A Dog Walkers Checklist

Most people want their dogs walked at lunchtime while they are at work, so that's your peak working hours and you may only get two to three walks (max) in that time and in that time you will earn most of your money for that day, so if you are doing solo walks in that time you are limiting what your income can be.

You'd be surprised how much time is spent traveling, picking up and dropping off dogs, even in a small area. You don't get paid for driving so keep you area of work as small as you possibly can. Petrol costs will take a lot of your income if you have a car so if you plan on using the car make sure it's economical. I'm serious, when I started I had 3 dogs all within 6 miles of me, just picking them up and taking them to the park and back home racked up over 100 miles a week!

Personally I've never walked more than four dogs at a time and wouldn't want to walk many more than that, I know there are people out there who walk 10 dogs! But I don't think it's safe, off-lead very few dogs are trained and while most will come when called most of the time, you are responsible for their well being. I guess it all depends on what kind of dogs you're walking, whether they will be walked on-lead or off-lead and how many you feel comfortable with. Every dog walker will have an different opinion on this subject and you will have to find out for yourself what you can manage.

There are some dogs that I walk together because they enjoy the same things as each other and this ensures they all get a nice hours play. For example I walk two lurchers and a cocker because they love chasing tennis balls at the beach and the cocker will even swim to retrieve them, it's a shared and common interest they have, they have fun and I have the entire groups attention on one subject. Another group I walk contains two mature labs who like just to walk by my side through woodland areas, I take them and collie cross. I wouldn't mix these groups because if I took the labs/collie to the beach and chucked a ball the lurchers and cocker would play but the labs would just stand by my side bored or wander off and entertain themselves. But you have to decide for yourself what you do.

What services will you offer and how much will you charge?

Decide what services you are going to offer and what prices before you start, you don't want leaflets here and there displaying different prices and services because you've learned that your prices were too high to begin with or the services you offered were unrealistic. Services dog walkers/pet sitters offer can include, pet sitting (including cat's and other animals), dog (and other pet) boarding, puppy visits, pet visits (including cat's and other animals) and pet taxi. Some are even groomers.

Outside dog walking, pet visits/boarding will be the most popular services. On hot days you might need to take water with you.