How much would you guess I earn?

[Dogladyloveswine]

I took redundancy from a very corporate job a few years ago. Very respectable job title with a big company.

I decided to have a go at home dog boarding. So I look after dogs in my home for people who don’t like kennels. I also do a bit of doggie day care. It’s all just in my house.

It obviously doesn’t carry the same respect that my corporate job did! You don’t need any qualifications.

If you had to guess, what would you think I earn a month?

For the posters saying they would be unhappy for the boarder 'to go to the pub' the licencing regulations are very clear. The dogs can be unattended for 4 hours out of 24. If the OP chooses to go to the pub they are doing nothing wrong.
You may not like it but that's a different matter.

Oh, I hear you with this! It impacts me most at dinner time. Like the other day, a dog was due for collection at 545pm, and that would be the last one to go, so I cooked dinner to be ready for 6pm....they turned up at 620pm, and dinner was somewhat dried up!

Late payers annoy me too. It's always the people with money that take days to pay.

@Decacaffeinatednowwow well done her but I’ve got a local teenager who will visit my cats twice a day, take the rubbish bins out (and back in), water the plants for £10/day. £60? That’s more than I paid for my two dogs to be boarded and walked.

That surprises me. A friend often puts her dog in doggy day care and gets regular texts and photos or videos of the dogs playing. The two dog carers play with the dogs during the day - throwing them toys etc. If needed, they get baths and are brushed. It's not just walk, feed and leave them to their own devices.

They get walked after dinner too. And then again before bed. So 3 walks a day.

Most days are a mix of boarders and day care. On those days, I would not go out. So yes, am "stuck" at home, but I quite like being at home. It suits me after 30 years in a corporate role, but can see it might not suit everyone, especially younger people who still want to be mixers and shakers.

It's just me, but DH helps with walking if he's off.

They get 3 walks a day. One after breakfast, one after dinner, one before bed.

Great you have found something you enjoy. You also need to take into account sick days, leave and pensions and set money aside for these.

Good for you!

what’s the most you walk at one time? Do you have to do them in shifts?

and what do you do with all the poop? I’m dreading fortnightly bin collections having recently gone from two to three dogs

Well done OP! I love to read posts like yours. You have found a way to earn a living that absolutely suits you….it reads as if you yourself can hardly believe it. You are an inspiration.
To all the negs on this post, take a hard look at yourselves.

I would do this and good for you! I don’t think my resident dog would be overly keen though 😶

My children are grown up. In my area you can't do this if you have children under 5 years old. I do not have any pets of my own (have done in the past tho).

Genuinely flabbergasted that 9 pages worth of people actually care.

OMG. Who said they're ignored? They have been fed and walked this morning and they are now snoozing at my feet as I eat breakfast. They'll be fed and walked at 3pm, and again at 9pm. In between they can sleep/play whatever.

I only go out if I have only boarders here. Nip to pub for a meal, usually around 3pm. Home by 530pm.

£150 for the whole year.

I board dogs at home at weekends and in school holidays since I lost my last dog almost 3 years ago, but I don't do it on your scale. At the most I have two or three because that's the most I feel I can safely cope with, and my house can look like a shit hole in bad weather if I have any more.

I genuinely enjoy doing this as a side hustle and make about £5k a year but 7 dogs a day would actually drive me mad, especially in bad weather. I enjoy having dog free weekends and week nights and it's nice in the summer holidays if the weather is nice and we go off on day trips. I don't leave my boarders on their own though, they come along with me everywhere, and, like you, I have a lot of regulars. I wish I had the space to do it full time and earn that much and I'd be out of school like shit off a shovel.

You absolutely could do it in your semi! I'm in a terraced house with a small garden. Main thing is that your garden is secure. No one can get into my garden without me letting them in.

Usually have 4 boarding, and 3-4 daycare. They all get on, because I vet them first and make sure there is zero aggression in their character. I don't crate them, unless the owner wants that. I tend to stick to small breeds. I do have the odd lab or similar, but I'd say 90% of my dogs are tiny. Makes it much easier! Dogs have a one night trial before they are accepted. Any who bark, mess inside, don't sleep through the night are not accepted. I don't take on any new dogs anymore, but this is what I did when I was building up.

What a wonderful business!

I have bunnies - spoiled little fluffy things - and they need boarding when we are on holiday and I want them to have grass access so we use a boarder who lives in a semi-detached house and has a garden full of piggies and bunnies - some are fosters, some are holiday boarders, she also helps with bonding bunnies as it’s quite a skilled job.

She is wonderful and i think she earns good money! We use her several times a year and she’s always busy.

Just a tip - we have to book and pay online in advance - no payment, no service.

I certainly wouldn’t expect her to look after my pets if I hadn’t paid her yet!

Fabulous post @Dogladyloveswine Has given me food for thought. My job has 2 yrs max, left before redundancy is inevitable. Have had dogs all my life. Current much loved elderly hound isn't other dog friendly. We have already discussed not having another. As dogs do tie you down. Would be ideal, get to look after people's dogs & then can block out holidays ( we don't go anywhere during school holidays) Best of both worlds. I know most people, including me, pay well for good doggy care.

Contact your council and ask to speak to the department who issue the licences for home boarders. They'll send you a document which will list all the requirements you must fulfil to get a licence. Just work through it and make sure you do what they ask. It'll be things like :

• must have secure garden
• must have pet first aid kit
• must have disinfectant that kills parva virus
• must not have any trailing wires (that could be chewed)
• must have own front door (not flat with inner & outer doors)
• must not have children under 5

Every council is different, so just work through what they send you. You defo could do this as a SAHM. My kids were in their teens when I started - now left home.

You'd need to draw up a template booking form, which you'd fill in when people met you for the first time with their dog. Our council lets everyone make up their own forms. You'd have things on the form like :

• name, address, phone number
• name of dog
• microchip number
• date of vaccinations
• feeding routine
• terms and conditions

Person at the council will look at you forms and point out if you've missed anything.

Advertise on Gumtree and FB. I also had leaflets made up on Vista print and posted them through doors. Didn't take me long at all to build up a good customer base.

Our house is just a normal house. In any case, I only use one part of it for the dogs : the dining room and kitchen. We all stay in this area together all day. There is a gate on the stairs to stop them wandering.

Go for it!

£35 for overnight
£25 for daycare

Yes, of course! There are lots of things I can claim as expenses though, for example, you count how many rooms you use in your house and can list things like mortgage, council tax, utilities as an expense, proportioned to how many rooms you use for your business.

Is your point that job status doesn’t always equate to earnings?

Yes, I can identify with this. I know I said I can go to the pub, but in all honesty that's only when we have a handful of boarders, no daycare, and even then we only pop to the local for maybe 2 hours. It is very limiting, but the positives outweigh the negatives in my view. Plus my DH works most weekends anyway. Maybe if he didn't, it would be more of a bone of contention. Add to that that I'm older (late 50's) so I'm less bothered about going out than I would have been 20 years ago. We do take 2 long haul holidays a year though.

I think it sounds great! You could expand even more if you had a van and could pick dogs up. Ours don't need full day daycare, but our dog walker drives around , collects a bunch of dogs at lunchtime and takes them all to a secure field where they can run and play. Little work for him and working people know the dogs get their exercise.