Not-so-sweet smell of success

ABINGTON -- First came the nannies, the dog walkers, the housecleaners, the landscapers. Now crews are handling another outsourced home task -- removing a dog's leftovers from lawns.

The names of the businesses say it all: DoodyCalls, a national franchise, opened a branch south of Boston last year; Dog-Gone-It scoops in northeastern Massachusetts and in New Hampshire; Your Dogs Business picks up after dogs in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts; Doggy Doody Disposal scours the Pioneer Valley; and the more tactful Pet Waste Specialists sends discreetly unmarked trucks to neighborhoods north of Boston.

The field has been the object of countless jokes. How's business? Picking up? But it has also found a niche: With families feeling like their free time is under assault, few look forward to one putrid, Sisyphean chore.

''Put it this way: Of all the bills I pay, it's the only bill I don't feel bad about paying," said Allyson Fournier, a North Andover resident and small-business owner who discovered Dog-Gone-It seven years ago. ''It was like my prayers were answered."

According to a study by the New York-based Families and Work Institute, the number of dual-income couples increased to 78 percent in 2002 from 66 percent in 1977. The combined work hours for such families with children ballooned to 91 hours from 81 in the same period. In 1991, there were 52.5 million dogs in the United States, but in 2001 there were 61.6 million, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Those pets are increasingly pampered. The business for self-employed nonveterinary caregivers, like groomers or sitters, has jumped to $761.9 million from $494.3 million between 1998 and 2002, according to the US Census Bureau.

As families work more hours, ''they only have so many hours to nonwork. Given the opportunity cost of their time, you imagine they'd want to get rid of the most offensive tasks," said Daniel Barbezat, an economist at Amherst College.

About 300 pet waste removal companies have sprung up in the United States and Canada, according to Sterling Quick, president of the Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists. (The specialists hold annual meetings, featuring a contest where the winner goes home with the Golden Shovel.)

Professional scoopers offer to clean backyards for prices ranging from $10 to $15 for a once-a-week cleaning of a one-dog household.

''The company grows this time of year because people usually let their dogs out back, and in the springtime the aroma starts hitting the open window," said Ken Petersen, founder of Your Dogs Business, which is working its second season picking up after its 60 clients.

Families with children are also an obvious market, he said, because of the cost of monitoring the activity. ''I can get my kids to do something, but it takes work on my part," said Barbezat, the Amherst economist.

Petersen said 90 percent of his customers come and talk to him while he's picking up. Some watch from their windows.

Earlier this month, Paul Delaney, a property manager who bought a Doody Calls franchise a year ago, took trainee Kristine Carpenter out to practice. She already knew quite a bit about waste: She spent last summer mucking stables for the State Police.

But she needed to learn how to ''grid" the yard, walking back and forth across each section in a strict straight line. At Ellen Dolphin's house in Abington, her boxers Yikes and Dioge jumped and hugged them. Without underbrush, ''We don't have to walk as tight a grid; this yard is pretty bare," said Delaney, who expects to earn well over $100,000 this year.

At the second stop, in Hingham, where a golden Labrador barked inside, Delaney demonstrated technique. Set the dustbin on the ground, and then flick the rake with your wrist so the waste hits the back of the dustbin.

Not all scoopers use the same tools -- some prefer rakes, some take along shovels, some use pails, others use dustbins. The waste is either carted off or double-bagged and left in the owner's trash. The companies say they disinfect their tools, and Delaney keeps white garbage bags flapping from his back pocket.

Karen Goslin, out walking her feisty chocolate lab Tedy Brewski on Deerfield Lane in Hanover, said she and her husband trade lawn duty. Some of her friends have used the professional services, with the brightly painted trucks and slogans like ''We do doody," or ''When nature calls, we answer." Not her. ''I'd be embarrassed," she said, while dragging her foot on the grass to try to clean off something she just stepped in.

To Dolphin, who stays at home with her 1-year-old toddler and has a husband who works long hours, Doody Calls is as essential as her landscaping service and dog walker.

''My husband has more time with the family on the weekend, and the kids have a clean backyard to play in," she said.

The business, said John Darrigo, who founded Dog-Gone-It in 1998, does change a person. ''You develop quite a rhythm. The worst thing I've gained from this business is everywhere I go, even if I'm not working -- I'm always looking down."

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com.

PICKING UP BUSINESS

Watch a slideshow of DoodyCalls at work, at boston.com/business.