Safety Matters in Professional Dog Walking

Dog walking is about health, safety and welfare; understanding our responsibilities, the law, and the consequences of failures.

Professional dog walking is often touted as an easy option if you're made unemployed, want a career change or want to make some pocket money on the side as a dog trainer. Personally, I have always found that really insulting. Professional dog walking isn't just taking one of your mates' dogs for an amble around the park.

So before I start, let's be clear about what this blog is about and what it's not about:

It's not about:

being annoyed because I was approached by an off-lead dog. This happens in all public spaces — it’s a known risk, and I account for it before every walk. Accidents happen. Recall goes wobbly. The best-laid plans go wrong. Even the best dog in the world can have an off day. Plus, there’s always “that dog” in every park — the over-social one. These are known risks, and the probability is high.
how many dog walkers there are or how they run their businesses. None of my concern.
bashing one particular dog walker. I gave them a piece of my mind at the time, probably not my finest moment, but that is over and done with. I'll move on from that. I'm sure they are quite lovely. But it isn't about them, it's about safety of our client dogs and the safety of others in a shared space.

It is about:

Professional responsibility.
Understanding there are laws surrounding our profession.
Prioritising health, safety and welfare over how much money could be made.
Undertaking risk assessments.
Learning from previous incidents.
Protecting the public.

I rarely say anything publicly about other dog professionals. I keep my head down, stay out of the way, focus on my own clients and doing the best I can do. However, this is the second serious concern I have witnessed with the same individual, the last one involved one of their dogs wandering in the middle of a road and the walker being nowhere to be seen - not even realising one of their dogs was in the road until I alerted them.

A dog wandering/running off is every dog walker's worst nightmare and my heart goes out to every dog walker who has experienced it. Luckily, the dog was brought to safety by another dog walker who just happened to be driving past. I expressed my sympathy and genuine relief the dog was safe. Internally, I noted the dog walker was unable to effectively bring their dog to safety because of the number of dogs they were walking at the time - It slowed down the speed of their response and how quickly they could respond. That's a powerful lesson to be learned.

It's a wake-up call to reassess how many dogs can be realistically, safely managed on a walk.

The Law:

There are laws relating to our profession, even if some dog walkers and dog owners don't know about them. Our most basic duty is to keep the dogs in our care safe from harm and to uphold their health and welfare. When walking in a public area, we also have a duty to members of the public. Dog walking should never be about how many dogs we can cram into a walk to maximise profit or what's more convenient for us.

Some of the laws that every dog walker should have at the heart of their business include:

Animal Welfare Act (2006)
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999)
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act (1974)
The Welfare of Animals (Transport) (England) Order (2006)

A risk assessment should be completed before each walk. This should include (amongst other things): assessing each individual dog, assessing the group as a whole, identifying transportation risks, considering environmental factors and planning for emergency situations.

So what happened today that left me so concerned — and so shouty angry — for a young dog and a dog owner I don’t even know?

I was walking in the woods with three on-lead dogs: a Labrador, a Whippet, and my little dog.

In the distance, I saw what I thought was an off-lead dog. It had us in its sights and started heading toward us. I couldn’t see an owner anywhere. I stopped and scanned the path. It’s very concerning when an unknown dog targets you and there’s no visible owner nearby who can step in. I don’t know what its intentions are; friendly/not friendly? Eventually, in the far, far distance, I finally saw someone — but the dog was still approaching.

I asked them to call their dog.
They did.
The dog ignored them.

As it got closer, I saw it was dragging a long line.

It reached us and, as expected, started jumping all over my dogs. It was a young black terrier, probably around 6–8 months old. A cute little guy called Alfie. But when Alfie is jumping all over unknown dogs, it’s not good for Alfie and it’s not good for the dogs being jumped on, who may have health issues. It’s also not good for the handler being dragged around, who may have health issues of their own.

The “owner” made absolutely no attempt to come and collect him.

As Alfie's excitement was escalating, I had to hold on to the long line and walk him back. That’s when I realised — this wasn’t the owner at all.

It was a dog walker — with five other dogs already in their care. That didn’t include the one that had now, effectively, entered my care. Among their group were a large German Shepherd and a Staffie cross. It's not the breed that's important here, it's the combined size and weight.

So why did I get so angry?

They physically couldn’t come and retrieve their client’s dog.
They were walking six dogs. Their risk assessment in that moment was to stay put and hope the sixth would return. That failure to act suggests they recognised a risk in approaching — even with their remaining five dogs on lead. Was it because they’re too strong for them to hold on to? Maybe they thought they were doing me a “favour” by not bringing their group any closer. But they had an out-of-control dog — that was the priority and their responsibility to attend to, not to put that responsibility on to a stranger.
Using a long line in woodland full of fallen trees and rocks.
A dragging long line in that terrain is an accident waiting to happen — snagging, tangling, injuring the dog or others. It’s dangerous. Full stop.
Absolutely no control over that puppy.
A long line isn’t a recall — it’s just a piece of kit. There’s a skill to using it properly — and knowing which environments it can be used in safely.
The puppy was too far away for it to be considered safe and far too far away for it to have any real chance of responding to a recall.
There was no way the dog walker could have intervened if something had gone wrong.
Adolescents have poor impulse control — that’s not a secret.
Of all the dogs, this was probably the last one that should have been loose in that environment. Young, excitable, socially unaware — it was kind of obvious he’d end up in someone else’s space.
It’s hot. How do you carry enough water for that many dogs?
Genuinely — how?
How can you act in an emergency when you’ve got six dogs — especially when two of them are large or heavy?
How does this kind of dog walking benefit the owner of Alfie in the long run?
It doesn’t — learning to approach others without permission and ignore his name is the opposite. Dog walking should support a dog owner.
Was this puppy kept safe? No.
If Alfie had jumped up onto an elderly, arthritic dog, chances are he would have been told off — increasing the risk of injury and the risk of Alfie becoming afraid of dogs from a single negative experience. Both of these can have life-long consequences. It's not the dog walker that lives with these consequences, it's the dog and their dog owner. That is a huge responsibility to keep at the forefront of our minds.
What would have happened if I were a member of the public out walking in the woods with a young child and a couple of dogs?
What if I wasn’t a nice person? What if I’d kicked the out-of-control puppy away?
Sadly, this does happen.

So what's the take away here? Group walks are the go-to for most dog walkers - myself included. But I stepped away from large group walks many years ago, for all the reasons I've listed in this blog. With increased numbers, comes increased risk. There is a trade-off. It's one an owner should make an informed decision on.

If you’re a dog owner the idea of your dog walking in a large group might sound like fun.
But the number one question to ask is:
How is the health, safety, and welfare of my dog being managed on that walk? Can it really be managed effectively?

If you’re a dog walker or a dog walker to be:
Please make sure you understand the law. Undertake a comprehensive professional dog walking course (the IMDT one springs to mind). If you’ve had an incident where you weren’t able to keep a dog safe — reassess and make the necessary changes. Break the walk into smaller, more manageable groups, or hire a secure field, so that you can keep health, safety, and welfare at the heart of your business.

Categories: : adolescent dog training, dog walking, puppy training, Recall Programme