PawshPaws

We’ve already discussed some tips on how to start your professional dog walking business, so now I want to cover some advanced tips to becoming a professional dog walker.

1. Get a Good Website. The internet is increasingly becoming people’s first port of call and aids them in their decision making. When choosing your domain name keep it simple and relevant.

For example, one site that clearly understood it’s target audience was www.thedogwalkerportland.com simply by choosing a domain with relevant keywords this website appears on the first page of google for the search term ‘dog walker portland’.

Consider the layout and design, first impressions count and if your website is a reflection upon your service it should depict your core values such as friendliness and professionalism.

2. Consider value-adding with other services. It might be worthwhile adding other dog-services to your skills-set. While these additional services will also add costs and some may even require business or home-office style space, if you are seriously considering make an entire career from dogs, this may be the key to a lucrative career. Consider extra services as:

• Dog-bathing and dog-grooming;
• Dog-sitting (either on client’s premises or at yours if you have space for boarding kennels);
• Dog-training (if you are properly qualified only);
• Dog-listening (if you are properly qualified only);
• Spending extra time after the walk at client’s home with a dog to simply be with it, play with it, feed it etc; and
• Dog medical attention – some owners can’t stay home from work to medicate their dogs; you could be the answer.

3. Love and understand your canine clients. You need to love dogs to have a successful career with dogs. It is as simple as that. Dogs sense non-dog people and it won’t be smooth riding if you aren’t truly comfortable around them.

There are some important considerations to think about:

• Do you know as much as possible about dogs? Know as much as you can, not just from your own experience with them but also from reading and speaking to the owners and to your local vet.
• How many dogs will you walk at any one time? Some dog-walkers can walk as many as ten dogs at once, all shapes and sizes. Consider whether you think this is a good thing or even achievable for you!
• Do you know which breeds of dogs might not be compatible or will be compatible with one another? Know this before teaming them up for a walk.
• Do you know what to do if a dog is in heat? It’ll attract more than its fair share of attention and you’ll need to be prepared.
• Do you know how to handle a dog that suddenly turns aggressive on you? Or on passers-by around you?
• Do you know how to poop-scoop? Do you know the local by-laws on walking dogs in certain areas etc? Read up! Your being well-informed will impress clients and will reassure them that you are not amateur and will help them to feel you are going to have their dog’s best interests at heart.

4. Understand your human clients. Realize that your human clients will have all sorts of expectations, based on their own beliefs in dog-care and often with a dose of guilt that they can’t spare the time to do what you are doing for them. Be generous in your compassion for their concerns (after all, they know their own pooch best) and be tolerant of the more difficult requests. Gentle persuasion and negotiation will often win the human client over!

5. Learn some basic dog first-aid. Ask at a local veterinary for some training in basic dog first-aid (expect to pay the vet for this advice). It will help you to fix some of the little problems that you may encounter. And while you’re at this, do you know thefirst-aid for a dog bite?

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