Stumbling home after a long day, pet owners can always look forward to reuniting with their furry friends, who are waiting eagerly by the door.
According to Insurance Information Institute, 70% of American households experience this joy, and many are more than willing to spend a pretty penny to keep their furry family members happy and healthy. In 2021 alone, the pet industry is costing owners in the United States $123.6 billion.
Vet visits, grooming and boarding are common among pet owners, but these services are currently in high demand and no longer readily available to all customers.
One pet grooming service that noticed this change is Bow Wow Chacha.
“It’s gotten busier, and we’ve definitely seen more backlogs than before,” said Lisa Bastian, an employee at Bow Wow Chacha.
Bastian explained that for simple bathing appointments, people now have to book one to two weeks in advance, and for longer grooming appointments, the wait time can be up to six weeks.
similar, Shamrock Ranch Kennelsa pet boarding, training and grooming facility, has struggled to keep up with growing demand.
“We are fully booked almost every weekend, and for the holidays we book further in advance and have more people on a waiting list,” said Shamrock Ranch office manager Kevin Bender. “At the end of the day, we’re just telling more people ‘no’.”
According to Bender, the number of animals they board has increased by nearly 10% since 2018, and wait times are getting longer.
In the past, Bender has suggested that guests book their pets’ stays four to six weeks in advance. From now on, customers wishing to board their dogs during the winter holidays are invited to book from September, several months in advance.
Molli Shields, a senior at Carlmont, is one pet owner who has noticed this change.
“We stopped boarding our dog due to some issues with the boarding services being too crowded,” Shields said. “It’s not that they couldn’t let us in, but my dog really doesn’t like being kenneled with other dogs, and that was all that was available.”
She also had problems with her two cats.
“We’ve tried to take them to the vet a couple of times, but it’s always quite a long wait and they charge excessively,” Shields said.
Shields is not alone in her experience. Even essential pet services like veterinary clinics are overbooked and overwhelmed with customers.
Sonya Sia, a veterinarian at an emergency clinic in Lafayette, explained how overflow due to overbooking at regular practices began to affect emergency veterinary services.
“General practices around us are booked for two to three weeks, so if someone’s pet is sick and they don’t want to wait, they just go through the emergency department,” said Sia.
Emergency clinics like Sia’s try to reserve their services for animals in critical condition, but they do their best to accommodate the overflow of people seeking veterinary care.
Many attribute this overflow of people to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“On the one hand, a lot of people have had dogs during COVID,” Bastian said.
Since 2019, the number of dogs owned in the United States has increased by 5.6 million, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Bender identified a problem with this wave of “pandemic puppies.”
“When people adopt a new dog, they don’t realize that it will come with training issues.“Bender said.
Another complication noted by Bastian was the specific type of dog adopted during the pandemic.
“At Bow Wow Meow, a lot of people have groomed dogs, meaning dogs that need a haircut,” Bastian said. “We used to do more labs and goldens and other dogs like that, but now we do a lot more poodles and doodles, oodles.”
The doodle craze has taken the world by storm; the number of poodle crosses has increased by 160.3% in the United States, according to a At national scale to study.
And those piles of untrained doodles and pandemic pets aren’t going anywhere. Now, the pet industry is focused on adapting to this newly increased pet population, and the veterinary field is pivoting in response, according to Sia.
“During the pandemic, a bunch of urgent care places have opened up and emergency clinics that feel overwhelmed have developed emergency care portions,” Sia said.
By now, according to Sia and Bastian, pet owners should be prepared to go on a date and sit in endless lines with a furry, slightly stinky but lovable friend at their sides.
“But, of course, I love dogs and cats, and customers are usually optimistic because they’re bringing their pet,” Bastian said.
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