Cleaning Business Life

CBL Episode 72#: Who let the Dogs Out?? Ensuring Pet Safety for your Cleaning Techs!

• Shannon Miller and Kimberly Gonzales • Season 2024 • Episode 72

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Ever wondered how to keep your furry friends safe while running a cleaning business? In this episode of Cleaning Business Life, I, Shannon Miller, and my co-host Kimberly Gonzalez share our stories and expert tips on managing pet safety during cleaning sessions. From my dog Max, when I used to carry him around inside my mail bag inside of a store to  chicken Sally Mae who thinks she’s a dog, we highlight how pets are integral family members and discuss the delicate balance of ensuring their safety while maintaining a professional cleaning service. You'll learn the importance of securing pets and handling aggressive behaviors, all while avoiding potential liability issues.

We’re diving into the nitty-gritty of using cleaning products like essential oils around pets, with a focus on the safety of diluted eucalyptus oil. We also touch on the benefits of offering specialized pet-related services, such as cleaning pet bowls, and the challenges of dealing with tasks like cat litter boxes. Through real-life anecdotes of troublesome cats and mischievous birds, we underscore the necessity of firm policies and clear communication with clients to keep everyone safe and happy. Tune in for valuable insights that will help you run a pet-friendly and successful cleaning business.

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Shannon Miller:

Recording in progress. Welcome everyone, my name is Shannon Miller and this is cleaning business life, and I am joined by my wonderful co-host, Ms. Kimberly Gonzalez. Kimberly, take it away. What are we talking about today?

Kimberly Gonzales:

Morning everybody. Today we are going to talk about pets and I know we have all run into this situation where clients I would say probably Shannon, majority of people that have pets now is got to be what? 90% of people I just saw a spider jump 90% of people like feel like they have their. They have pets in their house, whether it's birds, whether it's cats, whether it's dogs. So today we're going to talk about the safety issue of cleaning around pets.

Shannon Miller:

Like 98% here, we're a huge pet community.

Kimberly Gonzales:

It's big here, there's like bowls everywhere for your Dogs to take inside all the stores. Now, like it's weird, and I went to part of Arizona and there was so many stores you couldn't take your dogs to, so I thought that was kind of weird and I'm used to it here.

Shannon Miller:

Right, it's, um, it's hit or miss my little, my little guy, Max. Um, this was years ago. I brought him into Staples. It was 105 outside. It wasn't intentional, it just worked out that way because the gas and everything else and I brought him in staples, he didn't touch the floor, he wasn't in a cart, he actually had his nose hanging out of my bag. I have a, a mail carrier bag that I've had for years. He was in there and I had a person get really upset with me because her husband was extremely allergic to dogs and now she was going to have to decontaminate herself. I mean full on spiting out of curse words, the whole deal. And Max just looked at me. I looked at her and I was just like maybe to get a life.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Yes, we all have allergies. I'm dealing with them now, but it's life Like you have to. Everywhere you go, there's going to be allergies to trees and right.

Shannon Miller:

So it's. And granted, it was my fault, it was self-icted, but it was. It wasn't an intentional act and sometimes you know he didn't touch anything, but it was this whole. You have contaminated my space and I'm like. You know you could have gotten out of line. You could have, you know, gone to another line. You could have done something. It didn't have to be all my fault, but in, in reality it was and I got. I got punished for it. I tried to always be really conscientious of that, but on the same level, it's like give me a break.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Don't be a Karen. Yeah, pets are like family. Now it's like it's a billion dollar industry. So if anybody ever decided to go into a business having pet services or pet products is like a billion dollar industry because we treat them like we're family. My chickens are like my family. You have a chicken that's like family. It lives in your house. Does it still live in your house?

Shannon Miller:

Yeah, sally Mae. Sally Mae's still in the house. She thinks she's a dog. I took a photo and I'm upstairs at the top computer and she's sitting next to the dog. The dog is sitting next to KK, who's out cold. He came home from camp and was just tired, so the three of them were all on the floor spread out next to me while I'm typing away. Yesterday, but yeah, no, sally Mae thinks she doesn't. She lays eggs once in a while, but she primarily thinks she's a dog. That's, that's my chicken. We've had her since since COVID.

Kimberly Gonzales:

So you know, I just lost one of my big girls. She was Pinto. She was one of the ones we rescued. She was my rescue chicken, so we just lost her the other day. I think she had a heart attack. So it's like pets are family.

