Professional dog walkers - AIBU?

[Goddessoftheearth]

Every fortnight on three mornings when I need to be office based, I have a professional dog walker come to take my dog out on a group walk - he is a very energetic breed, and there simply isn’t the time (or daylight) to get him walked before school runs and getting to work for 9am.

My issue is this. I know it is horrendously muddy everywhere - on days when I’m not office based and have time to walk, we are in our local woods wading through mud. My dog gets dirty - thats what happens and I know it’s impossible for them not to get muddy. When I get home, he’s hosed off, towelled dry and is in his bed on a towel in the utility room for an hour drying off.

When he has been going out with the dog walker recently, I think he is going to an enclosed field each time with the group of dogs she has. Don’t have an issue with that really - would prefer it not to be every time, but understand it is safer when she has lots of dogs. However, this field is obviously well used and REALLY muddy - the sort of clayey mud that sticks. Whilst when I walk my dog - and it is often with friends and their dogs so he is running about lots - he gets covered on his legs, under his belly and a bit on his chest, when he comes back from being out with her, he is caked in mud up to half way up his sides.

Because I am work, he is dropped off into the utility room, but is left as he is. By the time I get home a couple of hours later (I only do 4 hours and then am back), he is still covered what is now partially dried/ parts tacky thick clay. It is all over his bed, the floor and everywhere else. I then have to take him back outside, hose him off - which is harder as some of the mud has dried on - bring him back in, towel him off and then leave him to dry again. His bed needs washing - as otherwise next time he comes in having been hosed off, he’s getting into a bed covered in mud = defeats the washing off prior to this - and he is shut away for another hour on his own drying again.

I know that dog walkers have a busy day in terms of a lot of time is spent driving about picking up and dropping dogs back home again, but AIBU to ask that the dog is given a quick wash and towel off before she leaves? Also waiting to be roasted by MN about first world problems and why am I not walking my own dog/ have a dog etc!

Praying daily for rain stoppage 😂

Most decent dog walkers will hose or at least towel the worst of the mud off.
I’m
a dog walker and I have a portable shower I use to hose the dogs down and I ensure they are as dry as possible before I drop them back home. Also have lots of towels in the vehicle for them to sit on to soak up any excess water.
I’d look at another walker.

My dog walker hoses ours down. He’s a spaniel and I know he lies and rolls in every muddy puddle that there is so he’s filthy after every walk at the moment.

He is in a warm room on his bed. My dog gets put in another room the days he is with a dog walker so he can rest and decompress because he is totally wired, as i said dogs are. fine on their own.

As I said, you can think/feel/do as you wish, as can I. Not sure why you are carrying on this conversation? You're not going to change my mind and why do you care what I think anyway, you don't know me from a bar of soap.

I was just replying that is all.

I’m a dog walker and no IMO this isn’t ok. Depending on how muddy dogs are and whether it’s watery or sticky mud, they either get a good wipe with a towel, or I have a portable battery powered gentle pressure washer (with warm water) in the car which they get rinsed off with and towel dried before returning home. It literally takes 2 mins per dog to get them clean, they might not look like they’ve just come from the groomer but they aren’t muddy!

We shopped around for a dog walker who is definitely a little more expensive but who makes sure the dogs get decent interesting walks and lots of variety and that is cleaned down before being dropped into the house

I used to work as an employee dog walker and we were not allowed to send filthy dogs home, we had a mud daddy type thing in the van and if really bad had to take them to the business premises to use the hose. The best arrangement was the owner who had a warm water hose at her back door. I absolutely hated this part of the job and think the best idea would be a towelling robe to wear in the van after rinsing the worst, coats help, but owners need to be realistic too.

We do have a warm water hose at the back door so even is time consuming it’s not freezing cold.

Whereabouts are you in the country?

If you get vet bed, buy a whole roll from ebay. Much better value. Then you can line the back of the car, areas in the house and all sorts. It machine washes too.

I have a hot tap in the garden, and bought a high velocity dryer from Amazon for about £70 that is a game changer. I can blow dry my daycare customers nicely. And me when my trousers are soaked through.

I’d be looking for another walker. An enclosed field each time with ‘lots of dogs’ doesn’t sound great. Probably worth spending a bit more and getting a walker who can spare a few minutes for a quick towel dry post walk, as well as taking dogs somewhere a bit more stimulating.

Although, I do get that the mud at the moment is of epic proportions!

My dog walker insisted we got one of these. She's a long haired dog and it's a gamechanger. We don't use it ourselves - we dry her after walks when we take her, but the dog walker uses it regularly on all her floofy dogs.

Vet bedding is a good idea.

