Boom time for dog walkers, sitters and trainers

Image source, Olivia Leathley

Over the past six months, the demand for her services has been hard to keep up with.

I was working seven days a week at one point, which wasn't good for my mental health.

I have to make sure that I take two days off a week.

There are two main reasons why she has been busy. There was a large number of people who got a puppy or other new dog.

The inability of these four-legged friends - and of some long-established family pooches - to cope when their owners had to start going back to the office for the first time since March 2020

Many dogs are used to having their owners at home all the time, so they can't handle it when they go back to work.

Half of the dogs I work with are new puppies that people bought during the Pandemic, but the other half are long-established members of people's families.

Image source, Dogs Trust

After getting a qualification and seeing a surge in demand, she switched to training as Biker Girl Dog Trainer.

The demand for dog walkers has gone up as people have to return to work.

During the lockdowns, the number of dogs being adopted doubled. The number of dogs purchased in the UK during the Pandemic is estimated to be 3.5 million, taking the number in the country up from nine million to 12.5 million in 2020. The figure had remained constant for three years prior to the swine flu.

Professional dog walkers, sitters and trainers initially didn't see any of the new dogs, or most of their regular customers, because people were working from home during the Pandemic.

When Covid hit in March 2020 the business just died, says Richard Hollings, owner of dog walking and day-care business We Will Walk U.

A number of other dog walkers lost their jobs as people didn't need their help, but we were able to hang onto a couple of key customers.

Image source, We Will Walk U

Mr Hollings said that things had changed from the start of last year.

We saw a huge influx of new customers and a lot of first-time dog owners. People were having to go back to work for the first time after getting a dog or trying to book holidays for the first time since 2019.

Business has not slowed since then. Over the past 15 months, we have had a lot of work, and we are now fully booked through to September. So busy.

Merika Reagan, a dog walker in Oakland, California, said that her customers started to come back after the lockdowns.

The owner of City Hikes Dog Walking and Pet Sitting says that some people came back because they realized they couldn't give the dog their full attention.

Image source, Merika Reagan

The dogs were wondering why they weren't playing or going out with me. The dog might be scratching or barking at the door if the owner is on Zoom.

She says that more dog owners are getting in touch as they start having to work in the office again, and that others are booking holidays again.

It will take a while for City Hikes to return to pre-Covid levels.

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Rover is a website and app that connects dog owners to walkers and sitters. It operates in 10 countries and claims to have two million customers.

Customer numbers returned to pre- Covid levels by May 2021. Uncertainty about whether flexible working is here to stay makes it difficult to make future growth projections.

We don't know how hybrid office policies are going to play out and what else the Pandemic will do for us, so we don't know what the demand will look like.

Image source, Rover

According to the dog welfare expert at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, dogs need daily exercise in order to remain happy and healthy.

She says that they don't recommend leaving dogs alone for more than four hours at a time, and for some dogs, even this will be too long.

In Greater Manchester, there is another issue that is impacting pets.

She says she is seeing dogs that can't be left alone for a long period of time because they are used to being around their owners 24/7.

Even though people had previously been able to leave their dog for a few hours, now it cannot go on its own.