AIBU to have this idea about dog sitting

[BrywanthebabetgeycalledBrywan]

Unfortunately I can’t have a dog at my social housing flat but it is okay to bring a dog into the flat if it doesn’t live there. I have had dogs in the past and really miss the company of a dog.

I’m 69 and retired and luckily quite healthy. I hear about people being worried as their dogs are on their own all day. I would love to dog sit for someone from, say, 9-4, Monday to Friday. I wouldn’t take the dog for a long walk but would take it out a few times for a wee. I would leave the long walks for the owner.

All I’d want is the dog’s food and perhaps £10 per day as I only receive a state pension and it would help although to be honest I would do it for nothing for the company. Do you think this is a good idea and could you please point out the pros and cons.

You'd need insurance, first aid knowledge etc.

I think this is a lovely idea, BUT, I doubt you’d get £10 a day without a walk.
Try ‘borrow my doggy’ website, or Rover app if you want to get paid.

I imagine it would suit a smaller breed which didn’t require a lot of daily exercise and so owner wouldn’t find lack of a long walk an issue. At £10 a day you’d likely be operating for peanuts by the time all your costs like insurance and tax were factored in. Committing to taking a dog for full days all week long would obviously place limits on your own ability to leave the house to go places / run errands the dog couldn’t be taken along to; and you’d then have the problem of having to leave it at home where you might quickly fall foul of your landlord’s restriction on dogs if the dog barked when left alone. As previous poster said, I’d try something like Borrow My Doggy as a first option - the fun without the commitment.

If you're going to have a dog in your property and take money for it, you will need to pay for a license from the council, which you wouldn't qualify for as you're in social housing.

Have an elderly neighbour (late 70's) who does this. She has regular dogs in the week stay with her while owners at work and often has them stay over on holidays or weekends. I don't know if all licensed or just other neighbours she's met over the years but everyone seems happy with the arrangement, the dogs especially so.

Not all doggies are loveable pooches, some are snappy, bark and scratch floors and furniture and may bring fleas. Could you volunteer at a rescue to get your doggy fix?

The possible need for Insurance could be a problem, unless the owner's insurance covers it. And implications for tax, you should declare the extra income and the dog owner may declare the payments on their tax form which would be a problem if you hadn't declared it. It could well be looked at as running a business.

It's highly unlikely that she's licensed - which is (theoretically) fine until it all goes wrong and nobody's insurance pays out.

I work with dogs and the number of people who work as unlicensed boarders and "daycares" is ridiculous.

It's £200 a month...get a grip!

OP would require a council license and insurance if she was to dogsit for money - but she won't qualify for a license as she doesn't own her home. So she'd be operating illegally, which means any insurance won't pay out in the event of an emergency.

It's irrelevant - the legal position is that you need a license and insurance if you're going to look after dogs in your own home for money. Whether you earn £200 or £2000 a month doesn't matter.

OP - you're more than able to look after dogs for free if you want to - it's the taking money aspect that could cause you problems. You'd also need to be clear to owners that you're not a business and therefore don't have any insurance.

I wanted to set up a charity based on this idea - young family’s and retired people

when doing home visit in g as part of my job so many older people said they miss having a dog and younger families can’t have them becuase they are out all day

it’s a great idea..you will have problems with takers I’m sure

Insurance is for the OP’s protection, not the owner’s: if a dog she’s in control of causes damage to property, another animal, or a human, those people will be pursuing the OP. Likewise, if the dog becomes injured or dies in OP’s care, she needs the insurance if the owner opts to pursue a claim against her.

You would need insurance - if you're taking a payment, its likely the dogs own insurance wouldn't cover everything that could happen as their insurer would view the dog as being in the care of a professional. If something happened to the dog, the dogs insurance company would likely come after you for the money. If the dog did something, damage to a person or property then again its possible the dogs insurance company would say 'nope, dog wasn't in the care of their owner, not our remit'.

If you're taking dogs into your home then you need to check the council as to whether they'd deem you a day boarding facility or daycare and that requires licencing.

Sitting at other peoples homes wouldn't require licencing but you'd likely not get far without your own insurance and a DBS check.

Actually, it's for both.

A lot of insurance policies don't cover your dog while they're in daycare unless the setting is appropriately licensed by the council. It's in the small print.

I do this for a living and have done for the past 13 years. I make a decent wage.

Firstly, you will most likely need a licence from the Council. It costs around £140 a year. You will also need insurance at roughly the same cost.

You'd need to get a document from the Council and check through their requirements. For me, for eg, I have to have my own front door, so if your flat is the kind with an outer door (used by many people) and then your own front door, that would not pass. But your Council may not have that stipulation.

I charge £20 a day for daycare. You could have say, 4 dogs and make £80 a day from that. The Council would decide how many dogs you could take at once. In a flat, I suspect that would be 2, but even so, that's £40 a day, so £1200 a month.

I also have dogs boarding in addition to my daycare, and I have space for quite a few dogs, hence it being a viable business.

Join rover. You’d have to go to their house though. Or do Borrow my doggy if you’re happy to do it free.

Borrow my doggy is worth a look or find out about volunteering at your local dog rescue?

Instead of doing it at your own house, would you consider pet sitting at their home?

Is there a reason why you wouldn't do a walk, as you say you're healthy? If you're not healthy enough for a half hour walk, then are you healthy enough to handle a dog? E.g. if it became ill and needed to be taken to the vet urgently?

I think a lot of dog owners would like a late morning visit, a lunchtime walk, say 11-2, then their dog would only be alone for a few hours either side.

Most dogs need walking and I certainly wouldn’t let you look after my dog with no license or insurance. You could volunteer for the Cinnamon Trust if you’d like to help animals and pet owners.

What's your motiviation?

To spend time with dogs? If so look at 'Borrow my Doggy', but you can't charge, obviously.

To make money? You'll need to be licenced and insured, will probably need to offer long walks and also will need to be professional and reliable.

I wouldn't pay £10 to leave my dog with some unlicenced, unvetted, uninsured stranger. I wouldn't leave my dog with them even if they were paying me tbh.

You need a license if you are charging to care for dogs in your own home

Sorry, I wouldn’t pay you to look after my dog and it not be walked, what’s the point. If people have to get home from work and walk it anyway then there isn’t much point paying you.

You might get customers who are more interested in companionship for their dog because of separation anxiety.
Personally I wouldn’t pay for that without a good walk because my dog needs exercise and that’s the bit that’s difficult when we’re working all day.

Everyone is mentioning a license which doesn’t seem expensive but if your landlord says no dogs but ok to have dog that doesn’t live there - you are really stretching the boundaries of that. A dog visiting every once in a while is not the same as daily for 7/8 hours (also presumably workers would use your service, and they’d likely want to drop off at 8 if not earlier and collect at 6). And the main benefit of doggie daycare is that they get a lot of exercise and stimulation! Plus would you do one dog or more? I’m not sure you’ve really thought this through.