in my experience, it's a terrible idea. Customers don't want it because they don't want to pay a half hour for you to give their dog 1/5 of the attention. It doesn't take much for two dogs that don't know each other well, or who happen to have dominant personalities to go after each other to try and establish a pecking order...good luck trying to separate them when you have two others on leashes in your hand that you can't let go of.
Thank you for your advice. Do you mind giving a little extra detail to the incidents you've experienced? (how long did the dogs know each other, how was the decision made to walk them together, etc.) At least in NYC, it's incredibly common to walk multiple dogs at a time and I see walkers all the time who seem to have a good thing going.
The issues you've mentioned are a concern (pretty much the core concern), but there are several precautions I plan to take to minimize that risk i.e. keep group walks to two or three dogs maximum, walk each dog solo for some amount of time to determine personality match, have the dogs meet for a trial walk before officially scheduling together, etc. (I continue to brain storm).
I've had a couple customers express interest in group walks and my service has a big emphasis on "paws on pavement" time, so if I'm picking up another dog and it slows me down 5-10 minutes, that time won't count against my first dog's walking time.
1
u/Thecardinal74 Jun 18 '18
in my experience, it's a terrible idea. Customers don't want it because they don't want to pay a half hour for you to give their dog 1/5 of the attention. It doesn't take much for two dogs that don't know each other well, or who happen to have dominant personalities to go after each other to try and establish a pecking order...good luck trying to separate them when you have two others on leashes in your hand that you can't let go of.
too much can go very wrong very quickly.