Become a dog sitter or walker

Browntoa

Free registration , free insurance

https://www.pawshake.co.uk/petsitting-jobs-pawshake

They charge a flat 19% fee from bookings

You set your own rates

They handle all the payment side of things

https://www.pawshake.co.uk/petsitting-jobs-pawshake

scoobyju1

I used to dog sit, looked after the dogs in my own home & on occasion, stayed in someone else’s home to look after them.

I’m not sure using a company like this is worth it. After all, they take nearly 20% of your earnings. Yes, you need insurance & a license from your council but that’s easy enough to sort yourself.

Dog sitting can be rewarding. If you charge say £20 a night, that can be £280 for two weeks! And word easily gets around once you have a happy customer. I was inundated with requests & people were happy to pay!

But don’t forget, it ties you to your house. You can’t go on holiday yourself during those dates or go out for the day. And if you have dog after dog booked in then you can find yourself with very little time to plan things for yourself.

All in all, I loved it. You get to know some lovely dogs & it does get you out of the house. You will also be get busy over the summer months when everyone goes away. I wouldn’t recommend taking on more than one dog though unless you have space, I have quite a small house.

Feel free to ask me any questions & I’ll try to answer them. I certainly won’t charge you 20% of any earnings!!

Browntoa

Thanks

Is it a specialist insurer you used ?

How much is the licence ?

scoobyju1

The license depends on your council, mine was around £100 and they come to check out your premises prior to starting & can spot check at any time. Insurance was a specialist insurer, Cliverton. I pay around £115 for that which includes dog walking (which is my main job, the pet sitting was secondary) and that includes public liability, can’t remember how much.

So you don’t have much of an outlay to get started. And it should almost be all profit, minus the cost of the insurance & license. You may need to buy food, poo bags & treats if the dog runs out but you can normally get this back off the owner when they return

little_green

forgive my ignorance, but why do you need a licence from the council?
I see many people advertising locally about being a pet sitter or dog walker & pretty sure the council hasn't been to inspect their home.
Also, as a pet owner, I feel adequately placed to make the decision re where my pet where to reside outwith my care upon viewing someone's home - i dont need the council to make that decision for me,

Browntoa

It's a legal requirement

https://www.waggingtailsuk.co.uk/blog/dog-boarding-license#.XCUCa2mnyyU

Prices for each council

https://help.dogbuddy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000438297

stormbreaker

Scoobyju1 did you ever dog sit in the dog owners home? If so how dores that effect the license if it's a different council area? And were you insured to do this too?

It's something we have considered now we are retired but don't really want to take dogs and other pets into our own home.

cat64

Hi hope you dont mind me joining in! Ive been thinking about setting up a pet sitting/dog walking business and wondered if anyone has any views in whether it is worth joining NARPSUK?

mrsyardbroom

I don't know where you live but in my area people are starting to get a bit fed up with all the new dog walkers and a few people are starting to make noises about dog walkers being licenced or restricting the number of dogs they walk. The majority of them seem to be very good but there are one or two who are not. They walk packs of dogs without having a great deal of control over them and some of the dogs are turning aggressive when walked in a pack. It's got to a point where I try and make sure I avoid the times and places where these dog walkers are likely to be. If you start in this business do be very careful not to upset other people. I think it won't be long before Brexit is over and done with and the politicians turn their thoughts to other things. I think the day will come when there may be national restrictions on the number of dogs walked by one person. There are local restrictions in some places now. I also think we may end up with legislation where a dog walker has to be licenced even if they don't look after or board dogs in their own home. If I was thinking about starting in this business I'd want to find out about joining any national organisation and also get some sort of qualification. One of my neighbours spent two years learning to train dogs before qualifying as an instructor with the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers. He has now started his own dog walking business and can train and handle any difficult dogs that people are having problems with. It's worth thinking about.