It’s robust to inform who has the larger smile: the man zipping by on the Onewheel, the canine operating alongside him at full dash, or the passersby fortunate sufficient to witness it.
That is Eric Howard‘s dream job.
Howard is the founder and chief canine runner at Canine Drained, a dog-exercising service exterior of Seattle that operates at a unique velocity. After stints in tech, together with at information visualization firm Tableau, Howard ditched the company leash for one he truly wished to carry.
“I present up and I’m just like the Beatles, and so they’re like a teenage woman. They’re simply excited to see me,” Howard mentioned of his four-legged shoppers. “It’s onerous to have a nasty day while you go see eight canines and so they’re all simply dropping their thoughts, glad to see you.”
A longtime journey seeker, Howard is a snowboarder and kiteboarder who fell in love the primary time he stepped on a Onewheel — the self-balancing, single-wheeled electrical board that riders management by shifting their weight.
He’s additionally a canine lover. When a relationship in Portland ended and the canine he’d shared along with his girlfriend stayed behind, he obtained one other one — a 15-pound poodle combine named Riley — and shortly realized he was minimize out for some form of job within the pet trade.
The idea for Canine Drained got here collectively when a buddy had a high-energy rat terrier that was, in Howard’s phrases, bouncing off the partitions. Howard tried operating the canine alongside his Onewheel and it shortly grew to become a each day — typically twice each day — ritual.
His buddy seen the distinction instantly. The canine was extra manageable and glad. And Howard noticed a possibility.
A nudge from dad
Howard graduated from the College of Washington with a level in informatics at age 31 — a non-traditional path that he describes as a theme in his life. He joined Tableau as a senior tech help engineer when the corporate was nonetheless in what he thought of a startup part — lengthy earlier than it was acquired for $15.7 billion by San Francisco-based Salesforce in 2019.
He spent almost 5 years throughout two separate stretches at Tableau, which he referred to as one of the best employer he’s ever had. However because the startup ambiance started to fade he misplaced his ardour for information evaluation, server engineering and managing a crew. He wanted a change.
“My dad actually wished me to do the Onewheel enterprise. I actually credit score my dad with giving me that remaining nudge,” Howard mentioned. “He was like, ‘You’ve obtained some cash in your retirement and a few cash in financial savings. How lengthy might you survive with out making any cash?’”
Howard figured he might make it six months or so.
“As quickly as I began reaching out, spreading the phrase, it simply caught hearth,” he mentioned. “Individuals had been identical to, ‘It is a genius concept.’”
‘Bottomless demand’
Howard quickly had 15 shoppers and a daily weekly routine. Inside six months he was protecting his payments. And 5 years later, Canine Drained has grown right into a full-fledged operation. Howard does 50 runs per week and a part-time worker handles one other dozen or extra.
“I’ve obtained about 5,000 canine runs beneath my belt, about 17,000 miles whole,” he mentioned, including that the enterprise largely sells itself, with little turnover. “There’s a bottomless demand on the market of canines which are simply ready to get the train they want.”
Howard has a 100-pound-dog restrict and he sticks to low-traffic areas. It helps him keep in management on the Onewheel when his shoppers need to chase squirrels or rabbits.
He mentioned the work is actually about relationship administration, which is numerous what he discovered at Tableau. There’s loads of troubleshooting, however on this case it’s canines fairly than computer systems.
“I’m not wealthy. I don’t make a fortune, however I really feel very wealthy,” Howard mentioned. “I look ahead to day by day. I rise up early within the morning and the day can’t get began quick sufficient for me.”
