Dog Walkers

[Titchy Pony]

Dog walkers aren't really a thing around here, but I wouldn't let anyone walk more than one of mine per person on lead and certainly wouldn't let anyone let them off lead. Dad occasionally takes one of mine for an on lead walk. He's unlikely to meet anyone and is strong enough to control my dog if he does. He never walks both together, as he can't manage without getting tangled in the leads.
If I'm away for whatever reason, the dogs get let out into my garden and sometimes field by mum, dad or my neighbours. I would rather they didn't get a walk than risk anything happening.
I'm planning to clean out a small shed in the future and install a small outdoor run on it, so that if I'm away all day (rare) and nobody can come to let out, the dogs can at least relieve themselves. They will have to be exercised either end of the day.
There would be carnage if my two were chucked loose into a van with other excited dogs.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

How does everyone feel about Dog walkers, I mean those that have a business doing this.

Sadly we have alot around our way who generally have little control over the dogs they are walking.

I met one today while riding in the forestry he had 6 or 7 dogs of varying sizes including a St Bernard and a very large labradoodle/poodle x along with multiple small dogs.
He tried to recall them when he seen us but sadly none of them listed and continued to come towards us some barking.
He kept trying to grab the one but was unsuccessful.

By this point I had dismounted as I know my boy responds better with me on the ground next to him and this way I could also keep them back from him.

The guy never managed to recall them at one point they were stood around us, he kept walking and called them with him, I think because my horse and I were stationary they eventually followed the guy, the labradoodle ran back straight behind my horse sniffing his hocks!! Luckily he's super happy with dogs around his legs (thanks to living at kennels for a season) do didn't react.

But I am sooo cross that this happened how can people take money of owners and have so little regard for the dogs

I wish I could say I'm surprised but I'm not. I haven't seen one so-called professional dog walkers that I would employ. We get them here, they walk through fields where there are no paths, if they do find a path the dogs are all over the field it goes through. They have no control over the dogs they are 'in charge' of. And they park in the way of residents.

 

[Skib]

There would be carnage if my two were chucked loose into a van with other excited dogs.

We walk regularly and see a dog walker's van in the car park where we park our own car. He walks several dogs at once. I think the local limit is 4 dogs but the van has stacked cages inside so once in transit the dogs are separately caged. Commercial dog walkers are permitted in the Park but are required to have a licence.
In order to protect new born deer and breeding, there are times of year when regardless of who is walking them, all dogs must be kept on a lead.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Recently on fb, a lady dropped her dog off for training. She had a funny feeling when she dropped him off so waited. A few mins later he loaded dog into the car and parked up at the gym! Needles to say she was furious. I wouldn't use one, but there is one near me that's grown and grown, owners get videos of what their dog is doing throughout the day. Perhaps people need to start asking for evidence their dog is actually being walked.

As an aside, it blew up on fb locally about a girl saying she was walking the dogs etc. One person called her out as she had mistreated this person's digs and was caught on camera. Loads and loads of people came forward with the same sort of stories, most with video evidence. Why didn't they come forward in the first place??

 

[Jambarissa]

If I ran one of these I'd reassure owners by having the full video available or putting a tracker on the dog so they could check how long and how far he'd been walked.

I too don't mind the idea of a dog field, for certain dogs it's perfect.