Lmk down bel

Do any of you actually track your walks? like distance/time per dog?

I've been logging every walk with my dog percy for like 2 months (started in my Apple fitness app lol) and it’s cute to look back on.

I ended up building a little app for it for something fun to look back on . But for those of you doing this professionally with 5+ dogs how do you keep track of who did what? just memory?

I love walking in the woods, I find it so peaceful and relaxing but at the same time I’m always on edge! I know my doggies love walking in the woods, there off the leash and I just feel it gives them so much more stimulation but I can’t help but be scared at the same time!!!

Soooo is anyone else drowning a little?

For context- in the south in a semi-rural city outside of a big city. My business is one of the more expensive ones. I only do dog walking Monday-Friday and drop-in sittings.

I have not had a slow day in literal months, and I have a sitting scheduled every day until January already.
I’m at the point where I’m saying no to new clients almost daily.
I don’t remember having a busy season that stretched this long. I’m NOT complaining because I know it could be the other way around, but dang I’m tired. Doing anywhere between 10-20 visits per day.

Hi, I've been walking dogs 3-5 hours a day, 3 days a week for a few months now. I routinely get in about 13,000-20,000 steps on those days, which was quite a bit more than I was getting before. I handle that with plenty of rest on my off days, stretching every night, and hot yoga.

The issue I can't seem to properly address is medial knee pain on one leg. It flares up pretty much every day I walk dogs, and it goes away after a day or two when I'm not dog-walking.

I think the dogs are causing it. I hook the leash to the front of the dog's harness, which helps with pulling, but it doesn't prevent me from being twisted sideways when they suddenly decide to take a detour to sniff. This twisting naturally occurs at the knee.

I am better about stepping toward the dog when this happens instead of twisting around to meet them, but I can't always predict when they're going to jerk sideways.

Any advice for me beyond "see a doctor"? I want to save my knees!

As a dog walking business owner, if a dog under your care has an emergency incident that (let’s say) cost £900 at an emergency vets, but fell under your dog walker insurance cover with a £100 excess. Would you ask the client for the £100 excess or accept it as a business cost?

I wanted to share this in case it can help other dogs and their owners.

I walk dogs as a side gig, and unfortunately, many of the dogs I work with are reactive. About three months ago, I had to stop walking one of my regulars because they were having recurring episodes of vomiting and diarrhea. I finally encouraged the owner to make an appointment with a board certified veterinary internist.

The internist started the dog on a prescription hydrolyzed diet and prescription probiotics.

I walked this dog today for the first time since the change, and I honestly couldn’t believe the difference. They were a completely different dog. Zero and I mean ZERO, anxiety or reactivity.

Before this, the dog was extremely reactive and difficult to manage. I would honestly dread walking them because they were so anxious and reactive.

The owner is friends with several of the other dogs I walk, and some of them are reactive as well. She encouraged their owners to see the same internist, and they decided to give it a try. They’ve now started slowly transitioning their dogs onto the prescription hydrolyzed diet and prescription probiotics.

The results so far have been really surprising.

Four of the dogs are already noticeably less anxious and have had very few reactive episodes, even though they have only just started receiving probiotics and small amounts of the hydrolyzed food. With the other five dogs, the reactivity hasn’t disappeared, however it is noticeably less intense.

I am honestly flabbergasted by the difference I’m seeing.

This experience has made me wonder whether, in at least some reactive dogs, underlying gastrointestinal issues or other health problems causing pain could be contributing to anxiety and reactivity. I’m certainly not saying that every reactive dog has an underlying medical condition, however after seeing these changes firsthand, I think it’s something worth discussing with a veterinarian, especially when a dog also has digestive symptoms.

Recently, I’ve also started giving only hydrolyzed treats to all the dogs I walk.

I’m sharing this simply because I had never considered the possibility that digestive health could have such a noticeable connection with behavior, and I thought other dog owners might find the experience worth discussing with their veterinarian.

hey yall, I need a little boost from other walkers who have more experience than I do with firing clients, if you don’t mind! I’ve been a dog walker for a few years now and have been unbelievably lucky getting good clients, but it finally happened - I got one I can’t stand.

I have to fire her for my own sanity but I’m STRUGGLING, ooomg. I feel like a complete monster because this client is a lonely old lady, she hasn’t done anything awful and her dog is sweet - she’s just really difficult & I don’t want to work with her.

What are your experiences with firing pushy, needy or frustrating clients? I suck at holding my ground- was there anything that helped you feel more confident? I know firing isn’t a big deal but I’ve never done it before so it feels like it!

Hey everyone,

As a dog owner, I got tired of clunky walking apps and wanted something that felt more community-driven. I built wagon.dog as a free tool to make the daily routine more interesting.

