AN enterprising dog walker is offering a unique pet taxi service this winter.
Daniel Dean, who started his dog walking business in the summer, has teamed up with his parents Steve and Louisa to ferry people’s pooches to their unique dog park in Eggleston for exercise.
Country Canines Dog Park offers wide open spaces, obstacles, tunnels, ball pits and other delights to pique pets’ curiosity and keep them fit.
Daniel, a former golf club green keeper and keen fell walker, started his business – Woofy Walks by Dan – as a way to marry his love for the outdoors with his enthusiasm for animals.
He also has extensive experience having walked his family’s nine dogs all over the Eggleston countryside.
The 20-year-old said: “It is steady away and we have six clients now, so it is getting there. It is a diverse clientele, some are disabled and some of them are working full time.”
The idea for the taxi service came about because use of the dog park goes down in winter.
Louisa said: “Although it ticks over, it is not as busy as it is in the summer because people think ‘do I want to pay to go out in the rain?’, so we thought, along with his dog walking, we could work together with the dog taxi.”
Along with transporting individual dogs or multiple hounds from the same home to the park, a trial is planned for later this month whereby four dogs from different homes in Staindrop, Cleatlam, Barnard Castle and Middleton will go on a group outing to the park.
Louisa said: “We do a meet and greet first to make sure the dog allows us into the house and then we need to assess whether it is suitable for a group session, because we are going to hopefully have six or seven dogs in one go at the park for a play session.
“We have assessed them – they are friendly dogs, they like other dog company and they like people.”
In preparation Daniel has been DBS checked, has the correct insurance in place and has completed a veterinary course in dog first aid.
For more information about the dog taxi, ring Daniel on 07468 611418.
To book a play session at the park visit countycanines dogpark.co.uk.
