The Poppy and Pals Dog Walking Code Of Ethics

Due to an extreme amount of media hype in recent years about just how much money there is to earn in the pet care industry there are a lot of dog walkers popping up and although most of them are well meaning unfortunately not all have the experience or ethics to provide responsible pet care.

And so we have an industry wide situation of loss of appropriate exercising land, dog walkers with too many charges due to supply and demand and angry locals who don’t nesecerilly appricate ‘those blasted dog walkers’ (something a very rude man shouted at me a few years ago despite defintely not deserving his judgement) using public spaces.

So councils are having to respond accordingly. Some such as those in London make professional users of royal parks pay for the privilege and some fees are extortianate. Other councils are banning dogs from some green spaces completely totally alienating all canine owners.

Maidstone council

Luckily for the industry in Maidstone, so far atleast we have been given a temporary reprieve with the option to join a professional dog walkers scheme. Unfortunately due to a stipulation I don’t personally believe to be necessary or helpful we will NOT be signing up.

Lets discuss why

Dog poo annoys people, it annoys me! Dog barking does people’s nuts in, and that’s from the owner of a very noisy terrier. As owners every time we step out of our front doors with our best friends at our side we are open to judgement. It’s a sad reflection on society however there are unfortunately a lot of people who will tell you just how much they despise you for something as simple as your weight so of course there are those who relish in telling you how much hate they hold just because you own a dog. Sadly over the years I have had too many incidents to remember.

And here lies my issue with Maidstone borough councils professional dog walking scheme… they want us to be labelled as such.

To ensure operatives have an identification badge stating the company name and contact details. This must be worn whilst exercising dogs in public spaces.

What’s the issue?

If we ignore the fact that we don’t want to advertise that we are walking dogs due to the high rates of dog theft, including those from professional vans. We have never been comfortable with dog walkers who have sign written vans due to this fact long before dogs were being stolen so often in our area.

We certainly don’t want to advertise ourselves in public whilst actually out with the dogs! That doesn’t mean we don’t have control over them however it could easily make us a target for those with sinister ideas.