Building Community Through Empathy in Pet Care Franchising with Shaina Denny

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:18)
Well, welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here with my co-host Tullio Siragusa, and we've got a special guest who we'll introduce in a moment. So, pet care is one of the most personal service industries in the world. When people leave their dog with a daycare provider, they're not simply buying convenience. They are trusting someone with a beloved member of their family, and that makes empathy, safety, communication, and community essential parts of this business model. Today, we're exploring building community through empathy in pet care franchising.
We're going to talk about dog daycare franchising, startup growth, and how empathy can become a scalable advantage in a care-based business. Tullio, introduce our special guest today.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:09)
Absolutely happy to. So today, we have Shaina Denny, who's the founder and CEO of Dogdrop. Shaina started Dogdrop after her miniature dash hound, puppy, struggled with traditional dog daycare. That experience inspired her to build a more flexible, modern and community-centered approach to pet care.
Dogdrop is a dog daycare brand designed around franchising, technology, small footprint locations, and membership-based care. Its franchise system is built to support owners from launch through daily operations while helping them focus on growing membership revenue, caring for their teams, and delivering exceptional pet care.
Shaina is also a board member of Cooper Scoopers, who we've had on the show, and Dogdrop is backed by investors and partners, including Science Inc., Slow Ventures, Mars Pet Care, and Fuel Capital. Shaina, welcome to The Bliss Business Podcast. We're looking forward to our conversation today with you.

**Shaina Denny** (2:13)
Thanks, Tullio. Thanks, Stephen. I'm excited to chat with you all today.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:17)
Yeah. So Shaina, let's get into a little bit about your backstory. So Dogdrop, it kind of began with a very personal problem, right? Your dog Poppy was not thriving in that traditional daycare, I can only imagine. So what did that experience kind of teach you about what pet parents and dogs actually need from their care provider?

**Shaina Denny** (2:38)
Yeah. So to even take a step back, I got a puppy and I had just moved back from China. So I was still working for the Chinese company. So I was working China hours. So I thought, hey, I'm kind of free and flexible until around 3 p.m. each day because that's when they start their work day. How hard could it be? I guess I'll get a puppy.
Realize quickly. Yeah, famous last words. I know.
I realized quickly that I was having a hard time going to yoga, getting, running any errands, any time puppy, like any puppy, has separation anxiety and they need to build up their tolerance left at home. She probably had even more severe puppy anxiety than most dogs. So that was my initial problem is, where can I put her for a couple hours at a time? Well, I can run errands, get work done, have uninterrupted webinar calls like this without her right there looking for attention. So that's when I started stumbling around solutions. Was it a dog walker that I needed? That didn't really fit the need. Was it dog daycare? I started going that direction before stumbling upon traditional dog daycare, which then I thought could use a next level to grow the category.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:57)
What are those traditional dog daycare models miss?

**Shaina Denny** (4:02)
For my personal experience, one was on scheduling. One, when did I need daycare in the moment that I realized I needed it? Probably like most people, first time pet owners and pet parents myself at this time, I'm like, I wasn't planning ahead. I'm working, my dog was fine until she wasn't. I'm like, I need this now. One was having facilities able to take something almost from an on-demand time. The second thing was convenience and location-based. Most dog daycares, and I was in Southern California at this time, were typically large warehouses off the side of the freeway, not exactly, and convenient spots for where I was living, where I can go to a coffee shop for an hour or two. That was part two that I really experienced. Then the third was how rigid it was for pick up and drop off if even I could take her.
I needed just a couple hours sometime. They're like, well, the drop-off times are 7 AM to 8 AM. Then at lunch, we don't have someone working in the front, so you can't pick up your dog. Then you can only pick them up at the next pick up slot, which is from 5 to 6 I'm like, no way did that fit my lifestyle.