Who needs a dog walker?
P: Everyone who owns a dog should use a dog walker if they have to leave
their dog for more than 4 hours on its own.
What is your background?
P: My family run a business where you don't get a second
chance: Funeral Directors. You can't mess up someone's funeral. It is
a demanding, faultless service for people, but not the career I
wished to follow. Dog walking is far more lively!
I have a Degree in Business Management and a Degree in Accounting.
My last role in the corporate world was Finance Manager for a
subsidiary (200 employees) of a US company in the top 40 ($80B-80000
employees). Despite an attractive package, the Excel spreadsheets I
was working on day in day out lost their appeal.
Growing up we always had cats at home and some dogs. Now with my own family
we have a Ginger Tom, Ginger and a German Shepherd, Tally.
Enjoying going to training classes with her, and a passion for
hiking, I came up with the idea of setting up my own Dog Walking
Service, so here we are.
You don't have a background in vets practice, is this a
serious issue?
P: You are right, I haven't worked in a vets practice. We
can't deny what they can bring on the plate, however professional dog
walking takes place in a natural environment and you need to be more
aware of the dangers around you and preventing problems than being
in a surgery doing a check or an operation on a dog. We’ve
been running for over 2 years and as of yet have had no problems
that we couldn’t deal with ourselves. In fact, hardly anybody has been injured during our walks.
As
a precaution, we keep a First Aid Kit for pets and hold The
First Aid Certificate for Dogs.
We've seen you with a few German Shepherds, American
Staff, etc...
Can you work with demanding dogs or behavioural
problems? As previously mentioned, we are offering a dog walking service,
so as long as the dog can walk on the lead we can walk him. However,
if they have serious issues, for the safety of the pack, we won't be
able to take him and suggest you seek advice from a dog
behaviourist.
What about your competitors? There are some good companies
around with good dog walkers and still small enough to know your dog
and their walker. But while browsing some websites you can notice some inconsistencies like:
- Some testimonials lack credibility.
- They can deal with all sorts of pets, including horses,
do the training, etc...but with only one person (?)
- Mention that dogs are social animals, but they would accept
a booking for walking & feeding your dog when you leave him at home
for a weekend or longer. Leaving them home alone is not
compatible with dogs' characters.
- Saying they aren’t afraid to work with demanding dogs or
behavioural problems. Then you find out they only work with
small breeds.
- Explaining they know everything about safety but use wooden sticks
and tennis balls to entertain your dog.
- Some say they have 35 years' experience to find out they take into
account the little Guinea Pig they had when they were 5 years old...
So, why should I choose you?
We've been running our business for over 2 years walking many, many
dogs so we have a vast experience doing so.
From large to small and from quiet to boisterous we have a hands on
approach. We are insured and police checked.
We have a loyal clientele. We don't mind the weather and love
walking.
We are competitively priced. On top you can get lots of rewards and
discounts, not to mention the special offer of 50% off for new
clients.
Why have you just redesigned the website? We wanted to
give more information about our services and ourselves.
At the moment we have a promotional offer –
50% off new bookings.
At this price you have little reason not to try us out. Take a
look at our testimonials and our pictures. We also have a
Facebook page, where you can see the dogs off lead.
Just by curiosity, do you have any "Celebs" as clientele?
Yes we do, here is a display of some of them. For
privacy reasons and to avoid the paparazzi, they are known by their
alias on the dog scene: Alfie & Archie.
With us, your dog will be a Celeb. |
