Trusting a Breed-Friendly walking Buddy - Ep 08

In today's episode, we explore the challenges of finding the right caregiver for your canine companion. As the pet industry grows, selecting a bulldog-friendly dog walker or sitter becomes increasingly crucial. Join us as we uncover essential insights and questions to ensure your Bulldog receives the care they deserve.

• Navigating the Canine Caregiver Maze: In a booming pet industry, finding the right caregiver for your Bulldog is paramount. We discuss the challenges of locating reliable dog walkers and sitters amidst our busy lifestyles, emphasising the need for thorough vetting.
• Critical Questions for Bulldog Safety: We outline essential enquiries to assess potential caregivers. From breed experience to walk types and preventive measures, learn how to ensure your Bulldog's well-being.
• Ensuring Consistency and Confidence: Discover the importance of documented procedures, trial periods, and ongoing monitoring in maintaining the quality of care for your beloved Bulldog.

Tune in to discover more about bulldogs and join a supportive community dedicated to these charismatic canines. Remember to visit Bulldogbroadcast.com for show notes, recommendations, and exclusive extras.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] As the pet industry grows, finding the right canine caregiver has become increasingly crucial. With our busy lifestyles, the need for dog walkers and sitters may arise, but how do we ensure they're up to the task? Today, we're raising some key points to help you assess their ability and provide you with vital questions you can ask to ensure your Bulldog receives the care it deserves.

[00:00:30] Welcome to the Bulldog Broadcast. The pure talk pedigree podcast, join me Sara Lamont as we delve beyond the pedigree propaganda and misinformation surrounding the beloved Bulldog breed. Together we'll uncover the real life realities of Bulldogs, sharing insights with admirers, owners and breeders worldwide.

[00:00:52] Welcome back. In this episode, we're going to just briefly talk about how do you find a breed friendly dog walker or dog sitter. This part of the industry is forever growing, and I guess it's a bit like babysitting. Anyone can kind of do it, but does it mean you're any good at it? That's a whole other question.

[00:01:15] So, lifestyles are busy. There will be times where you need a a dog sitter or a dog walker and I just want to raise a few points of things that you should consider before you take somebody on. I've always found it quite hard to find people so Yeah, there tends to be somebody in your Facebook feed going, I love dogs, and now I'm going to become a dog walker.

[00:01:42] And that's as far as it goes. So finding those people on Facebook, I'm always a bit dubious as to how much do you really know about dogs and caring for dogs? Just because you like them doesn't mean that you should set up a business. Or maybe it does mean you can set up a business, but it doesn't mean you're actually any good at that business.

[00:02:02] I think there's a few things that you just need to be aware of and to ask and inquire about before you take somebody on. I've heard, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I've heard all sorts of scary stories of dog walkers leaving dogs in vans that have overheated and died, and The quality of care or they're losing dogs as well and all that kind of drama and it will just sound really traumatic and yeah, hopefully avoidable.

[00:02:28] So I've always been keen just to have a dog sitter and just say, do you know what? You just need to sit in my house with the dog. That's fine. I know they're safe in those environments and that's all I need. But obviously, different people need different requirements, so that's all fine. I think if you find somebody, hopefully they've already got Bulldogs on their books, but it's always worth asking, If you found somebody, what's your experience of the breed?

[00:02:54] Do you already currently walk this type of breed? And actually, have you found that you need to do anything different for this breed compared to other dogs that you walk? So I think that's always worth, worth asking. I think it's also worth asking what type of walks they're offering. So is it a group walk?

[00:03:09] Is it a solo walk? If it is a group walk, is it literally a road walk or are they just taking them up to an area? What is that area? Is it a hired secure field? Is it some forest somewhere where anyone else can be? How many dogs are they letting off at one time? What are the other breed of dogs that are going to be with your dog?

[00:03:32] Because I'm sure I'm probably going to cover in another episode that some other breeds find Bulldogs quite hard to read and then can get quite reactive and then that can end up in a bit of a kerfuffle itself because Bulldogs are lacking the muzzle and they are lacking, they're lacking the obvious muzzle and they're lacking the obvious tail.

[00:03:52] So some dogs find quite hard to understand. So I think it's important if your dog is on a group walk, what are those other dogs like with the breed? And also the drop off order, so if they're picking your dog up and taking them away and dropping them back, are you first in the queue, last in the queue?

[00:04:09] Because how long is your dog sitting in their van? And also, Do they have air con? What's the ventilation of the vehicle that they're going to be in? So I think they're all more than valid questions to be asking to ensure the safeguarding of your dog. Obviously, you've got the basic requirements such as qualifications, so insurance animal first aid, have they done that?

