13 year old boy wants to start walking the neighbours dogs

nurse1980

Hi,

My boyfriends son wants to start a dog walking "business"

He has done a flyer and has planned to post them through neighbours letter boxes.

On doing further research on this we came across websites that state insurance is needed for this kind of job.

Does anyone know if he will need this with him being 13 and only a casual job and not a business as such? But we don't want to post the flyers and then get into trouble cause he hasn't got insuarce.

We have looked into it on the internet but can't find a def answer.

Thanks for any help/answers!

PasturesNew

From the owners' perspective, what if the dog got off the lead and was run over by a car. What if the dog slipped the lead and dashed out in the traffic and caused an accident?

People would want their compo!

On the other hand, the dog owners might already be covered for their pet and public liability. But you'd need to ask each one and get it in writing.

fleagle21

I'd say it's pretty much a given that he would need insurance, because I'm fairly sure that a pet policy doesn't extend to cover a 'business' owner, who is in essence walking their dogs for a living. And because he's so young, I'm not sure he would get cover anyway.

I would be extremely wary of entrusting my dogs to a 13 year old - does he have any experience of dog handling? He will also need to know correct walking techniques, and have a certain amount of pet 'first aid' knowledge incase of injury.

I commend him for wanting to start out earning money at such a young age - but I'd maybe stick to doing gardening for people or something similar. Who knows, you may even need insurance for that now due to the compensation culture we have!