We walk dogs, its our job. We love walking dogs, we walk lots of dogs. Our clients love us walking their dogs. We both love that the dogs are walked in their neighborhoods. We want to have safe walks. But we can’t. Why? Loose dogs! This is happening more often lately, so I thought I’d put out a friendly reminder. Here are a few ways, with your help we can have safe walks and keep on loving our job, which by the way is the best job in the world!

1. Always be mindful of where your dog is.
2. Don’t open your garage door with your dog inside, we might be passing by and most times your dog will charge at us. Same with opening car doors, your front door or gate.
3. Yes we know he’s friendly and just wants to say hi. Maybe he is but maybe our dog isn’t interested in visiting.  If this happens, we’d appreciate if you would hurry up and get your dog.  Please don’t yell for your dog to come back, this usually won’t work, you need to actually come and get it.
4. Please make sure your gates are secure. Your dog may accidentally get out and not be able to get back in. Then he will most certainly want to come visit us if we are passing by.

There can be consequences to encountering loose dogs.

1. Dog fight. Dogs may or may not suffer injuries. Do either of us want it to come to this? I don’t think so. I don’t want to file an insurance claim to treat any injured dogs.
2. Injuries to yourself or to our dog walker trying to break up a fight. I really don’t want to have to file a workman’s comp claim for this either.

Our walkers need to be safe while performing their jobs, just like you want to be preforming yours.  You wouldn’t want your employer putting you in harm’s way at your job every day.  But sometimes that’s how I feel when I get reports that one of walkers has had a run in with a loose dog. They have a bag of tricks to use if needed we can distract the approaching dog by tossing them treats or if that doesn’t work we have a couple of not so enticing way to get them to stop, by either using an animal deterrent spray or a dog horn.  But we don’t want to use either of these; they are a last resort to keep our dog walker and their charge safe. All we want is to have an enjoyable walk around the neighborhood, enjoying the scenery and letting the dogs do what dogs like to do on walks.  With your help this can all be possible! I know some think that dog walking isn’t even a real job, it’s so easy a kid can do it.  It is a real job,  just ask any of our employees.  It’s hard work and a lot of responsibility. We are out there rain or shine making sure your dogs are safe while being exercised and pottied.  Running into loose dogs is just one example of what our walkers may run into on a daily walk.  Traffic, those who just want to say hi, because their dogs are friendly or kids running up to our dogs unsupervised is for another day.