As the summer holidays are slowly approaching and the weather (hopefully) starts to feel more settled and you might be wanting to go away a little more or do more outside… you may want to think about a dog sitter or dog walker or maybe you’d like to walk some dogs and have some more company and cuddles with a pooch but can’t commit to taking one on permanently, then Borrow my doggy might be for you.
WHAT IS BORROW MY DOGGY?
Borrow My Doggy is a website where you can sign up for a free ‘basic account’ and set yourself up a profile for either your dog to be walked or cared for by others or for you to set up a profile for yourself to check out others in the area that might need their dogs to be walked or cared for. I’d recommend getting a free profile first and checking out who is available, as not all areas have a massive amount of profiles available but Thame has a fair few active users.
You can then choose to pay to update for a ‘premium account’ where you can then message and interact with owners, but bear in mind both parties (owner and borrower) must be premium members to be covered by the insurance and the borrower can not ask to be paid anything extra as they do it for the love of dogs.
Borrow my doggy only currently accept payment for a yearly premium subscription but to borrow people’s dogs for £12.99 a year and the other benefits from it works out at around £1.08 a month, so if you are a true dog lover and want to help out others whilst having some dog time then it is amazing! People can also buy you a premium subscription voucher for borrowers or dog owners. £44.99 for dog owners for the year (for all their dogs on their profile, not just per dog) which would save you so much if you usually pay for a dog sitter or walker. So even if you used them just 3 or 4 times that would likely be a saving.
This is not a paid advert from Borrow my doggy but I feel it might help a lot of people and we wanted to share a long time local lender’s experience and share their thoughts about using the service.
LENDER JESS’S EXPERIENCE
Lender Jess first found out about Borrow My Doggy when her sister in law suggested it to them, as she was an avid member herself and had some great experiences for many years whilst living in London, to help her around her full time job.
Jess told us “I work shifts as a nurse, so have long periods out of the house, which Frankie couldn’t be alone for. Using professional dog walkers full time was not feasible with a nursing salary and we felt it was nicer to leave her with people who had such a love for dogs.”
They’ve had great experiences on the site and love that all dog walkers are verified by the company by requesting ID. They found this really reassuring as an initial user and were satisfied with the reasonable yearly fee.
When leaving Frankie dog with someone for a holiday, Jess provides a pack with all the emergency numbers, Frankie’s usual routine and information for feeding and anything else they think might be relevant and also make sure they have noted down any important health details and vet details/contacts. For the occasional or regular dog walkers however, she just speaks to them in person beforehand.
We wanted to ask if there were any bad experiences, as this is always something that people want to know but people aren’t always wanting to ask or share! Luckily Jess stated that they haven’t had any bad experiences, but have spent a fair bit of time having meet and greets which seem to go really well but then they don’t hear anything bad which can be a bit disappointing and a long process.
Of course the big question we want to know is if Jess would recommend Borrow My Doggy her response being “I would massively recommend it for anyone who either needs it for work reasons or for dogs who need a little more socialisation or exposure to new environments, people, children etc. Having reliable walkers through BMD has been revolutionary for my life. It has allowed me much more freedom for holidays and also puts my mind at ease that she is looked after so well by people who really care for her when I have to work. Many of these walkers have become my friends that I have now known for many years.”
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Special thanks to Jess and Frankie for their input, company, trust and doggy cuddles. As they allowed me to be a long standing borrower.
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