Thanks for stopping by.  I just wanted to throw it out there that someone decided it was acceptable to do a hit and run on my car when I had it parked in front of Ralph's on Saturday.  Is it just the sign of the times or do people just don't care anymore.  Whatever happened to being courteous and honest and leaving a note on the car.  Did the offender know or care that this is an illegal act and that the law requires you to leave a note if nobody is around. 

It's scary to think this is where our society is headed.  What do the rest of you think?  I would love to hear your thoughts.

My staff and I will be donating a free dog waste cleanup service to the 1st 10 owners who adopt a pet at any South Bay animal shelter during the month of August.  We feel this is a great way to give back to the community and make the transition to pet ownership that much easier.  Please help us spread the word on our offer and let's get every sheltered pet a new home.

Kids and I visited Del Cerro Park today and strolled along the dirt path to get an ocean view.  Along the way, we saw a few people practicing their fly fishing techniques and others just enjoying the view.  When we arrived at the lone bench with the ocean view, we brought out our snacks and enjoyed some nice Cheese curls and juice.  After we finished, I grabbed the empty bag and proceeded to dump it in the trash can.  And if I wasn't careful, I would have stepped in it.  That's right, an orphaned poop sitting about 2-3 feet from the trash container.  Lesson to learn.  Although everything may be pleasant, always keep an eye open.

There’s going to be another pet adoption at Hesse Park on August 14 from 10am – 3pm.  It’s sure to be a fun event.  You get to pet them, walk them, and take one or two home if you like.  So get there early, join in the fun, and take home a future family member.  Hope you all can make it.

I thought about this last night after I finished writing my first blog.  Blogs are supposed to be interactive, right?  So instead of just complaining about all the poop that we see laying around (because the pooping culprit and its owner is already long gone), maybe we can report the perps in the act of not cleaning up after their dog and/or report where we encounter the most “orphaned poops” in any particular park in Palos Verdes Peninsula and San Pedro.  This way we can track it and possibly catch the owner of the “orphaned poops” in the act.              

Maybe if we have enough eyes on this problem, we can make a difference in keeping our community a cleaning and safer place for our families.  In addition, how about the contributors (meaning you and me) report their sightings of these “orphaned poops” scattered about.  Any contributor who wishes to contribute could simply take a picture of the poop with the surrounding background, along with the location and the date, and email them to me so that I could post them on this site.  Who knows, if the offenders see this blog, it might make them feel guilty enough that they will remember to pick up after their dogs the next time. 

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My son and I decided to visit Hesse Park this afternoon after seeing a movie.  We were walking along the walkway near the baseball diamond, and lo and behold, as bright as day, was an orphan poop just sitting there.  If you look at it closely enough, there are a few huge green looking flies on the poop also.  Pretty disgusting. 

This is one of the reasons I always scout out grassy areas before letting my children run loose at the park.  There's really no excuse to be seeing something like this at Hesse Park either.  As soon as you park your car and walk toward the baseball diamond, there is a dog waste dispenser with available bags just waiting to be used.  The bags are provided for free also.  Really no reason for any dog owner to be leaving their poop here.

Again, this is just a start on making people aware of this issue.  Feel free to contribute your findings here also.

The poop was so close, yet so far (from the trash, that is).  Almost stepped in it this afternoon when taking my kids for a little stroll.  Keep your eyes open for those bad dog owners that give good dog owners a "bad" name.

I just happened across Norma Toering's blog titled "Pet Owners, Please put the poop in the trash cans" where she discovered poop along the hiking trails at Trump National Golf Course.  She wrote that she almost stepped in one and was not amused when she discovered a tied up bag of poop along the trail fence railing..  How "uncool was how she stated it. 

Does this person think someone will come by and happily pick up this bag of goodies that he or she left behind.  How rude considering they have this opportunity to hike along one of the finest trails on this planet for free.  Use common courtesy and throw it away in the trash. 

To read Norma's blog, go to http://palosverdeslifestyle.com/

Just came back from our first pet adoption at Hesse Park sponsored by L.A. Animal Services.  It was a lot of fun to see all those cute little puppies and kittens.  When we arrived around 11:30, there was a marine layer hanging around so it made the entire area very cold.  Maybe that was partially the reason not many people were there when we arrived.  But then they slowly started to trickle in one by one.                                                            

You should have seen the tiny little puppy they had there.  He or she was so cute.  And since I brought my daughter with me, she was hooked on that cute little puppy.  

If you missed this event, don’t worry.  There’s another pet adoption at Hesse Park on August 14, 2010 from 10am till 3pm.  Hope you can all make it.

Hiring someone to pick up Fido’s poop has been around for over 20 years in various parts of the U.S., and now in other parts of the world.  There are over 700 such companies in the U.S. alone, in such cities as San Francisco, New York, San Jose, Santa Barbara, San Diego, to name a few.  So when I researched what I thought was missing for residents of Palos Verdes and San Pedro, the dog waste removal business sprung to mind.  There’s so many busy individuals that live in this affluent area, I thought this was the missing piece that would help make everyone’s life easier.  But I’ve soon discovered that even though it looks to be a slam dunk, it’s a business just like any other.  It needs to be developed, and that could take some time with the right plan.                    

