Dog Walker Overview
Dog Walker Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a dog walker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $11.29 an hour? That's $23,486 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 51,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Dog Walker Do
There are certain skills that many dog walkers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, detail oriented and patience.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a dog walker, we found that a lot of resumes listed 24.0% of dog walkers included cpr, while 10.1% of resumes included clients homes, and 8.3% of resumes included weather conditions. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the dog walker job title. But what industry to start with? Most dog walkers actually find jobs in the health care and retail industries.
How To Become a Dog Walker
If you're interested in becoming a dog walker, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 40.1% of dog walkers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.5% of dog walkers have master's degrees. Even though some dog walkers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a dog walker. When we researched the most common majors for a dog walker, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on dog walker resumes include associate degree degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a dog walker. In fact, many dog walker jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many dog walkers also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or volunteer.
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Dog Walker Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of nanny you might progress to a role such as lead teacher eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title account manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Dog Walker
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
The Monster Minders Dog Walker Dog Walker | The Monster Minders The Monster Minders | 12/11/2020 12/11/2020 | $21,01612/11/2020 $21,016 |
Charleston Dog Walker Mid-Day Dog Walker Mid-Day Dog Walker | Charleston Dog Walker Charleston Dog Walker | 12/02/2020 12/02/2020 | $9,60012/02/2020 $9,600 |
Charleston Dog Walker Mid-Day Dog Walker (MON-FRI) Mid-Day Dog Walker (MON-FRI) | Charleston Dog Walker Charleston Dog Walker | 11/13/2020 11/13/2020 | $9,60011/13/2020 $9,600 |
Tailchasers Substitute Dog Walker-Occasional Substitute Dog Walker-Occasional | Tailchasers Tailchasers | 10/17/2020 10/17/2020 | $33,39210/17/2020 $33,392 |
Urban Tailz Dog Walker Dog Walker | Urban Tailz Urban Tailz | 09/28/2020 09/28/2020 | $33,39209/28/2020 $33,392 |
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Dog Walker Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Dog Walker. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Dog Walker Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Dog Walker resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Dog Walkers
1. University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA • Public
2. Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX • Public
3. Vermont Technical College
Randolph, VT • Public
4. Texas A&M University - Commerce
Commerce, TX • Public
5. North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND • Public
6. Saint Francis University
Loretto, PA • Private
7. The University of Findlay
Findlay, OH • Private
8. West Texas A&M University
Canyon, TX • Public
9. Post University
Waterbury, CT • Private
10. Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO • Public
Top Skills For a Dog Walker
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 24.0% of dog walkers listed cpr on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and detail oriented are important as well.
- CPR, 24.0%
- Clients Homes, 10.1%
- Weather Conditions, 8.3%
- Animal Care, 7.8%
- Special Requests, 6.4%
- Other Skills, 43.4% See All Dog Walker Skills
Best States For a Dog Walker
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a dog walker. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Arizona, North Dakota, and California. Dog walkers make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $33,882. Whereas in Arizona and North Dakota, they would average $27,079 and $26,780, respectively. While dog walkers would only make an average of $26,769 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Hawaii
$33,882
Avg. Salary
2. Arizona
$27,079
Avg. Salary
3. Alaska
$26,526
Avg. Salary