Shannon Miller:

They are. We lost Cookie. She was a meat chicken. They're not supposed to live long, because they're not. They're genetically altered. And it was very hard on Maya Because I was like we might get night. We didn't know she was the smallest one. You know how it is with the chicks you don't mix together at the end and I'm like, well, there's this chick, the last one, right? So? And they're not supposed to be by themselves, cause you know chicken nap, and if you need to, you need 10.

Shannon Miller:

Right, and then you know it's that whole dynamic, but yeah, that's it's. It's hard when they go Definitely.

Kimberly Gonzales:

When you walk into homes, you really have to be cautious of what comes out Like, what like. If the dogs are there, are they friendly? Are they going to attack you? We've seen stories in Facebook too, haven't we?

Shannon Miller:

We have. I've actually been bit on more than one occasion and it usually indicates when, way back when I was cleaning, I had someone who had standard poodles and they're actually ferocious. They look all pretty I've heard of that. They are. They're warrior dogs like Sharpay's. They just are really territorial and I was wearing a baseball cap and whoever had had this dog beforehand didn't like the baseball cap and he he returned and bit me on the hand and I hit him and the homeowner's like what are you doing? I'm like natural reaction. Your dog just flipping, bit me Not the normal response. But I started yelling at the dog and I'm like you get away from me and this you know. So then we had to have a no hat policy at the house. But yeah, I've been bit multiple times.

Shannon Miller:

I and I'm very dog friendly. Dogs don't bother me at all. I you know. I don't really want them put away. That's my policy for the others that work underneath me. I request that the pets be put away just for liability reasons, because not everybody knows how to handle dogs. Not everyone is excited about your dog person you know, like you know it's yeah.

Kimberly Gonzales:

So I think that's so important because having that pet policy put in place is just huge. You know they might like you know it's yeah. So I think that's so important because having that pet policy put in place is just huge, you know it's. It's setting those boundaries that Shannon and I talk about and we have, you know, we have it broken down like the key elements of a pet policy. So, shannon, what are some of the key elements of the pet policy?

Shannon Miller:

Um, that we require that all animals um, feline or doggy be put away either in another room, because I've had attacked cats as well. It's a cat in a basket. For those of you who are not watching, it's amazing. That's the way. So, yeah, your pet is requested that it be put away.

Shannon Miller:

First of all, we don't want here I live in coyote land we don't want to have to have the conversation Knock on wood, I never have had it so far today about how we lost your fluffy. It got out the front door and the coyotes ate it. We never want that conversation, ever. No, I've never had that Right. It's awful and it's not fun. And so we, we kindly request that the dogs and cats be put away and contained while the cleaner is present inside the home. Dogs don't know any different. They only know that you smell like 50 other dogs Cause you've been all over the place, your gear has touched. I don't know how, if you're out cleaning, your gear has gone from house to house to house, if you haven't washed your, your rag bag in a while, and so they, the dogs, smell it, right they? I mean. How many times have we walked down the street and dogs smell their dog's butt because they're trying to figure out are you friend or?

Shannon Miller:

foe right, what do you mean? If it's humans? Thank God we don't do that, because we could just walk around smelling people's behinds to see if they're friend or foe right, so it can happen. You just request that it's put away. If the dog is not put away, or if a dog is put in a room and the homeowner is not home and the dog is not friendly, we'll just not, we'll skip it. We just will say hey, we skipped that back bedroom. This time your fluffy was back there.

Kimberly Gonzales:

You know, emphasize that. It's a safety not only for you but for their pets. You know I want their pets that you understand how much that their pets are like family and treasured, and when they're put away it's so that they don't run out the door. It's so really emphasize that for the owners because they can see that you really care.

Shannon Miller:

Definitely, and so you have to have that policy in place. Don't wait until after you get bit. And for those of you who are wondering, because I have been bit several times no, I never sued the homeowner. No, it wasn't traumatizing for me, yes, it hurt and yes, I had a bruise. And no, I never had a rabies shot. So I hope that covers all of the gamut that you're probably wondering why I didn't do anything. I love dogs, I have. I love cats, but I love love dogs. Dogs are my thing, Dogs. And obviously you guys know I have birds and you can't have cats If you have a lot of birds in the house. It just doesn't work.

Shannon Miller:

Look at my little pretties on top of the cage, right my paw, right in there and see what's going on. Um, so, yeah, for the benefit of everybody, it's just, it's better that way. Um, so, having you know, communicating and saying, hey, just to let you know, I didn't do that. Back bedroom. Um, securing pets Sometimes you can have a really aggressive dog, um, that can get out of a kennel because they're super smart, because they came back this lifetime as a really smart dog, and they can't be secure.

