The Poodle to Pitbull Pet Business Podcast

Are you looking for someone to tell you what you want to hear… or what your pet business actually needs? Have you invested in courses, attended events and collected hundreds of ideas, but still struggle to turn them into meaningful progress? And could the biggest thing holding your business back be that you're trying to fix the wrong problems in the wrong order? In this episode, I'm joined by my good friend Eve Molzhon, founder of Dog Handler Academy, for a conversation we recorded at her recent Business Leadership Summit in Chicago. Eve wanted to know what actually happens inside my Dog Daycare Success Academy, who it's designed for, and why so many successful pet business owners keep coming back for more. And we get into something I think is hugely important when it comes to coaching. Sometimes the most valuable advice you can receive is the advice you don't particularly want to hear. Because I've lost count of the number of business owners who come to me wanting to introduce memberships, launch new services or implement some fancy new marketing strategy, when the first thing they actually need to do is fix their pricing, improve their existing offers or sort out their business model. Giving people another exciting idea is easy. Helping them make the right decisions, in the right order, and holding them accountable for actually doing the work is where the real value lies. In this episode, you'll discover: Why Good Coaching Isn't Always Comfortable – Why having someone challenge your thinking and call you out when necessary can be far more valuable than another round of encouragement. The Importance of Doing Things in the Right Order – Why memberships, automation and new revenue streams aren't always the first things your business needs. Why Accountability Accelerates Progress – How regular coaching, clear priorities and someone checking you're actually doing the work can transform the pace of change. Why Cookie-Cutter Advice Doesn't Work – How a brand-new daycare and a 20-year-old multi-location pet resort can both benefit from coaching, but need very different strategies. The Value of Having Someone in Your Corner – Why having an experienced coach, a roadmap and a community of ambitious owners makes the difficult decisions much easier to navigate. We also talk about the incredible community we've built inside DDSA, our upcoming immersion events in San Francisco and Edinburgh, and why I'm such a big believer in bringing together ambitious business owners from both sides of the Atlantic. If you're a dog daycare or pet resort owner who wants to make more money, enjoy more freedom and finally start making the changes you've been putting off, you can add your name to the Dog Daycare Success Academy waitlist at: petbusinessmarketing.com/successacademy The doors will reopen in November, around the Hershey Pet Boarding & Daycare Expo. A huge thank you to this week's podcast sponsor, TailPro, the all-in-one management platform helping pet businesses save time, streamline operations and deliver an exceptional customer experience. Find out more at tailpro.uk.

Are you brilliant at looking after dogs… but still working seven days a week? Have you collected qualifications, improved your handling skills and become better and better at your craft… without your income increasing or your freedom improving at the same rate? What if the next big breakthrough in your pet business has absolutely NOTHING to do with becoming better with dogs? In this episode, I'm sharing something I've become increasingly passionate about after 15 years in the pet industry: Being brilliant with dogs is only part of what it takes to build a brilliant pet business. I share some of the lessons from my own journey, from launching Pack Leader Dog Adventures as a deliberately premium-priced service in 2011, through to the painful failure of my online pet store and the realisation that passion, expertise and hard work simply weren't enough. That failure sent me down the rabbit hole of direct response marketing, copywriting, pricing, positioning, customer psychology, systems, upsells and all the other stuff nobody teaches you when you decide to start a pet business. And I dive into some of that good stuff here. I also take you behind the scenes of our recent Operation Codebreaker DDSA Immersion Event in Milton Keynes, where members worked on automation, systems and creating businesses that are less dependent on them. And you'll hear from US DDSA members Tara and Skylor, who travelled across the Atlantic to join us, share ideas with the UK members and experience first-hand the cross-pollination that happens inside the academy. In this episode, you'll discover: Why Being Great With Dogs Isn't Enough – The uncomfortable reason passion, qualifications and technical expertise don't automatically create a successful business. The Expensive Failure That Changed My Business – How my disastrous online store taught me more about business than many of my successes. Why You Don't Need Another Gold Star – How constantly chasing qualifications can become a substitute for making the commercial changes your business really needs. Why Premium Pricing Changed Everything – What I learned from charging twice as much as my competitors when I launched Pack Leader Dog Adventures. The Shift From Operator to Business Leader – Why learning about pricing, marketing, leadership, systems and wealth creation gives you MORE opportunity to make an impact, not less. If you're a dog daycare or pet resort owner who knows you're brilliant at what you do but wants to become equally brilliant at building the BUSINESS around it, you can join the Dog Daycare Success Academy waitlist at: petbusinessmarketing.com/successacademy

