# dog walking/sitting



## baskerville (Mar 2, 2014)

Hi all! Just looking for some advice, thinking of starting dog walking and sitting service in my local area. Read a few websites and been looking for info on what I need to do to start up but thought if there was anyone on here who had first hand experience it would be great! What insurance do I need? Are there regulations? Im in scotland and some laws seem to be different here! 
Any help/ info would be so greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance


----------



## BoredomBusters (Dec 8, 2011)

Legally you need public liability insurance to trade as a business. You would also be wise to get specific trade insurance - so look into Cliverton and Pet Business Insurance.

I don't know about laws in Scotland, you could start with your local council to see if there are any restrictions or licences needed.


----------



## xxJudexx (Sep 21, 2013)

Hello and welcome to the site :smile5:

I started my business in January so I can give a little advice.

As boredombusters has said you will need public liability insurance. I got my insurance from cliverton, it included public liability, care of animals, and key cover (something along those lines anyway!) and cost me about £100 for the year. You can get a quote instantly on their website.

You then need to think about exactly what service you will offer. Are you going to offer group walks or just one to one walks? This will make a difference to the type of vehicle and cages you may need.

It is very much worth getting a website, so far all my business has come through google searches and people seeing my website. I built my website through weebly and also got a dedicated email address too, it looks a lot more professional than a gmail/hotmail address!
Also start a facebook page and share as many photos as you can (as long as you have the owners permission!), this gets people liking and sharing the pictures and gets your page more likes.

It might be worth you putting a little list together of things you think you will need to get started and the potential costs, this list can then be added to when you remember something else and you will! It took me about two months of preparation before I could officially start and I did it with very little start up costs.

Good luck and if you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask, we are a pretty friendly bunch! :smile5:


----------



## baskerville (Mar 2, 2014)

Thank you both so much for your replies! Lots of very useful info, hadnt though of a couple of things! Been looking more online and going to start with a website and email, might get some flyers made and hand them out locally too!
Thank you again,

Have a great weekend everyone x


----------



## Nick72 (Apr 8, 2014)

I have been a dog walker now for about 18months and have a good client base. So to make things clear i am far from jealous, why is there no licence for dog walking. When me and my partner pick up the dogs for their walks we meet in a local common. And let the 6 dogs off lead when safe to, all the dogs are good at recall (take our secret weapon CHEESE. LoL). And we keep a keen eye on were they are at all times so we can clean their mess up. There is 1 walker that has about 7 dogs with just her and most of them are off lead. 7 dogs for one person is way too much there are many safety aspects to take into account i.e dogs fighting,run away dog and picking mess up.


----------

