Manager: Pet Care Business and Dog Kennel

If you want a career in the pet care industry, this is a great opportunity!

That’s So Fetch! is a locally owned, small business providing professional pet care services to the Metro Atlanta area. Our small boutique dog daycare and boarding facility is located in Southwest Atlanta (near Adair Park). We also offer dog walking, in-home pet care, and a pet taxi service (within a 5-10 mile radius from our building).

We are flexible and everything is negotiable. We pride ourselves on taking care of our work family like we do our own! We are a small, tight-knit team, searching for the right candidate to join us and help us continue to grow our business!

Brief summary: management position in pet care industry

We are hoping to expand our management team! As we are consistently growing and becoming busier and more successful, new areas of improvement and redirection are being created, and while we have one Deputy Manager already, we would like to find her counterpart to work with side-by-side in overseeing our In House and Out of House service departments, daily operations, employee engagement, administrative duties, and client communications. We are proud of how far our business has come and are extremely excited to see where it is going and what the future looks like for us! We need someone whose priorities, ideals, and values align with our company’s vision! We strive to be the top choice in Atlanta for above-and-beyond pet care, and we pour our hearts and souls into loving each and every one of our fur clients just as unconditionally as they love us! 

Primary responsibilities:

• Assisting with the planning and scheduling of services
• Organizing company policies and protocols
• Leading the staff in the appropriate direction
• Delegating responsibilities catered to each team member’s strong suits and areas of interest
• Supervising the staff and being willing to participate, educate, reward and reprimand
• Client communications, scheduling, and invoicing.
• Recognizing areas in need of improvement and creating a plan of action to correct it
• Managerial/administrative tasks
• Providing services such as dog walking, pet sitting, pet taxi transportation, basic grooming.
• General responsibilities and supervision for dog daycare and boarding at our facility.

Requirements:

• Driver’s License (Required)
• Willingness to travel:
  • All travel is local and within a 5-10 mile radius to our location
  • We provide the vehicle for our pet taxi service
  • Mileage reimbursements when you use your personal car (for dog walks and house visits)
• Must regard safety and security as the absolute highest priority!
• Must have excellent communication skills
• Must demonstrate comfort and confidence in handling dogs, cats, and other pets
• Must have previous experience managing dogs in a group and/or cage-free environment
• Must be able to lift 20 pounds regularly and 40 pounds occasionally
• Must be able to stand/move for long periods of time
• Must be eligible for employment in the U.S.
• MUST LOVE DOGS! And other animals!
• Dependable attendance and reliable transportation are vital!

Preferred Qualifications:

• Previous driving experience
• Previous customer service experience
• Previous management experience
• Previous pet care experience
• Certification in canine/feline CPR and first aid
• Certification as a licensed veterinary technician

Benefits We Offer:

• Sign-on bonus (paid at the end of one year’s work)
• Weekly paychecks
• 5 days PTO (either sick leave or planned time off)
• Monthly tip pool added to the last paycheck of the month
• Mileage reimbursement
• Retirement Option (Simple IRA)
• Annual bonus at the end of the year
• Access to our emergency savings fund for unexpected personal/financial hardship
• Free dog daycare while you work! (Only if your dog is friendly!)
• 50% Employee discount on pet care services- when you are not working or on vacation.
• You get to hang out with dogs and other pets!
• Stay in shape and burn calories while you work!

Job Pay: Hourly During Training & Probationary Period. Followed by Salary

Training/Probationary Period: Starts at $18/hour. This period may last up to 90 days, depending on your progress/performance. We understand that it takes some time to learn all of the ins and outs of the business, and where you fit into the grand scheme of things and how you can assist us with running and improving it! We would like to ensure that we made the right decision in hiring you, and that you are a good fit for the role, before moving into your new position as Deputy Manager. As long as you show us the initiative, effort, qualities and commitment we are looking for, you will move on to being a salaried employee with us!

Salary: $45k per year (equivalent of $20/hr) – As part of being a salaried employee, we would expect you to work between 40-48 hours per pay period/week. The nice part about that is, you get paid the same, even if you end up working a few less hours! You will know exactly what to expect on every paycheck, which can bring a lot of peace of mind and a sense of financial security.

