"At Scout’s Honor we do things differently,” says Allison Jacobs, owner of Scout’s Honor Pet Retreat in Bloomington, Indiana. “We focus on individualized animal enrichment and on the people who are taking care of the pets. This all goes together hand in hand.”

“Not only did we see the need for personalized pet care, but we also saw a need for our employees to be paid adequately and receive the benefits they deserve,” explains Allison. “We often hear that a trade-off for working with dogs is that you don’t get health insurance, paid time off, or other basic benefits you could get if you worked at places like Wal-Mart or Target. We have seen that push some amazing employees in other pet care businesses out of the industry. We knew that if our employees received adequate pay and benefits, we could retain them and grow them into experts in pet care. That was a big drive for us, helping make animal careers for people instead of just giving them a job."