I want to be a dog Walker!

[Karmakarmeleon]

Really badly 😂

I’m a teacher by profession and do some part time teaching/tutoring since I had my Dd. I don’t ever want to do full time/full class teaching again.
I’d love to drop my Dd at school, then do dog walking
I love dogs (we have our own) love the outdoors & walking (need to shed weight too) I don’t like working with others really, I meet friends etc outside of work and don’t do well with office politics etc

Is this crazy? I know I won’t get rich from it, has anyone else done it or has a dog Walker? How much do you charge and how did you set it up?

I’m not a dog walker but I do have a dog. Personally I wouldn’t use one that wasn’t insured, didn’t have a doggy first aid certificate and didn’t offer single walking ( mine doesn’t do well in a Group). Maybe consider those things too ? Although I accept that the single walk thing probably wouldn’t be popular as less money would be made per hour

@Levriers

@Levriers Sorry, pressed too soon

Thank you, appreciate the feedback

The set up costs are big. All the ones that people use round me (it’s a saturated and very competitive market), take the dogs to exciting places, which means a can set up with crates/air con etc.
Insurance, doggy first aid etc.
As mentioned it’s a saturated market so marketing yourself can be hard work, a lot of work on social media/ building a good client base etc all takes time.

I think there are franchise dog walking arrangements as well, where you could work for an established company and in effect just do the walking and not have to manage the booking and admin parts. Where you'd probably make less money but it might be a way to trial things before setting out on your own.

I will pay you a million pounds if you can tire my Scottish Deerhound out.

Seriously though there's probably good money in it these days, with all the lockdown dog's owners having to go back to the office.

As a pp said though, insurance, doggy first aid etc are vital - and a lot of dog friendly walks near me have started putting signs up saying dog walkers may have no more than 4 small dogs and 2 large at a time or may be fined.

My friend is a dog walker and I pay her to take my dog out.

She uses an app with different walking options with different prices. A 1hr walk is £10. She fits it in between school runs and enjoys her job. Her main outlay was crates for the car boot and a lot of winter outdoor gear for all the weather!

My dog walker used to be a teacher. She also does cat feeding visits. She is very busy. £13 for a dog walk, 4 dogs at a time I think and £10 per visit for a cat.

As with any business you should research the market in your area. Are there lots of other people all doing the same thing? Are they full? Is there a need? There’s no pony otherwise.

@Tubbyinthehottub Is that £13 per dog? Or for them all for an hour? For example, if a family had three dogs, would it be £13 per dog or per walk?

The start up costs don’t have to be a lot.
insurance, first aid certificate and transport - your car.
Most people are looking for a reliable, trustworthy individual that will walk their dog for the allotted time, thats a rarity even if the market is saturated with them these days.
You can work your way up to fancy van.

@givemushypeasachance
by Buying a franchise you normally absolutely do have to do your own admin!
it’s a slightly less risky path but you would have the overhead of a hefty franchise fee.

op I think give it a go if you are happy to start slowly maybe with just a handful of clients. I know one who does it for a serious living and has a fancy van to pick up all the dogs. You wouldn’t need a van or any significant overheads just to pick some dogs up very locally.

@StillWantingADog ah I'd seen one that said you got to use their booking system and such, but imagine it varies between franchises.

For the OP - something to consider with the group walks is that 99% of people want their dog walked in the middle of the day because they're out at work 9-5 or 8-6 or whenever. So you can't arrange many group walks for 9am, who would be interested in that. Your peak time for walks is 11-2 to split up the working day. By the time you've collected several dogs and driven to your walk location, then returned them, it takes at least two hours to do a one hour walk for them. So you can only realistically do 2-3 group walks in a day even allowing for you looking at school hours work.

I have cats and cat sitting is something else to consider - most cat sitters charge £10 for a visit which can only take 15-20 mins, and that isn't usually time sensitive.

Seconding what @givemushypeasachance said - you might be charging £11-14 per dog on a group walk, but you won't be able to offer more than two group walks per day because people use them to break up the time the dog is alone. Also depends on demand - my dog walker is always booked up but she only does one group walk a day as presumably there's either not time to do two (after collecting all the dogs) or she knows she won't fill two.

Per dog