Starting a dog walking venture - what to do?!

[Jannyhanny1964]

Hi all,

I am moving to Brixton next week and am completely devastated to be having to leave behind my dog as my landlord won't allow pets (she is staying with family so will still see plenty of her). I thought a good way help with my canine withdrawal symptoms would be to find other dogs to walk on a regular basis if the owners don't have enough hours in the day, or their dogs need taking out during the day when they're at work (also allowing me to subsidise my income whilst I work on a start up business I might add...). I've been a dog walker in my current village for years and years but it has sort of just grown organically with neighbours needing the occasional favour, and then that turning into something more permanent. Anyone got any good ideas about how to go about spreading the word of this little venture?! To dog owners - where would you look in London for someone to walk your dog?

Thank you!

You will need insurance and licences to dog walk in London. So get these sorted first as you will need to work out your prices to include them.

You should have a dog trainer qualification look at IMDT courses as a minimum.

I chose my dog walker through a combination of word of mouth and observing many local dog walkers (and crossing them off the list of potentials ..)

Brixton isn't over-endowed with good dog-walking spaces - you've got Brockwell Park but it's not huge and I think both you and the dogs would go bonkers if they were walked there every day. So you'll need transport to get you to other areas and allow travelling time, which isn't usually charged for.

I would want to know that any dog walker I was paying had:
Proper insurance
Safe transport
Knowledge of canine first aid
Experience as a trainer
Membership of an appropriate professional body
Correct licences for the areas to be walked in
Easy-to-use booking and payment system

What I like about my dog walker is that he takes my dog for a really good off-lead romp on some fantastic places, he doesn't take out more than 4 dogs at a time (and it's usually 3), he tends to keep similar breeds together so my dog almost always goes out with other retrievers, labs and spaniels and he sends me lots of photos of my dog having fun.
He's a bit more expensive than other local walkers but he's worth the extra