You don't need a licence or a qualification to become a dog walker or pet sitter in Australia. No board registers you and no course is compulsory. What you do need is an ABN, insurance, a police check, and an answer to one question most new walkers skip: does your council want a permit to walk other people's dogs in its parks?
The low barrier is the good news and the bad news. You can start next week. So can everyone else, which is why the walkers who last are the ones who set it up like a business from day one.
Step 1: Decide whether you are walking, sitting or both
Plenty of people do both, but they are different days.
A walker sells time out of the house: a solo walk for one dog, or a group walk where dogs from several homes go out together. The work happens in parks, reserves and streets, which is why councils take an interest.
If you're working out how to become a pet sitter, you're selling time inside someone else's home instead. Drop-in visits to feed, medicate and let a dog out, cat visits, and overnights while the owners are away. You hold keys and alarm codes, and you're alone in a client's house.
Pick the one you'd do first. It decides which permit question applies and what your insurer asks.
Minding dogs overnight at your place is boarding, not pet sitting, and boarding has its own rules. In Victoria, for instance, boarding is a Domestic Animal Business registered through your council. Our guide to starting a pet boarding business covers that route.
Step 2: Check your council before your first group walk
There is no national rule for commercial dog walking. Councils set it, and they don't all set it.
Victoria has the clearest version. Councils there issue a Commercial Animal Walker Permit to anyone who walks or exercises an animal on council land or in public areas as a business. The conditions published for it on the Australian Government's business licence service are short: carry the permit, keep every animal under control, and walk "a maximum of four animals per person". The fee varies by council. For 2025-26 it is $155.00 in the City of Yarra and $61.50 in Merri-bek.
Four is the number to plan around. If your idea of a profitable group walk is eight dogs off lead in a reserve, a permit council will end that idea on day one.
Outside Victoria we couldn't confirm a commercial walker rule this week, and that isn't the same as there being none. Ring your council, or start with our council permits map, which links to each council's own pages. Ask whether you need a permit to walk dogs commercially and how many dogs one person may walk. While you're on the phone, ask for the list of off-lead reserves too.
Step 3: Get an ABN, and decide on a business name
An ABN is free through the Australian Business Register. You need to be running a business to be entitled to one, and the ABR can ask you to prove that you started trading from the date you gave, so apply when you are actually starting rather than "just in case".
GST is the next question. You must register once your GST turnover reaches $75,000. Below that it's optional. If you do register, one eleventh of every GST-inclusive price you charge belongs to the ATO, so a $35 walk leaves you about $31.82. Our post on GST and BAS for pet businesses goes through the lodging side.
Dog walking business names
You only skip registering a business name if you trade as yourself, using your first name and surname and nothing else. ASIC's own example: John Smith needs no registration, and "John Smith Gardening" does.
Before you print anything, search the ASIC business names register and IP Australia's TM Checker. You can't register a name someone else already holds as a business name or a trade mark.
Before you settle on a dog walking business name, run it past these:
Put the suburb or area in it if you'll only ever work locally.
Say what you do. A clever pun that doesn't contain "walk" or "pet" makes every other piece of marketing work harder.
Check the domain and the Instagram handle are free before you register anything.
Leave room to grow. A name that says "walks" sits oddly on a sitting business later.
We've deliberately left out example names. The good ones are already trading.
Step 4: Get insured before the first dog
No law makes a solo walker take out insurance. Marsh, the insurance broker, puts it plainly: "There are currently no regulations for pet walkers." Your council may still want public liability before it issues a park permit.
The usual package for walkers and sitters is public liability, care, custody and control for the animals you're responsible for, and professional indemnity if you give behaviour advice. The gaps are where walkers get hurt: whether off-lead walking is covered, whether the policy limits dogs per walker, what happens if a dog bolts and is never found, and whether lost keys are covered when you sit.
We wrote this up in the pet sitting and dog walking section of our pet business insurance guide. Read it before you take a quote, because the questions to ask the insurer are the useful part.
If you drive dogs anywhere, tell your car insurer. A domestic policy on a car full of other people's dogs, driven for a business, may not respond.
Step 5: Get a police check and a first aid course
You'll be handed keys, gate codes and the run of people's homes. A National Police Certificate from the Australian Federal Police is the document most people mean by a police check. Apply online, and most digital certificates arrive within a few days.
Nobody requires it of you. Put it on your website anyway. A stranger deciding whether to give you their house key is looking for reasons to say yes.
