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?!

You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to she’ll know why

Are you embarrassed to say you can’t afford it? She might try and negotiate down from there.

That’s a bit of a stretch! She only works 2 days a week and can come home to give it a walk. Sigh!

3 dogs is definitely a group walk and expensive. You just need to say, ok, I understand, thanks for letting me know. That is too expensive for me so I'll walk Rover myself during my lunchbreaks. Thanks again, good luck, all the best. That's it. Then walk your lovely lazy dog yourself on the days you work or find someone cheaper if you decide you do want to have the option.

Are you for real?

Are you being serious?

Didn’t think that was too bad until you said OP she walks her dogs at the same time! Hell no! You shouldn’t have to pay for her dogs to get walked too. That’s CF. Not bad when more affordable but plus the increase just tell her it’s too dear.

I remember seeing a comment by someone who’s a dog walker a few months ago, a customer had insinuated that she did it for pocket money but on the post she’d admitted that she earned in the region of £7000 a month. Outearning the majority of her clients who she walked for. I remember talking about it to my friend

We’re all in the wrong jobs!!

That's a LOT. Surely there must be someone cheaper.

In my village (middle class village,) there's a young woman who left college recently who has started walking peoples dogs - all legit and insured and everything, and she is charging £9 an hour. (She is 18.) £20 an hour is batshit. I'd say about £10 to £12 an hour is a more realistic amount. She's walking a dog, not doing flippin' brain surgery!

Shop around @Dogwalkissue

Walk your own dog? The office is nearby.

What about borrow my doggy you might be able to match with someone who would like to walk your dog

@BlueFahrenheit yes that’s what I charge as an experienced childminder registered with Ofsted. The number of childminders registered in Britain has halved in the last 10 years.

Bit of a ridiculous thing to say. It's not your own dog you have to worry about re insurance. What if the dog you were looking after was attacked by another dog? Or went missing or was hit by a car etc?

Just walk your dog morning and evening, once for a quick walk and the other a longer one.
grey hounds are sprinters rather than utility types who need a good hour or two regularly

For £20 my dog goes to daycare for a day and they pick her up and drop her home. She spends almost all day outside running around with the other dogs. So lots of exercise and socialisation. She used to go a couple of days a week until they put their price up and I couldn't afford it. (I work from home so it is for her benefit rather than mine).
I would definitely just tell the dogwalker I couldn't afford it.

low skilled zero qualification job

Only if you have dogs that get along. You will quickly find it isn't that straight forward.

all you need is public liability insurance

Unless you are using your car to collect them, in which case you need business insurance including the carriage of customer goods.

@Dogwalkissue I charge £15 per walk in Hampshire, or at least, I used to. With fuel costs, it isn't worthwhile any longer, so I've focused entirely on training and boarding.

Daylight robbery. Make the dog wait until you get home.

Sorry to be a pedant but it’s a 33% increase.

Do you think someone is really earning £7k a month being a dog walker?

My dog walker charges £13 for an hours walk. If they increased to £20, I’d say that’s too much for us and I’d try to find someone else or walk ddog ourselves .. £15 to £20 is a ridiculous steep increase

@Dogwalkissueim near BSE and our local dog walker charges 15 an hour solo walk. A group walk should be cheaper.

I don't think it's possible, unless they're charging significantly more than £20 a go and/or walking during every waking hour.

No @elsaandanna you are just way undercharging. Unless you are looking after several children? I imagine this dog walker is going one dog at a time and has to get to where the dog is.

It's not ridiculous at all. I know nurses earning less than £20 an hour. Dog walking is absolutely a low bar and a hugely overpaid profession.

If I was paying a student a tenner an hour cash then i'd be fully aware that if my dog got attacked by another dog or slipped the lead and got hit by a car, I'd need to use my vets. Shit happens. It could happen to me when walking my dog.

I've been enforcing two bored teenagers to do dog walks for years, as I'm sure many parents do. They don't have insurance either, it's a reasonable risk that I accept.

We pay £15 an hour, also in east Anglia, but I have a suspicion her prices will go up again next year.

That's a high price. It should be £15 at the very most.