New licence for professional dog walkers

Hammersmith & Fulham has a number of beautiful parks in which to enjoy exercise and recreation and many people enjoy walking their dogs in them. However, over recent years we have received a number of requests from Friends of Parks groups and other residents about the number and control of dogs in parks.

The increase of professional dog walkers, those people being paid to exercise other people’s dogs, is seen as a particular issue. As neighbouring boroughs and the Royal Parks introduce charges for professional dog walkers more of this business takes place in our parks where it is free. In some cases this might mean three or four professional dog walkers exercising together, each with four dogs.

So we have taken the decision to introduce a charge, similar to neighbouring open spaces. The charge is proposed as £175 per year for a dog professional walker living in the borough and £300 per year for a non-borough resident. A 6 month licence costing £100 is available to residents of Hammersmith & Fulham. These charges are in line with those in neighbouring boroughs. For a resident dog walker, it equates to about 48p per day. Each licence permits a business to walk up to 4 dogs per person at any one time.

What is a professional dog walker?

A licence is required for dog walkers who:

• take payment for the care, kennelling, transport or exercise of a dog or dogs and takes that dog or dogs to a park or open space in the borough of Hammersmith & Fulham for exercise.

How to apply for a licence

Professional dog walkers can apply for a licence or find out more by emailing the parks team at parks@lbhf.gov.uk

We hope that this will encourage professional dog walkers to consider other spaces in London as well as our own and help reduce the pressure on our parks and open spaces.