Success Rate of Dog Poop DNA
Programs
in Multi-Family Housing Communities
One of the most difficult tasks to manage in the
multi-family housing industry is dog poop complaints.
Now with nearly half of all renters owning or
looking to own pets, it is nearly impossible to fill units to
capacity without accepting pets.
That means, like it or not, those pets are
pooping on the property and there will inevitably be some poop
left behind to disturb some of the other residents. And that
means the inevitable "POOP DRAMA".
While some properties have taken the ultimate
step and banned pets altogether, the reality of "Emotional
Support Animals" has forced them to take pets in spite of
tough policies and once again brought back the poop drama to the
management office.
While the idea of DNA testing each dog may seem
extreme at first, it is really just a sensible pet waste
management program much like issuing parking permits to
control parking.
There are few if any legal hurdles since the dogs
are considered property and don't have any legal rights, the
program it very simple to implement and Mr Dog Poop's DNA program
offers no start up cost for most properties.
So why not?
More than 85% of the properties that started
using the CRIME LAB® dog poop DNA program reported less than 3
poop piles found on the property in the first year. Nearly 50% of
all the properties had no poop at all.
While that still leaves 15% of the properties
struggling with the dog poop problem, even those will end up poop
free at some point with some careful management to identify the
source and remove the problem.
In many cases, the source is from visiting dogs
and not from the dogs living on the property.
So when we factor in the visiting dogs, the 85%
success rate would be is much higher when we check it just
against the dogs that are living at the property. Therefore the
impact is much greater than that 85% number reflects, because the
program did in fact stop the residents as intended.
In cases where the problem is from dogs visiting
residents, property managers need to implement visiting pet
policies or prohibit and non registered pets from visiting the
property. Posting signs to clearly tell visitors "no dogs
allowed" or "all visiting dogs must register at the
leasing office".
The point is, there is always a solution, but if
you cannot identify where he problem is coming from then it is
impossible to stop.
In most cases, just implementing the dog poop DNA
program at a community will solve the problem and as we have seen
that at more than 85% of the properties. Other properties are a
bit more challenging and require more work and effort.
Consider that the 85% where the program works
immediately were initially plagued with poop. Not just a pile or
two, but they got to a point where the property manager was so
desperate for a solution that they stated a DNA program as a last
resort.
Now that program has improved property values,
made the landscape safer for children, adults and made the
community more pet friendly than it was before.
There seems to be a stigma with the term "Pet
Friendly" to mean that there are no rules or impositions for
pets. But communities are "Resident Friendly" and we
still expect everyone to follow the rules. So expecting the
residents to follow the rules for their pets is no different than
expecting them not to park in another resident's parking spot.
At first, many property managers fear the idea of
asking residents to DNA test their dogs, but like everything else,
once you get it started, it just becomes normal and part of the
leasing process.
There is a reluctance of starting a program that
the current residents will object to, however, the only ones
objecting are the problem residents. The residents picking up
poop want these programs to prove that they are in fact not
responsible for the dog poop problem.
So getting these programs started is a whole lot
easier than most people think. It is a whole lot cheaper than
most people think and it is a whole lot more effective than any
other program that anyone could possibly implement.
So over all, starting a dog poop DNA program is
not much of a hassle and has little financial impact on the
property which is why so many properties across the country are
implementing these programs daily.
With Mr Dog Poop's pet waste management program
properties are billed each month for any dogs added to the DNA
database. That means, there is only a charge if a new resident
arrives and has their dog swabbed to be placed on file.
That $35 charge is easily passed on to the new
resident in the initial pet fees and paid later when the property
is billed for $35.
Unlike other programs, it is not necessary to
spend any money up front or attempt to register any dogs other
than new move-ins and first time lease renewals.
The program is so simple, affordable and
effective that it is amazing anyone would want to deal with
continued dog poop complaints and unhappy residents rather than
requiring a simple DNA swab of the newly arriving dogs.
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