Here’s the scoop on poop

Amy Dickson holds Guppy, a blonde toy poodle, and its mother, Cinder, at the dog park on River Street. Dickson has a unique animal-related business in the city.

DAVE EAGLES/KTW

Amy Dickson has a good sense of humour when it comes to her part-time business.

You have to when you spend your time scooping up dog poo for a living.

“You’ve got to kinda be brave to tell people what you do,” she told KTW with a chuckle.

But, this job is no joke.

For nearly two years, Dickson has been the face of dog-dooty maintenance in the Tournament Capital as the boss of K9 Poo Crew, a pet-waste removal company.

Armed with a rake and a dust pan lined with a plastic bag, the Poo Lady (Dickson’s business line is 1-877-POO-LADY) will visit a home once a week and clean up the waste around the yard.

She then gets rid of the waste at the local landfill.

Though the Poo Crew offers a variety of packages, the basic service — one dog — costs $12.50 a week.

“It’s not a pretty job, but somebody has to do it and they’re [customers] pretty appreciative,” Dickson said, adding her customers range from families to busy couples.

“They’d rather take the dog out for a walk than clean up the poop in the backyard.”

So, how did this idea go from pen and paper to poo?

The self-employed mom and pet lover was looking for something different from her office-work job.

She did some research and found there was no service like it in Kamloops.

Dickson also did the math and calculated she would need very little in start-up costs.

So, at the end of 2008, she set up a website and, within a few months, had her first clients.

The pet-waste profession has proved so successful that last year, K9 Poo Crew’s business nearly doubled from the first year.

Dickson is also part of a rising tide of residents with a do-it-yourself attitude.

According to the city’s business-licensing department, home-based companies now make up 35 per cent of all licences in Kamloops.

In 2010, the number of home-based business grew by two per cent, to 1,891 from 1,852 the previous year.

As the snow melts, revealing the winter droppings left behind in many backyards, it’s the busy season for Dickson.

However, she’s not ready to expand her business to a full-time venture just yet — but said the extra work does help pay the bills.