What do you think a person earns if they do home dog boarding?

[Dogs223]

Interested to know what people think. I got made redundant and started to do this. What do you think I earn in a month?

I fill up for house-sitting well over a year in advance. I recently took a booking for October 2025

I have a sit booked in for the same dogs at the end of this month - £400 for eight nights of care in their own home. She's used me twice before and recommends me to everyone so I must be doing something right, lol.

In an earlier post you said you dog walked 15 dogs from 8.30am to 2pm daily. Now you dog sit in other people’s homes for £50 a night and charge people £40 a night for dogs to board in your own home all the time delivering 24/7 care.

But it doesn’t matter to me what you purport to do or charge. If people are happy to pay it, more fool them.

It’s really sad – my dog would hate to be left alone from 5pm till the next morning. I think most dogs would find this quite distressing.

Well done on building a great business. It’s a big responsibility, always remember that, you’re looking after someone’s family member so you really do earn your money. I’ve always fancied a cattery, but built inside part of the house iyswim, so the cats wouldn’t be lonely.

I don't board dogs in my own home and have never said that I do

I charge £50 night for house-sitting. That includes 14 hours of constant overnight care, two visits during the day (totalling two hours) and an hour of exercise for up to two dogs at a time.

I do my regular walks around my house-sits and won't accept dogs if they can't be left for a few hours at a time during the day. That's very normal for pet-sitting.

I must have missed this. That would be impossible. You have to pick your ONE niche.

It's not possible because it's not what I said

I do pet sitting in the owners home alongside dog walking, with the pet-sitting dogs being left for a few hours at a time during the day while I walk.

My pet-sit clients are also my regular walking clients so it's no different to their owners going to work and me coming at lunchtime anyway.

I would not be happy with my dogs not being taken for a walk. Most dogs I know won't run around in a run without encouragement/company.

Access to a run is great but they still need to be walked. My minder has a huge garden the dogs have access to and she also walks them twice a day.

and an hour of exercise for up to two dogs at a time.

I start at 8.30 - take my own dog out with another dog, then do three small group walks of 2-3 dogs each, then occasionally a solo walk at the end of the day at around 1.30pm

I’d hate if you were giving evidence in a courtroom 🤣

Did you not read the bit where I said that the dogs I sit for overnight are also the dogs I walk during the day? 🙄

Or are you just trying to get digs in at me after saying my prices are ridiculous? 😂

Also, I only offer dog sits during the school holidays when I have time to fit in extra visits (as my term time dogs are on holiday) - not that I need to explain that to you! 🙈

Anyway, I must be doing something right as I’m booked out for dog sits for the next 18 months and have a waiting list in double figures for regular walks 🤷‍♀️

I wouldn't take much notice of one ill informed comment.

How much you earn will depend on how good a business person you are as you need to find sufficient clients to provide a viable income. You've achieved that, which is great but it obviously takes time to find sufficient clients and build a reputation and not everyone will manage that, either because there isn't sufficient demand locally, too much competition or they're not, or not perceived as being trustworthy and competent.

Or there will be people who are intentionally doing it for pocket money because they don't want or need to work full time. Our last cat feeder who we paid to look after our cats at home when we were away was a retired teacher who also did dog walking and she was doing it to top up her teachers pension that she received at 60 until she qualified for her state pension.

She's now fully retired and we now use a much younger woman who wants to do this sort of thing full time but I don't think she's quite there yet, but she feeds cats in their own homes and she also boards small pets like rabbits and hamsters.

I don’t advertise at all. Don’t need too. It’s all word of mouth, friends of friends and current clients recommend me to other people. I only take two max and they literally are treated as my own.I keep them to their normal home routine, their normal food/treats and their normal crate/no crate routine. I also do day care ( still only two) and some overnight sits for existing clients. I like to build up regular clients so I know them and their dogs very well. I also look after cats and small animals in their own homes. I don’t do walks except for the dogs staying with me.
I turn down work on a regular basis but I won’t go over my two extra ( I have two of my own) as I like to give them a very high standard of care. My prices are very similar to those quoted above and no one ever bats an eyelid. Most owners aren’t happy with kennels as the dogs are literally in small noisy kennels with small pee breaks and left alone overnight.

