Because adding extra services can make your dog walking business so much more competitive and profitable, it seemed to only make sense to write about a dogs day out. Some dog walking companies call these “dog hikes” or “dog adventures” or “dog safaris”. It does not much matter what you call them so long as the name gets your clients’ attention and makes them want to sign up their dogs.
So what is a dogs’ day out? It is a day long walk, basically. You take a group of dogs out all together and go out for a much longer walk than usual. If hiking does not tickle your fancy, a day long mini-course in flyball, or agility training would also work.
The idea is for the dogs to get out of their houses for a full day, have a blast together, and come home dog tired. Taking the dogs to a new place to do new things is just as important as the exercise, and its even more important to “puppies” less than 18 months old. In fact, you could definitely do a “puppy adventure” and take a small group of puppies to different interesting locations, like to a school, a barn, an office building, a retirement home, a gold course and anywhere else they’d be welcome.
Let’s assume you want to go on a hike with your pack. To offer a safe trip, you will need to know the trail you’ll be taking. Will there be other dogs on it? Can your dogs be off-lead, or will they all need to be on a leash. Can some be on a leash and some not? How crowded is the trail ? Will there be challenging sections that might be too much for some older dogs? Its a very good idea to take some time off to actually walk the hike so you can be familiar with it before you head out with six geared-up dogs bounding down the trail.
The next issue to deal with is the dogs themselves. Not all dogs get along together, as you well know, so you’ll have to pre-select which dogs will be invited to the day out in the first place.
Because going to new places puts you at a wee disadvantage, it would be a very smart thing to bring along a human friend. Or even better, your trained backup dog walker. Having two of you will help your substitute get to know the dogs, give you more opportunity to train your backup, make it safer for the dogs and take a lot of the pressure off you. Having three of you would be even better.
The last thing is the clients. Think about how much you want to charge. Check that your dog walkers insurance covers these kinds of little excursions. Seriously consider having your clients fill out a special authorization form, kind of like the one that school children have to get signed by their parents before they can go out on a field trip.
After all those loose ends are tied up… just go have some fun yourself, okay?
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