Hot off the press!...Monty has been given the coveted Dog of the Month award for November 2020.  Monty is a 5 year old Burnese Mountain Dog and he lives very near Coastal Dog Walkers HQ.  He's a gentle giant and for his size he's very good on the lead.  He's been with us for a couple of months now, he's settled in well and has met a lot of the other dogs we walk.  Here is is with some of his friends on recent trips out.

Monty's owners approached us to help him socialise and make new friends in the local area.  Monty's owners had only had him in their lives for a short while as he was rehomed with them via the Dogs Trust, he is a confident, happy boy who's eager to please and like a lot of dogs he does love a treat, cheese being a particular favourite.  I shall present him with his certificate and cheese based prize when I see him next week.  Well done Monty!

I am very pleased to announce that young Vinnie has won the coveted Dog of the Month Comp this month.

Vinnie is almost 11 months old now and he's been with us since he was around 16 weeks old.  It was great to get him on the books as a young puppy as we did get a chance pre lockdown to start to introduce him to a few of our older, more sensible dogs.  Hopefully this helped Vinnie get used to other dogs and now you can put him with any dog, big or small and he just fits right in.

As you can see he's a Bedlington Terrier.  He has a lovely nature and for his age is very sensible as long as you don't take him to the beach!  The beach sends him instantly hyperactive and he jjust wants to be off runing around having fun - who can blame him, I feel the same way myself about the beach!

Well done Vinnie....I shall fetch you your prize and certificate next week.

I am very pleased to announce that young Mousey has won the Dog of the Month contest for August 2020.

As you can see she's a brindle whippet and she's been with us for a just a couple of months, although she's a new dog to us her owner has used us before as they owned Dan the greyhound whowe walked for ages. 

I know her owner won't beleive me but Mouse is the most sensible puppy we've ever had! - we made sure she was socialised early with other dogs and had lots of interactions with them even before she was able to join them properly on pack walks.  Her owner is experienced with dogs too and she has put lots of time in with Mouse in order to train her and keep her mentally stimulated.  All in all Mouse has had a great start in life and we hope to have her in our pack for many years to come.

Well done little Mousey :)

I've pretty much avoided wanging on about Coronavirus on my website and Social Media Pages but as I have a spare half hour I thought I would bring it up to brighten everyone's day!  So anyway there's this thing called Coronavirus that's been kicking around for a while now, have you heard of it?   I'm being irreverent of course because a/ that's just the type of guy I am and b/ if you didn't laugh you'd cry as it has without doubt impacted everyone's life over the past 6 months or so.  Personally I'm now way past panicking about it and I will continue to adhere to the rules and just try and get on with things as best I can.

When we first locked down my thoughts were basically to roll with lockdown and deal with the potential financial mess later on.  I still stand by that as you can't put a price on everyone's health and that has to be the priority.  However I do think I under estimated just how long lockdown would go on for and just how long the ripple effect of lockdown would continue to affect business.

Like a lot of businesses we essentially put the shutters down and mothballed everything for about 8 weeks or so from the end of March until whenever Boris began to ease the restrictions.  I think we've been back to work for about 12 weeks now but we are by no means back to being as busy as we were going into 2020.  12 weeks on and I'm essentially back to being a one man band, I have struggled to find any work for my trusted helpers Lynne, Graeme and Keith - they have had bits and pieces of work but business is 60% to 70% down every single week over the past 3 months and the work just isn't there to keep them going at this time.  They all know I’m gutted about that and I am still hopeful that I can get back to somewhere near full capacity and find work for all of them soon.  However I have revised my hopes and very much lowered my expectations for the business for the rest of this year.

Initially I optimistically thought things would magically return to pre-Covid levels once the restictions eased, now I need to accept that there will be a lot of rebuilding to do.  I'm actually one of the lucky ones as lots of businesses will have gone under never to return and I feel that as of now things have probably bottomed out and come September I'll get my teachers dogs back and come November the Furlough scheme will end and hopefully that means the rest of my paused customers will return.  What we obviously haven't had in the past few months is much in the way of enquiries, again I am hopeful that will change as we head nearer to the end of Furlough - I have and will try to remain positive and I stand by my initial thought back in March that everyone's health has to take priority and we'd pick up the financial pieces later on.

I've put a lot of energy into Coastal Dog Walkers since I started the business in 2015 and have made lots of friends, both canine and human!  I am very proud of how we do things - we didn't just follow the How To Start a Dog Walking Business formula and have took a different path from most other dog walking companies;  All of our dogs are walked on the lead at all times, our pack sizes remain small, we don't pile all of the dogs into a van and release them onto the nearest stretch of beach.  All of our dogs benefit hugely from this and all of our customers will tell you that they love what we do and they have happier, healthier, more confident dogs that have great social skills and are generally better on the lead than they used to be.

