Would you let a dog walker walk your dog?

No Way!! Zoey is a very high strung dog no matter what and she only listens to me or my dad. T.j is a puller if he sees something. If my dogs were little I would have to know the child.

Never. I've had kids & adults show up asking to walk them, actually and have always said no. I love walking my dogs and they and I wouldn't be at all happy if some stranger came to walk them.

Noooo way. I do not trust anyone to walk my dogs except me and my family. I will let my friends, as long as I am with them. If anything ever happened to them, I don't no what I would do. My dogs are on the smaller side, but things can still go wrong. Better safe then sorry.

no way. Happy is perfect off leash, and bahaves just as well for my best friend as with me, because my best friend is practicly her second mom, yet when she is dogsitting for me, I keep in in a collar with tags, and I ask that she keep Happy leashed. I dont trust that my friend can handle Happy when she see's a strange dog, I cant garantee that if Happy ran accross the street in exitment that she would drop to the ground on the other side of the street and wait, if I am not around. I let Steph walk Misty and Ripley because I know she can handle the pulling, I know because she has a 100lbs golden retreiver that pulls like crazy, and she will often when we walk all 3 together, take my Misty and Dakota in 1 hand and run with them, thats 137lbs dragging her down the street, and she has never lost grip. because of that she is the only one I trust with my pullers, and I trust her to be able to hold Happy back when she is leashed. however just as I dont trust most people with my dogs, I dont trust myself with their dogs either, when I take Perky for walks, I never let her off the leash, even though she has NEVER tried to take off, she sticks closer then my own dogs do, however I cant garantee that she will listen to me without my mom there, when I watch dakota, I will walk him on leash, but I never take him off, even though he is safe off leash, and listens to me better then he listens to his own mom, I dont want to be responsable if something ever happend to him, the only dogs I trust myself with, are my dogs, and I dont trust others with my dogs either.

I would, if I had a dog:rolleyes: . Not just any random person, of course, that's just common sense. But anyone I knew who is a dog lover or has/had dogs or knows lots about them I would trust. I think I would let them walk the dog with me there first to see how they get on, if they did OK, then I'd let them. When you're busy, it would be helpful to have someone to walk the dog:) I do dog walking sometimes and the owners are usually very grateful, so it's good for dog, owner and walker.;)

When we lived at our previous house, there were three different young girls who (in pairs) used to come by and ask to walk my dogs. Both the dogs I had then were very gentle and well behaved, so I really had no fear of how they would behave with the girls. I kind of got to know the girls a bit first and saw how they interacted with the dogs and had them observe me. They only took them around the block (which took about 10 minutes) and they said they didn't want any pay but I would give them $1.00 (this was 20 years ago).

Since I've lived at this house, no one has ever asked to walk my dogs. Hannah and Tucker are a bit more to handle than my last dogs were, so I would make sure that any youngsters who would ask were capable, but I wouldn't consider it out of the question. What I would be willing to pay would be another consideration. I'm not sure. If anyone is considering doing dog walking, I would suggest making the rate reasonable. Remember too that walking a dog in most areas includes picking up poop.

As you can tell from most of the replies, people want to make sure that their dogs are safe and you need to feel confident that you can handle the dogs you would walk. Before you take on any dogs as walkees, be sure to spend some time with them first in the presence of their owner to get to know them and their ideosyncracies.

I would have to vote *no* along with most of the folks here. Ripley has been known to wiggle out of his collar and run off. Nowadays I use a halter on both of them for their walks so he can't wiggle out, but if his leash was dropped I am afraid he would quickly realize it and dash off. Bella is a tugger on her leash although only for the length of the first couple of houses we pass. After that she settles in.

When I was in elementary school I occasionally would visit a friend who had two St. Bernards in her neighborhood. We often offered to walk those dogs and we did it for free just because they were such awesome dogs. They walked like angels on their leashes and it was so much fun to be around big dogs (I grew up with smallish dogs) and especially such well behaved big dogs.

Bella's breeder actually encouraged people to allow children to come and play with, and walk, her puppies. She felt the socialization was important and also that *a tired puppy is a good puppy.* I can vouch for that last sentence, although I took it upon myself to tire her out. LOL!

No way i would never trust a stranger/ child walk my dogs, not worth the risks. The only people i trust with my dogs other than family are friends from Flyball ;). If i dont walk them they dont get walked (Which is rare).

Nope! :D For mainly the same reason most everyone else said no.
Plus, Ethan is terribly afraid of strangers, and would strangle himself trying to get away from a strange kid, and if I try to let anyone else walk Frisk, he will refuse to walk untill I'm the one walking him. :rolleyes: My boys are a handful.

I think this is a great idea!!!! :)

Nanook & Kaige would be the only dogs I would have some one walk for me, as they don't have any behavioral issues, but Nanook can't really go on many walks anymore anyways due to his age & health.

BUT even so I would not have a dog walker unless I was physically unable to walk them myself. AND even so I would do extensive research on the walker, I'd check references, background checks, etc.... Then again with the family & friends I have I probably would just "hire" one of them.

And even if I were to have someone walk them it would not be a young child, MAYBE over the age of 15??? BUT if it were to even be someone under 25ish I would have to know them, like a friends child or the like.

Somebody just coming by knocking on my door asking to walk my dogs. Nope wouldn't do it. It's annoying and doesn't say responsible and professional to me.

If I wanted to be a dog walker and I was a kid, what I would do is first is build up some clientele with very close neighbors or friends. Try your parent's friends too. That's how I got babysitting jobs. After you do that and have a lil' experience and good references:

Build a website. Make it look professional. Give your rates, services, references, dog experience and how to get in touch with you. Show pictures of you walking different dogs. Maybe some of you getting them to "sit" or "down". Just make sure in all the pictures that you look in control and the dog looks happy.

Then put together flyers or business cards, about your dog walking business. Make sure to point to your website and have a contact phone number. Then go around to pet stores, grooming shops and vet clinics and see if they'll let you put up your flyer/card. Or if you just want neighborhood dogs and they'll allow it, put the flyers on people's door. I've hired my lawn guy and my pest control guy through flyers.

Someone who went to that much trouble, I would very well consider.

Par...

With my old dog I only trusted 1 kid to walk him. She was in an abusive enviroment & her dogs were too old & sick to be walked far. We knew it would help her if she walked him & it did. She would even babysit him for a weekend or a week & sleep on our couch so he wouldn't be alone. She was also safe from her father when she was at our place & with Max. So we saw her a lot until she was old enough to move out on her own.

When Max was 6months old, we took him on a family trip to PEI. Next to our camper & tents was an old camper & 2 young teen girls (if they were even 13). My dad saw them pouting & pacing about for a few hours & he couldn't stand it anymore. He invited them over to play with our puppy. Then he asked them to take him for a walk around the campground. It was 6pm when they returned with him (we could see them the whole time) & their parents still didn't return. So we invited them for dinner & they stayed until very late as their folks still hadn't returned.

So ya, it really depends on the kids & the dog.

I read all of the replies and they are very interesting. I think after thinking about what Par said I am going to do that.

if i knew the kid, sure. but not a stranger, i mean, jesse is gonna be 12 this year! thats pretty old, even thou she could fool you about her age. ;)