Dog walker and sitter

[winkywinkola]

So what do I need to do to become a dog walker and have other people's dogs to stay when they're on holiday?

I have two dogs of my own. We live in the country with a big garden.

Insurance? Training?

No franchises though. Barking Mad want £13,000!

Any advice gratefully received.

I just do it! I have the correct insurance which is around £70 a year but that's it.

We don't want the commitments of a full time dog but we love them so I take in one dog every six weeks or so for however long - usually a long weekend or a week. I stick to the routine that the dog is used to and that's that. The only thing I won't do is have a dog in my bedroom so I pop a stair gate across the bottom of our stairs

Works perfectly for us. We love having. A dog around and just when we are feeling like we don't want to go on our third walk of the day, the dog goes home. Win win really

Oh and I advertise locally and I charge £20 a day. The owners supply the dogs food. I also have the dog for an afternoon prior to it coming to stay so I can see how it is around my family. I also ask when the dog was last flead and wormed!

Batfaced,where are you based? I could do with that service!

The woman I use obtained a licence to board animals from the local council, sorted public liability & a DBS check and she was good to go.

How do you recruit customers then?

There is a huge market for this, massive. I tried 5 places before I found the one I use now. The other 5 were all completely full. I found her via a Facebook page. The others I found by word of mouth, an advert in a pet shop & Google.

That last bit was to mad Bengal mum!

To recruit how about joining some breed/dog FB pages, there is at least one page that links up sitters/walkers and potential clients, adverts in vets/pet shops/corner shops, a website like Streetlife. Sitters and walkers are like rocking horse poo in some areas.

We use Petstay for our dogs- they do most of the arranging on behalf of the carers (for a cut) but they seem to treat the carers well and seem a good one to sign up to. Not sure of they are everywhere though, this is in the South-West.

Och, the thing to do is get yourself on a dog grooming course, and set yourself up as a dog groomer/walker. Here in Edinburgh, there aren't enough groomers and they are in hot demand! My dog has been on a waiting list for a particular groomer for around 8 months now ... and still no sign of any space!