To ask if there are any professional dog walkers on here??

[MoneybagsIamnot]

...And if so, could you answer a few questions for me? I'm seriously considering doing this.

I have thought about the following:

Insurance
Doggy first aid course
DBS check
Producing my own leaflets/ business cards etc
Sign writing and adding a crate or 2 to my car

Are any of you DBS checked and if so how? I enquired today and it seems that because I'm an individual and not an organisation I won't have cause to request a DBS check? Is this correct?

Any particularly good insurance companies out there for this? I got a quote that seemed pretty reasonable- about £22 a month.

Doggy first aid course- There is one locally that I can attend.

Business cards and flyers I think I have sorted.

Can I ask whether dog walking is your sole income or do you supplement it with a part time job or with other services? And (if not too cheeky) could I ask roughly how much you charge per hour, or per dog walked? And lastly, how long did it take you to be earning an income that you could manage on?

TIA! I'm just trying to work out whether this could be feasible for me!

As an aside, I can't stress this enough: Keep a record of where you will be and what time on what day and amend it as needed. Even if you don't have time, make time and leave it in your home, don't take it with you. Some people are just fucking weirdos and you are going into people's homes. Make sure there is always a way of someone finding out where you are/were and who lives there. For example keep a book with a list of names, addresses and phone numbers in the front and then on the diary part put Mrs Name 2pm Mr name 4pm. I know it's easier to do it on your phone but you need a record that isn't with you and is easily accessible to a partner or god forbid, police. There haven't been many situations where I have felt genuinely unsafe but a few where I have been profoundly glad to leave and inwardly thanking god that people knew where I was because something could easily have happened.

Oh god, really??

I did have one person the other week wanting me to do a 'Meet and Greet'with them and their dog, fine. They then at the last minute said that they were going to be out that evening but their husband would be in with the dog. I really wasn't comfortable about going alone, into a house with just a man, a stranger at that so asked if we could meet at the local park instead, or another public place. It did get me thinking. And yes all my bookings and names and addresses are on our shared calendar and lynced to our Mac at home and also stored in my clients folder at home too. I also tell someone where I'm going for every job. Can't be too safe.

I had a horrible experience this evening whilst walking around our local country park. A drunk man, staggering around in the forest, slurring at me 'alright darlin'' luckily one of the dogs yapped its head off and he didn't get any closer but I legged it sharpish!

Did you ever carry pepper spray or an alarm or anything? I'm just thinking of the winter when it's dark and I'm on my own etc

Pepper spray isn't legal here, I'm in England and no I never had an alarm. I did used to carry my keys between my fingers though and would happily have gouged an attacker's eyes out. Mostly the dogs would see them off if they had to and no one is going to be dim enough to attack a woman with multiple rottweilers.

I know it sounds a bit over cautious and chances are you will never have a reason to need it but it's just a precaution when entering strangers houses