There are too many inexperienced and uninsured dog walkers. Liking dogs is not sufficient. If you are charging customers, you should have a recognised qualification and be registered with their accreditation body and be fully insured. You should as a minimum know what to do if a dog bolts, is ill, has poor recall or social skills or is attacked by another dog etc etc. You should have a working knowledge of the most common breeds and their characteristics and be prepared to research those that you do not know and you should understand pack dynamics if you will be walking more than one dog simultaneously. You should have a good grounding in how the law affects dogs owners and walkers including the DCO and especially the DDA. You should be prepared to pay for CPD and ideally be able to provide basic first aid. I would expect this level of knowledge and experience from any other professional whom I employed and I am not usually entrusting a living creature to them. Remember, you are legally responsible for the dog in your care as much as is the owner. You also need to think about the tax and national insurance implications and advertising and marketing. You may need to check the insurance on your house or lease or rental agreement if you will be running a business from home. You will need to be inspected and registered if you intend to board more than your dog and one other at any given time. Please think very carefully about this as, although incidents are thankfully reasonably rare, they are not unknown and you need to be prepared. You only need to look at this forum to see how many lost dogs have been reported recently and to remember that the vast majority of owners do not regularly train their dogs. Good luck!

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
Dog Walking	08/09/14 13:13:00	Laura Taylor
Re:Dog Walking	08/09/14 13:32:00	Claire Moran
Re:Re:Dog Walking	08/09/14 20:11:00	Laura Taylor
Re:Dog Walking	08/09/14 13:33:00	Andy Pease
Re:Dog Walking	11/09/14 09:53:00	Charlotte Kasner
Re:Re:Dog Walking	11/09/14 11:12:00	Helen Whitman
Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	11/09/14 20:20:00	Dan Murphy
Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 09:45:00	Charlotte Kasner
Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 09:33:00	Charlotte Kasner
Re:Re:Dog Walking	11/09/14 19:43:00	Laura Taylor
Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	11/09/14 20:01:00	Victoria Bridges
Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	11/09/14 20:38:00	Claire Moran
Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	11/09/14 20:39:00	Claire Moran
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	11/09/14 20:42:00	Dan Murphy
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 11:21:00	Tony Lyon
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 11:47:00	Claire Moran
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 14:28:00	Tony Lyon
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 14:58:00	Claire Moran
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 16:15:00	Tony Lyon
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 16:24:00	Claire Moran
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 16:37:00	Tony Lyon
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dog Walking	12/09/14 16:45:00	Claire Moran

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