Summary

Availability: Everyday

Rates: £8-15

References: No

Insurance: Yes

Services Offered

Dog Walking

Dog Sitting

About Me/ Company

Hello, My name is Jack. I am the owner of Jack & Nick's Dog Walking & Pet Care.

I am just starting out with my new business and have a lot of experience working with animals - dogs in particular.

There have been pets in my family throughout my whole life. The first being Emma the Jack Russel. Emma was 7 years old when I was born and I was introduced to the joys of having a dog around from a very early age.

When I was 2 my family moved to New Zealand, Emma came with and I spent a lot of my childhood outdoors with my sister and our pets.

As my sister and I grew up and became more involved with the care of the household pets. We got a Rabbit named Mokey and two guinea pigs that my sister and I changed the names of daily. We spent hours everyday with them giving them lots of attention and love. We absolutly adored them.

My family moved back to England when I was 9. The animals had all sadly passed by this point and it was the first time Id ever known there to not be any pets around.

After a couple of years moving around we had finally settled somewhere and started to have pets again. We got two rabbits named wiskas and rascal and a few years later, Tessa the 8 year old Staffie cross who was a rescue dog.

Tessa was an amazing girl, very friendly and had the most easy going temperment I have ever seen in a dog. The rabbits lived for 10 years and Tessa untill she was 15.

A couple of years before Tessa's passing we got a labrador cross puppy called Hannah. Tessa made a very good role model to hannah and I myself spent a lot of my days at home with her. Teaching the basics, playing with and giving her a lap to snooze on.

When hannah was 2 we got a kitten called Bentley who lived in my room untill he was ready to go out exploring in the big wids world.

Hannah and Bentley are still going strong living at my mums house at ages 9 and 7.

So that is a brief history of the pets tbroughout my life which brings me on to why I am starting up Jack&Nick's.

Nicky - the Nick part of my pet care name, is my Border Terrier. My wife and I took Nicky on from a family friend when he was just 11 months old. We had met him a couple of times before. He was cute and affectionaite but boy was he naughty.

Nickys previous owners couldnt cope with him, he was full of energy and loved to destroy things. (As puppies tend to be).Nicky is my inspiration, and the start of my interest in animal care on a proffesional level.

Nicky had a few behaviour issues when we took him on the biggest one being his lack of socialisation meaning he was reactive to every dog he saw. At the time, I knew very little about how deal with something like this. I did reaearch about it and how to deal with it positively.I was amazed with him, he was/is so receptive to training and his success was a pleasure to see. Ive taught him all kinds of tricks and some agility, he enjoys the training (and the treats that come with it) and i took a great interest in dog training.

Previous Experience

I decided that I wanted to make a career working with dogs. I started volunteering at the Blue Cross walking the dogs. This gave me experience with different breeds , temperments and behaviour.

From there I found my self employment as an Animal Care Assistant working at The National Animal Welfare Trust. This was the best job ive ever had. I looked after the dogs at the centre. Cleaning, feeding, training (loose lead, basic commands, doorway manners, muzzle, take and leave, socialising etc),walking and helping to rehome by setting up visits and speaking with members of the public. I learned many new skills and dealt with some quite troubled dogs. Ones that needed a bit more time, patience and understanding to help with their training and adjustment to kennel life.

I was trained on the centres Open Paw programme which is positive reinforcement training methods and aims to make the animals at the centre more rehomeable.

I left my job after a year and a half due to the travelling - Southampton to watford was not ideal from both a time and money point of few unfortunately. I continued to work with rescue dogs by volunteering at the RSPCA a little closer to home afterwards.

I have also attended a two day practical dog training course and a practicalCanine first aid course.

Other Services

-Dog Walking-

Dog walks will be 45mins-60mins and I can offer both group and solo walks.

Group walks are ideal for dog friendly dogs who enjoy socialising and being in the company of other dogs. I will only walk in groups of upto 3 or 4 dogs as I want to ensure your dog remains safe and can benifit from a much more attentive and relaxed environment to get the most out of their walk.

Solo walks are best suited to dogs who prefer their own space or who may have some behaviour issues that need a bit of extra caution or working on. I am experienced in working with difficult dogs so I can use their time with me to do a bit of training on their walks. After all dogs tire out a lot more from mental stimulation over physical excercise.

Dogs walks will take either at a dog park, in the forest or around the local area depending on the type of walk they are going on and the area they live.

I will pick your dogs up in my van which is fitted with crates so they will be safely transported to their walk and back home again.

While on a walk, dogs will have a bandana and collar tag with my details so that in the unlikely event they go missing, I can be contacted directly.

Dogs will only be let off lead with owner permission.

-Home Visits-

30-60mins Visits to your pet at home while you are out for the day. Visits will be carried out to your requirements wether that is to let outside for toilet, fed, or just for a bit of company.

Home visits are for Dogs, Cats, Rabbits and other small animals.

-Puppys!-

Puppies realy benefit from having a home visit during the day of they are left alone. The interaction with people, extra feeding times, clean ups, toilet training, learning some of the basic commands and recall.