EP 50 – Dog Walkers

Twinkle VanWinkle, “Listen!” associate producer
Amanda Briggs, owner and dog walker, Downtown Doggie, Indianapolis
Interview: July 2, 2009

Twinkle VanWinkle: Can you start by saying your name, business and location?


Amanda Briggs:  My name is Amanda Briggs. I own Downtown Doggie walking service in downtown Indianapolis, Ind. 

TVW:  Can you give me a rundown of a basic dog walking?

AB: Generally I will spend half an hour walking anywhere from one to five dogs everyday. So we’ll go from the Irvington neighborhood to Fall Creek Place or Broadripple, mostly downtown – even on the canal. I’ll go to the home. I’ll pick them up, whether they have a key they give me or a garage pass or anything like that. It’s just real simple. I’ll just go in and get them and we go for a long walk and they go back to their beds and take their naps when they’re done. That’s pretty much it.

TVW:  Do you have any breeds you don’t accept?

AB: I do not. It’s really based on temperament only. I know with certain insurance companies, like with the policies, one that I am insured through, they do not allow me to walk certain types of breeds. Such as the Staffordshire terrier, which is known as a pit bull. However I do walk pit bulls, I’m just not insured to do so. I do it as based on temperament only. Like I don’t allow any of my other dog walkers to walk them, but I would definitely walk them and I wouldn’t charge anymore for that breed. I think with all dogs it depends on how the owners treated them, that’s how they’re going to treat you.

TVW: Have you ever had a run away dog?

AB:  I’ve never had a runaway dog, per se. I haven’t had a bad experience. I was once walking to giant dogs – one was a German Shepard, one was a giant schnauzer mix over in the Irvington neighborhood. As I’m walking, it was a hot day in August, in the middle of the afternoon. I get these two dogs out, and usually they chase cats and I can grab them catch them before they take off.

This day they both just stopped.  I was like what is going on? I look up and I see something in the middle of the street, and I can’t figure out what it is. I get a little bit closer. By now both dogs are really pulling on the leash. They are wanting to get at this thing, whatever it is up there. I’m looking and looking. I’m not kidding you; there was a big old pig up there in the middle of the street in Irvington.

I was like what on earth is going on? That pig started coming towards me. Those dogs really wanted that pig. That stupid pig just kept coming up closer and closer. I’m pulling with all my might to control these dogs. Finally I was able to get them where I could wrap their leashes around a telephone pole. I’m trying to shoo this pig away, and he kept coming closer. They dogs were going crazy. It was insane.

Eventually the pig stopped, found some garbage on the side f the street and started eating it. I was able to grab the dogs. I ran the dogs back home, came back to see if that pig was still out. He was, so I’m calling people. I’m going to door to door knocking. Nobody was home because it was the middle of the day. I mean it was just insane. 

A guy drives by, this older guy. I said excuse me sir I need your help. There is this crazy pig running around. He said, “I’m not helping. I saw that pig two weeks ago.” It was just awkward. It ended up that I couldn’t find the pig after and he ran off. 

So a couple of weeks passed, and I was walking. There was a guy sitting on his front porch and he actually told me he owned the pig. He owns a lot of exotic animals in Irvington. Somehow the pig got out of the fence and got loose. It was insane. That was one crazy story.

TVW: What are some questions you ask pet owners?

AB: I usually start by asking what type of dog do you have. Is he friendly with other pets? Is he going to be ok with a group walk or would you prefer solo walk? Does he have any aggressive tendencies? Does he have a favorite toy that he likes? What of food does he eat? Is it allergic to any kind of treat? Just things like that. How does he react if kids are present? A lot of general questions. I mean it’s got to be pretty thorough because you run into everything when you are walking dogs. I mean literally everything.  There are some dogs that are scared of birds; some dogs want to eat birds. That is just nuts. So you just have to be prepared for everything.

TVW:  How do you deal with dogs that misbehave?

AB: It’s really you just have to control the situation. Whether I’m out walking a dog and there is another dog that comes towards us, lunging towards, you just have to pull the dog back and try your best to get the other dog to go away. What I find that’s best is to carry a spray bottle of water. Usually dogs do not like to be squirted like with water. It’s like a shock almost to them. So that’s usually what I would carry, like a bottle of water with me.

TVW: Why did you choose to become a dog walker?

AB: It started outside of Chicago. I was working at a camp. The owner of the camp was going out of town and she needed someone to watch her dogs. She had three hairless cats, too. I said, “Ok, I can do that,” for the weekend. So I did it. I really enjoyed it. So she told her neighbors. It kind of just spread while I was living up there.

