Current Vacancies

Sue has joined the team and all the dogs are falling in love with her, as she is falling in love with them. I'm a bit jealous.

Sue has space for ONE adult dog at lunchtime and ONE adult dog at breakfast.
[Lunchtime space only available Mondays and Thursdays]

LUNCHTIME DOG WALKS

Sue covers Brentwood, Shenfield, Warley, Ingrave & Hutton at luncthime, and is looking for that special dog to join a small group of dogs walking in Brentwood's beautiful open spaces, grassland, parks, woodland, ponds and wetlands. These areas are used to the full to give your dog physical exercise and allow them to express their natural breed behaviours in a safe environment, so they return home relaxed and happy.

BREAKFAST DOG WALKS

Early morning walks are ideal for busy parents - your dog will be out of the house at the time you may be trying to get children ready for school and this is one less thing for you to worry about.

Dogs are collected from 8.15am, and returned home around 90 minutes later, tired and ready to sleep while you get on with your busy day. Currently this service runs in Shenfield (collection around 8am), but we are able to open it to other areas including Hutton, Brentwood, Pilgrims Hatch and Kelvedon Hatch at the slightly later time. I (Linda) cover Shenfield & Hutton, and Sue covers Pilgrims Hatch, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood & Warley. Other areas may be available, please ask.

If you are interested in part-time, occasional or ad hoc walks at any time of day, these are available but spaces are filling up fast.

More information is on my Dog Walking website.

CAT SITTING (& other pets)

One or two visits per day, to feed, clear litter trays, let your cats in or out, cuddes, love, anything you require.

Spaces are available through July. August is filling up fast, so please do book early to be sure we can cover your holidays.

PUPPY CARE

My puppy services are very popular, so if you are waiting for a puppy to be old enough to bring home, or looking for a puppy, please do get in touch as early as you can.

All puppy care is covered by Linda.

Puppies are accepted between 8 weeks and 6 months old. They get one or two half hour visits per day when they get my undivided attention. Once they are fully vaccinated I take them out for short walks, feed where necessary, clear up any mess, and play educational games designed to give your puppy the skills needed for life with people. Puppy walks are for roughly five minutes per month of life, so start at five minutes per visit, working up to the full half hour just before puppy moves to my lunchtime group walks.

If you are at home but are interested in the educational games I can still visit, or teach you the games to play.

Spaces are linited so are taken very quickly - typically within two weeks of becoming available. I only have one space on average every three to four months, so if you are waiting for your puppy to be old enough to bring home and want me to visit, a non-refundable first week's deposit will hold the space for up to one month.

Puppy Training and Skills for Life spaces also available.

All in a Day's Work

Tags
I put a name tag on each of the dogs I walk (and am considering asking cat owners to do the same if they allow them out while I am looking after them), and to make sure I don't end up with no fingernails, I use a small carabiner for easy but secure clipping and a waterproof capsule with my details inside.

I like the capsules, because they are a reasonable enough size that in an emergency anyone can see there is something on the dog (I like them so much I am considering dumping my dogs' metal tags and using them on mine) without them being too annoying for the dog, and the size means I usually remember to remove them when I go home. It doesn't matter if they get dragged through water and they are sturdy enough not to be flicked off by bushes and branches. And with the new 'fashion' for really thick metal bars on collars, there is no risk of a split ring being bent out of shape and working free.

It works for most of the dogs I walk.

Just not for Max.



Toilet
Sometimes I arrive a little later than planned. Brentwood has two roads closed right in the middle of the busy high street (which is also a 'short cut' when the A12, A127 and/or M25 is causing problems - and I live the other side of it from all my customers) and there is so much housebuilding going on there are temporary traffic lights popping up all over the place. It's all delays, and they spring up overnight so sometimes it can take me a little longer to get around town than expected.

I felt really guilty when I saw how much Benson needed the loo today...


Anyone got a mop?

Two Years Ago Today

Buster left for Rainbow Bridge.

Now he's lending his name to all the dogs I care for, and every day, they all make me think of him. Especially the one that looks like him, and the one who shares his name.

Buster, you are my sunshine.

