Writing for the people who run dog walking and boarding businesses. Operations playbooks, hiring frameworks, pricing teardowns, and the occasional very good boy.
What to charge as a dog walker — and the *Five-Number Rate* (US)
Rover sets a ceiling, not your floor. Five numbers every US dog walker needs — plus the take-home math after self-employment tax that nobody runs.
What dog walking insurance *actually* covers — and the five-cover stack (UK)
Public liability is the floor, not the building. The five-cover stack that scales from solo walker to first hire to home boarding (UK, 2026).
What dog walking insurance *actually* covers — and the five-cover stack (US)
General liability is the floor, not the building. The five-cover stack — plus the bonding myth and the 1099 trap that quietly kills small operators.
How to start a dog walking business — the first 90 days (UK)
The 90-day frame for going from zero to five paying UK clients. HMRC, insurance, the door-knock launch, and the pack-size rule no one writes down.
Start a dog walking business in the US — without the platform tax
Skip Rover. Build direct. The 90-day frame for an independent US dog walker — plus the W-2/1099 trap that quietly kills small operators in year two.
The £42 walk: how a Bristol pack-walker doubled prices without losing a single client.
A line-by-line breakdown of the email she sent, the spreadsheet she shared, and the three concessions she made.
How big should a pack walk actually be? An honest answer in three numbers.
Insurance limits, behavioural ratios, and the one rule we wish more operators knew.
From spreadsheet to scaling: Happy Tails Co. on their first £20k month.
Founder Aisha Rahman walks us through the pricing, hiring and software calls that flipped her business.
Why we plan routes by drop-off, not pickup.
A small order-of-operations switch that took 22 minutes off the average morning circuit.
Twelve years of boarding, in fourteen blunt rules.
The advice Priya Devi gives every operator who calls her asking “how do you make this thing work?”
The 11-question intake form that catches every red flag.
Free template. Steal it, rebrand it, run it. Tested across 200+ new clients.
Interviewing dog walkers: the four questions that matter.
Skip the “tell me about yourself.” These four uncover safety, judgement, and stamina in 20 minutes.
What a dog tells you in the first 90 seconds.
A walker's micro-framework for reading body language before you've even unlatched the gate.
What's new: keyboard-first scheduling lands today.
A walkthrough of the new schedule grid, plus three keyboard shortcuts that'll save your Tuesday.
A short, well‑edited dispatch for dog walking and boarding operators. Operations playbooks, hiring frameworks, pricing teardowns. No fluff, no spam, unsubscribe with one click.
