Would it put you off employing a dog walker if they walked multiple dogs??

[mumbomama]

I am starting up a business as a dog walker and wondered if it's best to offer individual walks or if it's ok to walk 2 dogs together.

Would you be happy for your dog to be walked with another dog? Would you expect to pay less for a paired walk?

Any other thoughts or experiences with dog walkers?

Thankyou

how would that work in reality - unless the 2 dog owners lived close by you would have to put a dog in a car and drive it to the other house . I don't think I'd be happy with that TBH

Ideally, I would want someone to come to my house collect my dog, walk it in the nearby field , bring it back and check its water bowl, maybe feed it, settle it and leave.

having said that, my mother used to walk a neighbours dog with her own dog, but the 2 dogs knew each other and were walked together with their respective owners at the weekends

only if they had a sled on wheels

Two sets of friends use a dog walking service - one pays £7.00 per hours and the other £8.50. Both walkers take more than one dog - however they work in (different) villages which are basically communter belt and pick up the dogs on the walk so to speak. HTH

Hi, am in same business and we only ever walk dogs from one household at a time - rates start from £10 per dog/household of dogs per hour - although some clients are happy for walkers to bring own dog along. It is difficult to make any money walking them individually but we're all doing ok (there are 4 of us now) and have a few related services on offer such as transport to vet/kennels, grooming and behavioural advice/basic training. Cliverton v good for insurance.

PS good luck and let me know if I can help in any way

we have a dog walker who walks our dogs only (2 labs) sometimes the owner walks our dogs with her 1 dog, but am fine with that because they all know each other. I get a time sheet filled out each day and bowls are checked etc. Would not pay or be happy with a multiple dog walker.

the dog walker i meet on my morning dog walk ,takes up to 5 dogs at a time , i dont generally see a problem as they are all under control and have a fantastic time beng sociable and tearing throug the woods after each other, this probably means in their hour walk ,they use up as much energy as a 2 hour walk on their own. As a dog owner i would probably prefer it if my dog walker took out a few dogs as they have more fun!

I'd love to do group walks, some of our dogs would really benefit from a bit of socialising but we're in such a rural area it would take ages to round them all up. It's on my list of things to do though.

simple - it's up to the owner. if they think their dog needs to be on their own they pay more.

My dog would love to be in a group.

I would say up to the owner, I lost an old collie earlir this year and she wouldn't have been good with other strange dogs, but my younger dog loves going out with other dogs and is fine with them. Probably a bit cheaper if doing multiples as this would also give the owner an incentive to go for that and also help you earn more money. Good luck with the business.

The dog walker I spoke to yesterday kind of sold the shared walk option to us as a good way to socialise a puppy. I think she offered a choice, shared was slightly cheaper but i guess she still made more than with one dog.

Many thanks for all the replies. It's great to get a selection of opinions.
Offering a choice sounds like a good option. I'm only considering walking 2 dogs at a time so it wouldn't be a large group.

Vacua- thanks for the insurance tip, I'll take a look at them. Did it take you long to build up your business or is it quite popular?

My dog gets walked in a group and he absolutely loves it. We met our dog walker in her van the other day and when she stopped to speak to me, my dog ran round the van trying to find a way in. That day she had 3 dogs with her.

Another advantage is, he never used to be a good traveller before but now is much better - I think because of being driven round the area picking up his pals. He is often away for far longer than his hour, depending on her route, which is fine by me...much better than sitting alone at home.

The fee has just gone up to £7 per hour.

The only real advertising has been the website, we started with one client twice a week and the business is constantly growing and the four of us are all pretty much flat out, with a fifth picking up a few hours here and there. We do daycare, home boarding (dogs and small animals) and house sitting too which are all good ways to boost income. It's a good idea to get as much information about the dog from your initial consultation as possible - what they eat, what they are afraid of, brief medical history, owner's daily working pattern (so you can time your visit), how do they get on with other dogs, have they ever been around livestock etc and also to research the breed a bit before your first meeting so you can ask informed questions and show an understanding of any breed-specific concerns. Test recall with a long line before you let any dog off a lead, no matter how convinced the owner is that their dog 'always comes back'

Obviously with group walks you need to watch out for entire males and bitches in season, and think about how you could meet the needs of a diverse group of dogs - some are high energy and need to run for at least an hour, others might be old, giant or toy and would be overstretched with more than 20 gentle minutes of walking. It might be an idea to rope in a friend to help at first, if there are difficulties with the dogs not getting on well it could be hard to manage them singlehandedly. It's something I'd like to offer but I'm not sure if it would work here because our clients are spread across such a big area.

Best of luck and keep me posted, I'd love to hear how it goes.

I used to get mine walked by Barking Mad - 2 or 3 'girls' had a transit van and they rounded up all the dogs, sat with industrial ear muffs on and took the dogs to different woods/parks each day. My dog absolutely loved it - she was usually away for 3 or 4 hours at a time as she was last to get dropped off. All for £2.50 a day - that was 10 years ago though!