Spaniards love their pets. In fact, they own around 30 million of them. With that many furry friends around, it’s reasonable to think that there may be a money-making opportunity somewhere, including dog walking or pet sitting.

Firstly, you’ll need to decide what services you’re going to offer – dog walking or petting sitting or both.

When it comes to pet sitting, there’s probably more money to be made if the pet comes to you, providing you have the space and the set up. This is because there are many companies which connect pet sitters with owners in exchange for free accommodation while they’re on holiday, so you won’t actually be making money, but you may be saving it.

READ ALSO – Compulsory courses and paperwork: The new rules for pet owners in Spain 

Not everyone who owns a dog has time to walk it every day, especially if they have busy jobs, so that provides many opportunities for dog walkers. This is mostly the case in big cities.

Dog walking in Spain is not really seen as a profession like it is perhaps in the United States, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people doing it or making money from it on the side.

It’s worth keeping in mind that if you’re making from dog walking, pet sitting or anything else, you should be declaring your earnings to the tax man. If you’re not employed by a company with an official contract and you just have individual clients, which is probably the case when dog walking, in order to legally do this you will have to register as self-employed or autónomo.

In order to do this you will be paying €60 a month in social security during the first year plus taxes on earnings. After that, even you will be paying a minimum of €225 in social security fees.

This means you’ll need to do a lot of dog walking in order to make any money on top of your fees. For this reason, many people opt to be paid in cash for dog walking and simply won’t declare it, but be aware if you get caught doing this, there are some hefty fines to pay.

READ ALSO – Under the table: How many workers in Spain don’t pay taxes?

You don’t need an official qualification to be a dog walker or a pet sitter in Spain, but it’s important that you have a lot of knowledge of pet behaviour. It’s one thing to be able to look after your own pet or just walk your neighbour’s dog once in a while, but it’s a whole other level to walk five dogs at once or have 10 of them in your home.

It’s a good idea to research as much as you can about animal behaviour, and maybe take a class with an expert trainer so that you know how to handle the responsibility and clients will be happy with the services you provide.

If you’re going to have other people’s pets in your home, you will also need to be very organised. Have proper feeding times, places for them all to sleep and maybe even send small updates and photos to the owners.  

READ ALSO: How much does it cost to keep a pet in Spain? 

How much money can I make from dog walking and pet sitting in Spain?

Typically in Spain you could charge between €5 and €15 per hour for dog walking, although that will depend on location, your experience and the difficulty of the animal. According to website CronoShare, the average price is €8 per hour. 

In Madrid for example, dog walkers can charge between €7 and €10 per hour. However, the price could increase and be around €15 per hour if it is a holiday, weekend or any request for a special day that was not arranged in advance.

There are dog walkers who charge prices based on the number of walks, regardless of the number of dogs being walked, however, another dog walker may charge based on the number of pets in addition to the number of walks.

You can also add extra for any other jobs you need to do such as feeding them, giving them medication, training them or if it’s a public holiday.

When it comes to pet sitting in your home you could start at the lower end of a flat fee of €10 per day for example if you are taking care of many dogs or you could charge higher the more responsibilities you have. If you’re only taking care of a couple at a time, you may also need to charge more to make it financially viable for you.

How do I go about being a dog walker or a pet sitter?

There are many online sites that you can advertise your services such as CronoShare which has a page where people can look for dog walkers.

You can also advertise yourself on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, promoting pictures of you looking after pets and following people who have pets or joining groups. For example, Barcelona has a cats Facebook group as well as a dog one and a specific dog sitting one where people are often asking for people to help look after their pets.

For this type of activity word of mouth is invaluable too, so it’s important to do a good job and let your clients know that you’re looking for more work if they know of anyone.

There are also many companies who need pet sitters and dog walkers. In this case you would work for them as an employee, rather than setting up on your own and finding your own clients. 

Is it a good way of making money?

This depends, if you are already self-employed and are paying social security fees and want to top up your income, dog walking could be a good option.

If you’re not, you will have to register as self-employed as mentioned above. You can make it work if you work hard to advertise your services and offer lots of them, such as dog walking and pet sitting for example.

It’s doable, but you’ll need to make a good name for yourself to keep your business afloat.

READ: Nine ways to make extra money in Spain