Dog walkers and pet care in Southport

How to choose a dog walker or sitter in Southport

Start with what you actually need: a regular midday walk, holiday cover, a home visit for a cat or an older dog, or somewhere your dog can stay. They are different jobs and most Southport businesses do two or three of them, not all. The flags on each listing show which.

For walking and for sitting in your own home, no licence is required in England. What you should expect instead is public liability insurance as a minimum, key-holding cover if they hold your keys, and, from many walkers, a DBS check and a canine first aid certificate. Listings show what each business states about itself; a check is only marked as done when we have seen the document.

Ask how many dogs they walk at once and whether your dog would be walked alone or in a group. Under Sefton's Dog Control Order no single person may walk more than six dogs, and a good walker will be well under that. Ask where they walk too: the beach has seasonal rules, the nature reserves need leads, and a walker who knows both is worth having.

For home boarding or day care the question is different: ask to see the Sefton Council licence and its star rating. Boarding dogs at home for money without one is unlicensed, whatever the reviews say. Then insist on a meet-and-greet before any booking, and get written terms for holidays and cancellations.

Dog rules in Southport your walker should know

• Beach exclusion zones run from 1 May to 30 September. On Southport beach dogs are excluded from the stretch running south from the Pier towards Pleasureland for 555 metres and down to the tide line. At Ainsdale the zone is 200 metres either side of the main beach entrance. The zones are signed while in force. Source: Sefton Council, dogs
• Everywhere else on Southport beach dogs must be under close control, and not clearing up carries a £75 fixed penalty or a fine of up to £1,000. Source: Sefton Council, Southport beach
• Dogs must be kept on leads throughout the nature reserves along the coast, especially where livestock are grazing. Source: Sefton Council, information for dog owners
• Sefton's Dog Control Public Spaces Protection Order, in force from April 2024 for three years, bans dogs from enclosed children's playgrounds, fenced sports pitches and multi-use games areas, marked football and rugby pitches from September to May, and marked cricket pitches from April to September. Leads of no more than two metres are required on A and B roads and their pavements, in cemeteries and in marked picnic areas. The fixed penalty is £75, or £50 if paid within ten days. Source: Sefton Council, Dog Control PSPO
• The same order limits the number of dogs one person may walk to six, on or off the lead. Listings show what each walker states about group sizes. Source: Sefton Council, PSPO 2024 (PDF)
• Formby beach is National Trust land and sits outside Sefton's beach zones; its own rules apply there. Source: National Trust, Formby

Home boarding and day care licences

Sefton Council licenses boarding for cats and dogs and the day care of dogs under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018. Dog walking, and pet sitting in the owner's own home, are not licensable activities, which is why most walkers on this page carry no licence and do not need one.

A boarding or day care licence costs £359 to grant for up to four animals and £402 for five to fifty. Each licensed business is inspected and given a star rating from one to five, and the rating sets how long the licence lasts: one star means a one-year licence, five stars means three years. The council says a public register of licensed animal businesses exists. Until it is published, we show the licence details a business gives us and mark them as checked only when we have seen the licence itself.

Sources: Sefton Council, animal welfare licensing · DEFRA, dog day care licensing guidance

Where the walkers actually go

Most Southport walkers work the beach outside the summer zones, the dunes and paths around Ainsdale and Birkdale, Hesketh Park, Victoria Park and the Botanic Gardens in Churchtown, and the quieter lanes out towards Banks and Marshside. Walkers who name their usual routes on their listing are telling you something useful: it means they know the rules for each place, and it means your dog is not in a van for forty minutes to get somewhere else.

Frequently asked questions

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