Okay, so the title is a little misleading! The 'business' is actually my ds who is 15 and has quite a lot of experience with dogs, walking my friend's dog and being paid to do it! We have a young dog and ds and I walk her in local woods twice a day, every day. Recently, a friend whose husband frequently works abroad, contacted me to ask if ds or I would be willing to walk her young dog this week as her three kids are sick and she is on her own. She is paying my son Eu 10 per day to walk her dog twice a day for between 45 mins and an hour each walk which is fantastic pocket money for him.
We were talking today and realised that there is a fantastic opportunity for him to earn some extra money - a bit like babysitting, I suppose - as we know so many people who have dogs, who are pretty well-off but who don't always want to walk their dogs themselves. My son is thinking of putting up an advert at school (where I work) offering his services after school, at weekends and during holidays. Most of the time I would be with him anyway and he is only proposing to take one dog at a time in addition to our own and only within a couple of mile radius so he would be able to cycle if I was not there for any reason.
I have never used a dog walker as I love to walk our dog myself but does this sound like a reasonable idea or are we missing something glaringly obvious? I realise that proper dog walking businesses have insurance etc. He is very responsible, experienced with our young dog and a dog we previously had for 5 years and has walked friends' dogs as a favour quite often.
Can I just ask dog owners for their initial reactions? I have checked on local websites and official dog walking businesses are charging at least Eu 10 per hour. Ds is thinking of asking Eu 5. Personally, I would be nervous about a teenager taking my precious dog (if it weren't for the fact that I know my own teen so well and know how much he cares about animals!) which is why I am interested in other dog owners opinions.
Thanks in advance