Cannot justify dog walker's price increase

[Dogwalkissue]

Our dog walker currently charges £15 an hour walk. She has just sent a message to say her prices are going up to £20 an hour.

She said that she has researched other dog walker's prices and says they all charge a minimum of £20 and many £25. I do struggle to believe this as I did a quick local search and the most expensive I could find was £17. We are in a town in Suffolk.

Anyway, I honestly can't justify anything else going up in price. She currently walks my dog twice a week. I work full time and on the days I am in the office, she walks my dog, so twice a week meaning my weekly dog walking will go from £30 a week to £40 a week. With the cost of shopping, fuel, heating etc etc I just can't have something else going up - my own salary doesn't ever go up by £5 an hour.

I like the dog walker and feel really awkward to cancel the dog walks but I need to now as it has priced me out of the market. On the days I am in the office, I'll pop back at lunch time to walk the dog now.

What should I say to her? Be honest that I am nown prices out the market?!

How long is your lunch break? An hour's dog walk plus home and back from your office - will you have time to do it?

If you can cover this yourself save the £40 and enjoy a mental break from work and the fresh air!

We pay £14 an hour in Hampshire so £20 would be way too high here.

Yeah, just tell her unfortunately this is beyond your budget. A 25% increase is a bit much tbh. Is this 1-1 or group?

But it's irrelevant what other people charge, as you haven't said you are going to go to a cheaper one. Just tell her you can no longer afford it, Would you be prepared to drop to once a week ?

Just say 'I'm unable to pay the increased rate so please take this as notice of termination'.

When was the last time her prices went up? £20 doesn’t sound that much. I paid £15 about 7 years ago in east Anglia
if you’re going to cancel and don’t want to say the reason, just say you’re going to be working from home more from now on.

I am in the wrong business . Must get me some decent walking shoes . And a ton of dog treats.

Just tell her you can’t afford her new prices so no longer need her services. She’s entitled to put up her prices but she may find she loses more than she gains

I’d just say you understand her costs have risen but unfortunately you can’t afford the increase so will have to find an alternative solution.

Where do you live @Dogwalkissue ? I’m a dog walker in North Norfolk. Quite wealthy area, not far from Sandringham. I don’t charge that much. Walk six dogs twice a day, weekdays, two separately, two siblings together, and two other same breeds together. Haven’t increased prices.

I’m a childminder. To look after a child I charge £7.00 an hour. I’m in the wrong job.

Do a 40min walk if she will accommodate. If not say you will have to walk them yourself.

We are SE and pay £12 per walk. Can be anything from an hour to 3 hours!
I think £20 is a lot unless it's an individual walk.

You either tell her the truth (that you can no longer afford it) or just cancel without an explanation. What else can you do!? Invent a lie like you now WFH or that the dog has passed away.

Her prices last went up a bit in January (from £14 for an hour to £15).

Luckily I work in our local council office which is only 10 mins from my house, so enough time to get in, give the dog a 30 min walk and back in the office. She is a greyhound and and bloody lazy!

We pay £12 an hour in the midlands. £20 is a lot unless its a one on one session.

Costs me 20 quid for a whole day for mine !

Presumably you get more than an hour's work a day from each parent though.

I've no idea how much a dog walker costs, but if she is only walking your dog in that hour, I'm not surprised she needs to increase her costs. An hour walking your dog, plus I'd guess at least 15 minutes travel time to and from, at £15 for an hour and a half she's not even paying herself minimum wage, and that's before she's paid out for fuel and insurance. You'd need to be walking more than one dog at a time to make it add up at those prices.

You say you can’t justify it, you don’t need to, you either pay it or cancel.
Could you ask for a group walk instead?

You’ve decided to have a dog that you don’t want to walk?
And having oursourced the walking decided to don’t want to pay for it…
Utterly irresponsible actions.
Poor dog.

Your dog walkers costs have gone up too. I am sorry but you say your costs have gone up - what about theirs? Prices everywhere else go up yearly (as do most salaries). If you can not afford it then maybe do one day a week with the dog walker and rejig so you do one day yourself.

I use my cleaner for dog walking, although I suppose it’s also £15 an hour although at least it’s 1:1. The nice thing is that the dog gets company whilst she cleans and then a walk before she leaves.

i think £20 an hour is fair it’s if 1:1 less so if she has multiple dogs.

Ive just had to let our dog walker go.
£15 london for a group walk .
How long before the price increases? Straight away seems a bit mean. She should do a months notice then you give her a month's notice to terminate

Dog walking prices by me are absolutely batty, I’m in a high poverty area in the northwest, and we can be expected to pay £20-£25 an hour. It’s a low skilled zero qualification job, I don’t get it myself. I’ve looked into doing it myself and all you need is public liability insurance which was coming back as £6 a month for me. As soon as I go on social media though and look through posts with people looking for dog walkers, all you get are the usual hysterical replies when anyone’s offering to do it cheap, getting full on abuse incase they’re not insured and they should be charging more and they’re driving the rates down 🙄