Elisabeth Rohm said “You never stop learning. If you have a teacher, you never stop being a student.”  NAPPS is committed to continuing education, it’s in our Mission Statement, it’s the central focus of our upcoming Fall Getting Back to Business Conference and it’s a focus in nearly every one of our committee meetings. We believe you must continue to grow your mind and knowledge base to continue to grow your business. The NAPPS Certification Course continues to be an industry leader and if you’ve attained your certification - have you continued to add your Continuing Education Credits? Like many industries - pet sitting continues to evolve, you may not feel it moves as fast as technology but really it does. There are new studies every day regarding pet nutrition, pet behavior and pet training methods not to mention the myriad of new products designed to enrich the lives of our furry friends. When you enter the pet care profession you become a valuable resource for pet parents. 

In the age of COVID, we’ve seen an increase in first time pet parents along with a rise in even more “protective” pet parents. The first timers come to you something of a blank slate and look to your experience and knowledge to help them navigate the world being a pet parent. What can you tell them about pet nutrition, training or even the best harness or litterbox set up? They seek knowledge from a couple sources, their veterinarian, and their pet care provider. You need to be on the top of your game to help them navigate the world of pet care. Some of our longtime pet parents are experiencing a different world, one where they now find themselves leaving their pets after being home with them for a year or more. How can this be a smooth transition? It’s up to you to counsel them on methods to make this as easy as possible on the animals as well as the people. Have you read many of the recent blogs from NAPPS regarding separation anxiety or this new age of pet care? You may not be taking a class or attending a webinar or conference although we urge you to do those things too but just reading from the many resources NAPPS provides will deepen your knowledge base.

Have you taken the time to look at the NAPPS Certificate Courses? They’re available through NAPPS University and cover a variety of topics and they’re based upon books written by industry leaders. How long has it been since you’ve perused the NAPPS Tool Kit? There are a handful of companies that provide continued education courses for yourself and your staff. There are countless resources right within your reach that you can use to broaden your pet care repertoire and they’re contained within the NAPPS website and in many cases included with your NAPPS membership. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of the tools at your fingertips. 

Jeff Bezos once said “In business, what’s dangerous is not to evolve.” You may not want to create a pet care empire but I know you want to enrich the lives of your pet care clients’ and their pets and the only way to continue to help them is to continue your evolution in the pet care industry. Everyone will appreciate your dedication, hard work and your knowledge and you’ll be rewarded in ways that can’t be counted.