Shannon Miller:

They can go in the backyard. There have been scenarios way back when I was like by myself, before I had helpers and they're like, hey, and they lived on the golf course, hey, can you let my dog out? And I would go out because they trusted me. Don't take that responsibility on If you're not comfortable with that animal. That dog knew me. Um, don't walk the dog I'm.

Shannon Miller:

How many times have we seen runaway dogs, especially where, 4th of July, I lost my dog. The dog sitter took them for a walk and they ran the leash or or lead or whatever. Don't, don't take responsibility more on. Don't take on more responsibility than necessary. So don't put yourself in that situation. I personally knew that dog. Their dog had played with my dog at the dog park. So they were, you know, they were familiar with me. Um, emergency contact information. This is a big one. Um, just in case you're doing you're, you're delving into the pet sitting realm. It's a huge industry right now. Make sure that you have all of that information. You just never know, or the animal could be free and run around and eat something and it could be lodged in their throat.

Kimberly Gonzales:

One of your products.

Shannon Miller:

How do I get this toilet brush out?

Kimberly Gonzales:

product. How do I get this toilet brush out? I always have, I always asked for that information just to have on hand, because if the owner wasn't there I'd call the owner and let them know and then I would call the vet, like just give them heads up and stuff, and then the owner would go. It was just being out of courtesy, like getting information, like what could, what do I need to do if they got into one of the products? Even if you're using a toxic product, how can you, like you know, make sure that everything is safe?

Shannon Miller:

And then encourage clients to provide special instructions regarding their pets. So we it's a given for us because 98% of everybody has pets. This might not be comfortable for you. You might think this is totally gross, but some of the cleaners I have on my crew will clean the dog bowls and do the water dish and get the mat underneath all of it and get all of that all around there. Other people are like ew, gross, I'm not doing that. So define what that is going to be for you Doesn't bother any of us at all. It's actually nice. One less thing for the homeowner to do, right.

Kimberly Gonzales:

We always do that. That was a huge selling point for us. Like the owners love that we cleaned the bowl out and gave them fresh water. That was just a huge selling point and that was one of the perks of my business and so people like that we were, you know, able, like we did that kind of stuff right.

Shannon Miller:

Cat boxes are a different story. We don't. That's your deal, I don't. I'll clean bowls and especially with those new modern cat boxes that are like robotic and they do all kinds of weird things. We don't move, or we try to get the vacuum around to get the pieces that have hopped out. We don't move that unit, we don't push it back. They're like four or five hundred bucks.

Kimberly Gonzales:

I don't want anything to do with it it's like vacuum around the cat litter box, like we wouldn't even do that because it would mess up our vacuum.

Shannon Miller:

Right, it's very I'm talking very little If someone has. You know, not everybody is a good cat box manager. So those people you guys know who you are they clean the cat box once a week. It smells you can, it hits your nose right. When you walk in that type of person, you know they're just going to pour more cat litter on top of more cat litter and then it's just going to spill out and the cat's like trying to navigate all of the pieces of the cat litter. Um, those individuals know better but they do it anyway because they're kind of hoping they'll maybe guilt you into hey, will you vacuum that up, Use the vacuum and say we're not responsible if they insist and charge them for it.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Another one is just communicating the pet policy. So when you guys do go in and you do the pet policy, have it laid out on your website, have it in your marketing materials. Like we, we value your guys' pet, we're pet friendly, but we do have, you know, these standards in place and policies in place. Even when they book, let them know ahead of time. You know, when you book, let them know the pet policy. If they have questions, you know like you're going to ask hey, do you clean cat litter? That'll probably be one of the questions that they'll ask.

Shannon Miller:

Right. And they'll ask, when you're onboarding your new client, say you know, is it you and your significant other? And they'll say it's just me. And blah, blah, blah. Do you have any kids in the home? Oh, no kids. Do you have any fluffies in the home? And they'll say, oh, I've got nine cats. And you're like nine cats, they have any chickens in?

Kimberly Gonzales:

the house yes, I have any chickens in the house any birds?

Shannon Miller:

yeah, birds, chickens, all this stuff like, for example, if you have um, I have a client who has a freshwater tank. It is a thousand gallon freshwater tank. You cannot plug the vacuum into the same outlet that the tank is hooked up to, because you could blow the fuse and the tank could go down. He's got thousands of dollars of fresh water in there, so you don't want to do that. You obviously, if you're cleaning, anywhere near the tank.

Kimberly Gonzales:

You don't want to do that.

