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Consumer Reports


Duo will pick up what your pet sees fit to drop

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | (KRT) Brent DePeppe walks slowly up and down Juan and Sheila Bermudez's backyard with his eyes focused on the ground in front of him. He seems to be looking for something, maybe a lost diamond earring or some other tiny treasure.

DePeppe is looking for something all right, but it's a treasure only to him.

The Coral Gables, Fla., man is the proud owner of a new business called Yard Doodie - where "Your Doodie Is Our Duty!"

And while his service is unusual, it's actually part of a national trend.

Throughout the United States, and even as far away as Australia, pet owners are hiring people like DePeppe to clean up their pooches' poop.

"Pet owners love their pets and they'll do whatever it takes to keep their pets happy," DePeppe said.

For as little as $9 a week, DePeppe or his partner, Jeff High, will visit your yard and pick up whatever your pet sees fit to drop.

In the case of the Bermudez home in Miami, Yard Doodie comes around twice a week, cleaning up after the family's yellow Labrador retrievers, Cokie and Tavie. The monthly tab: $80. And worth every penny, Sheila Bermudez says.

The couple has a toddler and a newborn baby, whom she takes care of full time.

Juan Bermudez is a vice president at a Miami Internet company and a triathlete in his off hours.

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"He would take off to Key Biscayne to train on Saturday morning, and mysteriously the poop-scooping wouldn't get done," Sheila Bermudez said. "Picking dog poop off the grass is the lowest thing on your want-to-do list."

Now, with Yard Doodie on the job, the couple no longer has to fuss at each other over who gets cleanup detail, she said.

Like the Bermudezes, many of DePeppe's customers are highly educated, affluent and very busy.

After visiting the Bermudezes on a recent Saturday morning, DePeppe hopped a few subdivisions over to the home of Amy and Ken Kaplan. While Ken Kaplan, a lawyer, played with his children in the family pool, DePeppe cleaned up after the family's 12-year-old cocker spaniel, Bagel.

"Hiiiiii, poop guyyyyyy!" the Kaplans' 4-year-old son, Dylan, shouted.

DePeppe is only a part-time poop guy. The Long Island, N.Y., native recently moved to Miami to work as director of sales for a local software company.

He got the idea for Yard Doodie from a friend in New York, who has a similar business.

DePeppe started the business about a month ago, and so far he has gathered about 50 customers from the greater Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., area.

He's planning to keep it a part-time enterprise for himself, but he and his partner are talking about hiring their first employee to help with the legwork.

And there's a lot of legwork. The Bermudezes' two dogs left DePeppe about 20 piles to pick up, about 15 minutes of work. Which is about typical.

While not common in South Florida, businesses like Yard Doodie seem to be a national trend. A search of national newspaper archives found dozens of articles about such businesses, in cities such as Dallas, Green Bay, Wis., and Burlington, Vt. The craze has even touched foreign cities, including Brisbane, Australia.

Most of the businesses seem to have cutesy or at least pun-based names, such as Doggie-Doo Pet Waste Removal (Spring Hill, Fla.), Doggone-Dungone (Brisbane), or Dirty Deeds Pooper Scooper Service (Green Bay).

(Headline writers have a field day with all of these articles. "Mr. Poo's Business Not Exactly Picking Up," said The St. Petersburg Times. "Bagging Sales, A Dog At A Time: Dog-Gone-It Hopes Business Can Clean Up," said The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. "Never Pooped Out," said The Los Angeles Daily News.)

But DePeppe is hoping he'll be laughing all the way to the bank. In a world where people send their pets to doggie day care and canine vacation, he figures he has hit a gold mine.

As for the occupational hazards, DePeppe said he has yet to step on one of his customers' piles. The aroma, however, is another story.

"You definitely don't get used to it," said DePeppe, who cleans his three-foot-long scoop after every use. "You keep it far enough away from your body and you're fine."

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© 2003, Miami Herald Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services