14/12/2022
🌨️YOUR DOG WALKER IN WINTER 🌨️
Being a dog walker is an awesome job, but it's not without it’s challenges. And winter is filled with its own unique challenges. Here are some things to bare in mind if you have a dog walker this winter:
❄️ Pick ups and drop offs take a lot longer due to icy side roads, paths, steps and driveways.
❄️ It also takes longer to load and unload vans while we dry dogs and put on coats or towel robes and make sure everyone's warm enough.
❄️ We have to do a lot of laundry when it's cold and wet. Like, a lot!
❄️ We don't go to work in a warm office, we go from driving sketchy roads in the van to out walking in the icy gales with rain and snow battering our faces, all while making sure your dog is warm and safe and having a nice time.
❄️ We might genuinely lose a finger to frostbite whilst picking up poops! 😅🥶
❄️ Not all walkers have the same routes or roads to drive and not all walkers have the same type of transport or capabilities for driving in snow/ice. So please don't assume just because other walkers are out that yours should be too.
❄️ If your walker cancels they have weighed up the safety aspects of the day ahead and made a decision they feel is safest for themselves and your dogs. I can't speak for every single walker of course, but most of us never want to have to cancel walks.
❄️ Remember we don't just drive main roads and we don't just have to get from point A to point B. We have multiple pick ups and drop offs most of which, if not all, are on side roads, cul-de-sacs and often country lanes.
❄️ We have to try and get to and park at walking spots which are usually off road in some capacity or completely untreated parking areas. Then we have to safely get a group of dogs out the van on a potentially very icy ground. If you think it's hard to have one dog on lead in the ice, try 5 😅
❄️ Vans simply don't do as well in snow and ice as other cars do. Roads will generally be much harder for us.
❄️ If we get stuck, we have a van full of dogs we need to try and get home and keep warm and happy. So we want to do our very best to avoid this happening!
Yes we chose this career, and yes we love it and your dogs! But we don't do it because it's easy and we still have hard days.
I'm so grateful to have a wonderful group of clients and to have the genuine privilege of looking after your doggie’s and getting to share a part of their life. It's an honour I never take lightly.
Thanks for reading 😊🐾
(Stolen from another walker)
