Maintaining your pet boarding and daycare facility can be time consuming and expensive if we don’t take a good look at what we are doing, or not doing. Being an owner/manager and the person who pays the bills, I want everything done in the most efficient way possible. Basically, for the least amount of time and money. As business owners/managers we are always striving to increase sales while reducing our expenses, which of course leads to profit. Sometimes, the way we are maintaining our facility is costing the business more money and staff more time than it needs to and not producing the results we are looking for. This is the point at which we need to take a look at what we are doing in the area of sanitation.

Sanitation refers to the process we use to remove the dirt that gets tracked into our pet care facilities every day. Yes, sanitation is a process that needs to be done every day. This process involves someone’s time and the materials or products/equipment needed to get the job done. Any job that needs to be done usually has two costs involved, materials costs and labor costs. Typically, labor costs are 90% and material costs are 10% of the total expenditures related to any job. Ideally, we want to reduce the time it takes to get the job done and use the least number of products possible. Choosing a product to use for sanitation is much easier than getting staff to use the product correctly and consistently every day. In fact, getting staff to consistently clean properly will be your greatest challenge.

Let’s start with choosing the right product. The criteria we should use in choosing a product would be, first of all, one that meets the specific sanitation needs of a pet care facility. That means we want a product that will be safe for use around the animals in our care. Stay away from products not made for animal care and even high level germicides found in veterinary or animal sheltering facilities that would be far beyond what a pet boarding/daycare would need. These products are typically more expensive, destructive to surfaces, less animal/user friendly and more difficult to use. Animal health care facilities such as veterinary hospitals and animal shelters require stronger products because they are dealing with infectious diseases typically not seen in pet boarding and daycare businesses. We need a product that is not only safe for staff and guests, but it’s very important that the product does not destroy facility surfaces. It makes no sense at all to use a product that is destructive to surfaces such as the animal enclosures, flooring and synthetic turf, to name a few. All of which cost thousands of dollars to replace if we destroy them by using the wrong product to clean them. We need a product that’s low cost and easy to use.

By utilizing concentrated products and mixing the product with water, you will keep the product costs low. All of your sanitation products will be pennies per gallon rather than dollars per gallon if you utilize concentrates. Concentrated products are more environmentally friendly because they produce less plastic going into the land fill. Metered dispensing for your concentrated products is strongly recommended. This will save staff time and control product consumption. In my experience, taking the mixing out of staff’s hands will cut your consumption in half.

We need one product that will clean, disinfect, and deodorize all the washable surfaces inside and outside my pet boarding and daycare facility. Efficiency would mean using the least number of products possible. So choose a good cleaner that also kills germs and deodorizes surfaces instead of three separate products. We need a stable product that doesn’t lose its ability to clean and kill germs after a few hours or days. Otherwise we end up throwing out a lot of product that has lost its ability to be effective. Or we are using a product that is not working and just don’t know it. Our noses will eventually let us know. Choose a product that is identifiable by color for safety, and is pleasantly scented but not overpowering. Last but not least, choose a product that the staff likes, it’s much more likely to be used.

Chris Quinlan grew up in a family business that has specialized in hospital hygiene, sanitation, laundry, and floor care since 1958. While earning a Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic University, Chris also received extensive training in the areas of chemistry, microbiology, hospital infection control principles and practices, institutional hygiene, environmental sanitation, odor control, floor care, and OSHA compliance. Shortly after entering the family business, Chris started the animal care division of the company in 1989. Today Chris is president of Health Technology Professional Products, a leading brand in the pet care industry, and owns the Riverwalk Pet Resort with his wife Gia. Chris has been a speaker on sanitation for the Pet Services Association national meeting, as well as speaking on hospital hygiene and sanitation at several veterinary schools and associations.

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