to follow the road less traveled and position themselves as premium businesses have the resources to fund personalized experiential pet care and Ritz-level customer onboarding. They can be more creative and use way more media to market their top-dog, top-dollar services.

During World War I, the British Navy tried painting their warships in traditional camouflage to blend into the ocean. It failed miserably. The light shifted, the weather changed, and the "gray ships" still got blown out of the water by enemy submarines.

They only solved the problem when they did the exact opposite: they invented Dazzle Camouflage. They painted the ships in wild, high-contrast, aggressive black-and-white geometric patterns. They didn't try to hide. They made the ship so glaringly obvious that enemy torpedo captains couldn't calculate its speed or heading.

This is your opportunity to be so engaging, entertaining, and awe-inspiring that your competitors can't keep up.

You can't be more fucking interesting if you are broke. Being a boring, "gray-ship" daycare forces you into the low-price trap. You have to service cheapskate clients who scramble for every penny, which means you have to jam more dogs onto the floor just to keep the lights on.

You are too exhausted to innovate. Burnout passes right from the owner into the branding.

Being PREMIUM is the only thing that enables you to BMFI.

     - You Have Fewer Dogs to Manage: Instead of refereeing a chaotic pack of 50 bored dogs, you are hosting a curated experience for 20.

     - You Have the Margin to Overdeliver: Premium pricing gives you the profit breathing room to buy the puzzles, theme the rooms, and invest in infrastructure and marketing resources that provide the "WOW" moments that make clients talk.

     - Your Staff Can Perform: You can afford to train your team to be "Cast Members" who capture great content, rather than exhausted laborers just trying to survive the shift.

 

Stop running an economy-priced storage warehouse for dogs. BMFI your business, upgrade your prices, and give your clients an experience they would be crazy to leave.

This was something I discussed in much more depth during the two presentations I delivered at the Pet Boarding and Daycare Expo in Phoenix.

If you were unable to attend the expo but you are desperate to know more about how to go from a low-priced warehouse model to offering a premium-priced experience, then you are in luck. I've decided to put on a free LIVE experiential pet care workshop on June 4th.

It's called: The New Rules of Profitable Dog Daycare: How Smart Operators Are Making More Money With Fewer Dogs — Without Scaling The Chaos. It will be a two-hour workshop.

 

It's online, it's free, and I'll even set some time aside to answer any questions you have. Because this is the first free live training I've done this year, I expect it to be very well attended. I have no plans to do another any time soon. So, if you want to join me on Thursday 4th June, then click on the link here to secure your place.

I know you love dogs, and I know you have put your heart and soul into building a business that benefits all dogs and their owners in your town. I'm not taking anything away from the amazing job you've done so far.

 

 

However, I know there is a better, more profitable future version of your daycare just waiting for you to develop. And I think you know it's time to change things up.

 

Go to www.petbusinessmarketing.com/workshop to secure your place.

Keep it unreal,

Dom

Every Sunday, I deliver the unfiltered marketing and operational blueprints I've used to help 2,500+ frustrated dog daycare owners, to stop running a low-margin facility and start building the most expensive (and most wanted) pet destination in town.