The Joy of Six

I've just picked up another dog. Bit of a struggle, he's a big one! GSD based muttley by the look of him. He looks a bit like my dog Buster who died last year, but not enough to make me cry, which is a good thing. He gave me a jolly good wash at the interview! After trying to stick his nose in my bag, which all the dogs seem to do. When I'm working the bag sits on a kitchen counter or a table, but at the first meeting stage I think it's better not to make myself too much at home!

This owner found me by my website, through a search engine which really pleased me. All the hard work my lovely friend put in obviously worked!

The trouble is, now I really am full (except on Fridays, which is nice ready for the camping season to get away early!), yet still one third away from my target sales. I have been putting some adverts out there for cat care, but depending on where they are I may still not be able to take more than one or two at a time. This has not gone entirely to plan.

I am going to approach a couple of people I know to see if they are interested in some work, otherwise I may have to advertise to see if I can take on a couple of people to help out. One of the dogs is most likely going to be 'termtime' only, so if I can find someone who wants to earn a bit extra while the kids are at school then that would be ideal.

I'm finding it hard to believe I have enough work to pass on already. Although admittedly if I'd managed to get dogs that could walk together I should be able to do 9 (3 walks of 3 dogs) a day with no problems, which would give me my target sales, as well as a waistline Twiggy would envy. Ah well, eventually the pups will grow old enough to walk with the big growed up doggies, or even each other!

Two Down

Today was the last day of the first of my dogs to take a Christmas holiday. She's a pup, so I expect her to be the size of a small pony when I see her again. Her owners kindly bought me a lovely basket of goodies, which looks so pretty that I don't really want to unwrap it. In fact, if it wasn't for the chocolates it has inside, I'd frame it!

I also met another pup for our first visit. I'll be taking him on after the new year but covered a day out for the family. How cute is he!? As long as my boot, and half as tall. I'm already in love. The owners have booked a consultation with a behaviourist for tomorrow. Prevention is better than cure and it's part of my 'Puppy Package' to recommend it to new owners.

Tomorrow I will be seeing my 'occasional' pup, so it's been a real puppy week!

Over the weekend, I've got to concentrate on some non-dog areas of my business - I want to do some pet sitting as well, so need to aim my advertising at cats, and put it in places cat people go. Ideally I'd have had some cats to look after over the holiday to replace some of the dogs who are having time off, but I have been working so hard to get more dogs it's been badly neglected and now I'm paying the price with a very quiet Christmas.

Carrying Capacity

On Sunday I managed to get 6 dogs into my van. I was very impressed!

My mum and I went out for a walk with all our dogs. I had thought I could probably get at least one more crate in there, and I managed to squeeze Fred's small one in. Two of Mum's Yorkies went in there, Fred and Beauty were in their own crates, and Mum's other two dogs sat in the space that was left. Not ideal if we'd been making a long trip, and I certainly wouldn't be walking six dogs at a time for work, but it was nice to see them all settled in nicely. I wish I had thought to take a photo!

I am still saving for a bigger van anyway.

New Dog

This morning I will be walking an elderly cairn terrier for the first time. He's blind, or mostly blind so I've taken lots of notes from the owner, and done some research online.

It sounds reasonably simple for me, as most of the work has been done by the owner, I just have to remember to use 'up' and 'down' for kerbs. I thought I might wear a bell, so he knows where I am when we are out. We will be onlead, but there is a green where he can have a long lead walk so I thought it might be useful. I have a 'belly dancers' belt, with is a long line of little coin shaped bits of metal. I love wearing it, jingle jangling around but am never quite brave enough to wear it out of the house. Now I have an excuse!

Mud

Yes, it's great. It may have found me a new customer.

While in a muddy field with one of my pups, a little Cav pup came over to say hello. My pup, being a Weimy was very bouncy and the Cav jumped up at me a few times (probably thinking 'save me! save me!) and left me covered in mud. Her owner rushed over to apologise and we got chatting for a couple of minutes.

I left her my business card and she may call - her current dog walker won't let her pup off the lead, and seeing me with my charge off lead made her think she might like to change walkers.

I've added a couple of ads to Vivastreet and Gumtree, and I think it was this week that my ad was supposed to be in a local free paper. Which I haven't had, so I must chase that up.

