Hiring dog walkers

[rosielicious]

We have recently adopted 8 month old Lab/gsd rescue dog. Only had her for 2 weeks and she hasn't been left yet. She will eventually be left for 4 hrs a couple of times a week but I was thinking of getting a dog walker to break up the 4 hrs for her. There are plenty of dog walkers in my area,but stupid question how does it work exactly? How many times do they meet your dog before taking them for a walk? Do they accompany you on a walk first? If the walk is for 1 hr is that from the moment they pick dog up at your house and finish when they drop them off? Or does the walk only start when they are at the desired location?

[MrsKrabbapple]

I’ve had two dog walkers and I went for a walk with both of them first and then they came to my house one day to get the key and that was it.

Dog walkers are good with dogs so they know what’s best for the dog. My dog goes to different places. Sometimes she’s just with the walker and sometimes with other dogs too.

I think the times are a bit flexible really. Mine comes at a rough time rather than a set time. The dog is out of the house for more than an hour, I know that because our lock tells us so.

[PickleBiscuit]

I'd guess they're all diffferent - research & ask for recommendations locally.
Ours is lovely - came for a home visit to meet our cocker spaniel & ask lots of questions about what she liked & what we were happy with (eg off lead/treats)
For the first walk they took her off in her van to some woods with 3 similar others & she loved it. They reported back afterwards & we always get photos of her adventures.
She's out for an hour walk but with travel/drying off time she can be out 2 hours which is great as she gets more company (& ride shotgun in the van if she's extra good )

[Nesssie]

All different. My current dog walker came for a house visit and then started walking him that week. My dog is confident with strangers so I didn't feel the need to go for a walk with her. You may want to go for a short walk with her and the dog first.

The actual walk is an hour but with pick ups and drop offs he can be out of the house for a while longer.

If its an individual walk, he may be walked directly from your house.

I would ask how many dogs are walked in the group, are they on/off lead, which locations are they walked at, how does he/she do the timing (from pick up or once they are at the location)

[FaithFrank]

They met ddog once at home, didn't take her out then. We talked about what I wanted, ddog's habits, what the walker is prepared to do.

The hour is the walk itself, time in the van doesn't count.

[rosielicious]

Thank you all for your replies

[mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork]

I have used 5 dogwalkers to date. This is over the course of 8 years. They are not all the same. I first got names from the local vet surgery (and did this also when I moved to the area I live in now). Otherwise, as you get to know other dogowners when you are out walking, they may have some good recommendations.

The first two dogwalkers job shared. One was lovely and my dog loved her. The other one was a bit pushy (nothing I could put my finger on but I didn't entirely like her). With the second one, I sometimes came home from work and was unconvinced that my dog had actually been taken out at all. I started leaving the lead in certain patterns to check, etc. One day I came home and knew she hadn't been out since I left in the morning. I took her out of the back garden gate (opens on to a park) and walked her to the other side of the park. I looked back and could see the dogwalker just coming out of my garden with her daughter and looking around the park. She later said that she had just come back for the second time so her daughter could see the dog and looked a bit embarrassed. When I moved, I tried a dogwalker I'd found online. We had to meet her somewhere for 2 minutes so she could meet my dog and she was about 20-ish and not terribly friendly. I was desperate as work started in 2 days so I went with this. It never worked. First of all, she came to collect my dog and the dog refused to go out with her as she thought she was being dognapped. It took her 20 minutes to get the dog into the van. Then she had to walk my dog alone as she was too slow (old dog)and couldn't keep up with the group. Then I got a call at work to say the dog had bitten her and she was taking her home in a muzzle and rushing to the doctors and would never walk her again. I was very shocked (dog never bit people) and sent flowers, apologised etc. Eventually the dogwalker admitted she (large girl) had overbalanced and fallen on top of my dog (and her dog) and a dog fight kicked off and she tried to stop it and my dog accidentally bit her (my sister asked me if the dog needed a course of antibiotics!). The vet receptionist gave me details of another dogwalker who came round to the flat and met my dog, who really liked her (so did I) - a middle-aged lady, smiley, straightforward and calm - just the job. We never looked back. I once saw the dogwalker who had expelled us walking a very unhappy dog in the forest and felt very sorry for it.
So, meet your dogwalker AT HOME and go for a walk with him/her if you get the chance. If your dog doesn't seem to like her/him, take note and look for another. If you come home and your dog is a bit stressed or not their usual self, could be they don't like the dogwalker. Though I think, if you feel you can trust the walker and you take to them, the dog probably will too.