Then, basically the camp over booked and I had to leave for about a month. I had to find somewhere else to live, so I moved into my friend’s condo. She had a mini pinscher at the time. I built a relationship up with this mini pinscher. I really like it and I walked it every single day. I still worked at the camp. I was watching the owner of the camp, her friends’, and neighbors’. So it just really spread.

Then when I moved to Indy, I took a job where I was actually using my degree. But I decided real fast I did not want to work in the corporate world. I did not like it. I just felt like it was just tedious and I was tired of dealing with nonsense from coworkers. I just did not care for it. I was getting up early, making no money.  I just thought if I’m going to really invest my time, my heart into something, I want it to pay off in the end. Whether it is just like a sense of accomplishment. I think just generally being happy. I think just getting up in the morning and not having that feeling of, “Oh, I do not want to go to work today.” Like with this job I don’t feel like that ever. I’m happy.  I get to go and play with dogs all day. I get to meet people when I’m out walking. Even everybody in the neighborhood knows who I am.  Like this restaurant here, they will basically give me my lunch everyday. It’s the best feeling ever. I love it. It’s just great. It’s a fun job. So that is how I ended up dog walking.

TVW: What's the average distance that you walk the dogs?

AB: Some dogs really need a lot of exercise and they like to run. So if I am running with the dogs twenty minutes straight, we’re going anywhere from two to three miles sometimes. Little dogs like Max; we don’t walk as far – six, seven blocks. I think ten blocks is a mile. I think that’s usually how it works. I would say a minimum of ten miles a day, a maximum of 15, 16. It depends.

TVW: DO you go to the owner’s house and get their keys?

AB: Generally, the first time we meet, we’ll determine whether I’m a good fit for them, if they’d like me to walk their dog. At that time I give them an application to fill out. They’ll also put a schedule together on how often they want me to walk their dog, things like that.

We’ll then have a second meeting where they’ll give me a key or any garage passes or anything like that they want me to have – parking pass, like downtown. It’s obviously difficult to find some places to park, so they’ll provide me with a parking pass if they have to do so. I’ll have a key to their home, go in and walk them on whatever schedule they selected.

TVW: Who is this doggie with you?

AB: This is Max. Max came from Chicago. His owners are a young couple. They work here in the city. So it works out really well.

TVW: Can you tell me about payment, how you think it’s different than a lot of businesses?

AB: You know most businesses, once a service is provided, people tend to pay them right away. With mine, the system is a little bit different. I invoice every two weeks. For instance, I’ll walk Max from June 1 to June 15 and then he is going to get invoiced on the fifteenth.

His owner will then have like seven days to pay the invoice. There have been times where I have walked dogs and I’ll leave and invoice and they won’t pay. I build a relationship up with these dogs, so I’m going to keep walking these dogs, until they tell me they don’t need me anymore, trusting they are still going to be paying me. They have that seven days where they can still pay. Sometimes, like a month has passed and they’ll say, “Oh I’ll pay you. I’ll pay you. I’ll pay you.”  Then they will just move away. So then I will have worked for a whole month and not have a paycheck for that.  Most people will pay.

I mean, it is about trusting that you are going to pay you.  And then I think at the same time, “Of course this person is going t pay me. I have a key to their home. Why wouldn’t they pay me?”  I think people just don’t think about it sometimes. There’s no consequences.

I’m obviously not going to come after anything. It’s not like they are paying a light bill where all of sudden their power is going to get shut off. It’s like, these dogs, I care about them. They are physical creatures. I just feel like I want them to be taken care of basically. So I’m going to keep walking them until their owners tell me they don’t need me to and trust that they are going to be paying me for that service. It’s kind of different.

TVW: What do you charge?

AB: A typical group walk – that’s five dogs in one walk – it’s $13 per dog. If there are two dogs in the home then it’s $15. It basically goes up a couple of bucks for each additional pet. A solo walk is 30 minutes and it’s $25. However, it’s really based upon how often the dogs need walked. Max gets walked everyday, so he has a really great rate. It really just depends on what the client’s needing.

TVW: You also do pet sitting?

AB: Yes I do pet sitting. That is a little bit different. That is generally $40 a night. That would require me going into your home, staying overnight. Your dog would get a minimum of three walks. They get food and water, plants watered. Whatever you would need I would be there to provide that. I also just opened a doggie daycare to provide that service. It’s the same rate. It’s $40 to bring your dog to the doggie daycare and stay overnight.