What should the maximum number of dogs that a professional dog walker should be responsible for at one time be?

The maximum number of dogs I have ever exercised at one time were my own dogs. Three extremely well trained Border Collies, used to working loose and doing obedience and agility etc. Plus two terrorists. I only ever had minor issues with the little ones and I would put them on lead if I spotted other walkers with dogs as they both had little man syndrome with unknown dogs.?

We hardly ever saw anyone else as we had direct access to cliff paths and the beach and private woods so that was a bonus obviously. I would never let anyone else outside direct family walk my dogs anyway.
 
I only walk my two GSDs in public places but will take some of the sheepdogs as well if walking on the estate where it’s very quiet. If a walk is likely to be busy (such as beach in summer) I just take one GSD as I like to be able to totally concentrate on one. Mine are well trained and under control but you can never predict what other people or their dogs are going to do.
 
There is a woman round here who my friends husband saw park up in the car park by the local playing fields. He was walking his own dog and the walker lives opposite him so he knows her van. She parked up and he realised she had not got out of the van. After 40 minutes she got out of the van and let 5 dogs run round the field and do their business. She did pick up after them. Then she put them all back in the van and drove off - 45 minute walk (likely charged an hour) anyone??
 
I agree that dog walkers should be licensed by the LA and licences should be revoked if there are any instances where the dogwarden is police have to get involved. I think a maximum of 4 dogs is realistic.
However it still needs the walker to exercise commonsense. I used to walk the Rottweilers as a pair, on my own when they were young but as they grew to weigh more together than I do, I decided that for safety one dog to one person was enough. A Rottweiler breeder near us also has stopped walking more than 1 dog per person.
 
CorvusCorax said:
I've never seen a pro dog walker in person/out and about that would make me leave my dog with one.
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No me neither. The dog walker mentioned in my post above list one, one day. It came to visit us, fortunately it had its owners phone number on its collar, we rang and the owner who by this time was driving round looking for him and he came to collect his dog. The story the DW had told him cannot possibly have been the truth, as it hinged on a thunderstorm frightening the dog. We had watched the DW go past our land long after the storm had passed, so we knew that story wasn't true.
 
My ex-colleague's wife is a dog walker and is excellent. If I had a dog, I'd definitely trust her with it!

I think people are right to say it depends on the dog. If the dog walker was taking out a group of well-behaved dogs that they were very familiar with, then four would sound fine to me, unless they were all very big dogs. I'd reduce the number for unfamiliar dogs/ big dogs/ less well-trained dogs. But then there are some dogs that strike me as requiring a person all to themselves. My dad and I met a man walking a Kangal about 6 months ago and he seemed very experienced (we stopped for a chat), but even then I didn't fully trust that he had complete control over the dog. There was just something about it beyond its sheer size.
 
I often meet a professional dog walker while I'm walking the Appy. He'll stop for a chat because she's good training material being completely unbothered by dogs - he makes whoever he's got with him sit and stay sitting

He had one he has to walk on its own. I can't remember the breed but looks like a chunky greyhound and it's a foreign breed bred to hunt. It's lovely but in a completely inappropriate home and chases to kill. He let it off the lead on a fenced off footpath the first time he took it out and it found and killed a deer - so now on the lead for ever more. I'd trust him because he's sensible. He doesn't mix dogs from different homes unless he knows them and everything sits and stays with him on command. I see one of the dogs with it's regular owner and it's a yappy nightmare - angelic with the pro.

8 dogs? You just wouldn't be able to watch every one all the time. The hunt exercise the hounds by bike out if season by me but those are used to being together and there's people front and back.

It's a tragic incident but I hope it will lead to some better regulation
 
A man regularly takes 9 gundogs out onto a local common. If he sees a horse they are immediately put on a sit whilst they pass. I have full confidence that they are all under control but I have never seen any on a lead. While they are on the tracks they never seem to go off into the undergrowth.

There are many other loose dogs which are not under control.
 
rabatsa said:
A man regularly takes 9 gundogs out onto a local common. If he sees a horse they are immediately put on a sit whilst they pass. I have full confidence that they are all under control but I have never seen any on a lead. While they are on the tracks they never seem to go off into the undergrowth.

There are many other loose dogs which are not under control.
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I completely agree about other loose dogs even just one can cause problems. However the man with the gundogs is unusual I would suggest. He is likely the owner/trainer of all of them but I would think most people/dogwalkers could not attain this level of control with more than 3 or 4 dogs and sadly we have to legislate for the majority (of numpties).
 
I'm going to firm up to an absolute maximum of two dogs per competent adult.

There's a lovely chap round here who gets completely towed along by his three on lead labs. They are lovely friendly dogs, but when they decide to cross the road he has no choice but to follow ?. He's a sturdily built 40 something.

Ditto some less friendly bassets who cart their owners about.
 