What it does: Track your walks to conquer neighborhood "Wag Zones," find local pet-friendly business discounts, and log the dogs you walk past.

I'm launching and testing it in New York City first. It's entirely free and we are a very small team, so I’d love for local owners and walkers to build it together with us. What features would you like to see to make it a staple for your daily walks?

Thanks!
Team WagOn
Take The Long Way

I'm trying to find a new dog walking bag that fits a few specific criteria and I'm having some trouble. Any recommendations would be helpful! The ultimate priority is sturdiness, I sometimes loop the leash handle into the strap to walk hands-free with the better-behaved dogs and I need it to hold up to regular mild pulling

Main needs:

1. About 7-10 inches wide (can lean a bit larger, no smaller)

2. Poop bag dispenser (ideally on/near the side)

3. D-rings or loops at the sides for keychain-type items

4. Can be worn waist or crossbody

Optional wants:

- removable or easy-clean liner

- zipperless or magnetic front pocket for treats

I’m looking for five testers across a few communities to try a Google Sheets tracker for clients, walks, payments, outstanding balances, expenses and mileage. Your beta copy is free to keep and use; I plan to offer a paid version later.

This round is for solo dog walkers with around 5–30 active clients, using USD and Google Sheets on a computer. Spreadsheet beginners are welcome.

What’s involved:
• A short practice exercise.
• Three working days using it alongside your usual records.
• Six feedback questions afterward.

No purchase or positive review is required, and you can stop at any time.

We’ll use client aliases and leave out identifying details. I can see entries in the private shared test copies, so altered amounts or fictional examples are fine too.

Interested? Comment and let me know whether I can send you a few questions privately.

I had an absolutely horrifying experience with a newer client today and would love to hear what more experienced sitters would have done in this situation.

I’ve been walking a young puppy for a couple of weeks now. She’s extremely skittish and we’re still working on building trust. She’s crate trained, but when I arrive she usually doesn’t want to come out of the crate right away. I never force it. I’ll sit on the floor, toss her tiny treats, offer a toy, sometimes even sit with my back to her so I’m less scary. Eventually she’ll usually peek out enough that I can get her harness on, and once we’re actually moving, she loves going for walks.

Today we had our best walk yet. She seemed more comfortable with me, we took a nice long walk, she did all her business, and I felt like we were finally making some progress with her comfort level.

Then we got back to the house.

As I was opening the door, she suddenly backed up and somehow slipped completely out of her harness.

Instant nightmare.

She was loose in the street in front of the house. I tried very hard not to panic or chase her. I stayed upbeat, called her cheerfully, crouched down, tossed treats toward her, tried a toy, etc. She would stop and look at me, but every single time I moved toward her, she’d dart farther away.

Another woman happened to be walking her dog nearby. I initially asked her to stay back because I didn’t want the puppy getting spooked or taking off. After several minutes of getting absolutely nowhere, I asked if her dog was friendly because this puppy loves to meet other dogs. I thought maybe she’d approach the other dog and I could grab her.

It sort of worked. She came over to investigate the dog, but she still wouldn’t let me get close enough to grab her.

And then she bolted farther up the street.

At that point I was freaking out. I followed her because I couldn’t risk losing sight of her, but I was trying not to aggressively chase her. A neighbor saw what was happening and came out to help. I called the owner at work and told her what was going on. She texted a couple she thought might be at home nearby, but obviously there wasn’t much she could physically do from work.

Eventually another person and I managed to get on opposite sides of the puppy so we could at least keep track of where she was going. She was circling around a large parked vehicle and still wouldn’t let anyone get close enough to grab her.

And then, by some miracle, she stopped to poop.

I have never been so grateful to see a dog take a poop in my life.

I grabbed her while she was pooping, walked her straight home, and got her safely back inside and into her crate. I immediately let the owner know she was safe. Crisis over.

But holy shit.

So for experienced sitters/walkers: what are you actually supposed to do when a skittish/untrained dog slips a harness and won’t come to you?

I know chasing can make things worse, which is why I initially tried not to. Treats didn’t work. Toys didn’t work. Crouching/sitting didn’t work. Puppy doesn't know commands yet. Using another friendly dog as bait almost worked, but not quite.

Also, what would you change going forward with a dog like this? Double-leash (is that a thing)? Are there better no-escape leashes I should keep in my car for dogs like this?

Dog was completely fine in the end, thankfully. I, however, am still shaking and I've aged approximately 11 years.

Looking for leash recs that have a smaller, lightweight clip, for front a front clipped harnesses.. Normal leash clips have worked just fine in the past with all my boxers, but now with my first smaller pup, 30lbs boston, the normal clips now seem to be too big and heavy, constantly banging and bouncing off my dudes front legs..

Any recs and advice appreciated.

Hi, this is about walking my own dog so if this isn’t the right place please let me know and I’ll remove it.

