Managing more than 27,000 appointments a year takes more than a love of dogs. It takes systems that can grow alongside your business, a team you can trust, and the confidence that your operations won’t become the thing holding you back.

When Catherine Gravel first started using PetPocketbook in 2018, Bon Chien served around 200 clients, managed between 30 and 65 weekday visits, and employed six full-time dog walkers plus a handful of part-time staff. Catherine spent her days caring for pets and her evenings catching up on invoices, manually piecing together appointment changes from text messages, emails, and phone calls.

Almost a decade later, Bon Chien now serves more than 900 clients, employs 22 active team members, and completed 27,342 appointments last year.

That kind of growth didn't happen because of one feature or one decision. It happened through years of refining workflows, improving systems, and building a partnership with PetPocketbook that evolved alongside the business.

The business that started with a love of animals

For Catherine, working with animals was never part of a carefully crafted business plan. It was simply where life led her.

Growing up in northern Quebec, Catherine was surrounded by animals. Dogs, cats, rabbits, and even sheep were part of everyday life. That early connection stayed with her through moves across Canada and the United States, a career in finance, and raising four children.

After settling in Greenwich, Connecticut, Catherine became a client of a local pet sitter. As often happens in pet care, a professional relationship turned into a friendship. When that pet sitter needed a dog walker, Catherine stepped in to help.

"I was on a trial period for two weeks, and I just fell in love."

What started as a temporary opportunity quickly became a new career. More than a decade later, Bon Chien has grown into a trusted pet care business serving families throughout Greenwich and neighboring communities with dog walking, pet sitting, boarding, puppy care, and other personalized pet care services.

Today, Bon Chien is very much a family business. Catherine's twin sons work alongside her, and she leads a close-knit team that shares her commitment to personalized care.

"We don't want the quality to go down. The dogs come first."

The challenge of running a growing business

As Bon Chien expanded, so did the complexity of running it.

Like many pet care business owners, Catherine found herself managing requests from every direction. Clients would reach out through phone calls, text messages, emails, Facebook messages, and more. Keeping track of everything became increasingly difficult.

"There are so many methods that people reach out to you. You kind of lose track, and you become uncertain of yourself."

The stress didn't stop at the end of the workday. Catherine remembers waking up in the middle of the night worried she had forgotten a client visit.

"I would wake up at night thinking, 'Oh my gosh, I forgot Maggie.' Then I'd rush downstairs to the office and check."

Most of the time, everything was fine. But the mental load of constantly wondering whether something had slipped through the cracks was exhausting.

She knew she needed a better system.

As Bon Chien continued growing, the administrative work grew just as quickly. Every Sunday meant manually building schedules. Every billing cycle meant retracing conversations across texts, emails, and phone calls to figure out what each client owed.

"I work all day, I get home, and I catch up with billing."

It became clear that adding more clients wasn't the hard part. Building systems that could support them was.

More than software, a long-term partner

For Catherine, one of the biggest surprises wasn't simply how easy PetPocketbook was to use. It was the relationship that came with it.

Rather than being handed a login and left to figure everything out, she worked closely with the PetPocketbook team to migrate Bon Chien's business onto the platform and establish workflows that matched how her team operated.

Those conversations didn't stop after onboarding.

As Bon Chien continued growing, Catherine and the team at PetPocketbook met regularly to review how the business was evolving, talk through new challenges, and identify opportunities to simplify day-to-day operations. Sometimes the answer was a brand-new feature that had been released since their last conversation. Other times, it was simply a better way to use tools Bon Chien already had.

"Luckily I have you guys that I can grow at a pace that I can keep up with."

That partnership became just as valuable as the software itself. Instead of wondering whether she'd eventually outgrow her systems, Catherine knew she had a team helping her think ahead.

Building better systems over time

The biggest transformation over the past eight years didn’t come from a single feature. It came from the way Bon Chien has continuously improved how the business operates.

Early conversations focused on replacing manual scheduling and getting invoices out on time. As the business matured, those conversations shifted toward recurring scheduling, client self-service, online payments, electronic agreements, report cards, staff delegation, cancellation policies, and refining increasingly complex workflows.

