Have a friend who is thinking of getting into one to one dog walks as a little side business.

What advise would you offer her?

Thanks

I'm guessing she has lots of experience with dogs (including large ones/rowdy ones/specialist breeds etc)? If so then she needs to build up a 'portfolio' of genuine dog owners who have used her and found her reliable and capable. Also she will need insurance (public liability mainly) and for this she will need to be over 25 for most insurance companies.

She should really set herself up as a registered business to be taken seriously, and of course tax needs to be considered if her annual earnings are over a certain amount.

I would tread carefully on this one if I were her. You cant just simply walk peoples dogs these days. People are all too willing to sue and the responcability of looking after someone elses dog (even for a short time) is huge.

I'm sure there are dog walkers on the board who can help you with better/more in depth advice than I can give.

My sister does this for a living . She had to get a crime check & insurance and now has a mini empire or sorts ! Mostly she has the dogs in her house when owner working. She does walk a few and looks after chickens, cats etc.
Tread with caution though she had  a couple with 2 out of control dogs a Newfoundland & retriever both under 2 that puppy mouthed and were mental on the lead as the owner didn't lead train them. In the end my sister had to hire another dog walker to take them both out as a danger. Sadly the owner then didn't pay her what was owing so she hasn't gone back.

Another family gave my sister a key and told her to just go in while on holiday.  I was very worried as she had never met this dog and just barked at her from the stairs , she eventually did get the dog to go outside but the dog understandably was very upset and temperamental. I personally said that I would always want to meet the dog first rather than just turning up when the owners had left- the dog could of attacked her !
Plus the cost of getting to peoples houses also comes in to it, with petrol and sometimes means your not really making anything after travelling to getting there.

Does your sister have a website?

A recently new thing lots of walkers round here seem to have is Animal First Aid Certificates. I've noticed that a local agricultural college runs these courses. It might be something people look for when choosing a walker/sitter.

No not as yet I've been telling her since she started to sort one out!
I will have a chat with her see if she minds me giving you her details for you, I'm sure she'll be happy to give any advice. :)

Our dog walker insisted (quite rightly so) on 2 visits before she came into our house alone, the first time she came in like a visitor and sat in the living room chatting for about an hour or so with all the dogs there.  The 2nd time she asked us to call her when we had been out and the dogs had been left, she met us at the house and we went into the kitchen (without letting the dogs know we were there- the dog room is at the other end of the house)while she went through to the dog room herself and let the dogs out the same way she would when she was coming in herself, this meant that if there were any problems the 1st time she entered the dog room herself we were there close enough to deal with it.  Dont think I would like to walk into a house with a dog in it myself it the dog had never met me!!

Hi Magica, yes that would be great, thanks.

Are there courses for people to be dog trainers, as well, that is the other thing I wanted to ask?

Not merely walkers, but courses for those that want to learn how to train people to train their dogs?

Yes. My local agricultural college offers NVQ's in Animal Training and/or Animal Handling on Audio Visual Production Sets. They also offer Canine Behaviour courses as well as the veterinary nursing, first aid for cats and dogs etc.