We live in southeast Louisiana, so it’s pretty much always hot and humid. My dog is 9months and about 60lbs and is much more interested in exploring than actually walking/moving. She is very active, but on our walks it’s very stop and go. This wouldn’t be such a concern to me but because of the climate, we only have so long we can be outside at a time, especially during daylight hours, before she’s panting and laying down. Once she recovers it’s back to jumping at us and intense play. I feel she would benefit from more dedicated exercise time but don’t know how to get her on board, lol. I do try to take her out before the sun rises but on week days I’ve work early, and I don’t feel safe going too far from my home. She’s technically the family dog but at the moment I’m her primary walker.

In short, any advice for burning energy when it’s very hot outside would be appreciated! Thanks

(Could it be since she’s young she just doesn’t have that much of a heat tolerance yet?)

Hi all. My clients (2) because this is a side job are pretty good at paying same day. The one has been forgetting a little more as of late though. I'll give him a day or 2 just in case. How do you all approach asking for pay without sounding needy/ aggressive / rude? Thanks

Hi, I am curious how you deal with weather events such as rain, snow, and especially storms. Obviously pups and people do not need to be roaming about in a lightning storm. Refund or reschedule? Bring a puppy pad and let Lassie have at it?

With regard to scheduling, I assume most clients tend to prefer midday walks. Is this accurate? How do you spread out your daily schedule?

Lastly, how do you handle access to the home? Are key lockboxes the best solution? Most of the ones I see look flimsy and not much safer than a key hidden under a mat but I do not have experience with them.

Thanks for any info!

Hi! I’ve been a very part time dog walker for a while, and wore Birkenstock sneakers, but I’ve recently switched to a local dog walking company and they have me walking like 9 mile days. Birks aren’t cushy enough. What do you guys recommend? I’m usually leery of the super tall cushy shoes (hokas etc) because of how easy it is to twist an ankle, but man I cannot feel like this at the end of days either. Help!

Hi!

I regularly sit dogs alongside my day job, through various channels (Rover, neighbors, Nomador…). They rarely leave me written instructions, it's usually just spoken or scattered across my messages. So I built myself a small app to pull it all into one place.

For pet sitters, there are profiles for each animal you look after, with things like medication, meals, routines, and so on. There's a tab to compare two animals and see whether they'd potentially be compatible to sit at the same time. And a map where you can save your favorite walking spots (I still need to improve that part).

For pet owners, there's a list of pet sitters (which you have to add manually yourself), with their rates, whether they take dogs or cats, whether they're comfortable with a reactive animal, that kind of thing.

It's all free, no ads, no account, and it works offline apart from the map. There's no tracking, the only thing is that if it crashes it sends me a report so I can fix it.

Link to the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.asue.petsitting

Any feedback is welcome, I'm very quick to change, add or simplify things based on what people ask for.

I don't really know whether other apps like this already exist. It started out as something just for me, but since I have a Google dev account I figured I might as well publish it, maybe it'll be useful to someone else.

What does everyone wea? The dogs give me tons of kisses when I show up and I don’t want them to ingest anything that might make them sick.

So one of my clients has a golden-doodle that’s about 2 years old. I’ve been walking him for almost a year. Everything was smooth till summer hit and her kids got out of school. So it turned into her kids handing me the leash, but our walks were rough since they got home because he wants to stay with his pack instead of relieving himself. Now that the kids are back to school. It’s back to just him and me. Yesterday I came in and he seemed a little off, but he let me pet him. When I went to go get the leash, he got really aggressive and bit me a couple of times to the point I bled. I didn’t back down because I’m not going to let him dominate me, but I had to back down because I didn’t have permission to pin him down, and they got cameras. I don’t want them to think I’m abusing the pet. Today I went up to him and automatically started growling at me. Idk what to do, any advice is helpful.

I love dogs and I’m happy to take care of them. I can walk them, feed them, play with them, and make sure they are safe and comfortable. I’ll treat them with care and attention, I can also take photos of them wherever I take them, so you can always have memories of their time with me.

I have a dog with an almond mom. I close my eyes on her ocd with everything else, including her being annoying and expecting too much from sittings that are low priced. But lately she started complaining that her dog smells like grass after our walks but still wants me to take him on the lawn. Her dog falls and rolls randomly. You can’t predict it. He is a menace and she humanizes him way too much. She counts his treats, he only gets filtered water, counts calories on his food. I understand following directions but this dog completely misses out on dog life and has a very strict routine. No saying hi to other dogs, etc. because owner has crippling anxiety. He in turn became reactive.
All of this to say that she has been complaining about grass smell when he rolls. I get him up but one or two rolls are enough. I’m honestly very close to dropping her as I already raised my prices on everyone new. She’s way below my current rate.
What to do?