*This happened in June to November 2015*
Getting the job:
I was 'recruited' through an ad I posted earlier that year for dog walking. I whatsapped the person thinking that it was a client when in actual fact, she was recruiting people to join her dog walking 'company'. (I'm not sure the total number of employees she had) We agreed to meet near her dorm as she was staying a few bus stops from my home.
She told me, the reason she started this company was to help people work near home with flexible schedules.(since this was on ad-hoc basis, with some regulars) That was a nice sentiment.
We agreed that I will only accept assignments that are within 45 mins from my house (total transport time) and I should be able to take a direct bus to the location. (convenient, since the point of this job was to be close to home)
Job scope: (It varies depending on what the client wants you to do)
- Walk the dog(s) (also to let them pee/poo for those owners that don't use pee-trays for their dog)
- Feed the pet(s) / Fill up their water bowl
- Dog-sit (because its a puppy, or if the owner is at work)
- House-sit (If owner is overseas for work)
Starting:
Whenever I get a new assignment, my boss will give me a briefing. Briefing means that I go to the new house with her and take note of what needs to be done.(Going on the walk, leaving which doors/windows open, where the leash is etc) She will then pass me the key too. I don't get paid for the briefings. (but she will get me to do the same things that needs to be done on the actual day)
On my first briefing, she got me to sign the contract. ( It stated how much im getting paid and how late im allowed to cancel something etc.)
* Whenever you sign something, make sure to take a photo of it just in case *
Stories:
First dog i walked regularly, was a Singapore Special (or mongrel). She was really timid and hated going on walks. I had to slowly encourage her, pull her along (she was using a harness, not collar) and eventually used treats to get her to walk further. Whenever I needed to put on her harness and leash, I always had to hold her collar so she won't run away when I take the harness to put it on her. She is such a sweetheart. Also, the first dog I met that doesn't like to go on walks.
Second house was a pair of puppies. One was a Golden-Doodle and the other was a Golden Retriever. Since they were puppies, they were not well trained yet and quite mischievous. I also had to dog-sit them for a while so they won't be alone for such a long period of time. When I arrived at their house in the evening, I was greeted with soil and leaves all over the living room floor. They had broken one of the plant pots in their house and dug all the leaves out. I had to vacuum up all the soil twice as the vacuum bag was full from the first round. It was a huge pot. Even after two rounds, soil was still everywhere. Thank goodness the following day, there was someone coming to clean the house. During the briefing, my boss and I brought both puppies down together to walk at the same time. I realised I couldn't handle two naughty medium to large size puppies, so when I had to do it alone after the vacuuming, I decided to bring them down one at a time. Much more manageable. After that day, my boss decided to take over the assignment so she could stay longer with them. I spent about 2 hours at that house on that day cleaning, so my boss gave me a little extra (pay) for the extra work I had to do.
Third dog was a Jack Russell mix that had to be walked daily. She was a very easy dog to walk. The only problem was that I was required to walk her at noon time. The ground was scorching hot. I had to try and make her walk mostly on grass and in shade. I remember the route we took was the only one that was smelly. Garbage bins and some kind of fruit along the way that smelt like spoilt cheese. I had to make sure she didn't eat anything from the ground. She would smell rubbish and step on soil during the walk. I wonder why the owner didn't ask us to clean/wipe her paws when we finished walking. For my own dog, we always bathe her after we go on a walk. Of course you can't bathe them everyday, but at least wipe down their fur/hair and feet so its clean.
Fourth dog was a Golden Retriever mix puppy. She was not well trained at all and would pull on the leash and misbehave during walks. The owner was demanding and had specific requirements to meet. The walk had to be 2km long and had to hit 30mins, no more than that. Also had to send a screenshot of the route map through this running app. (That also used up my data- I am using a pre-paid sim card) That sounds okay, until you add a playful large sized puppy into the mix. During the walk, she would pull, stop suddenly, dig, roll around in the grass, try to jump up on me etc. I had to slowly train her to walk heel and not get distracted by other things. Quite impressed that after a few walks, she started to improve. Once when we encountered a stray cat during a walk, she immediately took off and I had to grab on to the leash and run with her to get her to slow down by tugging on the leash.
Fifth house had a large black Labrador and a Tortoiseshell cat. The dog required one morning and one evening walk. I had to make sure to bring him when it was still early in the morning or at dusk as his fur was black. Black colour things 'heat up' faster in the sun. He was a very well-behaved dog and I had no problems with him. Stayed over at that house as it didn't make sense to go back home and travel all the way there for the evening walk. I had to feed both of them too.
Sixth dog was a Maltese puppy. She was not pee-tray trained yet so the main purpose was to train her. She was really cute and playful too, but had bad tear-stains. I have a Maltese, so I know how to get rid of the tear-stains. However since that puppy wasn't mine, I couldn't do anything except try to wipe the face. This house was the furthest of all.
