If you like animals and want to earn some extra money, dog walking and pet sitting are two businesses you can start without a large upfront investment.
There’s also a sizeable market for both services. Recent figures from specialist insurer Protectivity show that pet sitting businesses grew by 54% between 2023 and 2025, while dog walking increased by 29%.
Even better – you don’t have to give up your day job to get started. You could start off slowly by walking a couple of dogs during the week, looking after pets at weekends or taking bookings when their owners are away. If you build up enough regular customers, there’s nothing to stop it becoming a full-time business later on.
You don’t need formal qualifications to become a dog walker or pet sitter, and the initial costs are fairly low.
However, like any other small business, you’ll need to consider insurance, local council regulations, and how you’ll find your first customers. If you look after dogs in your own home, rather than the owner’s home, you might need to find out about additional licensing rules that apply.
Dog walking or pet sitting – what’s the difference?
Dog walking can give you a steady income if you build up a group of regular customers. Many owners need someone on the same days each week, particularly while they’re at work.
Pet sitting is more likely to be needed when owners are away. This might involve feeding a cat once or twice a day, looking after a dog for a few hours, or staying overnight.
There’s no reason you can’t offer both services. In fact, your regular dog-walking customers are an obvious source of pet-sitting work when they go away.
How much can you earn?
Dog walkers typically advertise rates of around £16-£25 per hour, although rates vary considerably across the country.
How much you make will also depend on the way you organise your day. If you’re travelling half an hour between customers, for example, your effective hourly rate will be much lower than if most of your clients live in a small area.
Some dog walkers take several dogs out together, which can increase the amount earned from each walk. You’ll need to be comfortable handling multiple dogs safely, and it’s worth checking your council’s rules as there may be restrictions on the number of dogs you can walk in particular public spaces.
Pet-sitting charges depend on what’s involved. Feeding a cat once or twice a day is quite different from spending an evening with somebody’s dog or staying in their home overnight.
How much does it cost to start?
This is one of the main attractions of both businesses. You don’t need premises or much equipment, and you can start with just a few customers.
A dog walker might need spare leads, waste bags, suitable clothing and transport, depending on the area covered. You’ll also need to budget for insurance.
Pet sitting usually requires even less equipment, since you’ll typically use the owner’s food and pet supplies.
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You don’t necessarily need to spend much on marketing either. Local Facebook groups and community pages are an obvious place to start, while recommendations can become an important source of new business once you’ve established yourself.
If keeping your startup costs down is a priority, have a look at our other businesses you can start for under £100.
Do you need a licence to walk dogs?
There isn’t a general licence you need to obtain before you can start a dog-walking business.
You do, however, need to check the rules in your area. Councils can restrict where dogs can be walked, require them to be kept on leads in certain places and set limits on the number of dogs one person can walk.
If you’re pet sitting in the owner’s home, you don’t normally need a licence for that either.
Things are different if you plan to look after dogs in your own home.
What if you look after dogs at home?
If customers leave their dogs at your home while they’re away, you’re providing home boarding rather than simply pet sitting.
In England, you’ll need a licence from your local council to do this. There are requirements covering the accommodation you provide, exercise, supervision, record keeping and the general welfare of the animals in your care.
You can find the relevant rules in the government’s animal activities licensing guidance.
Check the rules before you start taking bookings, especially if you want to offer more than one type of pet care.
What insurance do you need?
If you’re being paid to look after other people’s animals, it makes sense to have suitable insurance in place.
Public liability insurance can protect you if your business causes injury to another person or damage to their property.
Specialist pet business policies may also cover animals while they’re in your care, lost keys and other risks associated with pet sitting or dog walking.
The growth figures mentioned earlier come from Protectivity, which analysed more than 72,000 pet business policies sold between 2023 and 2025.
Before buying a policy, check which activities it actually covers. If you later add home boarding, pet transport or another service, don’t assume that your existing dog-walking insurance will automatically cover it.
Do you need any qualifications?
There are no formal qualifications required to become a dog walker or pet sitter.
That doesn’t mean experience isn’t important. Owners will want to know that you can handle their animal safely, particularly if their dog is nervous, strong or doesn’t get on well with other dogs.
A canine first aid course is worth considering. You may also want to obtain a DBS check, particularly if you’ll regularly be given access to customers’ homes.
References will help when you’re starting out too. Until you’ve built up your own reviews and recommendations, anything that gives a potential customer some reassurance can be useful.
How do you find customers?
Most dog-walking businesses serve a fairly small local area, so concentrate on finding customers close to home rather than trying to advertise everywhere.
Local Facebook groups, community websites and noticeboards can all be useful. You could also ask local vets, groomers and pet shops whether they allow local businesses to leave cards or leaflets.
Set up a Google Business Profile as well. Someone searching for a dog walker will usually want somebody nearby, so having a presence in local search results can be particularly useful for this type of business.
Once you have your first few customers, ask them to recommend you. Trust matters when somebody is handing over their dog or giving you a key to their house, so a personal recommendation carries a lot of weight.
Can you do this alongside a job?
Yes. There’s no problem with being employed and running a small business at the same time, although you should check your employment contract in case it contains any restrictions on outside work.
Dog walking can work particularly well if you have free time during the day, while pet sitting may be easier to fit around evenings, weekends and holidays.
We explain the tax position in more detail in our guide to being employed and self-employed at the same time.
It’s also the type of work you can continue or start later in life, particularly if you want something flexible rather than another full-time job. Pet sitting is one of the options in our 10 small business ideas for retirees.
Do you need to register as self-employed?
If you only make a small amount of money initially, the £1,000 trading allowance may mean you don’t need to register with HMRC.
The allowance applies to your gross trading income, before deducting any expenses. If your gross income from self-employment goes over £1,000 during the tax year, you’ll normally need to register for Self Assessment.
Read our popular 15 steps to becoming self-employed, which takes you through the main things you need to sort out when you start working for yourself.
You can also have more than one source of self-employed income. So, for example, you could do some dog walking alongside freelance work or another small business. Read our guide to running more than one sole trader business if this applies to you.
Keep track of what you earn and spend
Start keeping records as soon as you take your first booking.
You’ll need details of the money customers pay you, along with receipts and records for your business expenses. Depending on your circumstances, these might include insurance, advertising, phone costs and allowable travel expenses.
There’s no need to make the bookkeeping more complicated than it needs to be when you’re starting small. You just need a reliable record of the money coming in and what you’ve spent on the business.
Our beginner’s guide to self-employed accounts explains what records you need to keep and how long you need to keep them.
Start small and see how it goes
You don’t need a full customer diary before you can call yourself a dog walker or pet sitter.
Start with a few bookings to see whether you enjoy the work and whether there’s enough local demand. A couple of regular dog-walking customers can soon lead to recommendations, holiday pet-sitting work and other enquiries.
Start with a few customers and see how you get on. If the work starts coming in, you can always take on more.
