Dog walker for an hour?

[lucya66]

I need some perspective. If you booked a weekly dog walker 3x 1 hour per week for £15 an hour, would you expect the walk to be 1 hour door to door (they collect dog in a car, drive round and collect 4 other dogs then go to a field to walk dogs and return).

The reason I ask is because we pay dog walker £15 for an hours walk. Whereas he also offers a walk for 30 minutes at £9 which we don’t use.

consistently the dog walker is 50-60 minutes door to door, including all his drop offs in the neighbourhood via the car. So I’m thinking my dog actually only gets a walk for maybe 20-30 minutes if the drop offs are included in the hour. I don’t know exactly how long the dog walks are but I’m guessing as I know the dog walker goes 10/15
minutes drive away to collect the other dogs.

is this reasonable and usual?

I ask because my old dog walker (who moved away) used to be about 90 minutes door to door with pick ups and drop offs, but she was always clear the dogs all got a 60 minute run and play.

I am not sure if I should raise with the dog walker or just accept that it’ll be 60 minutes ish door to door rather than a walk

I have a ring camera so get a notification when the dog walker picks up and drops off the dog.

I do have other issues as sometimes the dog walker is 30 minutes only door to door, and I need to address that with him too.

I used to see the dog walkers out in the forest near us. One of my neighbours used them. Her dog was out for several hours every morning whilst the walkers collected and dropped off others but then they would sit in the van drinking coffee, making calls and doing paperwork. The dogs only ever got a very short walk of maybe 15-20 minutes. I would never use a dog walker that did this, I now only use walkers that are one to one and walk directly from my house so I know how long the dog is walked for, although I appreciate that not everyone lives somewhere that this would be possible.

My local dog walker has to shorten her hour walks by 10 minutes each the other day, she amended all bills to reflect that.
If you're paying for an hour, the dog should be walked an hour, not travelling in the van for half of it!

his dog needing to see the vets; now, that's not on. If you know what time you're walking other people's dogs, you make arrangements for your own at another time, unless it's a life-threatening emergency.

Agree, our walker would move walk times so that her clients still got what she'd promised. Think this dog walker is at it.

I pay for an hour he's out for between 1.5 and 2.15 hrs depending on collections and where the walk is .

Get a new dog walker, he's clearly not reliable even if you do have a word with him. You don't owe him an explanation and he must know he's chancing his arm

I pay for an hour walk and my dog is usually out for nearly 2 hours, sometimes longer. The dog walker collects the dogs and takes them to a secure field for an hour and then drops them off.

Same here. My walker charges for an hour walk - not 30mins walk and 30 mins in the car.

No doubt the collection and drop off are priced in (as they should be), so I am really paying for a share of 2 hours of her time, which gives her the time to collect the dogs and drop them off whilst still giving them their full hour walk.

I think if I paid for an hour and the dog only really got 30mins walking, I wouldn't bother - I don't book her for company for the dog, I book her for the walk.

If you're paying £15 per hour then that would include drop off and pick up and driving to the place where your dog is walked. It would not include pick up/drop offs for other dogs.
He is being a CF. So gets £15 an hour x 4 as other dogs walked at same time?

I only ever use a dog walker who walks my dog on his own. Not because he's bad with other dogs but because I can't stand seeing dog walkers with 3 or 4 dogs at a time - it's not quality time for the dogs and too clock watchy for my liking. I also want my dog walked off lead so he actually gets to run and sniff. (he has excellent recall and is highly trained before anyone jumps in!)