Do dog walkers need a licence in England?
Short answer
No. Dog walking is not a licensable activity in England. The 2018 Regulations list the activities that need a licence, and the dog day care guidance excludes dog walkers and dog sitters by name. A walker is still bound by the Animal Welfare Act's duty of care and by any council public space order that caps the number of dogs one person may have in a park. The six-dog limit people quote applies to licensed daycares and boarders when they take dogs off the premises, not to independent walkers.
- 0None exists in England
- 6Condition 7.2, daycares only
- 4Tower Hamlets, by order
- 2,913Across both, 15 Sep 2026
There is no licence for dog walking
The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 list every activity that needs a licence. Dog walking is not on the list.
| Activity | Licensed? |
|---|---|
| Selling animals as pets | Yes |
| Providing or arranging boarding for cats or dogs (kennels, home boarding, day care) | Yes |
| Hiring out horses | Yes |
| Dog breeding | Yes |
| Keeping or training animals for exhibition | Yes |
| Dog walking | No |
| Dog sitting in the owner's home | No |
| Hiring out a field for dogs | No |
| Grooming | No |
The day care guidance excludes “businesses that look after dogs in their owner’s homes, such as, dog sitters and dog walkers”.
What does apply to a walker
A person commits an offence if he does not take such steps as are reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the needs of an animal for which he is responsible are met to the extent required by good practice.
no person shall oversee more than four dogs in any Public Place
Insurance is not required by any law. Public liability cover is a commercial decision, and most owners, and the landlords of most hired fields, ask for it.
Where the six-dog limit comes from
A dog walker may walk no more than 6 dogs at the same time. The owner must consent to their dog being walked with others. Dogs must be familiarised with each other beforehand.
Vans, hired fields and public parks
The day care licence covers “daytime housing” at a fixed premises. A business that collects dogs in a van and runs them in a hired field has no premises for the licence to attach to. Hiring out a field is not a licensable activity either. And a hired field is private land, so a council’s park PSPO does not reach it.
None of that makes a field business illegal or unsafe. Some councils license them anyway, some field businesses hold a licence, and some have better fencing than a licensed building. What is missing is a ratio, a licence and an inspector, because nobody wrote one for them. The licence conditions a building has to meet are in the dog daycare licence in England.
Will this change?
Two petitions to Parliament ask for dog walkers and sitters to be licensed: 770225, Molly’s Law (opened 19 June 2026) and 776716, the Pet Care Regulations Bill (opened 24 August 2026). On 15 September 2026 they had 1,167 and 1,746 signatures, 2,913 between them. Each needs 10,000 for a government response and 100,000 to be considered for a debate. A near-identical petition closed in September 2025 with 2,302.
Until that changes, the honest answer to “how many dogs is your walker allowed?” is that there is no number for them. How often the rules that do exist get enforced is in how often unlicensed dog boarding gets prosecuted.
Questions people ask
- Is there a legal limit on how many dogs a dog walker can walk in the UK?
- Not nationally. Some councils cap dogs per person in public places with a public spaces protection order; Tower Hamlets sets four unless the walker holds the council's professional dog walker licence. Those orders cover public places only. Licensed day care and boarding businesses are limited to six dogs per walker under condition 7.2 of the statutory guidance.
- Do dog walkers need insurance by law?
- No law requires it. Public liability insurance is a commercial decision, and most owners and many landlords of hired fields ask for it.
- Does a hired dog field need a licence?
- Hiring out a field for dogs is not one of the licensable activities in Schedule 1 of the 2018 Regulations. A hired field is private land, so council public space orders for parks do not reach it either.
- Are dog walkers going to be licensed in future?
- Two petitions to Parliament are asking for it. Petition 770225 (Molly's Law) and petition 776716 (the Pet Care Regulations Bill) both ask for walkers and sitters to be brought into licensing. On 15 September 2026 they had 2,913 signatures between them; each needs 10,000 for a government response and 100,000 to be considered for a debate.
Sources
- The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, Schedule 1
- Dog day care licensing: statutory guidance for local authorities (Defra, updated 1 June 2026)
- Animal Welfare Act 2006, section 9
- London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Public Spaces Protection Order (dog control), Part 5
- Petition 770225, Review regulation of animal boarding and licensing conditions (Molly's Law)
- Petition 776716, Introduce stronger welfare regulations for pet care services
Duncan
Founder of Genera and owner of Duncan's Dog Co
Duncan has run Duncan's Dog Co, a licensed dog daycare in Surrey, since 2011. Genera is the software he built to run it, shaped by what actually works day to day, not theory.
Where Genera comes in
Genera is the booking and invoicing software Duncan built to run his own licensed daycare. It holds you to the daily numbers on your licence, keeps every dog's vaccination dates where an inspector can see them, and invoices the month from the bookings you actually took.