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The ASPCA says that approximately 44 percent of households in the U.S. own a dog which makes dog walking an in-demand job. Pet owners will always need help caring for their animals.

Getting paid to walk dogs allows you to be your own boss and spend time with some furry friends who make the best coworkers. They’re always happy to see you, and the job is in demand. Many people need someone to watch their dogs while on vacation and walk them while they work.

In this post, you’ll learn:

• Exactly what dog walkers do
• The best apps for making money walking dogs
• Tips on how to get paid to walk dogs

And other helpful information to show you how get paid to walk dogs.

What Do Dog Walkers Do?

Dog walkers make money taking care of people’s dogs while they are away at work or even on vacation. Some people may even have you pet sit or house sit if they will be gone an extended length of time. Some of the tasks you may perform include:

• Planning dog-walking excursions to parks and planning routes
• Feeding them and giving them water and other related pet care
• Cleaning up after the dogs on your outings
• Collecting them from different houses and keeping up with keys and house entry codes
• Booking new clients and coordinating their various dog-walking schedules
• Deal with pet emergencies
• Protecting the dogs, you’re walking
• Sometimes you may take care of other pets and look after households if you’re house-sitting to take care of animals.

If you don’t mind taking care of other pets, you can extend your dog walking services to include taking care of other animals. Pet sitters that can take care of other animals can make good money.

Dog walking and pet sitting are jobs that teenagers as young as 13 or 14 can do.

How Much Money Can Dog Walkers Get Paid?

Now you’re wondering how much you can get paid walking dogs, right? Dog walkers can make a lot of money if they’re organized and coordinate their dog walking schedules. Click salary.com for estimates in your state.

How much a dog walker earns depends on:

• Your location
• The types of pet care services you offer
• Your experience
• Your availability – full-time or part-time

Where you live is a big factor as you can make more money in bigger cities and urban places. According to Care.com, you can charge around $11.25 per hour to $17.00 per hour for one dog. Private, professional dog walkers can make $20 to $40 an hour.

While you can make a full-time income from dog walking and pet sitting, this may be a better side hustle. You could easily bring in $1,000 a month to supplement your other income or run two different freelance businesses.

You’ll also have expenses because you’ll need to purchase equipment like leashes, treats, and doggie bags, as well as provide your own transportation. The nice thing is that some dog apps like Wag will replenish your equipment for no extra charge.

Over time you can take your dog walking business to the next level by becoming a professional dog walker or growing it into a large private business. Then you can hire dog walkers to work for you while you manage your mini-company.

You can maximize your income by offering multiple services and getting pet certifications and credentials. And feedback is critical. Since pet parents are trusting you with their fur babies, getting good reviews shows that other people trust you and that your pet care services are top-notch.

What Qualifications Do You Need to Be a Dog Walker

If you want to become a dog walker, you may need specific qualifications. Different dog walking platforms may require different things, but in general, to qualify, you may need:

• To pass a test
• Some apps require you to be 18 years or older but not all do, and you can also find your own clients instead of using an app.
• To pass a background check
• Insurance
• Doggy first aid and CPR
• To complete your profile on apps
• Live in a house that allows pets if you want to offer pet sitting with your dog walking services.

Depending on where you live, certain locations may require you to get a business license if you file your taxes as self-employed.

Do Dog Walkers Need Insurance?

If you’re going to start a professional dog walking business, you may want to get pet care business insurance. That way, you have coverage in case of property damage or other incidents that you could be liable for.

You can probably even get it through your car or mortgage insurance company or check with any popular insurance agencies to see if they have it as a stand-alone policy.

What App Pays You to Walk Dogs

Luckily, if you want to become a dog walker, there are several apps for dog walkers. Rover and Wag! are two of the most popular dog-walking and pet-sitting platforms that help you get paid to walk dogs.

An app helps you connect with potential clients and get paid all on one platform, making it convenient and easy.

