A question for dog professionals

Walkers, Sitters, Groomers, Trainers and Behaviourists! My question is ....

What are your policies on payment and cancellation charges and what are your views and personal experiences regarding this?

I would hope that if we are fair and honest with these policies, most of the time it works fine and most people do appreciate that with this type of business it is essential, however sometimes certain circumstances can make this quite difficult, with most services, being self employed and working very personally with clients, issues regarding money are inevitably sensitive so what is the best way to handle tricky situations?


I'm sure this is a very familiar dilemma... Would you put yourself out of pocket/ risk allowing yourself to be taken advantage of, or should we make our policies clear and stick to them?

I used to charge at the end of the session. I had a few let downs and some bounced cheques, but not very often. I think the worst were the couple of times that were home visits that weren't in when I got there.

Some of my trainer friends have started taking payment in advance. Some say it works, some say it impacts on business.

I guess it's a case of try it and see

Thanks Chris,

I suppose it comes with the territory somewhat, due to the nature of the work.

I was asking the question as I had a difficult situation recently. It's very hard when you are helping people on such a personal level, I actually ended up feeling bad even though the situation was very unfair on me.

Been there, done that! Some clients seem to believe that dog training and behaviour work is a charity. Unfortunately, dog trainers/behaviourists still have to pay the mortgage

When we had boarding kennels and cattery we used to ask for a non returnable deposit being a percentage of the total cost. Our customers were given a terms and conditions statement on the back of the booking form. balance in cash on collection or check clearance first when pets were left.
Extra days not booked booked incurred a slight increase on daily rate.
Christmas we asked for full payment on booking and if they didn't turn up they lost their money as the kennel or cattery could not be occupied at the last minute.
Open and closing times were very strict as were our terms and conditions and clients came to accept it. If they didn't like it they could try other boarding establishments, sometimes did but came back as ours had a good reputation.


Did all this work? well we increased the number of clients on our books from 350 to 5,500, so we must have been doing something right

If it helps, our training group charge £20 a month..this is payable the first Monday of the month...if you don't show, you have already paid, if you show up 2weeks into the month you still pay the £20...doesn't bother any of us at all, you have costs to cover, bills to pay etc so personally I would have no issue paying in advance..also when my pups first went to training, we had to pre book the course and pay in advance...and if you couldn't attend you lost the whole lot