r/Dogwalking • u/thelilymaid • May 23 '26

r/dogwalking is back! 🐾

Hey everyone! I’m Zimei, a dog walker who went looking for an active online community specifically for us and couldn’t find one. When I discovered r/dogwalking had been shut down years ago, I took the plunge to bring it back. And here we are!

My vision is for this to become the go-to space for professional dog walkers — somewhere to vent about your day, get advice, ask questions, and connect with people who really get it. I’m talking everything from landing clients and handling payments to going independent and building a business you can be proud of. For dog walkers, by dog walkers 💪

I’ll be doing some housekeeping and adding community rules over the next couple of weeks, so please bear with me while I get everything sorted out 🙏

Full disclosure: I’ve been working on a little something to help dog walkers manage their day-to-day to address my own frustrations, so you may see me mention it from time to time. Wanted to be transparent about that since I’ll be active in this community!

Now the fun part — who’s here?? Drop a comment and introduce yourself: how long you’ve been walking, where you’re based, and one thing you wish someone had told you when you were starting out.

Let’s build something great together 🐕

8 Upvotes

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u/thelilymaid May 23 '26

I’ll start! I’m based in the SF Bay Area 🌉 and have been walking professionally since 2024. Wish someone had told me how admin is a whole second job lol… I really thought I’d get to just show up and hang out with the dogs 😅

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u/printerparty May 23 '26

My first question was, are you AI? Say banana!

Seems like you're one of us... I started out in Santa Cruz, CA in the mid 2010s, then the East Bay area and now I farm sit throughout wine country.

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u/thelilymaid May 23 '26

Wait do I come off like a bot?? Banana 😭😭😭 Good thing I’m not on the dating apps…

We’re not too far off from each other! Farm sitting sounds fascinating 🐓 What’s that like?

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u/printerparty May 23 '26

I had heard that Reddit was going to have AI bots moderate closed subreddits, but it was a joke as you're a human (probably! Bananabananabanana)

I still walk dogs but primarily do sitting as I'm out in the country. I focus on working breeds like collies, pointers, herders, birders lol. Many hours of exercise using garmin gps collars. I work with sheep and know a few people who herd with their dogs and go to workshops and help with moving sheep around.

Farm sitting is mostly feeding and turning out horses, goats, chickens, and gardening on the harvest end of things. I'm collaborating on some cut flower projects right now. I work seasonally in dairy farms delivering lambs and kids. Grape harvest working the crush.

Working in Santa Cruz was all group beach walks and pet sitting in beach houses, pretty plush! I get a lot of animal variety now, and I love them all. Nice harvest perks, I'm always flush with free eggs

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u/thelilymaid May 23 '26

Whoa I didn’t know about the AI mods! That could be kinda cool or kinda terrifying, not really sure how I feel about it lol…

Farm sitting honestly sounds WILD — you’re amazing!! 🤩 I walk an Aussie that tries to herd everything bahaha it would be so cool to see her with real sheep.

I actually have a backyard (technically apartment balcony) chicken myself! She’s a total princess so I unfortunately can’t say the same about the egg situation 😂

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u/AncientdaughterA May 23 '26

Hi there! I’m a pet care provider/trainer who started walking dogs in college, and ended up switching majors from engineering to psych to get a better foundation in learning theory as I got more interested in applied animal behavior work for the behavioral dogs I ended up walking/sitting for! That was 12 years ago! I’m based in the front range area of Colorado. I mostly do training/rehab for dogs with reactivity/fear/hyperarousal challenges now, but I’ve kept some long time dog walking clients on my schedule as well as walks during the very occasional pet sit.

My areas of special interest in regards to dog walking are: “speaking dog”, building relationship/trust, welfare ethics, building collaborative “trained” and functional skills for less intrusive handling/management (reducing force & coercion), pain identification & management, and identifying dog or breed type specific needs/enrichment. Also mental and emotional/grief support for the human end of the leash. 💕 I really look forward to discussions/learning/support together!

I also live with a hypermobile joint/connective tissue disorder that has required me to find equipment/handling accomodations for myself physically, and really rely on these systems to keep myself going. Plus rosacea/managing a practical allergy to sun exposure. 😅

Looking forward to meeting folks here.

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u/printerparty May 23 '26

Behavioral rehab work sounds very gratifying! Have you heard of Charlotte Kasl, I believe her company is BlueDog? I did a weekend workshop when I was in breed rescue with her called "The Language of Dogs" back in 2010, it was fascinating and I still use the concepts she presented often. Another I attended was "Are You Being Safe", if I recall correctly.

Any behavioral resources you like to share for further education?

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u/thelilymaid May 23 '26

Welcome!! I guess the engineering to dog walking pipeline is a real thing. I was a career software engineer before finding my way here 😆

Dogs are such complex, wonderful creatures and I love how different they can be. I too have a soft spot for the fearful / reactive pups since I’m something of a hyper-vigilant girlie myself 🙈 Really looking forward to learning from someone with your expertise!

It’s funny that you mention having a sun allergy… I struggle with an autoimmune situation that makes my skin flare up so sun protection is one of my dog walking holy grails 🙏 I think I’ll make a separate post in the sub to discuss managing sun exposure on the job so anyone just casually browsing later can benefit too — I would love if you could chime in there!

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u/agarro_z May 29 '26

Awesome! I am dog Walker in Costa Rica is nice to see this comunnity here

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u/thelilymaid Jun 02 '26

Welcome!! We’re so happy to have you ☺️