Rover

The Rover dog walking app is very popular as more than 2 million people have booked animal care through Rover. And many pet owners trust the dog walkers using it. You can offer the following services on Rover:

• Pet Boarding
• Dog Walking
• Doggy Daycare
• House Sitting
• Cat Care
• Home Visits (Pet sitters stop by the client’s home to give their pets food, snacks, bathroom breaks, playtime, and clean litterboxes.)

Dog walkers make the most money from pet boarding or home sitting as it requires overnight stays. Clients book and pay right on the website, so it’s easy for them to find a dog walker and for you to get paid.

First, you create your profile and download the Rover app on your phone. Set your availability and the size of dogs you are most comfortable caring for. Add your experience, photos, and testimonials, and then you submit your information for a background check and take Rover’s quiz.

One nice thing about Rover is that with each dog you walk, you get $25,000 in Rover Insurance that covers bodily injury, property damage, and vet care in emergencies.

Rover takes 20 percent of your earnings, so consider this when looking for apps to offer dog walking services through.

Pawshake

If you live in Canada and want to become a dog walker, Pawshake is a great company that matches pet owners with sitters. It’s not just for dogs; Pawshake is for other pets too.

With Pawshake, you can be a dog walker and offer the following services:

• Dog Walking
• House Sitting
• Drop-In Visits
• Dog Boarding
• Doggy Daycare

Pawshake does provide free veterinary coverage in case of emergencies for each booked appointment. The company takes a fee of 19 percent from each booking.

Wag!

Wag! connects dog walkers with pet parents in over 5,300 cities in all 50 states, so it’s a great app for finding dog-walking clients. Wag! is just for dogs, and you can offer dog walking, pet sitting, home visits, or boarding to pet owners.

Like the Rover app, Wag! makes finding clients easy and allows you to make your own schedule. It’s easy to plan weeks in advance, but you can even take last-minute bookings too and get paid quickly. And each walk is tracked by GPS through a tag on the dog’s collar.

Each booking through the site automatically insures you for up to $1 million in property damage, and they have 24/7 customer support.

To be a dog walker on Wag! you’ll need to pass a background check and be a United States resident. You’ll also need to pass a pet care quiz to begin finding jobs.

Is Being a Wag Walker Worth It?

This question is one I keep seeing pop up. Being a Wag! dog walker allows you to set your own availability and get access to some great opportunities if you love dogs.

But it does take 20 percent, so you can earn more income finding your own clients if that is something you are willing to do. Then you can keep everything they pay you.

Fetch! Pet Care

Fetch! Pet Care is another popular app for people to find animal care services. You can offer the following services on Fetch!:

• Puppy Sitting – Taking care of new puppies while their parents are away
• Pet Sitting
• Dog Walking
• Pet Boarding
• Pet Medical Administration – The app connects people with experienced professionals that can administer pet meds, from injections to pills.
• Pet Taxi – Taking pets to the vet, groomers, or park
• Cat Care

All pet sitters and dog walkers must pass a background check and in-depth, in-person interview to work on the platform. But in return, you get personalized training, support, and competitive income.

Pet owners book appointments and pay through the app. So, it’s easy to manage your jobs.

Fetch! Pet Care also says they provide insurance too.

Barkly Pets

Barkly Pets is a U.S. app for people who love walking dogs. The only service you can offer through it is dog walking. Barkly Pets says they have the only commission-free app that makes getting paid and managing bookings easy. So it’s essentially free marketing.

All walks are GPS-tracked, and pet parents can get photos from each outing. You can set your own rates and keep all the money you make.

The app provides all the marketing tools and tech you need to run your business. It’s designed more for the professional dog walker that wants to grow a business versus someone just looking to make money on the side.

There is a one-time administrative fee of $10 when you join the platform, and you’ll pay a membership fee once you make more than $100.

