Fundamentally people hire a personal trainer to act as a professional advisor on their fitness regime. Through the drills and routines they set for their customers, the end goal, whether it be strength training or weight loss, can be attained.

However, it’s not always that straightforward. Injuries can occur and on rare occasions relationships between clients and customers can grow fractious.

For example, a client may feel that a particular personal training session has left them with an injury. If they believe that it was the fault of the trainer, they may go on to sue.

The trainer, on the other hand, may disagree. They may believe that any injury has come about because of the client’s failure to execute an exercise properly.

Whether the blame truly lies with the professional or not, they will still need to defend themselves if their client sues.

That is where Professional Indemnity comes into play.

The costs of defending such a claim can soon stack up. Furthermore, the financial implications can become even more severe should the court side with the client.

When a personal trainer takes out a policy with Protectivity Insurance, the level of Personal Liability cover (£1 million) is matched by our Professional Indemnity cover.

This means that legal costs are covered should a client claim negligence on the trainer’s part which results in injury. That includes any damages that may ensue should the court rule that the trainer was in fact to blame.

Professional Indemnity is just one of the benefits of ensuring you have comprehensive personal trainer insurance.

All of Protectivity’s policies come with the aforementioned Personal Liability and Indemnity match. But they also benefit from £250 equipment cover and Personal Accident cover, should they injure themselves during a session.

If you are a Personal Trainer and are looking for comprehensive Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance, then buy your personal trainer cover online now.

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

In 2011 a Red Tibetan Mastiff sold for a monumental 10 million Chinese Yuan (nearly £1 million) to become the world’s most expensive dog.

While the vast majority of people don’t have that kind of money to hand, let alone spend it on a dog, the cost of purchasing a pooch can often reach lofty heights.

 

What are the most expensive dog breeds?

The aforementioned Tibetan Mastiff, given the which translates from  Chinese to ‘Big Splash’ is a rarity but Tibetan Mastiffs often fetch prices of £2,000.

More common dogs, such as the King Charles Cavalier Spaniel and English Bulldog can often be sold for four-figure fees themselves.

 

What if something happens to these dogs?

Professional dog walkers regularly take responsibility for these animals, who are not only loved by their owners, but can also cost a lot of money.

And although the vast majority of dog walkers provide a service that goes without a hitch, problems do occur.

Dogs can injure themselves (or worse), while out on a walk with their professional carer while the inquisitive nature of some dogs can lead to them going missing.

For example in July 2016 four dogs went missing when their walker’s van was stolen by thieves in south London.

Just one month later and again in the capital, criminals snatched six dogs from another van, including two pugs and a Chihuahua, dogs often seen as ‘designer breeds’.

Should any of these things happen whilst walking a client’s dog, they could be held responsible for any financial implications that ensue.

Insurance offers some protection

Protecting a business from such claims is possible through something called Care, Custody and Control cover.

This means that should a dog get injured, go missing, or even die while in the care of a dog walker, that professional would be covered if claims were brought against them.

Protectivity’s Pet Business Insurance policy includes £25,000 of Care Custody and Control cover as standard, providing peace of mind to anyone walking dogs professionally.

Policies start at around £65 a year, and with that coming in at 30 times less than the cost of a French Bulldog, for example, taking the risk really isn’t worth it.

While ‘Big Splash’ may be valued at a tad more than most dogs, ensuring you have Care, Custody and Control cover with your insurance could protect you from a monumental financial hit should the worst happen.

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

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According to the National Child Measurement Programme, the UK’s youth is worryingly overweight. The latest instalment of the government report stated that one-fifth (20.1%) of Year 6 pupils (10 or 11-years old) were classed as obese, with more than a third (34.5%) recorded as overweight.

The increase is slow, but the percentage of obese children in the country has grown year-on-year since the reports were introduced.

A number of governmental initiatives such as the introduction of the sugar tax have been introduced to stem the problem. But more and more parents are taking things into their own hand and turning to personal trainers to help keep their offspring healthy and active.

This undoubtedly presents more opportunities for personal trainers to earn extra money through a new client-base. But are the risks of training children and young adults higher and do you need to take extra steps to ensure these clients are trained safely?

