Dog walking as a job.

[albertajune]

What are your thoughts on rules for professional dog walkers. Are there any?
I always thought it a wonderful idea to have your dog walked if for any reason you are unable to do it yourself. We see dog walkers when we take Megan out each day and I feel a bit concerned about the commitment of one.
She has a business van in which she carries the dogs, so is bona fide and each day walks about 7dogs. They are walked on a common which has as residents, many rabbits and of course deer. Only 2 of these dogs are ever on a lead, the other 5 running free and allowed to run quite a distance from her. If the loose dogs ever decide to run off, there is no way they could be retrieved by someone with 2 other dogs on leads.
If it was my dog being walked, I would be horrified at the laxity that is being shown by someone being paid to care for them.
Maybe I am being silly, but every time I see them it bothers me and I think how distraught an owner would be if their dog went missing or involved in a fight.
Only a couple of weeks ago in the papers, was a story of a small dog that mauled to death by the other dogs in the van with it. They were uncaged in the van, she has 1 cage.
I really need my mind putting to rest that there is nothing to worry about.

[Gwenoakes]

I dont think there are any hard and fast rules, unfortunately, although I could be corrected on this.

Like you I wouldnt like that sort of situation for my own dogs, but perhaps the owners do know about how she takes them for walks and are OK with it. Has she been doing it for long do you know?

One 'sneaky' way of finding out would be to ring her, pretending you are interested in her services.

[wendy]

I think there should be a limit as well. I worries me when so many are walked together.
I walked dogs for many years. But I only ever walked one at a time. I don't think you can give the dog your time and most of these dogs owners are at work so need your time. Also to poop pick for more than two dogs really is impossible. Even when I had 8 dogs myself. I never walked more than 2 together.
You should have insurance, also people got a bargain, because I can't have a dog without training it so they got that as well. One, Max a GSD, I walked daily for 7 years by the time I had finished I had him doing send aways and going both left and right etc. etc.
I didn't have any weight problems then

[Richard]

Hi

I don't own a dog but have occasuinaly dog sat and walked etc.

Upon looking into it a bit further I wrote this article, but think it's been covered by those more expert than me above....

http://www.downthelane.net/earn-extra-money-dog-walking.php


Richard

[albertajune]

Thank for your replies and thank you Richard for the link.
I obviously don't want to cause a problem for the lady but I honestly don't know how she can control the amount of dogs that she walks, especially in the event of an emergency. As already said, the owners may be well aware of the situation, or not! I certainly wouldn't like my dog to be running at times unsupervised and out of site, in such a large area. Perhaps I am just too protective of my animals.

[Mercedes]

I think your concerns are very valid June. I've sometimes wondered about paying someone to walk Daisy as although we do walk her every day I think she would really enjoy a whole hour of being in the park and meeting other dogs and their owners and I'm not able to do that myself although we make sure we do that on weekends. However I would be horrified if she was with someone like the walker you write about. It does make you wonder if the owners of those dogs are aware of what she is doing

[albertajune]

I think your concerns are very valid June. I've sometimes wondered about paying someone to walk Daisy as although we do walk her every day I think she would really enjoy a whole hour of being in the park and meeting other dogs and their owners and I'm not able to do that myself although we make sure we do that on weekends. However I would be horrified if she was with someone like the walker you write about. It does make you wonder if the owners of those dogs are aware of what she is doing

I hope I haven't put you of, considering a walker for Daisy. It is a matter of being forewarned when you know the possibility is there for your dog to be given less care and attention that you would. I am sure that there are lots of very competent dog walkers out there, who take their job very seriously and you just have to check out their way of doing things. I personally think that there should be a limit to how many dogs can be walked together in public places by one person.

[Benny&Co]

We use a professional dog walking lady, although only very infrequently these days.

When I was working in London, she would take Benny on a long walk at mid-morning/lunch time and then come later on in the afternoon to give him his dinner and take him out again.

We were very happy with the service and I accompanied her on the walks sometimes. Benny also stayed with her in her home when we went abroad.

She is fully insured and has had relevant police checks.

[Benny&Co]

Forgot to add... also.

Our chookies stayed with C when we went abroad once. It was at the time we had our egloooop and extended run. We took the whole thing to her home and put it inside the whole of her existing run with her chooks. So they could all see each other but not get at each other

Also, she regularly sent me updates and photographs of Benny and the girls so I was very reassured

[Mercedes]

I hope I haven't put you of, considering a walker for Daisy. It is a matter of being forewarned when you know the possibility is there for your dog to be given less care and attention that you would. I am sure that there are lots of very competent dog walkers out there, who take their job very seriously and you just have to check out their way of doing things. I personally think that there should be a limit to how many dogs can be walked together in public places by one person.

I think it's more the price of it that puts me off to be honest

[LittleBrownFrog]

She sounds worth her weight in gold Bev!