How to Start a Dog Walking or Pet Care Business in the UK

Why Dog Walking and Pet Care Is a Growing Business

The UK is a nation of animal lovers — there are roughly 12 million pet dogs in the country, and that number keeps climbing. With more people working longer hours or returning to offices after years of remote work, the demand for reliable dog walkers and pet sitters has never been higher.

Starting a dog walking or pet care business is one of the most accessible routes into self-employment. The startup costs are minimal, you get to spend your days with dogs (genuinely hard to beat), and there's real money to be made once you've built up a regular client base.

But like any business, you need to get the fundamentals right — especially the legal bits and the financial record keeping. Let's go through everything step by step.

Do You Need a Licence?

This is the question everyone asks first, and the answer is frustratingly British: it depends on your local council.

Some councils require an animal boarding licence if you're looking after dogs in your own home (pet sitting or doggy daycare). Others don't regulate dog walking at all. A few require specific licences for anyone caring for animals commercially.

The best approach is to contact your local council's licensing department directly and ask what applies in your area. The rules changed under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, which standardised some requirements — but implementation still varies.

What's universal is that you must comply with the Animal Welfare Act 2006. You have a legal duty of care to any animal in your charge, and negligence can result in prosecution.

How Many Dogs Can You Walk at Once?

There's no national legal limit, but most insurance policies cap you at four to six dogs at a time. Some local councils set their own limits. The RSPCA recommends a maximum of four. Be sensible — if you can't safely control the dogs, you're putting them (and yourself) at risk.

Insurance: Protect Yourself and the Dogs

You absolutely need insurance before you take your first paying walk. At minimum:

• Public liability insurance — covers you if a dog in your care injures someone, damages property, or causes a road accident
• Care, custody, and control cover — this is the big one. It covers you if a dog in your care is injured, becomes ill, escapes, or dies. Standard public liability usually excludes animals in your care, so you need this specifically
• Personal accident cover — dog walking involves physical activity in all weathers. Worth having

Specialist providers like Cliverton, Protectivity, and Pet Business Insurance offer combined policies from around £100-£200 per year. It's a small price for what could be a very expensive claim.

Registering as a Sole Trader

If you're earning money from dog walking or pet care, you need to register as a sole trader with HMRC. You should do this as soon as you start trading — or by 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you started.

Registration is free and takes about 10 minutes online. Once registered, you'll need to:

• File a Self Assessment tax return each year (by 31 January for the previous tax year)
• Pay Income Tax on your profits above the personal allowance (currently £12,570)
• Pay Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance on your profits — see our guide to NI for sole traders
• Submit quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital from April 2026 if your income exceeds the threshold

Allowable Expenses: What You Can Claim

Every legitimate business expense reduces your taxable profit. Dog walking might seem simple, but the expenses add up. You can typically claim:

• Dog treats and supplies — bags, leads, harnesses, water bowls, anything you provide for the dogs in your care
• Transport costs — this is usually your biggest expense. If you drive to collect and drop off dogs, you can claim mileage at 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles, then 25p per mile after that. For a full breakdown, see our expenses guide
• Insurance premiums — your full annual premium is deductible
• Marketing — website, business cards, flyers, social media advertising
• Phone costs — the business proportion of your mobile bill (you're constantly texting and calling clients)
• Clothing — branded uniforms with your business logo. General outdoor clothing doesn't qualify, even if you only wear it for work
• Training and qualifications — pet first aid courses, canine behaviour courses, any CPD
• Software and apps — booking systems, accounting software, route planning tools
• Home office costs — if you do admin, invoicing, and scheduling from home, you can claim a proportion. Our working from home tax relief guide explains both methods

Mileage: Your Secret Weapon

For most dog walkers, mileage is the single biggest expense claim. If you're driving between 5-8 client pickups and drop-offs per day, those miles add up fast.

Keep a log of every business trip — date, destination, purpose, and miles driven. At 45p per mile, a dog walker driving 50 miles a day, five days a week, could claim over £5,000 per year in mileage alone. That's a significant tax saving.

The simplified mileage rate covers fuel, insurance, road tax, MOT, and wear and tear — so you can't claim those separately. But you can claim parking fees and congestion charges on top of the mileage rate.

Managing Bookings and Payments

As your client base grows, keeping track of who's booked for when — and who's paid — becomes critical. There are a few approaches:

• Dedicated pet business apps — tools like Time To Pet, Pet Sitter Plus, or Pawshake handle bookings, invoicing, and client communication
• Simple scheduling — Google Calendar or a booking link (Calendly) works fine when you're starting out
• Payment collection — bank transfers are cleanest for record keeping. If you use a payment app, make sure you can easily export your transaction history

Whatever system you use, make sure you can match every payment to a specific client and service. This makes your bookkeeping dramatically easier — and it's what HMRC expects under digital record keeping requirements.

Cash vs Card Payments and Record Keeping

Let's talk about cash. Some pet care clients will want to pay in cash — left under the doormat, handed over at pickup, or posted through your letterbox.

You must record all cash payments. HMRC doesn't care whether money arrives in your bank account or your back pocket — it's all taxable income. Failing to declare cash income is tax evasion, and HMRC has sophisticated ways of identifying businesses that appear to earn less than they should.

The simplest approach is to bank all cash payments and record them against the correct client. If a client pays you £60 in cash for the week, note it down, bank it, and it'll appear in your records alongside your card and transfer payments.

This is one reason we built Accounted to work with WhatsApp. When a client hands you cash between walks, you can message Penny straight away — "Mrs Henderson paid £60 cash for this week's walks" — and it's recorded instantly. No waiting until you get home. No forgetting. No scribbling on the back of your hand.

Pricing Your Services

Dog walking rates vary by location, but here's a typical range:

• Solo walk (30 mins): £10-£15
• Solo walk (60 mins): £15-£25
• Group walk (60 mins): £10-£18 per dog
• Pet sitting (per day): £25-£45
• Overnight stay: £35-£60
• Home visits (cats, small pets): £8-£15 per visit

London and the South East tend to be at the higher end, naturally. Don't undercharge — factor in your travel time, fuel, insurance, and the fact that this is your livelihood, not a hobby.

As your income grows, keep an eye on the VAT registration threshold. If your turnover exceeds £90,000 in a rolling 12-month period, you'll need to register for VAT. Most dog walkers won't hit this, but those running larger operations with multiple walkers might.

Keeping It Simple with WhatsApp Bookkeeping

Dog walking is a brilliantly hands-on job — which means you're almost never at a desk. Your bookkeeping needs to fit around your actual day, not the other way around.

With Accounted, you can manage your entire financial record keeping from your phone. Connect your bank account, and Penny automatically categorises your income and expenses. Snap a receipt for dog treats at Pets at Home and WhatsApp it to Penny — she reads it, categorises it, and stores it. Log your mileage by telling Penny where you drove today.

When your quarterly MTD submission is due, everything's already sorted. No weekend spent catching up on three months of paperwork. No penalty notices from HMRC. Just a quick review and submit.

You got into this because you love dogs. We'll handle the numbers.

Ready to simplify your bookkeeping? Try Accounted free for 14 days →

Related Reading

• Limited Company Expenses: What Directors Can Claim in 2025/26
• Tax Guide for Freelance Web Developers and Designers

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Accounted is built for UK sole traders — bookkeeping, tax, and MTD compliance in one place. See how it works →