Care.com

Care.com is a well-known app that helps people find pet sitters, child care, senior care, daycare, pet care, and housekeeping, so it’s not just for animal care. Some of the services you can offer are:

• Pet Training
• Dog Walking
• Pet Sitting
• Animal Grooming
• Pet Boarding

To use Care.com, you must pass a background investigation to start and then each year after that. Pet owners can read reviews, browse caregiver profiles, and even see background checks.

However, you must be 18 years or older to find jobs on the platform. But, the nice thing is, you can find other jobs on Care.com to make money in addition to caring for animals.

PetSitter.com

PetSitter helps you find pet parents that need dog and cat boarding, dog grooming, and dog training. You can even get jobs caring for farm animals on this app, and it’s available in the U.S. and Canada.

But with PetSitter, they only connect you with potential clients looking for a dog walker. You and the client will need to coordinate payments, and they don’t provide you with insurance benefits like many of the other apps.

While it’s a good option for finding people who need dog walkers for your business, it may not be the best option for everyone. However, one plus is that with limited services, you’ll pay fewer fees to PetSitter.

Holidog

Holidog is perfect for people who want to take care of animals for a living. Services you can offer include:

• Dog and Cat Sitting
• Cat Visiting
• Dog Walking

Many pet owners prefer services like these because they are more personal than taking them to a traditional pet boarder. Like most of the other apps, you get to set your own schedule, and while Holidog has default pricing, you can set your own rates.

Most dog walkers can expect to make around $30 per walk or day.

There are no platform commissions since Holidog does not facilitate the payment process. You’ll receive money directly from the client. It’s also free to join for sitters as the pet owner pays a monthly fee.

Start Your Own Freelance Dog Walking Business

If you don’t mind finding your own clients, starting your own dog walking business cuts out the middle man, and you keep all the profits. Become a Dog walker and make good money caring for people’s animals, but with the 20 percent cut most dog walking apps take, you’re losing profit.

You can promote your services on social media and also get clients through referrals. Let your family and friends know that you’re starting a dog-walking and petting-sitting business, and you might be surprised at how many clients you find. Word of mouth works.

You will need to find your own insurance and won’t get all the benefits the apps provide.

Tips for Being the Best Dog Walker

Here are some quick tips for taking good care of the dogs you walk.

• Get Familiar with the Meet and Greet

If you plan on walking more than one dog, you’ll need to introduce them before your visit. The Human Society has some great tips forsuccessfully introducing two dogs here.

• Get to Know Each Pet Owner and Pet Well

Pet parents are much different than traditional customers; after all, they are essentially entrusting you with their child. As a caregiver, you need to learn each pet’s quirks and health issues so you can differentiate between normal behavior and a sign something is wrong.

•  Reward Good Pet Behavior

One thing a dog walker always wants to keep on them is dog treats. Keeping treats on hand allows you to give pets a reward when they are good, which is positive enforcement.

• You Don’t Have to Accept Every Job

It’s hard to turn jobs down, especially when you first start a dog walking business. But you can get overwhelmed with too many jobs, and someone may not be a good fit if they keep trying to pressure you for more than you agreed to. 

And if they try to get you to significantly lower your price, it’s not worth it.

• Consider Your Availability for Walking Dogs

Many pet owners need dog walkers because they are too busy to do it, and that is usually because they are working. Most people work daylight jobs, so if you aren’t available during the day, it may be hard for you to get clients.

Starting a dog walking business allows you to have a flexible schedule but you need to be available when people need you. And that could be in the middle of the night for people who work the night shift, on snow days, rainy days, or the middle of the day.

Final Thoughts on How to Get Paid to Walk Dogs and Do Something You Love

Now you know that pet owners will pay you money to walk dogs and take care of their pets. If you love animals and have some experience taking care of them (even personal experience counts), you can get paid to walk dogs and do something you love.

To get started, sign up for some of the apps on this list to see how you like offering a dog walking service. If you love it, you can expand your services and grow from there.

Taking walks with dogs gets you outside and allows you to get some exercise in. It’s a win-win for everyone!

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