Pets Welcome Toolkit

Pets are now part of nearly 87 million U.S. households, and more people than ever want to bring pets with them as they go out to shop and eat.

Pets are good for business, too. People with pets are more likely to visit pet-friendly businesses, and to stay longer during their visit. Plus, having pets around often drives social media buzz, providing both tangible and intangible PR benefits for the business.

This toolkit provides how-to’s and best practices to help you plan pet-friendly policies, amenities and programming for your business.

Plus, you can join other local businesses to implement a Pets Welcome program — a coordinated, community wide pet-friendly business initiative that can benefit businesses, pet parents and pets. This includes having consistent signage, guidelines for participants, education for businesses and pet-friendly amenities.

Enjoy the many benefits that being pet friendly brings for your customers and your business!

Key steps for launching a Pets Welcome community program

Understand local ordinances and requirements for pets in businesses.
Make sure your community has pet-friendly amenities like pet relief areas and hydration stations.
Work with local government as needed to evolve rules and add amenities.
Engage community thought leaders to help promote the concept.
Get businesses interested in participating.
Develop a shared code of conduct for pet visitors.
Create signage and educational materials for all participants to use.
Launch the program.
Track results to keep learning and developing.