Dog walkers

[jibbe]

Is it time to review the amount of dogs a walker can walk all together?
its 6 where I live

Whether you believe it or not, it's all all over people's social medias for the world to see. One walker out with groups of 8-10 off-lead dogs is incredibly common, unfortunately. A dog walker near me has won numerous awards and they regularly have 10-12 dogs out with two handlers - the dogs are all off-lead and running about all over the place. All it would take is for one of those dogs to get injured or spook/bolt - then what would they do?

You're correct that serious incidents are very rare which is why this one has made the news, but dogs running riot because people can't control them is something that happens every single day, up and down the country. The more dogs someone is trying to control, the higher the chance of a dangerous incident occurring.

Where on social media? The odd bit of footage. 10 & 12 dogs with a walker is not “incredibly common” because it’s not possible for you, one person to determine that. You may have seen it but I have not. I say the opposite, I say it is not incredibly common, see how it works? It cannot be incredibly common because every dog walker I know was horrified to see the practices of the woman who sadly died. I say it is incredibly common for dog walkers to be responsible and careful and prioritise their dog clients because that is my experience over almost ten years of dog walking professionally.

And if it was incredibly common then tragic incidents would be common place and happening weekly.

Oh give over, Beth. The rise in dog ownership has also led to a rise in the unregulated dog walking industry. The decent ones regulate themselves. The shit ones don’t and they regularly ‘walk’ 6 + dogs.
Why would people lie about seeing it? I love dogs. I don’t even mind if a dog with less than stellar recall runs up to me and puts muddy pawprints on my clothes (although it’s a bit annoying now I’m teaching my latest dog to Ignore).
There’s a dog walking business the next town over whose employee was seen beating a dog to get it in her van. That’s not ‘made up’ either.

Dog owners need to know what to look for when choosing a dog walker, so their dog, other users of the space, other dogs and the dog walker are all safe. Saying inadvisable practices just never happen isn’t going to give me faith that all dog walkers have safety at the forefront of their minds. Unfortunately, what a lot of them have at the forefront of their minds is easy cash.

My dog is 6 years of age and dog walkers walking 6 dogs has always been the case. I wouldn’t have started the thread otherwise. I would love to be able to walk my dog without regularly having this amount of off lead dog’s running at him.

A dog walker near me has won numerous awards and they regularly have 10-12 dogs out with two handlers - the dogs are all off-lead and running about all over the place.

Yet despite this supposedly poor dog walking management you’ve never heard of her being involved in an incident? She sounds like a great dog walker.

Someone was killed walking through a field of cows this week. This happens fairly regularly, do we ban cows or people keeping them? Every day people are thrown from horses or involved in horse related accidents, what about them? Shall we stop people looking after horses and riding them? This is just the flavour of the month. The daily mail have printed a disgusting, hyperbolic article today with a photo that they actually say depicts a snarling dog pack disturbing the peace. One dog is showing its teeth and we’ve no idea if it’s play fighting or not. The others look completely calm. Yet the comments are as ridiculous as some of these here.

I’m not saying it never happens. It does. Someone died because it did. But I have never seen it and I have no reason to lie. Honestly if I had I would be the first one on here calling it out. I believe that proper legislation should be put in place, it’s too woolly at the moment. It should be standardised across the country - it won’t be, but it should. But it’s nonsense to say this is incredibly common it just isn’t. Many MNetters despise dogs anyway and are only too happy to stick the boot in on these threads.

I did a dog walking qual, I had public liability insurance up to 5 mil and was DBS checked. That should be the minimum.

Totally agree with you on the regulation, Beth. Of course there aren’t tragic incidents like this one regularly. There are too many people setting up as Walkers or Boarders with little clue and even less care and I wouldn’t want my dog within a mile of them.

I would like to ban cows though. Because they are evil bastards and I’ve lost count of the miles I’ve spent detouring round them on days out walking.

Where on social media? The odd bit of footage.

It's way more than the odd bit of footage - it's all over people's business pages - day in, and day out. They don't try and hide it - they're proud of the fact that they can walk multiple dogs at a time and earn a fortune from it.

Yet despite this supposedly poor dog walking management you’ve never heard of her being involved in an incident? She sounds like a great dog walker.

On the contrary, I think they sound like very lucky dog walkers. All it takes is for a piece of equipment to fail, or a dog to cut their paw, and suddenly the situation is very different.

You can do everything right and still experience difficulty - because you can't control members of the public, dogs cutting their paws, or collars and leads failing and dogs bolting off because of gunshot or an explosion somewhere.

Not at all - because most of the time, you can get away with poor control, laziness and allowing the dogs to run riot. It might annoy other people or cause a few cross words, but it's nothing newsworthy or out of the ordinary.

I am a dog walker & I will only walk 2 large or 3 small dogs from different households at the one time. If the dogs all live together I will walk more.
I also do not do off lead walks unless in the fenced in dog park. I am not their owner, chances are they aren't going to listen to me if they run off, so I don't risk it.

Same reason you don’t limit a parents number of children but you do a childminder.

Yes. We can I think be clear that 8 is too many.

Where I live it's 4, but if two or three walkers decide to meet up, you've got about 8-12 in one place.

I'd say 3 per walker and owner, and 4 in a group.

tragic incidents would be common place and happening weekly

They are commonplace and happen daily. The difference is that it's usually a minor injury A&E can sort out, rather than a fatal incident. But that doesn't make it ok.

It’s 6 in Tandridge where the incident happened so the Walker was well over it anyway. So even if it was 4 (like neighbouring Croydon borough) she would still be breaching the rule. My dog Walker (same area) often has 6, but 6 dogs of similar sizes and they are so in tune with her. She thinks they will reduce it to 4 in the Borough but it wouldn’t have stopped this as the dog Walker was not following the rule

It’s £15 a walk in my area

From what I’ve heard, and this could be Chinese whispers, the lady got bitten in the neck as she was stuck on the ground and the dogs all started fighting each other as one got agitated (potentially by the horses that were there). I guess the dogs were stressed as on leads unable to escape and naturally couldn’t get away and the Walker probably didn’t want to let go of the leads (which would have been the better thing to do). I have heard reports of incidents with this Walker and lack of control but reiterating this could be rumours. I’m surprised the lady hasn’t been named.

Actually, lots of councils already limit numbers - regardless of whether you're a professional walker or just someone who owns lots of dogs.

i wish all dog walkers thought the same.

@Hobbitlover don't suppose you're in the South East? I could do with a dog walker just like you!
As many others have said, no way would my dog be going out off lead with a walker and around 6 other dogs. A secure field, on the other hand, I would be happy with. Safety and security has to be paramount.