"But really, how hard can dog walking be?"
Totally valid question. My honest answer: it's pretty hard work. There's an awful lot to learn (and unlearn) about the dogs themselves in order to keep both the dog and the walker safe. Careful, professional dog walking demands technical skill, physical stamina, and in-depth knowledge of everything from dog behavior to pet first aid to knowing and understanding city laws.
There's no health insurance or paid time off. And to make extra money you need open availability to work evenings, weekends, and holidays. New Jersey's weather can keep you outdoors when absolutely no one else wants to be outdoors with you. And the driving between clients' homes; all the unpaid time spent navigating through slow city traffic, searching for limited, legal (and free!) parking spots comes with the work as well.
So what are the other challenges a dog walker faces?
Time Management
Our days are really intense. We fit in a ton of work within three very busy hours of the day (not many need us before 11 a.m. or after 2 p.m.). Every client has a different routine, every dog a different need.
Patience is necessary always. You never know how difficult an old lock with its poorly copied key will be this time, or what sort doggie destruction you'll walk into, or how easy it is to just blank on a alarm code. Wrestling an energized dog with his harness and winter dog boots and coat takes important minutes from the walk. And the little pups, every single one is always too excited to eat their lunch before you leave, but you need to stay put until they do, so they eat safely.
Stress
The truth is that in order to do this work well - to care for animals and people - the walker needs to be able to care for him or herself first. Just having the technical skills to do the job isn't enough. It's not enough to know how to walk a fearful dog or how to reinforce behavior you want to see more of. Or how to practice avoidance and redirections with a dog set off by bikes, kids, and squirrels.
All of those are skills we need, of course. But you won't be able to practice any of that expertise if you're falling apart mentally, physically, and emotionally. Stress takes away your ability to do good work. It takes away the skills to cope and impairs ability to connect with other people, think creatively, problem solve, and work well with others. As an employer, I dream of paying my walkers hundreds of dollars an hour because financial worries creates stress so easily. And stress creates burnout. The job has to continue to support the walker with their personal needs and dreams.
Loss
Circumstances that are within our control and out of it do not set us up for the amount of loss we feel when a client cancels service unexpectedly or when their pet passes on. We truly love these dogs; we connect with them as we connect with our own. We learn their quirks, passions, where the excellent spots are for scratching, their favorite treats, all the tricks for catching those good behaviors and stopping the ones we all find less desirable. We become one of their best friends and we look forward to seeing them on our schedule. When they disappear without notice, without an opportunity to say goodbye, it hurts. No matter the way the relationship ends, we feel a loss.
And finally human factor , extremely none sense requests , like
I need you right now because
I forgot to schedule a walk last night or
go home and check if I left my curly iron on or the kitchen light or the candles
which, I don't think is the dog walker job still we help due to the close relationship we create with our client.
They make call us at 10 pm and ask you to walk the dog at that time and of course they will get up set because you are already in bed, or call us that late because is snowing or raining too hard,
Sometimes you get the ones that are really hard to come by when it comes to payments, all this, also cause lost of time in the regular schedules and financials problems for the walkers, still if you make one mistake they will condemn you forever no matter how many favors without charge them a cent you have done. They will talk foul about you and change walker just to get away with a payment and they will do the same to the next walker , fortunately this is the minority without conscience
Then what's the balance? What creates the job happiness? That's a pretty simple answer: it's our client's dogs. read more
