We can’t stress to you enough how important insurance is when it comes to working with animals. As much as we love our pets, they have mood swings just like us, and this means they can be unpredictable.
When you’re out in public with other people’s pets, as you will be most of the time as a dog walker, you need to make sure you and your clients are protected in the event of any unfortunate incidents.
Taking out appropriate business insurance will help you to mitigate any risk associated with your dog walking business.
These are the main type of insurances you need to have in place:
- Public liability insurance – This will help protect you against any third party claims against you.
- Professional Indemnity Insurance – This will cover you against any claims made by clients for loss or damage due to negligent advice or services.
- Accidents and injury insurance – This will help protect you against the loss of, or injury to a dog in your care. This does not include your own pets.
- Personal accident insurance – This will cover you if you had an accident or were injured while at work. For example if you were bitten by a dog you were walking and you needed help covering medical bills or you were unable to work for a while.
- Animal illness cover – This will cover you if a dog falls ill or has an accident whilst in your care.
- Employers liability insurance – If you hire an employee, you must have this kind of insurance in case an accident or injury were to occur whilst on the job. Even if you have an unpaid volunteer helping you, you still legally have to have this insurance.
There are plenty of insurance companies to choose from in the UK market. We recommend conducting a simple search for ‘Dog walker insurance’ or for each of the stated insurance types above. You can use insurance comparisons sites to help you compare prices and to help you get the best deal.