 

A different way of training

There are of course, differences when training children and young people to adults both physiologically and psychologically.

Psychologically children will be less engaged with goals such as weight loss or number of reps achieved. Therefore, adopting a fun approach will be more beneficial with the focus on children enjoying themselves while being physically active. It is vital to know the boundaries and pushing a child to their limits as you would an adult can be more detrimental with a risk of causing them unnecessary stress and potentially deterring them from exercise in the future.

Physiologically, children and young adults have not fully developed and therefore a risk of injury is increased. Tendons and ligaments aren’t fully formed and therefore any weighted activity and resistance training should be adapted to ensure they are done correctly and safely for children and young adults. Muscles and bones are still developing and therefore injuries caused from poor technique can have long lasting effects.

So does this put a personal trainer at higher risk of a claim for injury? And does their personal trainer insurance cover them for this?

At Protectivity Insurance if a personal trainer has undergone the right training and hold a qualification for teaching children and young adults then this would be covered under our Personal Trainer Insurance. Trainers would need to have carried out all the usual risk assessments such as getting the parents to fill in a PAR-Q.

 

Tips for personal trainers to keep safe whilst training children:

  • Ensure that any child under the age of 18 has parental sign off
  • You have par-q or similar and are aware of any medical conditions
  • Ensuring correct posture and form is extremely important when training children/teens
  • Adapt exercises to ensure safe technique is used
  • Adjust goals as necessary, know their limits and do not push too hard

 

Qualifications and cover are essential

Before starting to train children, PTs should check the terms of their insurance cover and ensure there are no exclusions to claims relating to children and that their policy allows them to do so.

Perhaps most importantly, is that you are qualified to train children. Without qualifications in place, it’s unlikely that your policy will cover you if something were to go wrong.

There are courses and qualifications that personal trainers can attend to ‘top-up’ their qualifications and insure they are able to teach kids safely. Training providers such as NRPTYMCA Fit and Platinum Training offer courses specifically designed to educate personal trainers on the risks of training children and young adults and how to do this safely including adapting exercises and drills.

Providing personal trainers are suitably qualified, there is no reason why training children and young adults should be of any higher risk.  For those who own a gym, PTs should ensure they are adequately covered by their gym business insurance to help protect themselves should any claim arise relating to the training of children or young adults.

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

While the number of fitness professionals in the UK is on the up, so too is the allure of becoming an online personal trainer. But while the traditional method of helping clients reach their goals isn’t risk-free, relying on a web-based delivery of your expertise is something worth doing with certain precautions.

Of course, the benefits and attractions of starting a career as an online fitness coach are obvious. By going online trainers can not only build their programmes at a time that suits them, but it also means they can maximise the number of clients paying for your services at any one time.
However, by posting your training and workout advice on YouTube or other social media channels, personal trainers are leaving themselves open to a potentially very costly legal case.

Insurance and online training

The first thing to note is that many insurance providers will not cover personal trainers for sharing their workout videos on line.

The concern for insurers, and therefore so to personal trainers, is two-fold. Firstly, by simply sending your clients (or other third parties) a workout video and plan over the internet, a fitness instructor has no control over how exercises are performed. If a client is attempting an exercise they have seen on a video online, but are executing it poorly, without face-to-face instruction, there is no chance for the PT to correct the exercise. That then, leads to a higher chance of injury.

Secondly, and more relating to personal trainer insurance, is that simply sharing your workout videos online mean that anyone, anywhere can see them. Should a member of the public attempt an exercise you have demonstrated and go on to injure themselves, they could attempt to sue you for your negligence.

The problem really comes if that person has seen your workout guide whilst in another country. Most standard personal training insurance policies will not cover you for claims coming from outside of the UK. Therefore, if legal action was brought against you, with no cover from an insurance policy, the costs of defending themselves would fall at the feet of the trainer themselves.

 

The steps to take whilst online training

At Protectivity, we ask that any of personal trainer cusatomers to comply with the below requirements for remote training/coaching/instruction (live or prerecorded):

In respect of any coaching or instruction that is undertaken remotely, it is strongly recommended that the Insured should:

1.At the commencement of the session, advise participants

  • that by participating they are doing so at their own risk;
  • a suitable, non-slip floor space is required and any potential obstructions in the vicinity are removed before they participate;
  • to avoid activities if they have, or suspect they may have any current health concerns, injuries, aches and pains;
  • avoid the use of blades, weapons or sharp instruments of any description;
  • avoid physical contact with other participants and where appropriate, adhere to social distancing guidelines;

2. Ensure that sessions are conducted for the benefit of existing members/participants/contacts only who have demonstrated sufficient suitability to participate; at the commencement of the      session, advise participants:

3. Continue to only instruct activities in which you are qualified to do so;

4. Record the session. Retaining the recording for a period of up to thirty-six (36) months may assist in any claim made against you

5. Maximum class size is 16

We also require individuals to ensure that all videos and content are delivered only to their clients. This could be enforced by the use of a paywall or by simply delivering the videos via email.

By restricting the viewing of such training videos to the clients they are intended for, it also means that in theory, personal trainers can ensure that all viewers have completed a PAR-Q (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire). This means that the physical health of those that the video training is taking into account before they are presented with a workout routine.

Regardless of whether it is shown to previously-known clients or not, it is always worth stating that any exercise undertaken without supervision is done so at that person’s own risk.

With those steps taken and other safety precautions followed, the prospect of a client injuring themselves is reduced. So to then, is the potential for a costly claim on your insurance policy.

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

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Thinking of organising your own sports event? It’s a great way to get everyone together, raise money for charity or even have a bit of fun. And with running, swimming and obstacle course races growing ever popular now are the perfect time to put an event like this one!

So what do you need to run this event in terms of insurance?

For those who may not have organised an event before or may not do this on a full-time basis the world of insurance can be a little confusing. And organisers want to know that the event can run without them needing to worry about whether they are covered or not. Therefore, we have put together a checklist of what organisers should be looking for when shopping for their sports event insurance cover;

Public Liability – First and foremost is public liability insurance and this is a term most people will be familiar with as most businesses will have it in place. This is insurance which covers the business should anyone claim against you for injury suffered which they deem to be the business’s fault. In the case of a sporting event, this could be participants, spectators or third parties who are injured whilst taking part or watching or whilst using the facilities. This also covers the event should damage occur to any third party property. This type of insurance covers your legal costs for a claim such as these. With Protectivity Insurance, policies can be taken out for £2, £5 and £10million public liability cover so it important to risk assess and decide on the appropriate level for your sports event.

Employers Liability – This type of insurance is a legal requirement for any business or event that has people working for them whether paid or voluntary. This covers the organiser for any claims made against their members of staff for injuries which have occurred to spectators, participants or third parties which have occurred as an alleged result of their negligence.

Equipment Cover – Some events may involve some sort of equipment and therefore it is a good idea to include cover for this should it get damaged, lost or stolen in the course of the event. At Protectivity Insurance this is offered as an add-on to our sports event insurance cover.  Do make sure you read your policy wording as there may be conditions on the policy such as it must be kept in a locked facility to reduce the risk of theft.

Buildings Cover – At Protectivity Insurance if they organiser is the owner of the business premises where the event is taking place we can offer buildings cover as an add-on to our sports event insurance. This will cover any damage to the building that occurs during the event.

Most insurance company, Protectivity Insurance included, will look at each sports event on an individual basis to decide on a cost as no two events will be the same.

At Protectivity Insurance, to get your sports event insurance quote simply visit our sports event insurance page and fill out the form giving us as much detail as you can about your event. We will then aim to get a quote back to you within two working hours.

 

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

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In a time when the fitness industry is dominated by the giants such as Fitness First and Virgin Active, it is more important than ever for health and fitness clubs to partake in marketing activities. We have put together some marketing ideas which could really boost your health and fitness club.

1. Create Ambassadors

Find out more about those who work out in your gym regularly. They may be active in the health and fitness industry, amateur sportspeople, professional athletes, brand ambassadors or have their own blogs. These are the type of people you want to promote your business. They obviously already love working out and coming to your gym and never underestimate the power of word of mouth. Offer these a discount on membership or other incentives for helping you promote your business or some may even do it for free if they love it that much!

2. Open Days

If you have a great facility with the best equipment and friendly and helpful staff the health and fitness club will easily sell itself. All you need to do is get your potential customers passed the threshold to see exactly what you have to offer. The best way to do this is hold an open day where people can come and see the facilities you have and maybe even put on some free classes or personal training tutorials and show off what you can do for them.

3. Sponsor a Local Sports Team

Getting involved in your local community is a great way to spread the word about your health and fitness club. Sponsoring a local team such as football or rugby will mean you will get extra media coverage in the local press as well as having mini billboards running around the pitch with your logo on. Those that come and watch sports are likely to be more active so it gives you a great target audience to market to.

4. Member Referral Programme

Giving your members incentives for recruiting friends will encourage them even more to actively seek new members to your health and fitness club. Most people like to work out with people they know so being able to bring their friends along and earn a reward from it will be a great marketing tool. Giving members discount off their membership for them and their friend or a free class will act as great incentives in this type of scheme. As aforementioned, word of mouth is still one of the best marketing tools. If their friend encourages them to go then they are more likely to take up the offer!

5. Freebies

Everyone loves something for nothing! So drive people to visit your health and fitness class with free classes or taster membership. You could even help out the local community and put on classes which are on demand such as classes for new mums or teenagers which once they come to one class will want to try more! Giving away two-week taster memberships can also be a great way to entice people to try your gym out and make them much more likely to sign up once they have seen just exactly what you have to offer.

So now you know the best way to get your gym standing out above the rest, all that is left is comprehensive insurance cover. Get a comprehensive gym insurance quote today.

Do you run a sports club? Protectivity can provide comprehensive cover for many football, cricket, bowls and tennis clubs around the country.

Get your quote today by visiting our Sports Club Insurance page.

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

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Professional Indemnity Insurance is for those who give professional advice to others in the course of their job. For example, personal trainers and sports coaches give advice to clients on a regular basis when training them. Therefore, it is essential to have professional indemnity insurance in place in case any of your clients make a claim against you or your business.

If one of your clients feels that advice you have given has caused them injury or harm then they may decide to take legal action against you. This may happen even if a mistake has not been made but you will need to cover the legal costs of defending yourself in court.

You may have years of experience and expertise in your career but there is always the chance of a mistake occurring and action being taken by a client to rectify any damage caused. However, as a professional giving advice, which is essential to any personal training or sports coaching business, you do not want to fear a claim every time you offer guidance. Therefore, having professional indemnity insurance gives you peace of mind that if a client does claim to be unhappy, your insurance will be there to cover any legal costs and put it right.

Make sure when taking out professional indemnity insurance you get the right amount of cover for you and your business. Do your research – get to know your industry and the types of claims and cover you may need. You do not want to pay for PI insurance and then discover when somebody makes a claim against you that it is not going to cover all the costs.

At Protectivity Insurance, professional indemnity up to £1,000,000 comes as standard on our personal trainer insurancesports coaching insurance and martial arts instructor insurance giving or customers peace of mind when doing what they do best.

 

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

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Alexa Briggs is a running coach at On the Run Health and Fitness (https://www.ontherunhealthandfitness.co.uk) and has a passion for helping people to fall in love with running and making improvements to what they can achieve. We asked Alexa for some tips when personal trainers have running clients. 

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how to build a stronger runner; strength can help you get faster and be more resilient to injury. Having spent a lot of time working with physiotherapists and running rehabilitation specialists I’ve been learning more and more about the importance of strength in running for injury prevention and how modern day lifestyles conspire against our bodies being able to work in the most effective way.

So if you want to get stronger, where do you start? Firstly don’t be worried about bulking up or getting bigger muscles with strength training – you need to be quite specific about the high weights you use, the reps, recovery and not doing aerobic work after training to start building muscle. Secondly, and most importantly, you need to start with a good foundation or balance, agility and coordination; otherwise adding weights to the movements will inevitably raise your injury risk.

 

Try these three to see how you get on;

  • Standing on one leg
  • Hopscotch
  • Standing forwards, two leg jump

 

The things to watch out for are how much you wobble, how easy you find the movements and how much your knees collapse inwards, respectively. If you have the knee collapsing in problem, or any other movement sideways in your legs on the jumps, it may be worth seeing a physiotherapist for some “prehabilitation” work to identify your own areas of weakness and get a specific strength exercises to help.

You can use these exercises themselves to start to improve, once you have mastered them you can progress these (and any other strength exercises) by adding to the number of reps, adding some instability (doing them on a balance board or bosu ball) or by adding weight. Only add one of these factors in at a time, and only when you are able to do the exercise at it’s previous level with perfect technique. Use a mirror and a wealth of online videos to help check you are doing them right, or a friend! Personally I start by adding instability at my balance and proprioception (your brain knowing exactly where your body parts are) are poor at the moment.

Doing these exercises and watching your technique carefully will help you to identify your own areas of improvement. From the runners I work with the hips can often be identified as an area of weakness, which can be a cause for injuries and soreness in many other areas. It’s particularly common in those people with desk jobs as spending lots of time sitting lengthens and weakens some of the key muscles in that area. The knee collapsing inwards on the jump or if you try a one leg squat is an indicator here.

With that in mind here are some of my favourite exercises and how you can progress them to keep improving;

Standing on one leg with one hand supporting. Move to standing on one leg on a bosu ball or balance board, gradually removing the amount of pressure you hold on with.

Two leg squat hands in front of you or across chest, move on to having your arms behind your head. Watch those knees!

 

Once you are happy with the two leg squat start to add weight with a bar on your shoulders. Also try a one leg squat (no weight!) to bring your balance into play too – that knee might want to move inwards again so keep an eye on it.

A different way of squatting is to lunge instead, which you can progress by doing multi directional lunges, forwards, backwards and sideways on each leg. You can add in torso rotations in the lunge position too.

Try sideways walks with a thera band tied round your legs just above the knee. You can do more reps or tie the band tighter to make this more challenging. This will help build strong muscles around your hips to help hold the legs steady as you run.

Try clams; lying on your side, legs bent, raising the knee of the upper leg in an open and close motion.

Bridges, the popular yoga pose, are also good, which you can progress to one leg bridge once you can keep your pelvis level and steady.

Progress the standing jump to jumping onto a step or box and jumping back off. One you are confident your technique is excellent try them one legged!

Traditional core exercises such as plank, side plank, mountain climbers, crunches and mountain climbers can build strength too. But for running we need to get the core working as part of the whole.

So how can you progress strength training to be both more challenging and more running specific to help your speed? One way is to overcome our fear of the gym a little!

For runners the only really useful machine in the gym is the leg extension machine. Start with a weight you can do 5-6 reps with. You can move to using the machine with one leg at a time or by upping the weight.

The two key weights room exercises for runners are the squat and the deadlift, which you can start with just a bar to perfect the technique before adding weights. If you can get someone to check your technique as you do them that can be really helpful. As your technique and ability improves you can start to add faster, more explosive movements on the way up and out of the exercises, this is where the running specificity comes in as you use the same “triple extension” of the ankle, knee and hip as you do in running.

The other way of strength training for runners is to sprint – it’s the most specific form of strength training we can do. Because it’s for strength and not as a form of running training for endurance athletes you need to be running at 90-95% effort and for short bursts (8-10 seconds) and really concentrating on your technique. A way to help you naturally get better sprint technical is to sprint up hills, looking up the hill and driving the arms.

With all of these exercises, start slowly and focus on technique at all times or you may be doing yourself more harm than good. ideally after a recovery day and with an easier run the day after.

Visit our Personal Trainer Insurance page to get an instant quote and cover for your business today.

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

New Year’s resolutions have been set for 2020 and the most popular will always be sports and fitness. Therefore, this is the perfect time to start marketing for new members of your sports club and catch all those looking for a new sport or fitness venture.

 

Get digital

Nobody is going to be attracted to a team that looks as though it is stuck in the 20th century – make sure your website is up to date with all the latest information so that if somebody was to come across you from a web search they know when and where to come and who to contact.

Promotion across social media is also a great tool so make sure you put out information which can be useful to potential members. Also you can join in conversations and post on local group pages to attract those in the area and spread awareness.

 

Think about promotions

Most people especially when considering taking up a new sport will not want to commit to a membership and therefore it is a good idea to offer free taster sessions. This allows people who may not be sure to come along and give it a try and meet the team. These could be done continuously and any new members can come along to any class or as a one off event and open the club up to new members for a specific session which can go over basic rules and training drills.

If your club has a marketing budget you can pay to advertise in local papers and directories or place ads within local sports halls, shops and notice boards. You could even sponsor a local business or get involved in some local events or charities to boost the club’s presence in the local area.

 

Spread the word!

The best marketing for any sports club is word of mouth and therefore it pays to use your players as ambassadors and spread the club’s message. Invite them to bring along friends, family, colleagues and anyone they know to try it out. You could even offer friends and family discounts and incentives for those bringing along new members to encourage current club members to be proactive also.

Often joining a sports club is not just about the sport but also about the social side, meeting new people and making new friends. Therefore, it is important within your promotion to make reference to the social events that the club are involved in.

We hope this has given you a few ideas as to how to promote your sports club this January and that you are able to attract a whole new team of members to kick start the new year!

If you need sports club insurance look no further, Protectivity can offer a comprehensive and competitive quote today.

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date. 

Dog walking can make for a more than viable business – provided you have the time, inclination, and love of dogs, of course.

If you’re thinking about starting a dog walking business you might already have wondered about the need for any kind of certification, qualification, or licensing – none of which is strictly necessary, but all likely to prove more than useful, depending on your location and clients.

About Us

We’re one of the leading providers of insurance for pet businesses – including dog walking insurance and its related services. So, if you are walking dogs, pet sitting, grooming, boarding, or taxiing pets, rest confident in the reliable cover we provide against your public liabilities, care, custody and control safeguards, and protection of the equipment used in your pet-based business.

 

Your dog walking business – principles

You’ll soon discover that many owners think of their pets practically as their children. So, they’ll want to know that the person they are leaving them with is responsible and trustworthy. Having a relevant qualification of one kind or another might help to reassure those anxious owners that you know exactly what you’re doing.

If you’re looking for the most appropriate way of documenting that qualification, you’ll find that there’s a wide range from which to choose – from academic degree courses to certificates in animal care or even pet psychology. Any of these might bolster your standing and status as someone who knows – and cares – about pets.

 

Your dog walking business – certification

One of the most popular and widely used certificates for would-be dog walkers is issued by Think Dog! The course focuses on dog behaviour and training.

An alternative provider of courses suitable for anyone looking to set up a dog walking business is Compass.  The organisation runs the College of Canine Studies and offers an especially wide range of courses on animal behaviour, welfare, care, and husbandry.

 

Your dog walking business – licensing

Before embarking on any course of instruction, it is worth checking whether the certificate or qualification issued upon its completion is recognised by the qualifications regulator Ofqual and meets the Animal Activity Licensing Regulations administered by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Clearly, it will be critical that your business complies with these and any other local licensing regulations. Keeping abreast of regulatory changes will be important whether you are new to the business or have been a dog walker for a long time.

 

Your dog walking business – insurance

Licensing requirements may also have a bearing on your need for the type of dog walking insurance in which we specialise here at Protectivity. Regulations enforced by the Royal Parks, for example, stipulate that the grounds may be used only by licensed professional dog walkers. This is part of the Parks’ efforts to ensure that all users and visitors maintain a high standard and have the correct insurance cover for themselves, the dogs, and the public.

But it is not only for access to the Royal Parks. For your own peace of mind, the protection of your business, and to bolster your standing as a professional pet business owner maintaining the appropriate level of insurance is critical.

 

Summary

Certification, qualification, licensing, and insurance – none of these may be absolutely essential if you are looking to start a dog walking business. But without them, you may be struggling to run your pet business safely, efficiently, and successfully.

So that you keep up to date with developments likely to impact your business, you might want to keep in touch with some of the associations that bring together people offering dog walking services.

Organisations such as these help to ensure that the standards of dog walking are kept high and professional. Joining an association such as the Association of Professional Dog Walkers (APDW) helps to establish you as a professional in your field and reassure your customers that you take responsibility in your role.

 

*Disclaimer – This blog has been created as general information and should not be taken as advice. Make sure you have the correct level of insurance for your requirements and always review policy documentation. Information is factually accurate at the time of publishing but may have become out of date.