As Bon Chien grew, so did the way the team used PetPocketbook. Regular workflow reviews helped Catherine identify opportunities to simplify operations before they became bottlenecks. Those conversations often led to incremental improvements, simpler workflows, or the adoption of new functionality that hadn’t existed when Bon Chien first came on board.

Growing alongside PetPocketbook meant the systems that supported 30 to 65 visits a day back in 2018 didn’t stay frozen in time. They evolved alongside the business, helping Bon Chien serve more clients while maintaining the consistency and personalized care that defined the company from the beginning.

Every improvement removed another administrative task from Catherine's plate. Every workflow update created more consistency for her growing team. Together, those small changes made it possible to keep growing without adding unnecessary complexity.

A single source of truth

Today, PetPocketbook continues to be at the center of Bon Chien's daily operations.

Scheduling, client requests, staff coordination, invoicing, reporting, and payroll all flow through a single system.

"I can't live without it."

For a business with a large team and a mix of recurring and custom services, that level of organization has been transformative.

Approximately 70% of Bon Chien's weekly schedule consists of recurring services. PetPocketbook helps automate those routines while making it easy to manage changes, new requests, and team assignments.

The platform also helps staff make informed decisions by providing access to pet profiles, client notes, and scheduling information. Team members can quickly determine whether a new dog is a good fit for their route or experience level.

Most importantly, everything lives in one place.

Instead of searching through texts, emails, and social media messages, Catherine can trust that the information she needs is organized and accessible.

"That really brought stability."

Better for business. Better for clients

As operations became more streamlined, Catherine was able to spend less time in the weeds and more time leading the business.

During that time, Bon Chien grew from approximately 200 clients to more than 900 while expanding from a small team of six into a business with 22 active staff members.

Without the hours upon hours of coordinating schedules, searching for messages, or double-checking records, Catherine was able to focus on higher-value work such as growing the business, supporting her team, and building stronger client relationships.

That confidence extends to clients as well.

According to Catherine, client feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. While some long-time clients initially preferred traditional methods of communication, many quickly embraced the convenience of using PetPocketbook.

"When they get the hang of it, they're like, 'Oh, you were right. It's so great.'"

The professionalism PetPocketbook brings to the business is just as valuable as the time it saves.

Invoices go out on time. Information is organized. Requests are documented. The risk of mistakes is dramatically reduced.

"It's made me a better business owner."

Staying true to their values

Unlike many businesses focused on rapid expansion, Bon Chien has always prioritized sustainable growth.

Catherine's philosophy is simple: grow steadily, protect service quality, and never lose sight of the animals.

"I never aspired to grow big. Growing steadily was my goal, and it still is."

That approach has helped Bon Chien build a strong reputation and a loyal client base. Much of the company's growth has come through referrals and long-term relationships rather than aggressive marketing.

Like every pet care business, Bon Chien also experienced setbacks and growth along the way. The pandemic reshaped the industry. Team members came and went. New services were added. Territories expanded. The business Catherine manages today looks very different from the one she started more than a decade ago.

Looking ahead, Catherine is focused on creating more leadership opportunities for trusted team members while gradually stepping into a semi-retirement role. With her sons involved in the business and a dedicated team supporting clients every day, she feels confident about the future.

Growing together for the long haul

Nearly eight years after first joining PetPocketbook, Catherine still isn't simply using the same software she implemented in 2018. She's continuing to build on it.

The conversations have changed from replacing manual scheduling and late-night invoicing to preparing the business for leadership transitions, empowering her team, and building systems that will support Bon Chien long after she steps back from day-to-day operations.

Today, Bon Chien serves more than 900 clients with a team of 22, but Catherine doesn’t attribute that growth to any one change. It came fro making thoughtful improvements over time, building on the same foundation year after year.  

"We're so pleased with PetPocketbook. I don't know what we'd do without it."

She pauses before adding one final thought:

"There's always room for improvement, and we know that because you'll always be working to make things even better. You have something really good here."

That's exactly how Bon Chien has grown over the past eight years. Steadily. Intentionally. Always putting people, pets, and relationships first. One improvement at a time.

Learn more about Bon Chien and their services at bon-chien.com.