If you are someone who has a good rapport with dogs and loves to spend time with them, good organizational skills and an ability to reassure and win over their owners then setting yourself up to provide dog walking services may be a good career move.
You should start by deciding which hours you are willing to work and how far from home you can realistically travel to walk a dog. You can then research rates that are charged in your area for dog walking so that you can begin to calculate how much your potential earnings are. Remember that you can walk two and, depending on their temperaments, possibly three dogs at a time.
To start with you will need to advertise heavily in local papers, shops and on the Internet but after a while people will pass on your name to friends and your business will grow without much effort on your part.
Make sure that you get yourself some good quality public liability insurance to cover you should a dog in your care injure another animal or a person or get hurt themselves. Having an extra supply of good quality leads is probably also a good idea as some owners might only provide old or inadequate leads for your use.
Make proper arrangements for picking up the dog from its owner’s home. They may give you a key if you are to collect the animal from the house or, if he spends his days outside in a dog kennel, you may only need access to the garden.
You can add to your income by providing some extra services such as dog grooming, pet sitting when an owner is away from home, or supervising trips to the vets if the dog is ill or needs his annual inoculations.
Popularity: 1% [?]
