New Social Networking Site "Pets" It Forward

Stamford resident Jenna Dreher was working in New York City when she became aware of a problem facing other young professionals — people were struggling to pay for pet care.

“It’s so expensive, but it doesn’t have to be,” Dreher said.

With that simple thought, a business was born. Dreher spent just a few months thinking about the concept and researching other social networking sites before deciding just how to move forward with her creation.

“Facebook is a great tool, but it’s not a solution” she said. “I looked at other sites to see what they got right and what we could do better.”

Dreher's website, Pet It Forward, provides a complete system for people to use to find, book, and pay for pet care. Similar to Facebook, Pet it Forward allows users to set up a profile with information about themselves and details about their pets. Users can join groups based on commonalities like neighborhoods, apartment buildings, pet breeds, or dog parks. In the future, companies will be able to use the service to fill in their vacancies at reduced rates — a sort of Priceline for kennels.

So how does Pet It Forward provide a tempting 50-100% discount on services? The website operates on its own currency system with one dollar equal to two points on the website. Users can purchase points or earn them by providing pet care services to others on the site. Points can then be exchanged again as pay for pet care or cashed out for actual money.

Having launched in New York City at the start of April, Dreher has been happy to see Pet it Forward well-received.

“We’ve had a great response,” she said. “A couple hundred have signed up already and people have been really intrigued.”

So far, the most common needs for dog-owners have been boarding and walking and for cat owners, feeding and cleaning. Of course Dreher recommends people use common sense when arranging pet care online.

“We strongly encourage people to meet first before they leave their pet in someone’s care, arrange a meet-up to make sure it’s a good match. If you cancel after that first meeting, no points are exchanged.”

As the site continues to grow, users will post reviews to better help other users find quality care that's a good fit for them and their animals. Users also receive "Karma points," virtual tokens for doing good for others on the site.

Dreher has lived in Stamford for two years and enjoyed the community of local pet owners, an easy source of inspiration for her new business.

“We have a Great Dane, we take him to the every week, we’re friendly with the people there, we say hi,” Dreher explained. “We're sure some of them would be great to take care of him, but there isn't always a way to bridge that subject."

Dreher plans to launch Pet It Forward in Stamford in the near future. You can sign up on the website to be alerted when it becomes available in our area.