Are you adding enrichment activities to your services… or actually building a business where your whole team understands enrichment? Could there be dozens of opportunities inside your facility to create calmer, happier and more stimulating experiences for the dogs in your care? And what happens when your staff finally understand the why behind enrichment, rather than simply being told what activities to do? In this episode, we're just THREE DAYS away from the 2026 Pet Care Enrichment Summit, so I'm giving you another sneak peek at some of the incredible training we've got coming your way. First, you'll hear from DDSA member Alex Varney, who'll be speaking at this year's summit about something slightly different: creating enriching experiences for your employees. Alex shares a brilliantly simple way she combines positive reinforcement, team education, core values and a bag full of cheap, silly prizes to make learning more engaging for her staff. Then we go behind the scenes with Enrich U Dean Tim Jackson, who recently spent two days at Royvon Dog Training carrying out an enrichment audit, training the team and helping them identify ways to weave more enrichment into the services they already provide. And this is where enrichment starts to become much bigger than a lick mat, snuffle mat or occasional activity. It becomes part of the culture of the business. In this episode, you'll discover: Why Enrichment Starts With Your Team – How getting staff excited, educated and involved makes it far easier to improve the experience you provide for the dogs. How to Conduct an Enrichment Audit – Why walking through your facility with fresh eyes can uncover hidden opportunities to improve your environment and services. The Importance of Understanding the "Why" – How teaching the principles behind enrichment creates better decision-making than simply handing staff a list of activities. How to Enrich the Employee Experience – Alex Varney's simple positive-reinforcement approach to making staff training, core values and education more fun. How to "Disnify" an Existing Service – Why enrichment doesn't always require completely reinventing what you do; sometimes it's about fine-tuning an already great service and making the experience even better. You'll also hear directly from the Royvon team about what they learned from Tim's visit, including the five pillars of enrichment, scent, creating calmer environments and how the training reignited their enthusiasm for putting enrichment into practice. The 2026 Pet Care Enrichment Summit starts in just THREE DAYS, with speakers from dog training, daycare, scent work, pet sitting and the zoo world all sharing their expertise. Click here to grab your ticket now! Thanks to our amazing show sponsor Tailpro, learn more about their amazing booking app here 

Remember those goals you set at the start of the year? Are you on track to hit them… or did they quietly disappear somewhere around March? And with just 90 days of the year remaining, what could you still change if you got some proper momentum behind you? In this episode, I'm talking about one of the most valuable — and underrated — forces in business: momentum. I've just returned from another coaching event in London with a notebook full of ideas, reminders and things I want to implement in my own business over the next 90 days. And yes, despite having been in business for years, coaching pet business owners for more than a decade and having invested a small fortune in my own education, I still pay other smart people to coach, challenge and teach me. Because I believe you should practise what you preach. More importantly, I know how difficult it is to keep moving forward when you're trying to do everything on your own. The right coach, mastermind, event or group doesn't just give you more information. It gives you fresh ideas, accountability, shortcuts, perspective and — crucially — the momentum to keep moving when business inevitably throws something unexpected at you. I also catch up with puppy specialist Adam Delderfield, who gives us a preview of his upcoming Pet Care Enrichment Summit session on completely rethinking the traditional puppy class. Adam explains how he uses enrichment to create a better learning experience for BOTH puppies and their owners — because people might forget exactly what you taught them, but they remember how you made them feel. In this episode, you'll discover: Why Momentum Matters So Much – How progress can quickly accelerate when you're moving forward — and how easily it can disappear when you start sitting back. Why I Still Invest in Coaching – What I continue to get from mentors, masterminds and events despite having spent years building my own successful business. Why You Should Practise What You Preach – If you expect clients to invest in themselves and their dogs, you should be willing to invest in becoming better at what you do too. The Power of the 90-Day Reset – Why the final quarter of the year is a perfect opportunity to reassess your goals, regain focus and build momentum heading into 2027. Why Action Still Matters Most – Coaching can provide the ideas, accountability and shortcuts, but none of it works unless you actually implement what you learn. If you want to join us for the Pet Care Enrichment Summit, grab your ticket at: enrichmentsummit.com And if you're a dog daycare or pet resort owner who wants more momentum, accountability and help moving your business to the next level, you can join the Dog Daycare Success Academy waitlist at: petbusinessmarketing.com/successacademy A huge thank you to this week's podcast sponsor, TailPro, the all-in-one management platform helping pet businesses save time, streamline operations and deliver an exceptional customer experience. Find out more at tailpro.uk

What can a dog daycare owner learn from someone enriching a polar bear, giraffe or chimpanzee? Are your enrichment activities actually designed to encourage natural behaviours… or are you just giving dogs something different to do? And could looking outside the pet care industry completely change the way you think about enrichment? In this episode, I'm giving you a sneak peek inside the upcoming Pet Care Enrichment Summit, including highlights from one of my favourite sessions from last year's event: our Zookeepers Roundtable. One of the things we've always done differently with the Enrichment Summit is deliberately bring in experts from outside traditional pet care. Because if you want to get better at enrichment, there are few better people to learn from than professionals whose entire job involves creating stimulating environments and experiences for animals in captivity. You'll hear fascinating examples involving servals, polar bears, Arctic foxes, parrots and giraffes, and discover why great enrichment isn't about randomly chucking an activity into an enclosure and hoping the animal enjoys it. It starts with the animal, the behaviours you want to encourage and the experience you're trying to create. In this episode, you'll discover: Why Enrichment Should Be Goal-Based – How zookeepers start with natural behaviours rather than simply dreaming up activities. What Happens When Enrichment Doesn't Work – Why an animal completely ignoring your intended outcome doesn't necessarily mean the activity failed. The Importance of Species-Specific Enrichment – What polar bears, parrots and giraffes teach us about designing experiences around the animal in front of you. Why "Use It or Lose It" Matters – How animals need opportunities to practise natural behaviours and develop important physical and mental skills. How the Environment Becomes Enrichment – Why food, movement, scent, other animals and even unexpected changes can all create valuable experiences. I also preview this year's Pet Care Enrichment Summit seminars, where we have 12 presentations across six days, including dog trainer and daycare owner roundtables, breed-specific enrichment, scent work, behavioural workflows and another brilliant line-up of zoo professionals. Remember, this years enrichment summit brings you more learning opportunities than ever with 12 sessions over 6 years.  And you can get a LIVE ticket and lifetime access to the recordings by clicking here now Thanks to our amazing show sponsor TailPro click here to find out more about their amazing booking app Click here to grab an early bird ticket to the this years Pet Care Enrichment Summit now!