Professional dog walkers in Auckland warn the industry's lack of regulation is putting pets and people at risk.
Photo: (Matt Nelson)
Three operators in the city have joined forces to set up a professional body to push for better standards.
"It's pretty much the wild west at the moment," said one of the three, Amanda Easterbrook, who reckoned 90 percent of Auckland dogwalking businesses were not up to scratch.
Her own Boston Terrier was killed last September by another dog while she was assessing it for dogwalking. Her hands were badly injured when she tried to stop it and she has had surgery twice.
The case is heading to court.
Dogwalker training
The situation was unusual but still illustrated the risks, which only intensified when inexperienced walkers were in charge of up to 10 or even 20 dogs each, she said.
San Francisco caps dogwalking numbers at eight per handler; in Britain it often varies between six and four; and Toronto requires licences to walk four or more dogs, with six maximum.
A cap of eight would be good, said dog daycare and walk operator Rhiannon Taylor, who is part of the new professional standards group and is introducing a dogwalker training regime from San Francisco.
"There are groups in Auckland that are walking between 12 to 15 dogs per handler and it just baffles me how [in] an emergency preparedness plan ... how you are going to handle that many dogs?"
The industry boom was being fed by well meaning but often poorly qualified hobbyists, said the animal rescue group HUHA, although it showed many pet owners valued exercise for their dogs.
Auckland SPCA said it had heard of instances of dogs being killed by other dogs on dogwalks, and the industry needed investigating.
The fledgling professional group expects some pushback.
"If you walk 15 dogs for $40 [each] a day, you're earning good money," said veteran trainer Liz Clough, who has taught canine behaviour at Unitec and runs nightclasses for dogwalkers.
"And if you take the numbers down, definitely your revenue will be affected."
She recently counted 101 dogs with professional walkers running around a reserve in Stonefields, and quality control would put an end to those sorts of numbers, she said.
Ms Taylor said they expected a very slow response from the Government to regulating, so were focused first on self-regulation.
However, regulation was not a faint hope as officials had in the last year shown willingness to engage over animal welfare, said HUHA founder Carolyn Press-McKenzie.
She recently encountered 14 dogs out with two dogwalkers, spooking the two timid dogs she was walking.
"We are hearing of incidences of animals running away, attacking, being attacked."
The SPCA is about to trial a scheme to inspect and approve dog daycare centres but has no plans to cover dogwalkers.