Media

Regional Franchise Cleans Up After Pets

Gaithersburg Gazette
By Sara Stefanini
June 8, 2005

Picking up what Fido Drops

Equipped with shovels and plastic bags, Mark and Claudine Rubin are answering nature's call.

With the launch of their franchise --DoodyCalls-- the Gaithersburg couple hopes to provide the solution to a long-standing problem: scooping up dog doodoo.

"We're outsourcing the negative aspect of owning dogs," Claudine said.

"People have been cleaning up their own yards ever since they've had dogs," said Mark. "The problem has always existed."

The company has two sides. On the residential side, DoodyCalls workers go by homes once a week, every other week, once a month, or just once, to scoop the poop, double-bag it, and leave it by the trash.

On the commercial side, which the couple has yet to break into, the company services pet "weigh stations," often found in parks and run by homeowners' associations or property managers, by supplying them with bags and removing the trash.

But taking out the trash is nothing new for the Rubins, who also own the local franchise of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, which sends trucks to people's homes to load their junk and take it to recycling or trash transfer stations.

"We joke around and say 'we made the leap from junk to dog poo,'" Mark laughs. "But look, it's just another service, and my own philosophy is, if the market will support it, I'll sell it."

In the first two months of their franchise, which covers Montgomery and Prince George's counties, one the of their biggest challenges has been to raise awareness.

"It's a big education for people, it's a new service," he said. "... Educating people that you can get this service rather than doing it yourself is a process."

But though scare, competing pooper-scooper businesses -- especially unbranded "mom and pop" businesses -- do exist. The Rubins hope to attach a brand name to the service, Mark said.

"It's like mowing your lawn," he said. "I mean in the beginning everyone mowed their own lawn, and then you could pay someone to mow your lawn, and then, instead of paying a little mom and pop, you pay a company that you know is going to show up."

Professional pooper-scooper companies were practically unheard of when Jason D'Aniello founded DoodyCalls in Northern Virginia in 2000, he said.

Business boomed quickly, D'Aniello said, in part because of the lack of competition and in part because dog owners, though slightly fewer in numbers than cat owners, are widespread.

About 36 percent of households nationwide owned one or more dogs in 2002, according to a study by the American Veterinary Association. Mark Rubin estimates that in Montgomery and Prince George's counties about 500,000 homeowners have dogs.

D'Aniello started selling franchises for $20,000 in 2004. He and three franchisees, including the Rubins, now operate DoodyCalls branches in Northern Virginia, Charlottesville, Va., Alexandria, Va., Montgomery and Prince George's counties, and southeastern Massachusetts.

The company charges homeowners according to the number of dogs, the amount of waste and the size of their yard, Mark said.

Cost can range from about $9 a week to $35 every other week, he said. Clients fall into three broad categories: homeowners, people who are physically unable to clean their yards, and people with children, he said.