An owner books a walker for a two year old spaniel. The enquiry mentions the breed, the postcode and the days required.
On the first group walk the dog goes through a hedge after a deer, does not come back for forty minutes, and the walker is responsible for five other animals in the meantime.
1. Understand what is actually being taken on
Custody of somebody's animal, on public land, unsupervised, with legal responsibility for what it does. That is a considerable undertaking and the intake should reflect it.
2. Ask about recall honestly
Not whether the dog has good recall. What happens when it sees another dog, a runner, a cyclist, a squirrel or livestock. Owners overestimate this consistently.
3. Ask about behaviour with other dogs
Specifically, including whether it has ever been in a fight. A group walk is the wrong place to find out.
4. Ask about behaviour with people
Nervousness, guarding, reactions to children or to people in uniform. The walker is responsible for anybody the dog encounters.
5. Ask directly about bite history
The one question that cannot be skipped. Whether the dog has ever made contact with skin, and what happened.
6. Ask about health and medication
Joint problems, heart conditions, recent surgery, medication and anything affecting what the dog can do. Also what to do in an emergency.
7. Establish the veterinary arrangements
Which practice, authority to seek treatment, insurance details and a cost limit. This needs settling before anything goes wrong.
8. Ask what the dog wears on a walk
Whether the fitting can be slipped, whether the lead is sound and whether a tag with current details is attached. The walker is the one holding the other end, and equipment that fails on a busy road is not a detail.
9. Settle the access arrangements
Keys, alarm codes, where the dog is kept, other animals in the house and whether anybody else will be there. Key handling is a security responsibility.
10. Agree what the walk actually is
Solo or group, duration, on or off lead, where, and whether the dog will come back muddy. Expectations here differ more than owners realise.
11. Insist on a meeting first
Always. It reveals what the enquiry did not, it lets the dog meet you, and it gives you a chance to decline politely.
12. Be willing to say no
Some dogs are unsuitable for a group and some for any walker. Saying so is a professional judgement, not a lost customer.
13. Carry the right insurance and say so
Owners are entrusting an animal to you, and the credentials that matter are the ones described in insurance, qualification and accreditation questions.
14. Route the training cases correctly
An owner whose dog cannot be walked safely needs training rather than walking, which is the routing in group class versus private session questions.
15. Keep the recurring booking simple
Walking is a standing arrangement, and changes, holidays and extra days should be easy to manage, in the way described in service booking enquiries for dealer groups.
16. Collect all of it at enquiry
An assistant that asks about recall, behaviour with dogs and people, bite history, health, vet details and access produces an intake that a meeting can confirm rather than discover. That is the pattern in ai receptionist pet services. See pricing, run the numbers on the chatbot ROI calculator, and the sector view sits under pet services.