Shannon Miller:

You obviously, if you're cleaning anywhere near the tank, you don't want to spray and I'm hoping that you never do anyway but you don't want to spray and wipe, and spray and wipe. You want to spray onto your microfiber cloth if, if it needs it around the fish tank, I would not put anything on that cloth because that the chemical could um aerate and flow into the top and go through the filter. It could kill a fish. So it's a huge liability when you see someone who has that's their thing and they have this huge tank. Be very careful around a fish tank. Or if you bumped it and the filter didn't work, it could actually flood the whole floor. There's that too. I've seen that. I've seen it.

Kimberly Gonzales:

That's why it's so important to talk to your future customers about all their pets.

Shannon Miller:

Right. So you just want to be sure that you're being careful and teaching your staff how to handle encounters with pets. If you have an individual like I have one person who is extremely allergic to cats, so 99% of the time I'll have, oh, I have two cats, oh, I have one cat, and I'll be like, okay, this cleaner cannot go in there because they have cats, Cause he it just hits eyes water.

Kimberly Gonzales:

That's me right now. Do you see this? I've got eyes and nose and it's because I'm allergic to this thing right here.

Shannon Miller:

Right, the cat in the basket. So be sure that you're training your staff on what to do and what not to do If they have an allergy. Sometimes they're just not comfortable around from pets. That happens as well and you just don't know what the pet's going to do, even though they seem like they're totally friendly. You could just touch the ball. Don't touch the ball. I didn't know I was supposed to touch the ball. He keeps dropping the ball on my foot. Don't touch the ball, but he keeps dropping it at my foot.

Shannon Miller:

So make sure that you, you, your staff, understands what the do's and don'ts are and then consider using pet friendly, pet friendly products, especially if their pet has allergies or sensitivities, and then obviously inform your clients If you're using something that's not safe. Like Malaluca has a product that we use during COVID. It has thyme oil. You cannot use anything that has thyme oil inside of it. If you have cats, it's actually toxic to them and could be harmful. So do your research, ladies and gentlemen, on what chemicals that you can use and not use. I know, kim, your product is pet friendly right it is.

Kimberly Gonzales:

I have a lot of people that still come back and they're like oh well, eucalyptus, and it's so diluted down. It's high quality but it's so diluted down. And what I explain is is that if you take that eucalyptus oil and if you were to put it in a diffuser or if you were to rub it on their feet or you know, just, you know dust with it straight, which you don't want to do with oils, because it'll eat your wood, but that is the more toxic part of it. But it's all. My products are safe for pets. I've been using it for I don't even know how many years around all my chickens that are in the house that come and go, and pets and pets, and they are fine. It's more when you rub the oil directly on them. So for thyme oil it might be different because it's more stronger, it's more of a I read, it's pretty toxic?

Kimberly Gonzales:

Yeah, so a lot of people. That's probably one of my biggest questions. I get, well, your product's toxic to pets and I'm like, no, it doesn't affect them, it's fine, it's diluted down, so it's safe. You guys, it's free if you guys want information.

Shannon Miller:

And then make sure you're providing you know feedback. So if it's just not a good fit because their dog can't behave, then it's not a good fit. I don't care how much money they pay you.

Shannon Miller:

It's not worth the hassle of being on the schedule, where every time the poor person who goes has anxiety over the process. They've got to know before they go. It's just like you know. So just make sure that you um, if you're, if you're not pet friendly, I get it. There's no crime in it. Don't do it. If you're pet friendly and it doesn't bother you, then you know, go that way, you pick. You're the business owner cleaning business owners. Unite Right.

Kimberly Gonzales:

I've seen like there is a house. I did Shannon and I didn't do it anymore. This cat would keep attacking me. This cat was mean. It was a violent, mean cat and I like I was like I'd be vacuuming and I'd be like vacuuming like this looking out behind you like, this cat gonna come and attack me.

Shannon Miller:

Scenes from horror films.

Kimberly Gonzales:

I didn't do that house anymore because it just gave me the ebgb's. Like I felt like the cat was gonna attack me when I was like cleaning bathtubs or vacuuming, like come out of nowhere and get me. So yeah, I feel comfortable. Always talk to your customers and talk to your employees, you know, get a feedback from them.

Shannon Miller:

Attack cats go underneath. I don't know who has bed skirts still. I hate them because they're just an inconvenience. Because they're just an inconvenience, Anyway, we could talk about this. We could have a whole episode on bed skirts. Or they'll hang out underneath the bed and you go to stick your feet in there and then they attack your ankles and bite you because you're like oh, what's that?

