You know those random holidays that pop up on social media?
National Fetch Day. National Apple Day. National Black Dog Day. National Make a Dog’s Day.
You see one and immediately think, Oh, that would have been fun to do with the dogs.
Unfortunately, you usually have that thought sometime around 3:00 in the afternoon—after the dogs have already gone home, the social post should have gone up hours ago, and there’s absolutely no time to pull together whatever cute idea just popped into your head.
I’ve been there.
And that’s part of what inspired Wag-Worthy Days.
Because sometimes you don’t need an entirely new program. You don’t need a huge event. And you definitely don’t need one more complicated thing added to your calendar.
Sometimes you just need a reason to do something a little different.
So, What Exactly Is a Wag-Worthy Day?
Wag-Worthy Days are fun dates, celebrations and opportunities throughout the month that can be turned into something useful for your pet-care business.
And I use the word useful intentionally.
Because not every Wag-Worthy Day needs to become an enrichment activity.
Some might give you a reason to do something fun with the dogs. Some may become an easy photo opportunity. Some are perfect for engaging your clients. Others give you a reason to recognize your staff, connect with another pet professional or simply create a social media post that isn’t another picture of a cute dog asking everyone how their Monday is going.
That’s why you’ll see four different categories throughout Wag-Worthy Days:
ENRICH — Something to do.
CELEBRATE — Make it special.
CONNECT — Bring people together.
POST — Share the fun.
And plenty of days fit more than one.
October’s calendar, for example, includes everything from National Black Dog Day and World Smile Day to Train Your Brain Day, National Fetch Day, National Apple Day and National Make a Dog’s Day. It also includes larger opportunities like National Pet Wellness Month, Walk Your Dog Week and Vet Tech Appreciation Week.
There are a lot of possibilities.
That doesn’t mean you need to use all of them.
In fact, please don’t look at Wag-Worthy Days as another checklist you’re supposed to complete.
Pick one. Pick five. Try them all.
The whole point is to find what works for your business.
Start With the FREE Calendar
Every month, the FREE Wag-Worthy Days Calendar gives you the starting point.
Print it. Hang it in the office. Give a copy to the person who manages your enrichment program or social media. Look through it during your monthly staff meeting. Circle the dates that make you think, Yep. We could do something with that.
And then ignore the rest.
Seriously.
The free calendar isn’t meant to tell you that you suddenly need to celebrate every obscure national holiday known to mankind. It’s there to help you spot opportunities you might otherwise miss.
And I didn’t want to give you a calendar filled with dates and leave you completely on your own, either. You’ll notice that many of the featured days include a quick little prompt to get the ideas started.
For National Farmers Day: Put those farm dogs to work!
For Train Your Brain Day: Put those canine brains to work!
For National Fetch Day: Fetch—but make it different!
For National Pumpkin Day: Take a trip to the Pup-kin Patch!
Maybe that’s all the inspiration you need.
If it is, run with it.
But maybe you look at “Put those canine brains to work!” and think…
Okay. But how?
That’s where the Companion Guide comes in.
Want Us to Do the Brainstorming for You?
The Wag-Worthy Days Monthly Companion Guide takes selected ideas from the free calendar and builds them out.
Instead of simply giving you the date and a prompt, we’ve already started thinking through what that day could actually look like inside a pet-care business.
One of my favorite October examples is Train Your Brain Day.
On the free calendar, you get the date and the spark: Put those canine brains to work!
Inside the October Companion Guide, that little spark becomes several options.
You could play Find It and hide treats around an easy search area. You could Figure It Out with a puzzle toy, treat puzzle, muffin tin, cups or another simple problem-solving setup. Or you could Learn Something and spend a few minutes practicing a trick or skill.
Don’t have puzzle toys?
The guide gives you ideas for using things you probably already have around the facility—paper towel rolls, towels, cups, boxes and muffin tins.
And when you’re finished, there’s ready-to-use social copy so you can actually tell your clients what you did and why their dogs enjoyed it.
That’s the difference between the two resources.
The FREE calendar gives you the spark.
The Companion Guide helps you do something with it.
Maybe This Is How You Start
Here’s something else I really love about Wag-Worthy Days.
They make it really easy to start small.
Maybe you’ve been thinking about adding enrichment to your boarding, daycare, pet-sitting or dog-walking services, but every time you start thinking about creating an entire program, it gets overwhelming.
So don’t start with an entire program.
Start with a day.
Pick Train Your Brain Day and offer a few simple brain games.
Or celebrate National Fetch Day and let your dogs choose from a few different ways to play. The October guide even accounts for the dogs who aren’t particularly impressed with fetch—because the whole point is finding something that works for the dog in front of you, not forcing an activity because the calendar says it’s Fetch Day.
Take some pictures.
Tell your clients what you did.
See what your staff enjoyed running. Pay attention to what worked within your schedule and your space. Notice how your clients respond.
And then maybe next month, you try another one.
You don’t have to wake up tomorrow morning with a fully developed enrichment program.
You can just start.
Or Maybe You Already Have a Great Program
Then Wag-Worthy Days can be something completely different.
They can simply be the extra spark that keeps your existing program fresh.
You don’t need to replace what you’re already doing. Take an idea and adapt it.
Maybe World Smile Day becomes an easy photo challenge.
Maybe National Farmers Day inspires a farm-themed enrichment activity.
Maybe National Apple Day gets incorporated into something you’re already offering.
Maybe National Make a Dog’s Day becomes the perfect opportunity to bundle a few of your existing services and let clients build a special day for their dog.
Or maybe Vet Tech Appreciation Week has absolutely nothing to do with your enrichment program—and instead becomes an opportunity to drop off a thank-you basket at the veterinary clinic that takes such good care of your clients’ pets.
That’s why there isn’t one “right” way to use Wag-Worthy Days.
Your boarding facility isn’t the same as the one down the road. A daycare won’t necessarily use these ideas the same way a pet sitter will. A dog walker may see an opportunity that makes absolutely no sense for a grooming salon—and vice versa.
Good.
That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work.
Pick a Day. Make It Yours.
If you’ve spent any time around TailMade Adventures, you’re probably going to hear me say some version of this a lot:
Use what fits. Adapt what doesn’t. And don’t make this harder than it needs to be.
Wag-Worthy Days were created with that same idea in mind.
You can take an idea exactly as we’ve written it. You can change it to work with something you already offer. You can use it as inspiration for something completely different.
You can turn it into an enrichment activity, a daycare theme, a boarding add-on, a client promotion, a community connection or a social post.
Or you can skip it.
Because the best Wag-Worthy idea isn’t necessarily the biggest, cutest or most elaborate one.
It’s the one you’ll actually use.
And sometimes one little idea is all it takes to turn an ordinary Tuesday into something worth wagging about.
Ready to Make October a Little More Wag-Worthy?
Start with the FREE October Wag-Worthy Days Calendar and see what catches your eye. Circle a day. Pick an idea. Make it work for your dogs, your staff and your facility.
And if you’d rather skip some of the brainstorming, the October Wag-Worthy Days Companion Guide is ready to help—with activities, celebration ideas, ways to connect, content opportunities and ready-to-use social copy already mapped out for you.
Pick a day. Make it yours. Or let us do the rest.