Dog Sitting Charges

monkeychops

I lost my dog recently and I am finding it very difficult. The house is empty without him and I miss the walks etc. I don't work so have lots of free time.

It's too soon for me to think about getting another dog so I thought about dog sitting. My dog used to go to dog sitters and he always seemed very happy with them.

My dog sitter worked through an agency and charged £20 a day with me supplying food, bowls, treats etc. A second dog would be £10 a day.

I thought as I was not working through an agency so all the charges would be mine and, although I have had quite a few dogs over the years, I am new to dog sitting I would charge £10 a day with a second dog being £5.

I did not think this extortionate as kennels charge more than that and having a dog in your own home it is going to get lots more time, attention walks etc.

Anyway I have had a fairly good response - I put an ad in the local paper - BUT all the prospective clients said I was charging too much so were not interested.

Yesterday a guy phoned who has 2 dogs ( quite a large breed and will definitely need grooming and quite a bit of exercise). We chatted for quite a while and he said he could tell I was a genuine dog lover and, subject obviously to meeting me and introducing his dogs to me, he would be happy for me to look after his dogs as he wanted them to go to a true animal lover not someone just interested in money. Fine, then he asked the price. He said it was too much and he was thinking £70 a week for the two dogs. I said that was a bit cheap, he wouldn't get a kennels for that price and probably not another dog sitter. Anyway he said it would be a regular thing - he works away from home one week a month.

Because I want to have dogs in my home and, of course, check that it is right for me, I said yes to £70.

My husband was annoyed and said I was being made a mug of. Now I am not doing it for the money but of course the money will be handy. I feel a bit annoyed with myself for not sticking to my guns but it seems I will never get any dogs to look after if I do. I don't really regard dog sitting as work but obviously dogs have to be walked, fed, groomed (some dogs may need a lot of grooming), played with etc.

I will happily look after these dogs for £70 and if it works out that is £70 a month which I would not otherwise have. However do you think I should stick to my guns if anyone else phones?

What do you think is an acceptable price? I am only going on prices of kennels and dog sitters where I live, I have looked online at local dogsitters and phoned a couple and the going rate is at least £15 a day for 1 dog regardless of size.

As much as I want to look after dogs I do not want to be taken advantage of. I am easy going and find it difficult to argue my point and can see myself always backing down.

Person_one

Be careful, you'll need to declare that income for tax purposes, you might need insurance and so on, don't want you to end up in any trouble.

I think the chap probably is taking advantage of the fact that you're not a hardened businesswoman, but other dog sitters are more experienced, have repeat business and word of mouth business and so on so that's why they can charge more.

PuppyLove_2

Hi there,

Funnily enough i have just been looking for doggie day care for one day a week for my dog and have spoken to a few companies. They ranged from £18 for a full day to £15 for a full day, none were cheaper than £15!

The people that i found that i am happy with charge £15 per day for the first dog and £10 oer day for your second dog.

However this company has adequate insurance etc, you dont mention whether you have this?

It sounds like £70 is very cheap is that for 2 dogs for 5 days a week? Its hard if your only doing it for your love of dogs and not the money, i understand why you caved in.

Just be careful as you may get people trying to take advantage of your good nature!

Also you dont mention where your based, im just outside London where everything tends to be more expensive!

chris_n_tj

I lost my lad nearly 6 weeks ago so I know just how you are feeling.

Kennels in our area charge £6.50 a night with a reduction for sencond/third animals. I have a friend who looks after dogs in her own home and she charges £5 a night. hope this helps.x

Have you thought of dog walking for a rescue? Or you could ask your local Vets if they have anyone on their books that could do with a bit of help with dog walking? IE some one who's ill and needs a helping hand?

shirlgirl2004

I wouldn't have thought OP is going to earn enough to pay tax unless she has another job (well not at those prices). Do you have a home boarding licence? It will probably cost you in excess of £100 so you will be looking after his dogs for 1 1/2 weeks or more just to pay for that.

I personally wouldn't want to pay that much to have mine looked after but then I'd make the choice not to go away. This chap obviously doesn't have that choice so he should pay the going rate.

picklepick

Words of warning. I'm a dog walker/sitter, etc. People charge those prices for a reason. It's because they pay out on the following things...What you're doing is what I'd call a 'cowboy'. If you're going to do it, please do it properly!

YOU MUST HAVE INSURANCE!