Stay safe y'all.

John :)
​coastal Dog Walkers

When we went into Lockdown at the end of March I suspended our Dog of the Month competition as we wouldn't actually be doing a lot of walking for quite some time.  Now we've all come through Lockdown and we've been back to work for a number of weeks I thought it was a good time to bring back the Dog of the Month competition.

So without further ado the winner for July 2020 is the lovely Skye.

We have been walking Skye since November of last year and as you can see she's a gorgeous greyhound aged about 7/8 years.

Skye has genuinely been fantastic since day one.  Her owners were very lucky that she settled in as quickly as she did as not only was Skye new to us but she was a new dog for them too, in fact they'd only had her for a few days before we began to help out with her walks whilst they were at the day job.

Skye is arguably the most laid back dog I have ever met, she's happy in the company of any other dog, she's great with everyone she meets and nothing seems to bother her.  I've probably her her out with every dog we currently walk and she's brilliant with all of them. She's always very excited to see us when we collect her and is a pleasure to walk as her lead work is first class.

Her owners have work commitments elsewhere so Skye is taking a break from us for a while but I hope to see her again when she returns as she's welcome back anytime.

When I started Coastal Dog Walkers back in 2015 I looked around to see how other Dog Walkers did it, not to copy anyone but to get an idea for best practices and in some cases to see what not to do.  If I was to follow the How To Become a Dog Walker school of thought it very much looked to me at the time like I would have to buy a van and operate my business over quite a large area.  This all meant I would be on the road a lot and it would mean customers dog's (I didn't even have any of these at the time)  would be in the van for what i considered an unacceptable amount of time.  Hmmm I thought, there has to be another way....

My solution was to build my business slowly by imposing a strict geographical 'zone' to work within.  I'd say no to any potential new customers outside that zone.  This was dificult beacuse I kept getting enquiries from just a mile or 2 outside my work area and although it was counter intuative to turn work away that's exactly what I did.   Slowly I did get some customers within my operational area and I have more or less stuck to that ethos since then only expanding my area when I was able to take on some helpers after a couple of years.  

I still see to this day new dog walkers who take on work anywhere they can get it and will travel miles out of their way chasing that next customer.  They and their dogs must be forever on the road driving to be able to collect dogs for a group walk and that's fine for them but that's not the way I wanted to do things.

At this point in time, July 2020 we cover a small part of North Shields, all of Tynemouth, all of Cullercoats and a small part of Whitley Bay.  It's not set in stone and we may expand again in the future but only if I have the staff to cover any new areas. 

So the reason our dog walking area is small is this:  We don't want your dogs to be stuck in a van when they could be getting walked!  And 6 years in and I still haven't even got a van but that's a blog for another day!

John
​Coastal Dog Walkers

Winner for Feb 2020 (Last one before lockdown)

Mr Oscar is our latest winner of our Dog of the Month competition!

He's a very lovable Staffy from Tynemouth and we've had the pleasure of walking him for almost 6 months now.  He was rehomed by his owner a few months before we took him on as a walking client and we started helping out when work commitments got in the way of Oscars walks!

He's a lovely, lovely boy and we all love him dearly, the other dogs he's regularly walked with love him too.  He's literally no bother whatsoever, and he doesn't even mind when the younger dogs decide they want to play and mess about.  Oscar remains calm and relaxed in all situations.  To be fair he does get a little excited if he sees a cat but it's fairly low level stuff, cats aside he's a very chilled out dog.

Give him a follow over on Instagram. He's @mr_oscar_the_carrot_eater

If like us you happen to own a dog that is reactive then you probably keep your dog on the lead when you’re outdoors.  Our own dog, Buzz isn’t ever allowed off the lead on walks as he’s a reactive dog.  Or he was…read on to find out just how much he’s improved.
 
We brought Buzz home in July of 2016 and although he was initially OK, he very quickly turned to the dark side and started reacting at any and every dog he spotted.  He was ‘that’ dog that rages from the back of the sofa looking out of the living room window should another dog dare to come into view.  On walks he would react to another dog on the street even it was 50 yards from us.  And god help you if he seen a cat.
 
We did wonder what the hell we’d brought home from the RSPCA.  We were told that Buzz was a Lurcher cross.  Quite quickly we were pretty sure he was crossed with the Tasmanian Devil.
 
I would like to say though that he was a brilliant dog at home.  He settled in immediately and there wasn’t a hint of badness in him, indoors there were no negatives, he was a lovely dog.  Take him outside though and he’d turn into what the experts call ‘a pain the in arse’.
 
