June 12, 2017

Meet Rosalie Sard of Whole Pet Hub in North Cambridge

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosalie Sard.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started out walking dogs part time while taking psychology classes at UMass Boston, I quickly realized that an active lifestyle, full of nature and dogs, suited me far better than the classroom. And observing the dogs’ behavior first hand sparked my interest in their psychology, which seemed not so different from humans.

I didn’t want to be a dog walker forever — I worried too much about my charges and my responsibility to them. These beloved toddlers, toddlers with teeth that could pierce skin and legs that could run 30mph, toddlers with working instincts to guard, hunt, herd, and dig. Dog walking was emotionally taxing, and seemed unstable in the long-term.

So I considered my other options. Non-profit workers suffer caregiver fatigue and receive low pay. Only a few organizations, such as Downtown Dog Rescue in California, had innovative approaches like the Shelter Intervention Program, which helps to prevent surrenders to shelters. Dog trainers and behavior experts in the non-profit field face fierce competition for limited positions. Trainers and behaviorists who strike out on their own are able to make as much money as they can hustle for, but if my experiences were anything to go by, they also have to live with a reality that I found discomforting: that the majority of their clients would fail to understand or implement what was taught. Even though the concepts were grounded in science as simple as a freshman psychology class, the same clients who were happiest to pay a premium would routinely discard their expertise in favor of cult of personality buzz-word spouting pseudoscience they saw on the TV. I wanted to help people live in harmony with their pets and enjoy the mutual benefits of that relationship, and oddly enough, private training didn’t seem like the best way to reach the most people. And don’t even get me started on the Dog Show world…

So where did that leave me? I could stay in school, get a graduate degree in Ethology (Animal Behavior), and pursue limited positions in the non-profit sector. That was the tentative plan as I continued dog walking and struggled through school.

But I kept passing an empty storefront in the neighborhood of my walks in Cambridge, a quaint one-story market painted blue that had been there as long as I could remember, now vacant for over a year. I day dreamed about opening a pet supply store there, where I could sell the high-end food brands that I fed to my clients’ dogs while they vacationed, and I could tell people about dog body language and behavior and point them towards science-based, gimmick-free training methods.

The idea wouldn’t leave my head. So here we are… almost two years later, my store has been open for just over 6 months, and my ideas for growth far outpace my ability to implement them. It has been a wild ride but it’s just the beginning.

Has it been a smooth road?
The biggest struggle for me is having this idea in my head of how perfect it could be, and never being able to live up to it. But I guess that’s part of what motivates me, too.

I need to learn to ask for help, and delegate while staying organized, in order to achieve the growth that I want to. Because I only have so many hours in a day. My limited experience with managing something this complex is surely the biggest obstacle, but I learn more every day.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We sell dog and cat supplies, including high-quality food, treats, toys, chews, health and hygiene products, beds, clothing, and accessories, in addition to a unique selection of pet-themed household items and decor. We are very much a neighborhood market, and we offer local delivery and special orders.

My passion is dog behavior, and anyone who comes in the store with a question about their pet will get an earful! My goal is to expand services like dog-walking and training (which we currently offer on a limited scale) without compromising safety and expertise. When I have a doggie training and boarding facility running with 24-hour streaming video and strict ratios and handlers trained on body language/behavior/safety and customized routines for each dog’s individual needs, with 100% accountability and positive training techniques — that is what I will be most proud of!

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Cambridge is a good and bad place to start a business. Good because of the work the Community Development Office does to encourage entrepreneurs (which includes a business planning class that I took which helped inspire me to open my store). Bad because of some unscrupulous developers and the undue influence they wield, which can rapidly change neighborhoods at the expense of local business. For example in my neighborhood, Observatory Hill, which is near Huron Village, there is a lot of development going on. And on the surface, this is good for me, more housing means more affluent people spending more on their pets. But the developers get greedy and go overboard. Excessive construction means people aren’t walking down my block. Commercial real estate gets bought up and converted to housing, and the village shopping atmosphere declines. I may have to start relying on customers driving from further away, but parking is scarce and traffic is brutal. The congestion is no surprise because of the density of housing! This scenario is playing out at this very moment in North Cambridge, in face there is a grassroots zoning petition to help preserve the village retail in this area. (Shout out to http://observatoryhillvillage.blogspot.com/)

So, the city could improve by being a little less hostile to grassroots organizers, and a little more skeptical of the promises of developers.

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