After getting the business cards and the car decals printed, I thought that I could simply park my car outside on a busy street and the phone would be ringing off the hook.  But apparently that hasn’t been the case.  Initially I had the car parked on Western near Henry’s Market, but only generated a few calls.  So I reevaluated the situation and discovered that the decals (although they are quite large) were not large enough to be seen from a distance.  Thus, I switched over to guerilla marketing mode and decided to go with a huge “shock and awe” factor.  What kind of slogan could I come up with that was short, direct, and to the point.  And since my two small kids drink a lot of milk, I thought “Got Milk?”….hmmm.  So that eventually translated to “Got Dog Poop?”

Now where could I put this signage on my car to make a huge impact?  I thought it over for a couple of days and looked online for options, and eventually came up with the car topper sign.  But since these commercial signage companies were charging so much for these signs, I decided to improvise and make my own sign.  So I went to the store and bought a huge tote storage, painted it yellow, and spray painted the slogan “Got Dog Poop?”  

During the time my husband was making this sign, I was thinking to myself if I really felt comfortable driving around town with a huge sign like this.  Imagine if some friends or acquaintances saw me driving around town with a huge poop sign on the top of the car.  But I kept going back to “guerilla marketing”, you need to hit them hard with your message.  So I decided to go for it.  After placing this topper sign on my car, I received many calls asking if I wanted some dog poop (what were people thinking, was I planning some type of massive college prank with the poop) or what this was all about, and getting the questions over and over again, I decided that it conveyed the wrong message after trying it for over a month.

So it was back to the drawing board.  I eventually decided to go with “Got Doodiefresh?” instead.  The message has been toned down and people are curious about this.  It’s been a vast improvement over the old sign and instrumental in driving new traffic to our site.   

With the new message on the topper sign, it was time to target the vet clinics, groomers, stores, and dog walkers.  There’s only a small number of these places in the entire P.V. area, so it was pretty easy to visit them all in a days time.  So off I went with my pretty little business cards and made up flyers.  Most of the places were open to allowing me to leave a business card or flyer, but a few said that they needed prior approval from a manager first.  So I thought, why not take a chance and leave a few cards anyhow.  Not sure of the outcome yet, but I’ll know when I visit them again in the near future.  

The thing that really amazed me after visiting these pet related businesses was the surprise that I saw on some of the workers faces when I proclaimed that my company was a dog waste removal service.  Many of these individuals did not even know this type of business existed.  So I thought to myself, that’s odd since these people work in the pet industry.  That could be a good or a bad thing, if you ask me.  The good is that I’m the first in the area, and people always remember the first (such as who was the first person to walk on the moon…Neal Armstrong, and who was second…..Buzz Aldrin, but that took some serious thought, I bet).  The bad is that it may take a lot of time for people to accept this new service.  So I really have my work cut out for me.  

I drive around the P.V. area on a daily basis and notice all the service vehicles in the area: landscapers, tree trimmers, window washers, maids, dog groomers, pet sitters, so a dog waste removal service shouldn’t be too hard to imagine in this mix, right?  Who knows, only time will tell….and a good plan.  Stay tuned for future post on our progress.

This is my first blog ever.  So please read at your own risk.  By that I mean I’m not an expert writer in any sense of the word.  Thus, if you find clerical errors or grammar errors, please go easy.  While I will use spell check and grammar check from Microsoft word, I cannot guarantee the outcome.

While I love to take my small children to the park to play, the main concerns of mine are not whether my children get sand in their shoes or they scrape their knees while playing ball, it’s the disgusting poop that’s hidden in the blades of grass.   We all love to just tell our kids to run out in the field to catch a ball or Frisbee, but dread the thought of them coming back with a mess on the bottom of their shoes.  If you’re like me, I’m always a couple steps ahead to scout out the dangers in the grass before letting my children run loose.  But how can you possibly scout out a huge portion of a field.  Kind of loses that bit of spontaneity when playing with your kids, right?

Even before I started this dog waste removal business, I always knew that dog waste left unattended was serious stuff, but not to the level that is currently known.  Did you know that 1 gram of dog waste contains some 20 million bacteria, germs, viruses, pathogens and parasites.  That’s right, 20 million!  For something about the size of a standard paper clip or a small thin dime, you have 20 million disgusting germs in that space.  Disgusting to say the least.  

Even recently scooped areas of your lawn or decks could still be contaminated with millions of germs and disgusting parasites.  A study by the University of Arizona found that if you walked on grass contaminated by dog waste, you could potentially be carrying hundreds of thousands of germs on the bottom of your shoes or slippers.  And where do those shoes end up.  That’s right, in the closet or near the front door of your home where little Johnny could easily grab them and fling them across the room.  Where does his tiny fingers ends up after that…in that bowl of chips on the counter.  Pretty gross, right?  Not to mention the thousands of germs that would be transferred on your floors since you don’t make it a habit of taking your shoes off before entering your home. 

In summary, since this is my first blog (thanks for reading it by the way), Doodie Fresh, LLC is very cognizant about the issues of germ transmission.  Thus, we make it mandatory that all of our equipment and shoes be disinfected between cleanings.  So help keep your family and your community safe, pick up after your dog or call Doodie Fresh and we can “doo” it very affordably (about the cost of a lunch out).