Kimberly Gonzales:

Or they go around the corner and they jump out and everybody screams. Oh my gosh, I'm going to have nightmares tonight of cats, because we've been talking about it.

Shannon Miller:

Yeah, you just have to be really careful around them and then have firm policies in place so that you don't get bit. If you have a cleaning tech and you have W-2s and the bite is pretty bad, there's a whole workman's comp process that has to happen and you know, obviously don't blame it on the cleaning tech and the bite is pretty bad. There's a whole workman's comp process that has to happen and you know, obviously don't blame it on the cleaning tech. You did this to get bit. Just say, do you need to go to the doctors? Here's my workman's comp information, blah, blah. Or you can go to the doctor, not the actual cleaning tech, so that it's, you know, information's not all over the place and someone goes. I have to file a claim, so you just never know about people nowadays. So it's important to look at all those aspects of pets, like when we have birds. I have parrots, they don't come, they can't tell us right. Parrots live 90 years. A lot of the birds we have are rescued.

Shannon Miller:

And when I say don't stick your finger in the cage, they bite. And you come back running up to me and saying I got bit by the bird and I'm going to be like how did you get bit by it? Well, I stuck my finger in there. They wanted to be touched. Why did you do that? I said specifically don't touch the birds, don't go around the cages. If you're, I go, you can actually skip. I will take the vacuum and I will get on the side. You don't have to get anywhere, I go. Bird bites hurt. It is, um, like a thousand pounds per square inch of pressure that they can actually nip off the tip of your finger if they wanted to, if you get a big enough bird. Um, so there's a lot of elements, so I don't spray anything around the birds. Um, when we discipline our birds, because every once in a while they get naughty, we use a spray bottle with water in it. Um, you can't obviously say no, you're naughty, go outside yeah, the birds get naughty?

Shannon Miller:

yeah, they can. Um, they can be naughty, they can do all kinds of naughty things. I have a set of blinds by bobo's cage upstairs and he, he attacks them in the morning. They're metal from like 1990. My husband's like I can't let you leave him chewing on that. I'm like it's, it's metal blinds, I can get it easily replaced, make some hate jumps on them and he bites them really hard and does all kinds of weird aggression things and you can't take a video of that. I gotta see that. He, he, I think he's in season. I've had him, I want to say over 10 years, so he's probably starting to mature now. But I've been bit a couple times this month because he is in season, he wants to mate and he's really aggressive and he's bit me like three or four times. So, um, there's someone that bit you on the shoulder before he bit my ear last year and made it right here yeah um, and it's just last year, at the same time.

Shannon Miller:

It's just he doesn't get shoulder rides anymore when he goes upstairs. Um, there's just certain handlings of birds and I don't know his history, I don't know what happened to him, I don't know if he was hit. I I don't know anything. All I know is he's not the normal lovey-dovey bird. And then I have Sunny Boy, who's a smaller cockatoo, who is totally friendly, but Sunny drives me nuts. He's Sunny, sunny, sunny, I love Sunny, I love Sunny, I love Sunny.

Shannon Miller:

He'll just say it all day long. I'm like shut up, shut up. Where's that squirt bottle right? And Sunny, sunny, sunny and Sonny, sonny, sonny, sonny, sonny, sonny, Sonny, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, shannon, I love you. Shannon, like all day long, he'll just just because. Then he goes out of the cage and he takes the newspapers are stored on top of his cage and he flicks them. He flicks them and then he jumps on them and you know, birds do their own little birdy things, right, but those, that's enough of my bird um shenanigans. But yes, just be really careful, have them in place.

Shannon Miller:

Don't not have a policy in place when it comes to pets. Decide, either you're due or you don't. It's okay whatever decision you make, so that, um, you are clear in your communications and you don't have a liability or a workman comp claim. That's always not fun, because then it's the I can't work for seven weeks and you don't have a liability or a workman comp claim. That's always not fun, cause then it's the I can't work for seven weeks and you're like, oh my God, seven weeks Right. And you know, ultimate safety is key. The safety of the pet is key. The safety of your cleaning techs is even more important, because that's where you make your money Right.

Kimberly Gonzales:

Exactly. That's all we have for today. Today was a short little podcast on pets and we got to hear fun stories about chickens and cats and dogs and birds. So thank you guys for joining Cleaning Business Life. If you guys have questions, reach out, make sure to subscribe, make sure to share and leave a review. We need more reviews. We need lots of good reviews and sponsors. Thank you guys, so much for joining us. Have a wonderful day. Stay nice and cool in this hot weather.

Shannon Miller:

Take care, bye, see you on the next round. The next round.

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