How much to walk a neighbors dog?

I'd give her $20 a week.

At 15 I got a quarter a week to take out my neighbors trash, 3 times a week on trash day, if that is any help.

That would be about 2 bucks in todays money I guess... but for a 50cents I could see 2 cowboy/sci-fi movies and 30 cartoons and stay on for the regular feature in the afternoon. All in an airconditioned movie house that sat 500+.

Someone said $20 per week. Good answer.

That would be about a 15-20 minute job, so $20 per week seems fair. It is a pretty high wage for an un-skilled job, but they are also paying for the convenience and dependability. If the dog walking is to allow them to work late, run errands, etc. instead of rushing home to let the dog out, then they are getting a deal at $20 per week. Plus, it saves them the time to do it themselves.

thanks for the advice

FW,

The woman who owns the dog lives in milwaukee and comutes to illinois for work. no idea why and no idea why she thought having a dog was a good idea, but she does and did.

She leaves the house about 6 am and returns about 7 pm.

Flagpole wrote: Holy crap, $20 a week!? Or $80 a month!? Or $1040 a year to walk a dog?! Damn! Good work if you can get it I suppose. Of course I would never pay for someone to walk my dog. Good Lord.

Flagpole wrote:

Holy crap, $20 a week!? Or $80 a month!? Or $1040 a year to walk a dog?! Damn! Good work if you can get it I suppose. Of course I would never pay for someone to walk my dog. Good Lord.

I pity your family

Of course the 15 y. o. girl can do the mile in 4:30 (yes, she will need to warm up prior to going over to the dog's house) x 4 days=18 minutes.

Sure, $20 is about right.

Timmy Jenkins wrote:

Flagpole wrote: Holy crap, $20 a week!? Or $80 a month!? Or $1040 a year to walk a dog?! Damn! Good work if you can get it I suppose. Of course I would never pay for someone to walk my dog. Good Lord.

Flagpole, would you walk your neighbor's dog 4x a week for a mile each time for $20 a week? Or, on a one-off basis, suppose your neighbor proposed, "I'll give you five dollars to walk my dog." Would you?

No, because I have higher education and skills that pay me real money, but if I were unemployed or uneducated I would consider it. If one of my kids could land a job walking a dog or two though for $20 a week, then I think that would be one sweet deal.

What I would do for my neighbor though is walk their dog for free if they had that need.

dogwalker wrote:

FW,

The woman who owns the dog lives in Milwaukee and commutes to Illinois for work. no idea why and no idea why she thought having a dog was a good idea, but she does and did.

She leaves the house about 6 am and returns about 7 pm.

Seems weird.

bloodsport wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

Holy crap, $20 a week!? Or $80 a month!? Or $1040 a year to walk a dog?! Damn! Good work if you can get it I suppose. Of course I would never pay for someone to walk my dog. Good Lord.

I pity your family

Why so brother?

Flagpole - you're one of us.

Flagpole wrote: Holy crap, $20 a week!? Or $80 a month!? Or $1040 a year to walk a dog?! Damn! Good work if you can get it I suppose. Of course I would never pay for someone to walk my dog. Good Lord.

Timmy Jenkins wrote: Flagpole, would you walk your neighbor's dog 4x a week for a mile each time for $20 a week? Or, on a one-off basis, suppose your neighbor proposed, "I'll give you five dollars to walk my dog." Would you?

Flagpole wrote: No, because I have higher education and skills that pay me real money, but if I were unemployed or uneducated I would consider it. If one of my kids could land a job walking a dog or two though for $20 a week, then I think that would be one sweet deal.

The simplistic contradiction, though, is that strictly financially, turning down the $5 to walk someone else's dog is virtually exactly equivalent to paying someone $5 to walk your own.

Disregarding any emotional factors, by turning down the $5 to walk the neighbor's dog, you are saying that your time is more valuable than the $5. By the same consideration, you should be willing to pay $5 to someone to walk your dog. Why the difference?

If I may chime in on this conversation......

Walking your own dog is different than walking someone else's dog, or having someone walk your dog. Since you supposedly know your own dog the best, and the dog supposedly knows you the best, there is some pride and joy to your relationship, and you want to keep your dog happy and healthy. Time and money have less importance when relationships are involved, even if it is with your pet dog.

The situation that started this whole conversation had an unsuspected twist when we learned that the dog owner is gone 13 hours per day. The dog walker will soon becoame that dog's best friend because she will be the one who gives the poor thing its long awaited relief. The dog will look forward to seeing the dog walker more than the owner. The owner locks up the dog and goes away. The dog walker provides relief.

Since we learned that the dog walking is a matter of necessity, not convenience, the price should go up accordingly. The dog walker MUST be there daily, it is not an option. Therefore the dog walker can not make any other plans herself during that time frame. With that in mind, the rate should go up.

The question of why the comuter dog owner even has a dog was already already addressed by the original poster. That is the real problem here.

You want to keep it strictly financial, but that's not all that goes into my consideration here. If I own a dog (and I do), I ought to be willing if physically able to walk the dog myself (and I do), and I should WANT to walk my own dog as there is an owner-pet relationship there. Also, you are correct, $5 to walk a neighbor's dog isn't worth my time, but it WOULD be worth it for someone who isn't at my income level.

Long view wrote:

I'd give her $20 a week.

This is quite a bargain. A professional dog walker will charge $15-20 per walk.

For example:

I pay my neighbor $5 a walk, we go to away football games and the dog needs to go out, so she gets a pee and a walk. So I think $20 a week is a good price.

Found this thread randomly googling to figure out what to pay a dog sitter when I have to go out of town.

Firstly, $20/week is fair for an unlicensed nonprofessional. I pay my neighbor $100/month for 3 days a week.

Secondly, I'd like to chime in on why people are so upset with the commuter? You don't know if she had the dog before the job or if her parent is sick or died and it's their dog, or whatever. It doesn't even matter. She works 4 days a week. She's doing the responsible thing by getting a dog walker. She has time after work and the 3 days/week she doesn't work to love this dog! As far as boredom, I work 3 days/week and I can tell you that on my days off I walk them in the morning, then they sleep from 10-4. Walk around the house a bit, look out the window, sometimes they want to walk again around 5, sometimes they take another nap. I doubt this routine is any different or stressful when I work.

My sister has a golden. The people who live below her can hear her walking around when she's up and they are always telling my sister that they don't hear her all day. Sometimes she doesn't even wake up when my sister comes home!

Dogs need love, food, water, shelter, and to go out. The rest of the time most of them (unless they're young or certain high energy breeds) just want to sleep in our beds or on the couch and look out the window for squirrels when we're gone. If someone has a job and wants a dog and has the means to meet that dogs needs adequately and sufficiently, I say we should judge a little less....especially considering how many shelter dogs are euthanized waiting for their forever homes.

The girl asked a question about rates, not about what you would do.