I found some information on starting up a dog walking business on a business start up website, and went to have a look. Interestingly it says all businesses providing a service should have public liability insurance. I had thought it was optional, but apparently not. I, of course, am fully insured.

The other thing I was interesting was the comment by the spokesperson for NARP (National Association of Registered Petsitters).

“We see a fair number of claims for dogs injured in fights with other dogs, and a number of our members have had to make a claim because a dog has injured another person while in their charge. Without adequate cover, these people have faced legal bills rising into the thousands of pounds.

Which confused me. Terms & conditions of membership to NARP include that the member be insured, in fact it is included with the membership fees. Yet this statement claims their members don’t have adequate cover. They are also supposed to ensure they have proper control over the dogs they walk at all times. Yet they say their members are walking dogs who are allowed to be out of control to the extent they injure other dogs or worse, people! Of course, they say ‘a number of our members’. That could be 1. Or it could be 1000. Either way, they are not vetting their petsitters adequately.

Perhaps it’s coming clear why I haven’t joined one of these registration schemes.

If you would like to read the comments in question, the article is here.

It’s been so hot after such a long time being cold it’s taken us all by surprise! Well, not all of us. Today while Will & Graham walked the dogs, I was back at home loading the van up with sausage and tuna icecubes I’d frozen the day before, ready for an after walk cooling game.

The gallery chops bits off, but if you click each photo it comes up in its full glory! I have tried having the photos come up as a page, so people can comment on them individually, but nobody ever does, so the big file it is!

If you’d like to know how we made the icecubes, let me know in the comments. Obviously ice cubes are simple, it’s the toppings that are tricky.

Very rare dog walking space available Mon-Fri lunchtimes in Brentwood. Spaces for new dogs are very rare because once our clients have tried our services, they don’t want to leave. Short term bookings often turn into ‘can you keep walking our dog’ because they have a lot of fun with us, and return home tired but happy. We don’t just walk the dogs, we play with them too!

We have a small team of fully trained dog walkers, who all get to know you and your dog, so there will never be an unexpected interruption to your service. There will always be someone your dog knows available to collect them for their walk – we will never cancel your booking at short notice or send a stranger to your dog or into your home.

Please call or check our dog walking in Brentwood page for more information. We don’t discriminate by breed, age, gender, neuter status or anything else. As long as your dog is a friendly family pet, we can take care of them.

First of all thanks to the many friends and family who came to see us at the All About Dogs show at Brentwood last weekend!

Harley, Charlie, Lola & Elmo, Ludwig,Casper & Darcy, Stanley, Cassie, Taylor, Merlin, Molly, Molly again, Phoebe, Mia, Khan, Harvey, DivaBowWow and all their mums and dads came to say hi over the two days, and it was so nice to see them. Although I have to apologise to Harley’s mum as I called him from across the aisle and I think she only just about managed to hang on! Sorry, he’s such a cutie I couldn’t help myself!

A few other dog walkers and daycare boarders were there, some we’ve spoken to on the phone or Twitter but never met, so that was really great to connect in person.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to see us! All the new dogs we met and friends we made, the puppies we went Awwww… over and my team who worked so hard to make the day a success – Graham, Tom, Will, Gerry and Jacob (home dogsitter!) plus Ludwig (Elmo’s brother, and on their birthdays!) and his Mum & Dad who took some great photos that we can’t wait to see.  A special thank you to my dad Dave who I couldn’t have managed without. I said “never again” by 4pm on Sunday, but by 7 after food and most important, ice cream! I was already planning what games and activities we’ll be doing at the next one.

We’ve booked into the Weald Park Game and Country Show on 15th & 16^th September, so please put that in your diaries. We had such a fantastic time last weekend, we’ve got to work hard to top that!

Please have a look at the photos to see what we spent the day doing – mostly fun and games with the dogs, but also some training sessions when owners brought their dogs along for some help (see the comment from Jill), we had a really great prize draw courtesy of Amy from Gimmie Chew andachel from Pets J’Adore. Visit their websites! Buy their stuff! Such warm and friendly people, and great prizes too!

Jill Keefe

I would thoroughly recommend Linda- I’ve found other trainers a bit intimidating, but she’s lovely and within minutes she had my terrier learning new tricks. Thanks!

If you click on the images you get the bigger photo, as well as the caption. Enjoy!