[00:04:34] And then actual What training have they got in regards to understanding dog communication, behaviour? I'm sure there's loads more than that, but that's just the basic that comes to my head. Like, can they literally read and understand dogs? Generally, most will want to have a consultation with you. And if that is the case, then okay, let's have a conversation about what, how do they identify for dogs overheating?

[00:05:00] So I'd be asking them, tell me. When you've observed, this would be a competency based interview, it'd be like The Apprentice but yeah, like, tell me what the signs are of a dog overheating, and what actions would you take to call those dog down, and I think it needs to be placed in, environments as well.

[00:05:18] So if you're stuck in a random field and the dog's overheating, what are you going to do compared to just drop the dog off and you think you might be overheating a bit, what would you do? So I think they're more than valid questions to be asking. I would also ask about what preventative measures they, they have.

[00:05:37] If the weather, do they check the weather every day, especially in the summer? Is it going to look like it's going to be a hot day? What do they decide to do then? Do they still drag the dog out regardless because that's what you paid for? Or would they say no, we wouldn't actually walk the dog on that occasion, we'd cancel our walks?

[00:05:53] Or, no, we'd walk them in a shaded area, or, no, we would still come to your house and we would do some set up of paddling pool in your garden and we'd just play in the garden for a bit and that's it, I don't know, so, I don't know, it's not my job, but I'd find out. on a hot day, what happens? Also, in regards to other preventative measures, I'd find out, like, what do they take with them when they're out with the dog?

[00:06:17] So is it a necessity? They always take X amount of water and a bottle and that's always on hand. Like, they always have their mobile phone. They've got all their clients telephone numbers saved into. Like, what are they picking the dogs up in? Has the van got aircon? Is it insulated? Has it got extra vents at the back?

[00:06:38] I'd be answering all these kind of questions. Can they see the dogs while they're driving or is there a bulkhead in there? How long are the dogs left in the van unattended, if at all? You know, there's quite a lot of practicalities to all of this. And also, when they're exercising the dogs, where do they go?

[00:06:54] Do they walk in a straight line from A to B or do they, my preference would be that they walk in loops. Because then if any dog gets distressed at any time, they can get back to the van, or the vehicle, or wherever they need to, in a sensible amount of time, where if you're walking in a linear direction, you're always walking away from where you need to get back to, where if you're walking in a loop, you're, you're ultimately going to come back to where you, where you begin.

[00:07:22] So I think that's worth asking as well. It, I think it's also worth asking about their, whether they have any documented process and procedures. Now I, I mentioned this because I spent a long time doing some for my business. Because ultimately what that means is there's consistency of care. So if it's ever not them, if they start taking on people.

[00:07:45] To look after the dogs, that they're all caring for the dogs to the same consistent level and there's a documented process of if a dog gets too hot, we're doing this, if a dog has an injury, we're doing this, if a dog seems unwell, we're doing this. So I would ask whether they have any documented processes and procedures and whether they're willing to share those or not, or at least articulate what's, what's in them.

[00:08:09] So you, you have confidence in their ability to deal with any unexpected dilemmas or dramas. And then finally, There should be an introductory period or a trial period. So it's not a case that you have to go with them. You should be able to try before you buy and obviously monitor that going forward as well.

[00:08:28] So just because they were good for the first three months, but then you might acknowledge standard slipping. then there's no reason for you to highlight that and bring that to their attention. So I think that's a whistle stop tour, but it was quite a quick one to be fair, but mainly because I probably don't trust many people with my dogs, but I am aware of when I've sold puppies that people might need the odd dog sitter or the odd dog walker on the odd occasion.

[00:08:56] So I think that's a really good, it needed to be covered, it needed to be addressed. To summarise, find out practically how they're dealing with your dog and if there are other dogs, how they're to be integrated, where are they exercising the dog and for how long, for how often. What qualifications do they have?

[00:09:16] What processes do they have in place to be able to competently demonstrate that they're able to deal with your dog? And then what provisions are they making? What foresights and preventative care do they have that will enable you to have confidence that They have the ability to avoid a drama in the first place, but then also if something does arise that they have the competency to be able to deal with that efficiently.

[00:09:40] So that's it, it's a short one, short and sweet one this time, but hopefully there's some really good points going forward. If I've missed anything, like I keep saying, come and join us in the community. Let your voice be known and I could always just do a version two of going, I've missed a ton of stuff.

[00:09:54] So this is also what you should consider, but that's it. Signing off for now.

[00:10:03] Before you leave, make sure to visit Bulldogbroadcast. com for immediate access to the show notes, community forum recommendations, and episode extras.