You don't need a licence to walk dogs or visit them in the owner’s home as part of your job. However, if you look after dogs in your own home or run a kennel then you need to review our licence to run a business involving animals page.
Animal welfare review
Defra are thinking about licensing or registration for professional dog walkers. This is part of the review into the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018. We don’t know what this may look like or what may be required from dog walkers at this stage.
We've introduced a voluntary registration scheme for dog walkers in Barnsley. This is so we can keep professional dog walkers informed about any changes to the law.
Voluntary registration scheme
If you’re a professional dog walker living in Barnsley you can register below. Once you've registered we'll keep you up to date with any changes to the law. We'll also tell you how we intend to apply those changes.
Also, to help us work together we may sometimes ask you to complete a survey to improve our service.
Removal from registration scheme
You can ask to be removed from the register at any time by emailing animalhealth@barnsley.gov.uk.