18/10/2025
When you are trusting a dog walker with your dog, you are not just trusting them with tiring your dog out. You are trusting them with your dogs life. You are trusting them not to land you in court fighting for your dogs life. It’s on you to do your due diligence.
As a trainer, I recommend walkers over daycare 95% of the time. I believe it is the most appropriate form of exercise support for most dogs, and provides socialisation support that many may not otherwise get, and there are some fantastic walkers out there offering this service. But I am also increasingly picky with who I will recommend because I hear all the horror stories.
In recent years in NZ we’ve had:
🐶 Dog lost in forest, found dead.
🐶 Dogs mauling wildlife in a forest.
🐶 Dogs jumping out of van windows while driving, nearly getting wiped out by trucks.
🐶 Pack mauling resulting in a dogs death (x2 in the past 2 years that I’ve heard about).
🐶 Dog forgotten about in dog walkers van and not found until the owner called the next morning.
🐶 Dog running away from walker in a dog park and crossing busy roads, nearly getting hit by cars.
🐶 Poorly controlled packs of dogs rushing other dogs at parks etc. Including in on leash spaces.
Without reports or video evidence, action is rarely taken after these events. There are no qualifications needed to become a dog walker. No minimum standards. And a lot of people getting into it because it’s their dream to work with dogs and it looks so easy just going for a walk with a huge pack - not knowing all that goes into it or being appropriately prepared for the risks involved.
There’s also the financial aspects. Walking small groups is difficult to make profitable, especially if heading out to cool locations, which encourages growth of groups beyond what may be safe or within that handlers skill sets. But the bigger the group, the more risk involved and often the more suppression of behaviour needed to make it possible.
You can’t rely on the fact someone has a website, a social media page, seeing them in one public space on their best behaviour or you’ve seen a video of them walking a bunch of dogs for 20 seconds to know they’re a good choice to trust your dog to. Take the time to ask questions and do your homework. You’d be shocked how rare that is from owners.
1️⃣ What is YOUR experience working with dogs professionally?
Walking other people’s dogs is very different to walking your own, especially when it comes to groups of dogs.
2️⃣ What education have you undertaken around dog handling?
An online dog psychology course does not a dog walker make. Green flags would include any combination of taking the time to learn from other dog handlers through mentoring, attending multiple seminars, hands on experience in a daycare or kennels etc. Formal qualifications in animal care/training are also nice, though walking is a different skillset.
3️⃣ How do you keep my dog safe?
How are dogs transported, what protocols have they got in place on their walks, what training do they do with the dogs, where do they tend to go, do they know canine first aid, insurance?
4️⃣ Are they on or off lead?
If they’re off lead, what training processes do you have in place to make sure my dog is safe and not just being let off in the forest and hoping they’ll come back even though they can’t even do that in a quiet park.
5️⃣ How do you screen dogs coming into walking groups?
If they don’t assess your dog, they’re not assessing others. Most good walkers do some 1-1 intro walks before gradually introducing with other dogs. We also like seeing proactive safety measures where screening warrants it eg muzzling, long lines etc to cater for different needs.
6️⃣ How many dogs do you walk at a time?
Experience and locations matter here. Beginner walkers should be growing groups slowly as they get control, choosing easy dogs to learn with. Many choose to stay in small groups for the long term. Very experienced “pack” walkers tend to say their comfortable level to be under good control without thinking about finances would be max 12, though this varies depending on the dogs and specific handler. Constantly pushing for larger and larger groups tends to be more about ego & profit rather than welfare of the dogs.
And above all - general attitude is a huge tell. Responsible dog walkers tend to be excited when prospective owners care enough to ask questions or want references. If the walker gets pissy when you ask about this stuff, brushes it off or doesn’t take your concerns seriously that’s likely a red flag. Dog welfare should be the top of all of our priority lists.
And if your dog comes home from a walker with injuries, their behaviour deteriorates or you are hearing things that don’t make you comfortable - don’t just ignore it because it’s a convenient service. Your dog is counting on you to keep them safe, whether with them or someone else. If something happens, you can also be held liable as the dogs owner.
Dog walking is not just a cute side hustle - there are massive real world consequences when things go wrong.