Our dog walker is a gundog specialist and does very stimulating but currently extremely muddy walks and training sessions focused on Woods, streams and thickets. She is normally brilliant at not bringing our labradors home muddy (and I know she has not been hosing them down as one would go absolutely nuts.) however, at the moment the water table especially in the fields if you have clay soil is so high there is absolutely no chance of a dog coming home clean. Especially if you have one of those lower down spaniel or doodle breeds.

To be honest (and I acknowledge I may have very low standards) I just let her drop them off in the utility/boot room, they dry and the mud sort of drops off to be hoovered.

To be honest, they are much less of a mud issue than my four very sporty teens (who really could do with being hosed down before they enter the house) and I have sort of given up until April.

Maybe give her a bit of slack for the next couple of weeks until things dry up a bit?

Oh dear. You see where you've gone wrong is, not having a dog like mine. Golden Retriever who will not, ever, walk through a puddle. Always, always, walks round it, even if it's really awkward to do so. When we recently encountered a full path width puddle, he simply leapt in to the air and landed gracefully the other side. Not even joking. He's so prissy, I have absolutely no idea why/how/where he got it from 😂. We don't even bother to try walking in the woods in this weather, he'd literally tippy toe. Just stick to the beach in Winter (he's fine with sand apparently). Such a weirdo.

Pet sitter here who used to walk dogs too but stopped.

If her van doesn't have separate accommodation for each individual dog then for goodness sake stop using her. Dogs must be safe and should never be in a position of being unrestrained when travelling, apart from anything else it is illegal.

In accordance with regulations and pure common sense, vans must have at the minimum ventilation (spinny things on the roof of the van) and ideally air con that can be left on while the driver is out of the van.

I had a basic but effective camera in mine so I could see everyone at all times.

As dogs will be in a cage on their own, have ventilation and in my case I could see them in the van, they are safe to be left long enough for a dog to be well rinsed, dirt and mud removed either with our own equipment or at home and a thorough towel dry given and dry robe to dry off en route. That is not an extra, it is very basic animal care and customer care.

This kind of situation is exactly why I gave it up. Anyone and everyone thinks they're a "professional" dog walker when in reality, most have zero idea and have just set themselves up as dog walkers because they think it'll be an easy thing to do. If you're doing it properly it's not an easy gig. I didn't want to be associated with people who are supposedly professional dog walkers.

In reality dog walking is a licence to print money for walkers and by the sound of it, you're just about all, being ripped off.

To leave a dog dirty is inexcusable and unacceptable both to the dog and the customer. For goodness sake stand up for your dogs and don't let them and yourselves be treated so badly!

Sorry if it wasn’t clear - her van does have the correct partitions etc so is all perfectly safe. But thank you for your insights about cleaning off as that is useful.

Totally. I see a lot of long haired dogs with these. If I had a dog walker, I’d use one. I’m the same as you however…….shower after every muddy walk. I do have a mud daddy though

I agree with this. The only dogs I use secure fields for are ones with terrible recall/known livestock chasing issues, as a chance for them to have a good run around untethered. But even those ones also get walked on a long line too in the woods etc, to keep things interesting for them.

OP your dog walker sounds very lazy. Secure fields are the lazy option, she gets to just stand or sit there while the dogs run around. At the moment I’m carefully choosing routes depending on soil type, luckily there’s a huge forest on greensand nearby which isn’t muddy. I’m not going to the secure field at all because it’s like a swamp. More work for me, but better for the dogs. And dropping them back muddy is again pure laziness, as I said it takes two minutes for a quick rinse and towel dry, there’s no excuse.

I'm a dog walker and one of the reasons I only do small groups is so that I can take the time to clean the dogs down after walks. I have a supply of towels and spare dry robes in the car and all the dogs are towelled off before they get in, and again when they get dropped home.

I also ask owners to leave coats/equafleeces etc. out for me in really dire weather.

I have had this issue today. My dog Walker has dropped my dog off pretty dirty although not as bad as yours, but he came in the front door with mud all over the floor and then shaken in the hallway. It's gone up the walls and the cupboard, and then it's on the carpet on the stairs. I'm going to have to ask her to put him in his crate until it stops raining.

I dont know much about dogs and have never had one, but if a dog walker takes a dog to a very muddy field they cant just return the dog to the owner caked in mud. I'd find a new dog walker.

My dog walker puts Equafleeces on my two dogs before taking them out. It takes probably 5 minutes. The fleeces are amazing, even if fully saturated in mud/water the dogs are bone dry! I then do a quick rinse/spin in the machine and they come out almost dry!

How much is she charging for a group dog walk? I'd be looking for a different dog walker. The local dog walker charges €15 for 45 minutes, one dog, she is really fit.

Our dog walker has a warm shower in her van and hoses them down before dropping them off. Despite my rescue boy beibg 11 he's off chasing around in the mud and wer. She also puts videos of them online