Mrs. Jingle said:
The maximum number of dogs I have ever exercised at one time were my own dogs. Three extremely well trained Border Collies, used to working loose and doing obedience and agility etc
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This used to be me too when I still had three and occasionally I might have my sister's collie lurcher too. Definitely wouldn't attempt any more unless they were tiny.
 
I wouldn't pay a dog walker to walk mine if I'm honest (because 2 are idiots not necessarily because of the dog walker) but I'd only want dogs from the same household, max 3. I could walk 3 of my 4 together but I only walk 2 at a time. We only take all 4 if both I and OH are going as 2 reactive dogs makes it way too difficult on your own.

A friend of mine walks all 5 of hers together but they're well trained collies and a cocker spaniel. I do think breed and training come into it.
 
Even if my two males were best buds, if something kicked off in any way, with two, I'd struggle to control them, they are large and I am not.
It's the worst feeling in the world when you see a large dog bombing over with an owner nowhere in sight and you're on your own in the middle of two big dogs not knowing WTF is going to happen.

I'm not going to derail the other thread but mine have had two skirmishes at home which were my fault for leaving doors open, the old dog just wants to drive the younger one (who arrived after he was an only dog for seven years) away out of his space/place, the younger one is a dollop and just defends himself/tries to get away, doesn't want trouble.
On both these occasions I have stuck my body/hand in and on both occasions the old dog has put teeth on and immediately let go when he realised it was a hand, rather than go further.
The younger dog is good enough that the intervention enabled me to tell him to go away/lie down/get out of the way and then I grabbed the old dog and that's broken it up both times. Superficial injuries, nothing bad because the old dog went 'oh crap, not what I thought it was'.
Anyhoo, so imagine they're not **my** dogs and I'm not in their heads and there's more than one/there are completely strange dogs in the mix in a public place. Doesn't bear thinking about.

I did have to advise a person not to rejoin our group because they walked a mother and son together and they had attacked more than one other dog even while on leash on a walk.

Yes the dogs shouldn't have run up to them but this pair were hyping each other up, the person would not listen to my exhortations that they be walked separately, the person preferred an easy life/thought there was some magic solution and to be honest we didn't need the reputational damage.
 
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This thread reminds me of the Should you have a horse if you can't provoide winter turnout? ones -
Should you have a dog if you can't exercise it yourself, and don't want to pay enough to ensure that it is exercised safely?
Because I guess that's what the walkers with 5/6/7 dogs comes down to - the more dogs in the party, the cheaper the walk
I'd be surprised if a walker would turn down the offer of extra money to walk a big strong dog on its own
 
We have one locally who pulls up, opens the van and lets a number hard to count out. Hard to count as they seem to be everywhere.

I walk three together and generally always have done. One elderly and two young. I don’t know if I would walk them all together if they were all young and full of piss & vinegar though, having done this a with a few different generations over the years as young dogs all think they know best and are determined - having an old one too changes the dynamic I always find.

Then again I could probably walk six if they were all like my two dogs, the bitch is enough by herself most of the time. I have a friend who walks ten together, different breeds, with no trouble.

I will only take one or two if going to somewhere busy.
 
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The number of people over the years who've asked me 'why don't you take his muzzle off?' and 'why don't you let him off the lead more?' because he seems so docile and spindly means I wouldn't trust mine with a dog walker either - no one ever seems to believe me when I say he turns into a 39kg beast if a cat crosses his path, literally like Jekyll and Hyde. I think I'd struggle to walk two greyhounds if they were both as reactive to furry things as him. And it's another thing dog walkers need to be aware of, prey drive (because it's not just greyhounds is it, it's huskies, lurchers, ridgebacks, terriers etc (caveat - not all of them), and it can rear its head out of the blue).
 
I used to own four dogs and could walk them together, both on and off lead. I had 2 Mini Schnauzers and two Labradoodles and the bigger dogs tended to stick close whilst the Schnauzers were more independent. Now I aam down to 2 dogs I find walks more enjoyable as my eyes are not darting around to see what the dogs are doing. All dog walkers should be limited to four or five dogs, maybe more if you are a professional who has passed a competency and dog behaviour test. There are loads of dog walkers near me I would not trust with my own dogs when I see their videos on Facebook.
 
When I had a GSD, and after her death, a Greyhound x Whippet, they both had entirely reliable and trustworthy dog walkers. These lovely people looked after the GSD for 13 years, and after that, the Grippet for a further eight. They excercised them with their own dogs (collies and labradors) on their own land and were wonderful. They even kept them overnight, if I needed to stay over at work rather than come home. Both the dogs and I were really lucky to have had them.
 
Amymay said:
I would.
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I think most dog walkers are offered more dogs than they can take on so they can pick and choose which ones to have as customers. There are lots of dog walkers wherever I walk round here and they never seem to have a problem with their charges. Most of them have 5 or 6 at a time but they seem to bond well and get on well with their walking buddies. I always assumed the walkers turn down dogs that don’t fit in with the others.
 
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