Dogs do their business, then entrepreneur does his

By Mike Trask (contact)

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 | 7:25 a.m.

Chuck Miller's career path has gone to the dogs since he moved to Las Vegas. And to be honest, he's happy about it.

The 62-year-old is the owner and one-man crew of Bob's Pooper Scooper, a business based on cleaning up after hundreds of pooches from North Las Vegas to Southern Highlands.

Miller says he never meant to become the proprietor of poop. He just stepped into it.

After retiring from the telecommunications industry in 2004 and moving to Las Vegas to take care of his aging parents, he was looking for a way to earn a few extra bucks and pass the time. He found out Bob's Pooper Scooper was for sale.

"I never even knew such a thing existed," he said.

Actually, it's a thriving business here and elsewhere. There are Scooper Dave and Poo Snatcher, Miller's rivals. There's Pet Butler, a national chain that hasn't yet marked any territory in Las Vegas. And there's a black market of scoopers who advertise their trade on signs posted on telephone polls.

A couple of years ago Las Vegas even hosted a pooper scooper convention. Miller didn't bother going, though. He said he can't imagine what the benefit would have been.

It's a simple process: Go to the yard with a bucket and a rake, gather what Fido's left behind, dump it in bins in the back of your pickup truck and go to the next stop. The waste goes straight to a dump, although Miller has jokes about what he really does with it - none of which you want to hear over breakfast.

His bucket of choice is a creation he engineered by taking a store-bought leaf collector, extending the front end to have a smoother collecting surface and adding wheels.

He's heard that some people use a big vacuum. But this makes little sense to Miller, who notes that by the time you set up a vacuum and plug it in, the work could be completed.

He also heard a rumor that one of his competitors actually uses gloved hands. He's not going to do that. He's also not going to collect anything but dog waste.

"I've had a lot of requests to do horses," he said. "But no way. I have a pickup truck, not a dump truck."

Greyhounds, though, can create some volume. One stop is home to three of the huge dogs.

Miller doesn't charge by the size of the animal or the amount of waste he picks up. Pricing is based on the number of dogs. A one-pet family can have Miller visit weekly for a $41 monthly fee, which rises to $47 and $54 for two- and three-dog homes, respectively.

From one perspective, the willingness to pay someone else to do what most pet owners reluctantly do themselves could be seen as evidence that people have too much disposable income on their hands - and too much you-know-what in their back yards.

On the other hand, people pay others to clean their homes, mow their lawns and wash their clothes. Picking up a dog's droppings is certainly less pleasant than any of those chores. So if you can afford it, why not?

"I love my dogs," says Andrea Youngblood, a longtime Pooper Scooper customer with two canines. "But I'm just not going to do it."

Miller has more than 100 customers, including a few homeowners associations, where he checks the sidewalks and open spaces. Those jobs cost more.

Big dogs don't necessarily present the biggest challenge.

"I'd rather have a medium or big dog," he said. "With the Mexican Chihuahuas you can't hardly find it half the time. And it's so small it can be hard to pick up."

With German shepherds or Rottweilers, though, you're not likely to miss a spot.

The business isn't as dirty as you'd think. Miller, armed with his tools of the trade and a box of dog biscuits, starts before sunrise to avoid the heat. Except for the garbage bins where he dumps the waste, the smell is not unbearable. Plus he gets some exercise and stays busy.

Frankly, he enjoys his role as the scooping savant.

"It ain't even work," he said. "The only thing I don't like about it is the driving."

By noon he's usually home. But Miller's work isn't done.

He owns three dogs.