What does a dog walker do?
A dog walker provides dog walking services to pet owners at scheduled times, ensuring their safety. They first meet with pet owners to discuss their preferred schedule and use this opportunity to learn more about the dog and understand its needs. There are instances where a dog walker may walk multiple dogs, consider weather conditions, pick-up and dispose of waste properly, and feed dogs with water or food. Moreover, a dog walker regularly updates pet owners with the duration or location of walks, including the dog's behavior.
Dog walker responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real dog walker resumes:
- Manage all breeding, whelping, raising of puppies, grooming and showing of dogs for owners in the AKC.
- Head groomer, use of dremel, clippers, dryers, hemostats.
- Provide in-home grooming services such as bathing, nail trimming, and clipping for all breeds and sizes of dogs.
- Provide general bathing and preventative services, such as nail clipping and ear cleaning to maintain and improve clients health.
- Assist pet owners by transporting animals to grooming and veterinary appointments.
- Assure proper annotation of administrative MWD utilization and training records used for legal reviews.
- Ensure the well-being of animal-clients and follow detailed instructions from pet owners to maximize customer satisfaction.
- Dry then with a high power velocity dryer.
- Assure proper annotation of administrative MWD utilization and training records used for legal reviews.
Dog walker skills and personality traits
We calculated that 50% of Dog Walkers are proficient in PET, Walkers, and Clients Homes. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Detail oriented, and Patience.
We break down the percentage of Dog Walkers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- PET, 50%
Assisted pet owners by transporting animals to grooming and veterinary appointments.
- Walkers, 44%
Frequent communication with supervisor and other walkers to promote uniformity in care giving techniques and ensure high service standards.
- Clients Homes, 2%
Trusted to enter clients homes unattended in order to care for their pets while they are not home.
- Fresh Water, 1%
Refresh water, wipe paws, and ensure dog is getting exercise and enough potty breaks.
- Minute Walk, 1%
Fed and watered after each 45 minute walk.
- Customer Service, 0%
Greeted each customer with a smile, and excellent customer service.
Common skills that a dog walker uses to do their job include "pet," "walkers," and "clients homes." You can find details on the most important dog walker responsibilities below.
Customer-service skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a dog walker to have is customer-service skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "animal care and service workers should understand pet owners’ needs so they can provide excellent customer service." Dog walkers often use customer-service skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "provide excellent customer service to clients to create a strong and trusting relationship with them and their dog. "
Detail oriented. Another essential skill to perform dog walker duties is detail oriented. Dog walkers responsibilities require that "animal care and service workers are often responsible for maintaining records and monitoring changes in animals’ behavior." Dog walkers also use detail oriented in their role according to a real resume snippet: "ensured the well-being of animal-clients and followed detailed instructions from pet owners to maximize customer satisfaction. "
Patience. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of dog walkers is patience. This skill is critical to many everyday dog walker duties, as "all animal caretakers and animal trainers need to be patient when working with animals." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "ensured pet safety with love and patience. "
Physical stamina. dog walker responsibilities often require "physical stamina." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "animal care and service workers must be able to kneel, crawl, and lift heavy supplies, such as bags of food." This resume example shows what dog walkers do with physical stamina on a typical day: "provided vigorous 30-60 minute walks for up to 6 dogs per day for daily physical activity and bathroom breaks. "
Problem-solving skills. A commonly-found skill in dog walker job descriptions, "problem-solving skills" is essential to what dog walkers do. Dog walker responsibilities rely on this skill because "animal trainers must be able to assess whether animals are responding to teaching methods and to identify which methods are successful." You can also see how dog walker duties rely on problem-solving skills in this resume example: "identified dog behaviors and provided resolutions for increasing the dog's confidence. "
Reliability. While "reliability" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to dog walker responsibilities. Much of what a dog walker does relies on this skill, seeing as "animal care and service workers need to care for animals on schedule and in a timely manner." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of dog walkers: "see spot stay provided superb customer service, reliability and flexibility. "
The three companies that hire the most dog walkers are:
- CARE412 dog walkers jobs
- Valet Living4 dog walkers jobs
- Da Vinci Schools3 dog walkers jobs
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Compare different dog walkers
Dog walker vs. Kennel attendant
A kennel attendant is responsible for the daily care of boarded dogs and kennel maintenance. Some of the duties that you will perform will include cleaning cages, scheduling boarding appointments, and monitoring the behavior of these dogs. In addition, it is your responsibility to clean spilled food and animal waste and to dispose of trash on time. Other duties include walking animals if required, ensuring that the animals are always comfortable, and evacuating them when an emergency arises.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a dog walker are more likely to require skills like "walkers," "cpr," "good communication," and "clients homes." On the other hand, a job as a kennel attendant requires skills like "animal handling," "facility laundry," "animal hospital," and "animal restraint." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
On average, kennel attendants reach similar levels of education than dog walkers. Kennel attendants are 1.7% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Dog walker vs. Animal care technician
An animal care technician is an animal medical professional who is responsible for providing care to animals in the clinical or research setting. Animal care technicians take blood or stool samples from animals and run laboratory tests to determine the cause of an ailment. They often take charge of bathing and grooming animals as well as administer anesthesia before procedures. Animal care technicians are also required to speak to the pet's owners to help them understand the diagnosis and administer medication.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, dog walker responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "walkers," "good communication," "clients homes," and "fresh water." Meanwhile, an animal care technician has duties that require skills in areas such as "patients," "animal husbandry," "pigs," and "patient care." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, animal care technicians earn a lower salary than dog walkers. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, animal care technicians earn the most pay in the health care industry with an average salary of $32,797. Whereas dog walkers have higher pay in the professional industry, with an average salary of $30,722.animal care technicians earn similar levels of education than dog walkers in general. They're 1.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Dog walker vs. Pet care specialist
Pet care specialists are professionals who are responsible for maintaining the health and safety of pets by providing them their basic needs. These specialists are required to educate pet owners about proper pet care and maintenance while creating personalized customer service to maintain customer loyalty. They must help and assist customers with their needs by providing professional and courteous customer service. Pet care specialists must also order useful items for the store while conducting in-store audits on their inventory.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, dog walkers are more likely to have skills like "good communication," "clients homes," "minute walk," and "pet waste." But a pet care specialist is more likely to have skills like "health issues," "work ethic," "strong work ethic," and "front desk."
Most pet care specialists achieve a similar degree level compared to dog walkers. For example, they're 0.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Dog walker vs. Pet care associate
Pet care associates, though holding a small position, will find its scope much larger than one would initially expect. This position requires an individual with gentleness, patience, confidence, carefulness, diligence, and a hard-working attitude. Paying out at around $33K per year, those who choose this career will be required to help customers with questions and issues related to small mammals, reptiles, fish, and birds.
Types of dog walker
Updated January 8, 2025
