I can't believe I'm posting my 50th Lesson Learned. It seems like a lot although I've actually learned a lot more than 50. I am excited to be posting this one. As a pet sitter, I have a lot of time on my hands to ponder well, a lot of things. This is one dilemma I've had for a really long time. In the movies or on commercials, you always see dog walkers say for instance in New York City walking a large (LARGE) number of dogs. My questions is this: how do they get all those dogs? In NYC, everyone lives in high rises. After the dog walker has gotten the first dog, does she take that dog to the 2nd apartment to pick up the next dog? Then does she take those 2 dogs to the next place to get the next dog? So when you see a dog walker walking 6 dogs, do the first 5 all get to go inside the 6th dog's house? I've always wondered how that works. Surely they don't all go into the 6th dog's house.... that owner doesn't want 5 other dogs in his house, right? The only solution I could come up with was they left all the dogs with the doorman. But surely that isn't part of the doorman's job. What if a resident needs help and the doorman is standing there holding the leashes for 5 dogs?? I have been truly stumped by this and have spent some time thinking about it over the past 6 years.
Enter my new client who has lived in NYC with her dog. At the end of my initial consultation with her, I had to ask her this burning question that I've pondered for years. She probably thought I was nuts. She said her previous dog walker worked in a pair so there were actually 2 of them! Truly a light bulb moment for me and a benefit of working in a large city. Getting to work along side another dog walker all day (assuming you like said dog walker) would be awesome!
I love Lesson Learned #50!!