If you're sitting in your own home you must also have a licence from the council and you must comply with their regulations.

You MUST be registered with HMRC as self-employed. And you must declare any income you earn, whether you earn enough to pay tax or not. Not doing so will land you with a very hefty fine!

krlyr

Definately do your homework on insurance, especially if they are large breeds and you will be walking them out in public. You may well find that any insurance he has for them will not cover you for any incidents so you must have your own third party insurance incase the dogs were to injure anyone or damage anyone's property (or both - e.g. get loose and cause an RTA)
Licensing seems to vary hugely from council to council so check your local council's rules. Home boarding sometimes doesn't need as strict licensing as kennels.
Another thing to bear in mind as well as declaring the income is the effect on your mortgage if you own, or your landlord's if you rent - your house will become a place of business.

coinxoperated

holidays4dogs is always looking for pet sitters and arranges a lot of the insurance/other bits to go alongside it. I have my pup petsat with them, and considered pet sitting when my role becomes more flexible at work

monkeychops

Thank you for all your replies. To be honest I put the ad in on the spur of the moment and to see if I had an responses.

I guess I have not really thought it all through. I only have normal household insurance although I would be willing to get whatever insurance I needed if I were to do this.

I didn't realise that you have to contact the council. I am pretty sure my dog sitters were not registered as a business with the council and they are doing it through an agency.

As I say, it's not really about the money but in all honesty how many people are going to do it for nothing? I do not work but if I had dogs here I would not really go out at all unless I really had to. Also I know from having my own dog how much time you spend a day looking after them. Dog walking alone, especially if they are large dogs, can take up quite a few hours. Then there is drying them off if it is raining - that used to take me about 2 hours with my dog! Then there is grooming, playing with the dog etc. Ok I enjoy all that but should people expect me to do it for free or very little?

The guy last night started saying "oh that's too expensive. I can't afford that". I really wanted to say that surely everyone with a pet knows they are expensive and that if they want to go on holiday without their pet they need for someone to look after it and they will have to pay. Of course I didn't say that.

A woman who rung earlier in the week said she had been paying someone £5 a day to look after 2 dogs but had found out that they were working full time so her dogs were being left alone all day and she wanted someone else to do it.

People can't expect that they can have the best of both worlds i.e. someone to look after their dogs 24/7, give them all the love and attention that they themselves give them yet do it all for free or very little can they?

elsien

Price wise I pay £20 a day in the midlands through an agency. I do think it's expensive but kennels were costing me £14 a day, so the extra is for the individual care now that mutt is old and decrepit - if she were younger I'd probably carry on using kennels.
However the reason I choose to pay the higher rate is because the process is very thorough - all the checking re my dogs quirks, meeting the sitters and checking we're both happy, knowing there's insurance and backup should the sitter have an emergency etc.

I would rather pay a little bit more and know what I'm getting, and that it's all on a sound business footing, rather than do it on the cheap. Plus the mutt has "issues" and health problems so I'm probably also paying for someone who is happy to take on a dog that's a bit of a handful Although a knowledgeable, experienced, fully insured slightly cheaper one woman band would be fine as well, as long as I was convinced you had contingency plans for all eventualities - I am a serious worrier where mutt is concerned! And any cheaper than a tenner a day I think I'd be wondering where you were cutting corners.
As others have said, people like me are happy to pay the extra but we need convincing you're not making it up as you go along. Which might be why people are asking for lower rates, because at the moment you're not selling yourself as a "proper" service. If that makes sense.

Just to add, have you considered being a dog sitter through an agency yourself? I don't know how much of the £20 you get, I'm guessing maybe half, but that way someone else gets to worry about the insurance etc and you get all the nice doggy bits. I know in my area the franchise I use is always looking for good sitters, and you can still say yes or no to individual dogs and do as much or as little as you want to.

monkeychops

Thinking about it more I am going to look into trying to work for an agency.

If I get accepted then I know I will be doing it all legal and above board and I won't be put in the position of people trying to haggle with me.

The ony reason I thought about doing on my own was because the agency I used to use do not let people with cats do it and I have 2 cats. Now obviously I could not look after any dogs that might chase my cats but I know the cats would not be bothered by dogs and quite a few dogs either already live with cats or are ok with them. I personally have always taught my dogs not to chase cats even when I did not have any cats of my own.

I am going to phone the guy with the 2 dogs and cancel our meeting - bet he will not he happy!