Dogs are big business. Over the last couple of years I've tried to find a boarding place but they've all been booked a year in advance. Every dog walker that I have contacted doesn't have availability. Some dog walkers will only do group walks (they can charge £15 and walk 4 dogs at same time). Dog trainers are extortionate, at least £60+ for an hours lesson. Doggy daycare is around £45-£55. I live in the south east so prices will be higher.

Your customers may not think you earn very much if the boarding is in your own home. Lots of kennels/boarding places will have an enclosed field, staff, several dogs staying etc. Looking after a few dogs that are small and well behaved doesn't seem difficult.

I've managed to find a doggy daycare that does boarding. Ad hoc day care cost £45 and ad hoc boarding £50. They don't advertise their boarding as much and is mainly a daycare centre. This made me think they probably don't have many dogs stay (especially non peak times) and that £50 doesn't cover much especially if they're paying for staff to stay overnight. But when we were sent videos, there were several dogs staying despite being in october. I thought they must be earning a decent amount then!

There are also apps like the rover app where anyone can sign up to provide dog walking/boarding.

Surely OP the main thing you’re missing here in terms of overheads is a property that’s big enough to have SIX dogs to stay as well as a large enough garden? I’m sure you were already living there so it doesn’t feel like an overhead to you as you didn’t purchase your home specifically to look after that many dogs, but it is an indirect overhead because if someone was renting or they owned a much smaller home then they wouldn’t be able to run the business that you do. Presumably you pay a mortgage on this property (or did at some point, even if it is now paid off) so that’s an expense that is associated with your business. You can’t run a dog boarding business in a 1 bed flat without a garden.

Incidentally because your business is based from home does this mean you can claim the tax back on related expenses such as energy bills/internet etc?

Another way to think of it is that if you lost your home for some reason (divorce, needing to sell and downsize to fund some other expense) then you would risk also losing your business because it relies on you being in a property of a certain size.

That's quite cruel. Dogs need walks for stimulation, to find new smells and to interact with their walker. Just runnung around the same large space is boring for them.

@VestibuleVirgin our dog attends a day care centre once a week. The dogs have access to a 3 acre wood and the staff interact with them there, there's an agility area and of course lots of lovely sniffing. He comes home shattered and I think he's fine despite not going for a "proper" walk.

Yep! Dogs can (and do) still explore without being ‘walked’ by someone. My dog is in a world of his own on walks, it’s not about interacting with me at all 😆😆

I used to live in a country where all the dogs hung out on the beach and went home for tea. Very happy dogs 😉

How does the council determine how many dogs you can have max p/day?
Do you think the walking or 24 hr holiday care is the most lucrative (or a combo of the two)?
If you're doing 3 x walks each day, are you doing pavement walks or off to a park??
How long did it take you to reach your current income levels and do you get customers through Bark/other, or word of mouth?
Very interested to learn more about your experience - I work in big IT implementations currently; I'm getting realllly worn out / fed up with the Daily (severe) stress and relentlessness of these roles (exacerbated by the really bad experience I'm having on my current Program), plus, recent blood test results of high cholesterol across the board and heading into hypertension means I'm really looking for a total change of direction.

Any thoughts / hot tips gratefully received - I think you've given me a bit of hope that this could potentially be an option - so thank you for that!

When you apply for your licence, you have to say how many dogs you want it for. I got what I asked for. It's determined by how much space you have really.

I do walks straight from my house - I never drive dogs anywhere. We have nice walks nearby, so that's easy. I also don't pick dogs up or drop them home, that is up to the owners.

I don't get any dogs through agencies. I simply did leaflet drops and on line adverts (Facebook/Gumtree) at the start, and within my first year I earned £33k, and then it grew a bit each year after that. Remember, I have no overheads, no staff to pay, no commuting costs, no parking fees....so that counts as well, if you are currently spending on those things.

Within a few years I was able to stop taking any new dogs, and just keep a nice turn over with the dogs I knew. Which is good, as there are no nasty surprises.

If you have any other questions, please do PM me, in case I don't see this thread.

I think it was easy for me to give this a bash, because I had to take VR. I can see it would be much harder to hand in your notice and try it, because of fear of the unknown. I didn't have much to lose, as my VR package was 2 years salary. There is NO way I would go back to work in an office now!!

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it - and for the option to PM you.