Work Schedule: Full-time

We have morning and evening shifts available, and we try to cater to everyone’s preferences as much as possible, though you may be asked to work the other shift occasionally. We also try to accommodate time off as requested as much as possible. We offer a variety of shift lengths to better suit your schedule:

• 6-hour shift
• 8-hour shift
• 10-hour shift
• 12-hour shift

We also do require:

• Weekend availability (we are a small team, and everyone shares the workload! No one works every weekend, but we do require at least 2 weekends per month)
• Holiday availability (again, no one works every holiday, but we do all share the responsibility!)
• 40 – 48 scheduled hours per week, once you become a salaried employee.

What we are looking for in a candidate:

• Team player
• Strong ability to self-manage
• Hard worker
• Extremely Punctual
• Reliable & Dependable
• Trustworthy
• Goes above and beyond to make clients (pet and human) feel special
• Strong time management skills
• Leads by example
• Willing to jump in and help wherever needed
• Willing to handle and de-escalate occasional uncomfortable or confrontational situations
• Strong problem-solving and resolution-building skills
• Great attention to detail
• Strong communication skills
• Needs to be fit enough to walk multiple dogs every day

Responsibilities:

• Drive the pet taxi (dodge grand caravan) which runs twice per day to transport dogs to/from boarding/daycare at our facility. We usually make two trips per day including weekends (7 AM to 10 AM and 5 PM to 8 PM).
• Must have a pretty clean driving record (or our insurance skyrockets) and be comfortable driving a van in city traffic and parking conditions!
• Visit client homes to walk dogs and attend to other pets (cats, turtles, birds, etc). Trustworthiness, attention to detail & ability to work independently (and not take advantage of that) is essential!!
• Assist with facility management/cleanliness and dog care in our boutique dog daycare/boarding facility. This job requires manual labor and a lot of cleaning!
• Assist in business operations, scheduling, social media, website management, and client communication.
• Greet clients and their pets by name on arrival & departure at our facility. Ensure you have all the necessary care information and help them feel comfortable leaving their pet in our care.
• Be on call to fill in for other employees when needed and/or work the overnight shift.
• For overnights, the staff room has a bed and during this shift, you are legitimately paid to hang out/sleep (pay is slightly less during sleep hours unless you opt to stay awake to deep clean/organize).

A Typical Workday:

Depending on what shift you are working (morning or evening), you can expect a typical shift to go something along these lines:

1. When you come in in the morning, you would go straight into taxi mode and drive through your route picking up our daycare and boarding pups who have requested transport and bringing them all back to our facility.
2. Once everyone is unloaded and settled in, you may have some time to help organize and assist at the building, take photos of the pets, delegate responsibilities within the in-house staff, administrative tasks, etc.
3. You would then head out in your personal vehicle to start on your scheduled walks/house visits. There are some variations of this, as we do try to accommodate most requests made by our clients, but these would be your primary service responsibilities.
4. If you have some extra time towards the end of your shift, you would return to our facility and help out there.
5. You would also be answering client communication, scheduling, sending photos/updates, following up on questions/requests/concerns, checking in with team members and guiding them through arrivals/departures/add-ons per client communications, and supervising overall daily operations throughout your shift each day.

Afternoon/evening shifts are just the opposite! You would start out with walks and visits, and then load up and head out for evening taxi and take all the pups home! There are occasional evening visits/walks that may be completed on your way back from taxi or on your way out for the night!

Requirements for consideration:

• EXTREMELY punctual, reliable, and trustworthy. We are a small staff so last-minute call-outs/being frequently late are not possible unless emergent. If you are used to calling out on average once per month or more, we are not the right company for you.
• A clean driving record (business vehicle has commercial insurance coverage which is dependent on employee driving records).
• Reliable personal transportation. This is required for walks/house visits and you will be compensated via mileage reimbursement. The business vehicles will be used for our pet taxis only. In the event of occasional car trouble, you will still be expected to show up to work from where you can utilize a business vehicle if needed.
• MUST have experience with in-city driving/parking and navigating traffic (we cannot stress this enough haha).
• Weekends and holiday availability is a NECESSITY. Not every weekend and holiday; but you will be expected to share the workload with the rest of the team.
• Previous pet care experience with a professional company (daycare/boarding facility, vet clinic, professional pet care company, etc…) is highly preferred.
• Previous employee/business management experience is highly preferred but negotiable.
• Willingness to occasionally work past scheduled shift time (usually no more than an hour but due to the nature of the business, it is a common occurrence that last minute things pop up).
• Willingness to commit long-term (at least a year). You get a bonus at the end of a year of employment with us!
• Willingness to problem solve, create meaningful change, lead by example, provide exceptional and extraordinary care/service, and help our team and business grow!