I also realised I threw away a note from a customer thanking me for clearing up her dog's diarrhea (obviously I scoffed the choccies). I think I should have kept that as a testimonial for my info pack. I will be spending the morning going through the recycling bag!

Legs Aching!

I don't think I've felt so tired for a long time.

It's been four days of walking my two, then two Great Danes (one at a time) who are very good but there is always a slight strain on my arms, and the very bouncy and constantly trying to eat everything she shouldn't including fag butts, stones and twigs Weimeramer puppy. She is very good on the lead, can do close heelwork but usually we just wander with her on a loose lead - and of course I'm forever picking things out of her mouth. I've given her a toy to carry on a couple of occasions and that works really well with plenty of encouragement.

Anyway - that works out to approximately four hours walking, plus another, say, 30 mins in and out of houses, feeding etc, then another 30 mins of driving - which is a nice sit down, but with all the roadworks in my town at the moment can feel like I've walked every inch.

I knew I would be tired, so I've been trying to get early nights but oh my poor legs! Hopefully my fitness will catch up before I pick up another daily customer. I have some 'on and off' weekend customers, just looking after the dog when the owners go out for the day so I hope to manage as I am for a while.

Fridays I get a day off from the Weimy, so I'll take mine for Fred's once a week offlead walk in the park, then the dogs can chill in the car for an hour while I walk the Danes.

I am enjoying it very much though - even clearing up poo doesn't seem so bad when there's a dog giving me kisses for doing it.

Another Customer

I am going out to meet another dog today - a little puppy, 13 weeks old, just needs a babysitter for a day at the weekend. The owner is really anxious about leaving the little thing, but has a sick relative she wants to visit. It means she won't be a regular customer, but if I do well there may be other babysitting days in the future.

Obviously I am sorry about her relative, but this it is pleasing to see that the target markets I identified on my business plan are slowly coming in. I was right that they would be mostly female, haven't had a bloke ring up yet!

Good News for Me

My terms and conditions have been okayed by my solicitor, so I can now ask customers to sign a registration form saying they agree to them.

I've also got two new dogs - Great Danes! Another dog walker has apparently given up so I have inherited one of her customers. I have traced her via the interweb and am trying to contact her to see whether she will leave my number with any of her other customers if she has them. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

My current pup is now able to go out for walks, so we've been doing 20 minutes round the block.

My new dogs start next week.

The Phone is Busy

Yesterday I had three calls for work! I am still a little bit surprised that people are phoning, despite all I've been doing to encourage dog-owners to contact me! I assume I will eventually get used to this.

Mostly it seems to be people getting puppies soon and wanting to set up a dog walker in preparation. I thought I'd get older dogs, but I suppose that people with older dogs already have a routine and don't need new people.

For someone who always said puppies are not her thing I am getting a little bit persuaded that perhaps they are more interesting than I expected. Such a blank canvas to paint on. Scary in a way.

My current pup is now fully vaccinated, although it will be another week or two until she can go out, so I am working on getting her to sit still nicely for her lead to be put on, as well as trying to teach her to walk nicely when she is on it. I am also feeding her half her dinner in my van, so by the time she is old enough to go out to the park she won't think twice about travelling. The other half of her dinner is used for training (sit is fantastic, recall 100% around the house and garden, down, not so good but working on it) with a little scattered on the patio to really get her sniffing. She has some treats as well, which she gets as a bonus for doing fabulous work. I think she prefers her dinner though, as when she's done well I drop it on the floor, where it clatters. I think I have clatter trained her, and the treats don't clatter!

I really, really..

... want to ring the pup's owners today to make sure she was okay with her other carer today.

I have been trying to think of a catchy strapline for the business, and all I can think of now is 'We care TOO much'... 'and will immediately fall head over heels for your pet and fret and worry on the days we don't see them'.

It's Happened!

I have my first customer!

A 9 week old Weimaramer puppy, who is the cutest thing on earth. I love puppies, but can't be doing with all that getting up at night business so this is the next best thing.

I'm very excited about going to see her today.

Something happens...

The phone rang!

I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon to meet with the owner of a new puppy. She wants time, attention and feeding two days a week, leading to walking as the pup gets older.

I'm very excited!

Do I dress all professional in my suit, or for the job? *ponders* Where can I get a briefcase by tomorrow?