Dog Walking and Pet Sitting for Professionals

Introduction

The demand for dog walking and pet sitting services is growing rapidly. This course will provide you with the knowledge, skills, and understanding you need to build your own dog walking and pet sitting business.

In this course, you will learn about:

• The roles and responsibilities of a dog walker and pet sitter
• The law and legislation governing dog walking and pet sitting
• Best practices for providing dog walking and pet sitting services
• How to operate a small animal business
• How to establish effective marketing and financial planning

Successful qualification will also help you demonstrate to potential customers that you take your responsibilities seriously and the formal qualification will help you to stand out from other ‘dog walkers’ who might not have formal qualifications.

Learning objectives

Unit 1 Dog Walking & Pet Sitting for Professionals

• Know and understand the roles and responsibilities of a professional dog walker and pet sitter.
• Understand how to greet new clients, establish services required and record key client and animal details.
• Know and understand how to minimise risks working as a dog walker or pet sitter.
• Know and understand the requirements of current legislation and codes of practice for dog walking and pet sitting including transportation of animals.
• Know and understand a variety of breeds and behaviours typical to their breed group.
• Know and understand how to care for small animals that may require a pet sitting service.
• Know and understand how to walk and control a dog.
• Know and understand appropriate grouping and separation of dogs.
• Know and understand potential hazards that may be experienced whilst in a small animal business.
• Be able to observe and record behaviour demonstrated by a dog, when working as a dog walker or pet sitter.
• Be able to carry out effective dog walking activities.

Unit 2 Planning the Operation of a Small Animal Business

• Understand the fundamental requirements of setting up a small animal business.
• Understand the role of marketing in a small canine business.
• Understand the financial requirements of running a small animal business.

Qualification information

Your Level 3 Award in Dog Walking & Pet Sitting for Professionals helps to demonstrate your formal qualification in the role and your commitment to excellence.

With this qualification, you’ll be building on firm foundations in growing your dog walking and pet sitting business and evidencing your commitment to potential customers as a canine professional.

Who is the course for?

This regulated qualification is for anyone who works with dogs – particularly in these settings:

• Dog boarding
• Dog day care
• Dog breeding
• Dog walking
• Dog trainer/behaviourist
• Dog grooming
• Pet sitting

You do not need any prior knowledge or qualifications to study for this qualification, although some experience or related knowledge will be advantageous.

Assignments and assessments

Learning style and content
This course is a blend of self-paced online learning, self-study recommended resources and research, video seminars, videos, ‘podcasts’, elearning, Graphics/diagrams, multiple answers and short essay assignments.

Special consideration is provided for those requiring additional learning support (if you require additional learning support it is essential you advise us when you complete and submit your course registration form).

Assessments
Successful achievement is by a Learner presenting a portfolio of evidence that meets the assessment criteria.

Assessments require desk research from the study resources provided to assist the Learner in writing short responses including diagrams, illustrations, tables and bullet points as necessary within two workbooks as well as recording and submitting video clips to evidence best and appropriate practice working with dogs.

An assessment might typically ask the Learner to ‘Explain’ or ‘Describe’ a specific topic or situation, to avoid plagiarism and to provide citation references in order to support the Learner’s response.

Self-Evaluation
At the end of the course, each learner is asked to complete a reflective self-evaluation of their learning experience and personal growth.

Pass/Refer
The course is taught against a prescriptive syllabus and the learner is required to evidence their understanding and application of the syllabus.

Passing the course

To achieve your qualification certificate, the Learner must successfully pass both workbooks in the first part, and successfully complete a ‘live video’ question and answer assessment by their tutor.

Every section submitted is assessed as either a Pass or Refer. A Learner is required to ultimately achieve a Pass for every component. Refers – or ‘Passes in Waiting’ as we like to call them, are hopefully few and far between. If a workbook receives a ‘Refer’, the learner has two complimentary ‘resits’ across the course. Additional ‘resits’ are charged at £25 per resit to cover the additional admin costs. If a Learner is unable to complete the course within the stipulated time frame, an extension may be granted but this will incur a re-registration fee.

Certification
Once the two course workbooks and the ‘live video’ assessment have been successfully completed, the Learner’s assessment responses are submitted for independent quality validation against the regulatory framework. And once validated, a certificate is issued to the learner. To manage expectations, this can take approximately 10 weeks.

Why Choose Our Course

The course offers the potential for an Industry-accredited and Ofqual regulated qualification that is a bedrock for any dog walking and pet sitting professional.

We provide experienced and knowledgeable tutors – education professionals who are also licensed canine practitioners.         

The comprehensive course content includes a range of mixed media to keep your learning journey interesting and to cater for different learning styles.                                                                                                                             

Our convenient online training platform lets you study anywhere, any place. 

Unleashing Your Potential: Expert-led Training by Licensed Pet Care Professionals

Course overview

Level: Level 3 Award
Credit Value: 2 Credits
Guided Learning Hours: 12 hours
Total Qualification Time: 20 hours
Course: Online, 2 Units, 2 workbooks
Course starts: Immediate online access
Access: 2-year access including 6 months to complete the course from your course registration
Entry requirements: Learners should be aged 16 or above and be working at Level 2 or above and be comfortable working with dogs of all breeds and sizes.
Assessment methods: Assessment is through a Portfolio of Evidence/ 2 x Workbooks, creating and submitting video clips and a live video assessment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please find a list of questions and answers below. If your question is not listed, feel free to chat to us by clicking the live chat button on the bottom right of your screen or submit your question by email.