Several issues I had with the boss:
1. Distance problem. There was one assignment I had, that required me to transfer bus once, was about 1 hour away (including bus waiting time) and 2 hours 30 mins away on a bad day. (Traffic, long waiting time) To top it off, it was on a small hill. I had to first get across an overhead bridge, climb up the hill in order to get to that condo. Plus, the walks were always between 1-3pm, which meant that the sun was at its hottest. Noon is also not a good time to walk dogs as the heat on the ground can burn their paw pads. I could feel the heat even while wearing flipflops/shoes. Its extremely exhausting for me, especially when i need to go to multiple assignments in one day.
I had this assignment for a few months and finally decided, in Nov, to talk to my boss about getting a nearer one instead. She told me that in the 'real world', people can't choose their job and told me that 'my kind of attitude' is wrong. I told her that in the first place, she created this job to help people work close to home. There was no point for me to spend 2 hours of my day travelling. (Not to mention the pay i was getting was not worth it) This was part of the reason i quit that same day.
2. She forgot to update me four times regarding the clients cancelling. Twice, she forgot to tell me that meetings with new clients has been cancelled. The first time, I already made my way to the place (at 10pm) when I called her to see if she has arrived. She then apologised and told me the owner cancelled that morning but she forgot to tell me. The second, I was about to leave my house when i decided to double check with her if the meeting was still on. Of course, it had been cancelled.
The next two times was regarding owners cancelling walks as they were home that day. First time, I went to the house already. Opened the door only to find the owner there. Called my boss and realised that the client had sent her a message her Facebook to cancel that day, but my boss didn't see the message. This I can understand. Second time, it was for the condo on the hill. Same as the previous one, opened the door and the owner was there. I called my boss and found out that she forgot to inform me. This time, I managed to get her to include that day in my pay. My mother told me that since this cancelling was my boss' fault, I should still get paid since I made my way down there already. My boss should have immediately inform the person it will affect directly, which was me. This incident showed me how little respect my boss had for her employees. * Don't let your boss walk over you *
3. Everyone staying in Singapore knows that around June-August, Singapore and several other SEA countries experiences haze from Indonesia. In 2015, the haze was especially bad and even affected countries further away like Thailand. It actually lasted till the start of November.
For those readers that don't know what the PSI levels mean : 0-50 is Good, 51-100 is Moderate, 101-200 is Unhealthy, 201-300 is Very Unhealthy, above 300 is Hazardous. Usually at around 100-130, you can already smell the haze and feel the effects of it. (some of the earlier symptoms include irritated eyes, headache, sneezing etc.) By the time it reaches 200 and above, you basically cannot see anything out of your window.
At the start of the haze period, I told my boss that if the PSI level was above 160, I won't walk the dog. She agreed. I would check the PSI level maybe an hour before the dog walking timing. First few days, the PSI wasn't that high, so I continued walking as usual. (even when it was almost 160) Subsequently I started to cancel walks on the day of as PSI levels started to reach 160 and even almost reaching 300. (I walked during the day, the haze was worse at night-going past 300+) In the contract, I know it said that to cancel, I need to do it at least 2 days in advance. However, I thought that this was a special case.(*update, after re-reading the contract, I realised that "Severe weather" is allowed as a last minute cancellation reason) In fact, I expected the owners themselves to cancel the walk. None of them did. My boss also expected me to walk the dogs as per normal. Obviously both my boss and the owners of the dogs did not care for the dogs' health at all.
Humans are also not immune to the haze. For me, I could wear an N95 mask (and I did, but it did not help much) to walk the dogs. But the dogs could not. ("Masks" will hinder their breathing) They had to breath in all that haze which could have caused them to fall sick with breathing issues. (Thank God that didn't happen) On several occasions, my boss told me that I could not cancel because the owners would get upset with her, even after I explained to her how harmful the haze is to the dogs. So I would have to walk the dogs even during PSI 200-270. As an animal lover with a cat and a dog of my own, I make sure that animals under my care are not in harm's way. Her slogan about putting the pet's priority first is obviously not true.
After I quit, one of the things I brought up to my boss was issue 2. She then told me that I also cancelled last minute. (due to haze) It was so shocking that she still did not understand the severity of the haze.
Things to take note:
-For dog walking, make sure you have prior experience handling animals. Large dogs are strong enough to pull you off balance if you can't handle them.
-Pay wise, check the market rate for other dog walkers. Make sure that you have enough to cover transport fees too. Check the contract and take a photo AFTER you sign it. Record down how much pay you are getting. I had to correct my boss when she calculated my pay wrongly.
-Make sure the pets don't eat anything when you are on walks. Recent cases show people deliberately placing metal nails or poison into foods and leaving it on the ground for strays or pets to eat. It is really cruel and dangerous. If you see anything like that, remember to take a photo and send the photo and its location to AVA. Great if you saw the culprit too! But remember to take photos/videos. Charging someone with animal cruelty only works if there is enough EVIDENCE.
If anyone has questions, feel free to comment down below! (No spam or vulgarities please) Also, do share any interesting things that happened while walking dogs! ( either as a job or in your personal life)
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