Every serious dog walker offers a first visit, free, at your home. Owners often treat it as a formality and it is the most useful thirty minutes in the whole relationship. It is the only chance you get to watch a professional handle your dog before your dog is alone with them, and the only chance they get to decide honestly whether they can do a good job for you.
Here is what a properly run one contains, so you can judge the one you are offered.
Before the visit
A professional will already have asked a few things by message: your address and area, your dog's breed, age and sex, what you are looking for, and which days. If they have not asked anything at all, that tells you something before anyone has met.
Have ready: your vaccination record, your vet's details, your insurance information, and a note of anything unusual about your dog. Think in advance about what you actually need, because "a walk sometimes" is harder to plan around than "Monday to Thursday at one o'clock".
The first ten minutes: watch the dog, not the person
The conversation matters less than the handling. A good handler comes in calmly, ignores the dog at first, lets it approach in its own time, and does not reach over its head. They notice the moment your dog disengages and give it space. They talk to you while staying aware of the animal.
What should worry you: someone who crouches down and grabs at the dog immediately, who insists on a greeting from a dog that has moved away, who tells you your dog is being dominant, or who does not look at the dog at all.
Your dog does not have to love the visitor. A polite investigation followed by losing interest is the ideal outcome.
What should be asked about your dog
- Age, breed, neutered or not, and any medical history
- Vaccination status and parasite prevention
- Medication: what, when, how it is given
- Food: what, how much, at what times, and what is forbidden
- Behaviour with other dogs, with children, with strangers, with cyclists
- Any bite history, and any resource guarding
- What frightens the dog, and what it does when frightened
- The equipment you use, and where the lead and harness are kept
- Recall, and whether off lead is permitted at all
- The routine you want kept, including toilet habits
Someone who will hold your keys and be alone in your home and does not ask most of these has not thought the job through.
What you should be asking
- Do you carry professional liability insurance, and can I see the certificate?
- What is the maximum group size, and is my dog ever in one?
- Who actually turns up: you every time, or a colleague some days?
- How are keys recorded, stored and returned?
- What is the procedure if my dog is injured and you cannot reach me?
- What do you send me after each visit, and how quickly?
- What is the cancellation policy, in both directions?
- What is the arrangement when you are unwell or away?
- Under what circumstances would you say no to my dog?
The practical walk-through
A proper visit includes the boring logistics, and they are what makes the first real booking uneventful. Which entrance and which lift. Where the lead and harness live. Where the food is and how much. Where the towels are for wet days. Which doors stay closed. What to do about post and deliveries. Whether anyone else has access to the flat, such as a cleaner or a concierge, and whether they know a walker will be coming.
Then the route: where you normally walk, what you avoid, which crossings the dog finds difficult, and which neighbours prefer not to meet a dog in the lift.
Paperwork, signed before the first booking
Three documents, at minimum. A service agreement setting out what is booked, what it costs, cancellation terms and how payment works. A veterinary authorisation, naming your practice, allowing treatment and naming a second contact who can decide if you are unreachable. And a key receipt, recording how many keys or badges were handed over, on what date, and how they are stored, which should be under a code rather than your name and address.
Anyone taking a key without a receipt is telling you how the rest of the administration works.
What should not happen
Nothing should be booked, paid or committed on the day. The visit exists so that both sides can think about it afterwards. Pressure to sign, a discount that expires this evening, or a first walk offered there and then are all reasons to slow down.
Equally, a professional may decline. A full schedule on your days, an area they cannot serve on time, a bite history they will not take on, or a dog of a breed on the legal dangerous-dog list that they do not feel able to handle are all legitimate. Hearing a clear no about something is the strongest evidence you will get that the yes means something.
After the visit
Book one walk before you book a month. Read the report that evening and compare it with what you would have seen yourself: was the timing accurate, does the route match what you agreed, is there an observation in it you had not noticed. Then look at your dog. A dog that settles calmly an hour later had a good walk, whatever the photograph shows.
At PAWLY the meet & greet takes thirty to forty-five minutes, at your home, free, and nothing is booked on the day. It ends with the routine written down, the agreement and the veterinary authorisation signed, and the keys recorded, or with an honest answer that I am not the right fit for your dog.
General information for dog owners in Luxembourg, not veterinary or legal advice. For your own dog, ask your vet, a qualified behaviourist or your commune. How this journal is written and checked.
Away from your dog all day?
PAWLY provides individual dog walks, home visits and overnight care in your own home, across Luxembourg City. Same walker every time, written report after every visit.
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