Dog Walking

The Fiddler

I'm thinking of starting up a dog walking service in an area where no such service exists. At present as most houses now have at least one dog and with alot of owners having no time to walk their dogs and the dogs are left home maybe alone, unhealthy as result of little or no exercise and bored.

I love animals especially dogs and i am also into my fitness. Combining the two together id be happy and so to would the dogs!! However im not sure how this sort of business would take off here in Ireland. It is very popular in America where some companies are doing very well out of it.

How many people on "boards" would consider using this facility if it were made available to them? Or how many people would definitely not use this facility. What are your views on this as an occupation?

I would walk your dog for an hour or half hour if preferred.
You can choose the route i take if you have a preference.
I can administer oral medication.
Towel dry dog if necessary.
Carry out a taxi service eg to vet, etc.
Provide a dog grooming service (Pet Styles)

All views and opinions are greatly accepted and appreciated.

Cherry Blossom

The Fiddler wrote: »

I would walk your dog for an hour or half hour if preferred.
You can choose the route i take if you have a preference.
I can administer oral medication.
Towel dry dog if necessary.
Carry out a taxi service eg to vet, etc.
Provide a dog grooming service (Pet Styles)

All views and opinions are greatly accepted and appreciated.

Are you qualified to administer medicine to animals?
Are you qualified to groom dogs?
Do you have the necessary insurance to carry out all these services?
Are you qualified to handle aggressive dogs?
Would you be seeking accreditation from the relevant organisations that oversee these services?

TBH - there have been a lot of threads just like this one in this forum, there are a lot of people asking if they can make money from walking dogs. For the main part - these dogs that you notice that are never walked are owned by people who would also never pay someone else to do it. Those who are willing to pay for such services own dogs that are extremely well looked after and in general will be extremely fussy about who they hand their pride and joy over to. There are plenty of people around who have all the necessary qualifications in the areas where there is a real demand for such a service.

Whatever response you get on here will be very different from what you would get if you asked these questions of people in your own locality. The people who post in animal forums are pretty much all members of the second group described above.

JustAThought

Fiddler; there are a lot of people I meet out with dogs & chatting this is a common problem. I don't think many people take seriously " accreditation for walking a dog" but there are common themes that people look for ; trustworthiness, flexibility, professionalism, being recommended & most if all ability to handle dogs in situations.

I don't know about others but the most expensive walker I have heard of is e20. I pay e12 for the dayfor mine to be minded and walked while I am at work ; 8-6:30.
I have a second place that I usewhich is a similar price ; my dog always comes back & snores happily & loves the people. I'm always intrigued by how they can makeit pay ; seems either long term financial expectations are pitched rather low, or it is a supplementary " pocket money " income ; it would seem the bigger money comes from volumes of scale or, specifically , from add on grooming services!
A number of people in my estate use the same lady who came recommended by the local vet & this has worked out well for them all; she has less travelling between jobs & they all know & trust her & now she does in their own home boarding for people with pets ( cats & elder dogs!) when they go on holidays.

The ones I see & shudder at & avoid like the plague in the park are the " professional" dog walkers with four or five dogs together ; I always think it's a recipy for disaster as there is little they can do if a fight breaks out :0

Good luck with your research.
My dad found my walker for me the old fashioned way; an ad in the local shop window!
And then I did a bit of research & dropping in on her to check her out!

The Fiddler

Adrenaline Junkie :
I am not qualified to administer medicine but after breeding and raring 5 pups and worming them myself and administering all oral medication to them myself i feel that is experience enough.
I also do not have a grooming qualification but have carried out a one day intensive grooming course last year. That is why I said pet styles as I would not be qualified to do breed styles. At the moment I fully groom my own 3 Lhasa Apso’s. I also fully groom my mother in laws 3 Lhasa Apso’s and my mothers Lhasa Apso. These are long haired dogs and need to be groomed on a regular basis and therefore I have plenty of practice in this area.
Currently I do not have insurance but if/when I do set up I would be taking out insurance.
I have no animal qualifications but I have kept dogs since I was a child. I take my brothers dalmador for walks regularly and also my aunts Labrador. These are both big strong dogs that I am well capable of handling.
There may be plenty of people with the qualifications for dog walking but currently there is no one offering the service in my area. Where are the forums on this I have tried to find them but I have not been successful yet.

Just A Thought:
I am a very trustworthy person, flexible, i would offer a very professional service, I have the ability to handle dogs in any type of situation. I would hope that as my clientele builds up people would recommend me to others.
I would be offering the dog walking service at €12 per hour and with a possibility of €8 per half hour. I am unsure yet as to whether or not to offer the latter as I don’t feel the dogs would get the proper benefit of going out for exercise.
I would be taking three dogs at max if they were from the same house I would not take anymore out on the same session as I believe myself that anymore than 3 is asking for trouble if you have no helpers assisting you.

Thanks for your comments!

boodee

you're definately talking 'word of mouth'. I went to a dog training course with a ''highly qualified'' trainer and with disasterous consequences.

I have a rotti and a gsd, i'd have to be VERY sure about who i'd hand them over to.

On the comment about administering meds, while you may have reared your own and done everything with them it doesn't qualify you to administer meds. It just leaves you open to getting sued if something went wrong, you won't be able to get insurance unless you have some kind of ''papers'', that's just the society we live in. I'm not insinuating you couldn't give meds, i'm sure you're capable but it's just something to think about.
Also, where do you stand should you get injured/bitten in the course of your work. My previous GSD was a nut case, that would have probably gotten you killed.....it nearly dragged me in front of a car.

Good luck with whatever you do, but, protect yourself first.

tk123

[QUOTE=The Fiddler;76616270
I have no animal qualifications but I have kept dogs since I was a child. I take my brothers dalmador for walks regularly and also my aunts Labrador. These are both big strong dogs that I am well capable of handling.
[/QUOTE]

Do you know what to do if a dog you're walking eg
starts choking (i know somebody who's dog choked on a ball)
hurts/breaks it's leg (a dog in our park tore his acl )
gets cut (my dog and loads of dogs in the park have gotten cut in the river - I didn't know what to do at the time! )
collapses (same friend had another dog collapse and die on the beach )
has a fit/needs cpr (saw this on youtube and it made me sign up for the class - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QQQAVNKIPE)

etc etc

If not at the very least you need to do a first aid course. I did one last year and learnt loads from it. My dog was at me afterwards because I kept practising taking his pulse lol! !:pac: