Business focus: Dooty Free picks up after dogs

A short walk through your neighborhood – or almost anybody else’s in Spokane – will disclose that many of your friends and neighbors own pets, and most of them are dogs.

This fact must have occurred to Glenn Schultheis in 2003, when he started a business he called the Dooty Free Dog Waste Removal Service.

In case that isn’t clear enough, one of his advertisements adds, “We pick up what your dog leaves behind.”

His service continues to do well, Schultheis said, serving Spokane, Spokane Valley and Post Falls. He and his only employee, Scott Williams, serve “well over 100” customers.

Most of the clients are individual homeowners, but the business also serves a few apartment buildings and retirement homes. Neither kennels nor pet boarding facilities are involved.

Schultheis, originally from Uniontown, Wash., has had a variety of occupations.

“I have done everything, worked construction or whatever,” he said.

Schultheis has been driving a bus for Spokane Transit Authority for 13 years. He and his wife, Peggy, live at Green Bluff.

His dog-waste customers are “across the market,” according to Schultheis.

When he started the business, he expected his target market to be people with more disposable cash, but that’s not the case, he said.

Many of his customers are people with busy lives away from their homes, but they also include people who have lost mobility and need the quick pickup in their yards.

With more than 100 customers to serve each week, each visit to a residence is brief.

“We try to be discreet” is the way Schultheis put it. Most sites are visited once a week, some twice.

The waste is bagged at the point of pickup, and a device similar to a long-handled covered dustpan is used. The waste is double-bagged in 13-gallon plastic garbage bags and later delivered to the waste-to-energy facility.

The fee is $10 weekly for a single dog, plus $2.50 for each additional dog, Schultheis said.

Of course, in this day and age, the business is computerized.

That helps Schultheis keep track of monthly billing of customers as well as service scheduling.

Service can be started and stopped with a phone call, he said. There is no minimum service period, and no advance notice is required to cancel service.

Service runs Mondays through Fridays all year, Schultheis said. With heavy snow, there might be a break of a couple of days, but not for long, he said.

And Dooty Free’s advertising states that if a customer is not completely satisfied, the yard will be recleaned quickly or the account will be credited.