Do you need to hire someone to walk your dog? Dog owners can be unable to walk their own dogs for many reasons. Sometimes it’s a temporary situation, like injury, illness, or recovery from surgery; sometimes it’s more permanent, like long working hours, a long commute, or physical inability. Owners who work from home may need to be working when the dog needs walking; owners with small children may not find it possible to bring the kids along. You may walk the dog as often as you can, but you know it’s simply not enough exercise for your particular dog.
Whatever your reason for needing to hire someone to walk your dog, you want to find the best person for the job.
When I was looking for someone to exercise my golden retriever some years ago, the best person for the job lived next door. I was recovering from a physical injury I can’t even remember now, and my dog was going stir crazy. I couldn’t even throw tennis balls for him in the back yard—his favorite activity. I needed someone who could let him blow off steam safely, for both our sakes!
At the time, my next-door neighbors’ daughter was in high school. A good student and an athlete, she ran every day in and around our city’s biggest park, which is two blocks away from where we live. I decided to ask if she would be interested in having a running partner who just happened to be a dog. I talked with her mother first, as you do, to make sure her parents were okay with the situation. With their approval, I asked her if she would like to run my dog. I don’t remember what I offered in “pay,” but I think the amount was close to what she might have gotten for the same time baby-sitting.
She accepted. My dog was okay on the leash—not perfect—so I supplied his new walker with a baggie full of extra-special dog treats every time she came to pick him up (also plastic bags for doggy-poop pick-up). He was crazy about her, so that helped. He wore a Premier flat-nylon collar with a limited amount of tightening—especially good for preventing a dog from pulling his head free. We talked about what to do should he ever get away from her, and I was confident she could handle an emergency recall if that was ever necessary. She took a few trial spins around the park with him and agreed to take the job.
It was great for the dog and great for me. It couldn’t have been too bad for my neighbors’ daughter, either. She was running in any case, and she got a little pocket money for taking along my dog. They never had a serious problem. Once they settled into a predictable pattern, my dog was pretty easy to handle.
I got a physically exercised dog, leaving me to work on exercising him mentally myself, which I could handle without aggravating my healing injury. Now that I’m suffering from bad knees, if I had access to a dog walker of that caliber today, I would definitely consider this sort of set-up again!
When Not to Hire a Dog Walker
Would your dog be too much for a high-schooler to handle? Does he have “issues” with other dogs that even you at times find difficult? Are you occasionally frightened when you consider “what might have happened” when your dog encountered a loose dog or another scary situation? Then hiring a neighbor’s child to walk your dog is not a good idea. You must be willing to fully disclose any “issues” your dog has to anyone you ask to care for the dog, whether it’s your veterinary clinic or your dog walker. You must be absolutely certain that the person you put in charge of your dog is capable of handing whatever situation might arise when they are in public or in private with the dog.
Don’t even think about hiring a dog walker for a dog with “issues” until you’ve consulted both with your veterinarian, to rule out physical causes, and with a dog trainer who specializes in behavior—or, if your veterinarian recommends it, a veterinary behaviorist—to determine the best course of action to resolve those “issues” through training and possibly medication.
(We’ll talk more about how to find the right trainer for you and your dog in another article, because a good match there is so important!)
Finding the Right Dog Walker
Does your dog have few “issues”? Have you taken her to training classes? Does he have a good “emergency” recall? Is she good with other dogs—willing to ignore them and pay attention to the human on the other end of the leash? Does he take treats gently . . . from everyone? Is she trusting of people to whom you’ve introduced her and she’s gotten to know? Would he like to make a friend?
When you know your dog would be good for the right walker, where do you start to find that person, especially if she doesn’t happen to live next door? Start next door anyway!
Ask your neighbors, ask your friends, ask your family members. Who knows of a great dog walker? Take all recommendations, write them down, and check them out. Ask your veterinarian’s staff, ask at your favorite locally owned pet supply store, ask your groomer. Who works in my area, who’s really good? It’s the word-of-mouth recommendations that often are the best, so follow them up first.
Whether you’d prefer an individual who walks only a few dogs (or only your dog) or an employee or contractor who works for a local or national dog-walking company, it’s important to follow up on whatever information is available to you. Online, you’ll find company websites with policies, prices, and reviews (chosen to show only good ones, of course), but you can also find information on general sites that publish all reviews, even the bad ones. Facebook pages for individuals or companies should also be good sources of information, so watch out for the pages that haven’t been updated in months or years. They’re probably out of business (or should be). Even if all an individual has is a business card, double-check the information given. Is it thorough, is it believable?
▪ Get local references.
▪ Call the references.
▪ Ask lots of questions.
Next week, picking the most likely possibilities and choosing a walker for your dog.
