Almost all dog walkers will endlessly advertise and write about what they do for you and your pets. Which is great, as when you’re looking for a trusted person to walk your precious pooch or to look after your pampered puss when you go on holiday, you need to know what exactly you’re getting.
However, it’s sometimes good to know what you’re notgetting too. So here’s some of the things I don’tdo.
- Drive a van covered in logos advertising my every movement.
I’m not knocking anyone who does have their van covered in their logo and details. I used to have one myself and it’s a very powerful advertising tool. However nowadays I have a small apprentice (my daughter!) to chauffeur around so I swapped my beloved van for a car. I decided against putting a logo on the car as there have been so many reports recently of thieves targeting dogs in dog walking vans and houses that have dog walking vans parked outside. I’m now anonymous, so on lookers won’t immediately know a house I’m visiting for cat visits is empty or that I’ll have dogs with me.
- Pack loads of dogs into my vehicle to walk a large group.
I’ve never been one to transport large numbers of dogs to walk them. I’m insured to walk up to 6 dogs at once, but it isn’t often that I take that many out all at once. If I do, you can guarantee 2 or 3 of those dogs are my own. With client dogs I tend to only walk 2-4 together, and generally that is 2 dogs from the same household. I don’t believe dogs do that well in huge groups and I like to be able to comfortably manage dogs. I don’t like my attention split in so many different directions. That’s when mistakes happen and dog poo gets missed!
- Walk any large dogs or dogs with ‘issues’.
Nowadays I specialise in small and medium dogs and dogs that are fine to socialise with other dogs. I’ve been in business over 7 years now and there was a time where I would walk any dog that came along. I made a lot of mistakes, I didn’t trust my instincts and I am now paying the price. Years of walking dogs that pull like trains has totally done my back in. So much so that I now have to pay endless pennies for a chiropractor to torture me in the name of healing. Walking reactive dogs and not trusting my gut instinct resulted in me getting a mauling from a dog that has left me with permanent scars. I feel I’ve served my time and can now be mre selective in the dogs I take on. Lets face it, I’m not getting any younger and I need my joints and back in working order!!
- I don’t believe dogs are pack animals.
Now this one won’t come as a surprise to anyone who is up to date with the current findings on how dogs evolved and their behaviour, however I can imagine a lot of people will think I’m a poo bag short of a pocket full for saying it. They’ll say ‘but dogs are closely related to wolves, how can they NOTbe pack animals??’ Well that’s a long answer, but basically dogs are not wolves. They are as far removed in their habits as we are from chimps. When you see your dog and bitch raise puppies, then take them out to bring down a moose by working as a team, then I’ll sit and listen to your argument. Until then I’ll believe that dogs are just social creatures that like to have human and maybe some canine company.
So there you go. Now you know what I do do and some things I don’t do! Comments arewelcome, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Cheers for reading folks!