He was just a complete nightmare; I can’t emphasise strongly enough how stressful it was taking him for a walk.  Whenever we’d go out with him there would be multiple highly charged incidents.  He’d see a dog and he’d lose the plot.
 
He’d be tense throughout the whole walk; his lead work was horrific as he’d be pulling this way and that looking for other dogs and then once he had a dog in his sights he’d go nuclear.  There was lots of lunging and barking and his behaviour was just horrendous.

Last July I received an enquiry to walk a lurcher called Dan and made the necessary arrangements to visit Dan's owner to be able to assess Dan's suitability for pack walks and take them through all the relevant paperwork etc.  All in all, this looked like a run of the mill enquiry and obviously I hoped it would go well and we would be able to walk the dog.  It did go well and we took Dan on and I'm pleased to say we have been walking him since then.

​It transpired that the reason we were now walking Dan was because one of his owners had unfortunately had a heart attack and the rest of the family had rallied around to help out with Dan but work commitments innevitably came into play.  It was felt that  if Dan could be walked by a professional Tynemouth dog walker then that would at least take that responsibility off their collective plate.

At this time of year we’re always busy with new enquires, Christmas it seems is a peak period for rehoming a dog or bringing a new puppy into your life.
 
A lot of us take time off at over the festive period, families come to visit and generally there are more friends and family around to pitch in and help look after the new hound.  Then January kicks in, your folks go home, your friends go back to work, you have to face the reality of having a job and suddenly your neighbour isn’t so keen to help walk the dog!  It dawns on you that you need help but just how do you choose a dog walker?
 
As a professional North Shields dog walker with 6 years experience I have compiled a rough guide to choosing the right dog walker for you.  It’s not really in any order, feel free to skip past bits that aren’t relevant to you.

• On the face of it all dog walking companies do the same thing – they all walk dogs.  Well yes that’s true but it may suit you to use a company that only walks one dog at a time or a walker who can walk your dog in the evening if you’re a shift worker.  If you have specific requirements it’s quite easy to rule a lot of companies out by explaining exactly what you’re looking for.  They’ll soon tell you if they can’t accommodate you.

 

• A personal recommendation from a friend is always a good route to finding a dog walker but only if your friend has had first-hand experience, i.e. they have actually used their services.  Be wary if your pal is recommending someone they vaguely know from Facebook who’s just decided they want to walk dogs so they’ve set up a Facebook page and are hoping that work will find them.  In my experience a lot of these types won’t be trading in 3 to 6 months’ time and you’ll be back to square one.

• Ask for references.  Specifically ask to speak to a current customer.  I do that all the time as my customers are my best advert and are always happy to help out.

• Check for online reviews, most companies use Google Reviews or something similar.  Here are our up to date Google Reviews.

 

• Check how long the business has been trading.  I’m reluctant to say don’t go with anyone who’s just starting out as I too was in that position back in 2015 but to be fair you’d be safer going with someone with a track record as it’s more likely they’re in it for the long haul.  As a dog walker in North Shields I have seen countless new companies spring up and then disappear in the space of just a few short months.

 

• Is the company a ‘one-man band’?  If so, what contingency plan do they have in place if they’re sick or go on holiday at some point in the future.

 

• How large an area do they operate in?  Trust me in this case smaller is better!  You really don’t want to use a firm who covers vast distances as they’ll spend a lot of time driving just to collect the dogs before any walking begins.

 

• Trust your gut.  If when meeting your potential new dog walker you just don’t really click with them then keep looking.  You are potentially entering into an arrangement that lasts longer than a lot of marriages and you have to be able to get on with the person that will be looking after your beloved pooch.

• Are they competitively priced?  Please note I have have not suggested 'are they the cheapest?' A quick look online will show you that the majority of dogs walkers in our area a charging a similar price, some a little more, some a little less.  Just avoid the extremes.  If it looks cheap it may mean they aren't insured or cut corners elsewhere, if it's too expensive then avoid them. as paying more doesn't necessarily equate to a better service.

 

• Your dog also has a say in this.  If your dog doesn’t seem to gel with the person you meet then maybe it's best to keep looking.  This happened to me once, I met the owner and the dog, everything was going fine, we had a nice chat and I went to take the dog out for a test walk and the dog just refused to go out with me.  He remained rooted to the spot and after a few minutes cajoling him I decided that it was best to pass on the details of another walker rather than potentially stress the dog out – at this point the owner said ‘oh yeah he doesn’t really like men all that much’.  I guess you can’t win ‘em all!

Coastal Dog Walkers is a North Shields based professional dog walking business.  We have had the pleasure of walking dogs in Tynemouth, North Shields, Cullercoats and Whitley Bay since 2015.  For more information please call or text on 07725041572

Thanks for reading!
​
John
Coastal Dog Walkers, January 2020