A pet first aid course is the other thing worth doing before you're paid. Our pet sitter kit list explains why it matters more than anything you carry, and the dog walking bag guide covers what goes in the bag.
Step 6: How much do dog walkers make?
Most guides quote a range here. We'd rather show you the arithmetic, because a published price isn't dog walker income.
On 9 October 2026 we read the published prices of Australian walking and sitting businesses, one price at a time. The medians:
Solo walk: $35 for the lowest-priced solo walk a business sells (22 businesses; 12 of those walks are 30 minutes).
Group walk: $39.50 per dog (17 businesses; usually an hour where the length is stated, and where a group size is stated it is usually four dogs).
Drop-in visit: $35 (25 businesses).
One thing stood out. Of 45 walking businesses we examined, only 8 publish a 30-minute walk labelled solo, private or one-on-one. Most of the market sells the hour or the group walk.
Now the arithmetic. None of it is a promise of income.
Four dogs at the median group price is $158 a walk. Two of those walks a day is $316 before costs, and five days of that is $1,580 gross. Six solo walks a day at the median solo price is $210 before costs. Eight drop-in visits at the median drop-in price is $280.
Here is what comes out of those numbers before any of it is yours:
Travel. Collecting four dogs from four houses and dropping them back is time nobody pays you for, in a car whose fuel you're buying.
The gaps. Walks bunch around the times owners want them. The hours in between are often unpaid.
Insurance, permits, phone and software. None of them is large, but they arrive every month.
GST, if you're registered. About $14 of a $158 group walk is the ATO's.
Tax and super. Nobody is putting super away for you.
Weather and holidays. A wet week or the Christmas fortnight changes everything, in both directions for sitters.
So when someone asks "how much do dog walkers make", the honest answer is: whatever is left after the travel, the empty hours and the costs, at the prices your area will pay. Your area's prices matter more than any national median. Look at what the walkers near you publish before you set yours. The national figures, by walk length and service, are in what dog walkers and pet sitters charge.
Step 7: Decide whether you'll stay solo or hire walkers
Most walkers start alone. When the round outgrows one person, you either turn work away or bring someone on, and how you bring them on is mostly a legal question.
Calling a walker a contractor doesn't make them one. From 26 August 2024 the test looks at the whole of the working relationship, and a walker who works your round, on your schedule, for your clients is very likely an employee in law. Our employee or contractor guide goes through the test.
On dog walker pay rate questions, the award position is unusually murky. The Fair Work Ombudsman's summary of the Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award lists "dog walkers" among those it doesn't cover, and no Fair Work page we could find names the award that does. We cover what that means, and what to do about it, in our employment costs guide. Short version: run the role through Fair Work's Pay and Conditions Tool and get advice before you put anyone on.
Step 8: Set up bookings before word of mouth arrives
Your first clients will probably be people who already know you. The admin arrives with them: who's on Tuesday, who paid for last week, which dog can't go out with which, and whose key is on which ring.
This is where we have an interest to declare. We make Petboost, booking and payments software for pet businesses, and we earn money if you use it. Weigh what follows with that in mind.
The parts that matter most to a new walker or sitter:
Recurring walks. A client's Tuesday and Thursday walk is one weekly or fortnightly series on your calendar. Each visit is still its own appointment, so one day can move without disturbing the rest.
Packs of walks. You can sell a pack of walks, and the credits sit on the owner's account. Any eligible pet in the household can use them, and you can let owners buy packs online. See
packages.
Online booking. Owners book themselves from your booking page instead of messaging you at 9pm.
Proof of the visit. Notes and photos you add to a walk or drop-in show on the owner's booking in their Petboost account, with the check-in and check-out points on a map when you record them.
The walk-by-walk detail is on our dog walking page, and the sitting version is on Petboost for pet sitters. What it costs is on our pricing page.
Plenty of walkers start with a notebook and a banking app, and that works for a while. The point where it stops working is usually the week you're sick and someone else has to know where everyone is.
If you already know you want to buy an existing round rather than build one, read buying a dog walking business first. It's a different set of checks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need a qualification to be a dog walker in Australia?
No. No licence or qualification is required to walk dogs or pet sit for money. What you can show clients instead is your insurance, a police check, and a pet first aid course.
How do you start a dog walking business with no experience?
Get experience first, even unpaid. Walk friends' and neighbours' dogs, volunteer with a rescue group, and only then charge. Handling one calm dog is very different from four dogs from four homes.
Do you need an ABN to walk dogs?
You need an ABN to trade as a business, and it's free through the Australian Business Register. You must actually be running a business to be entitled to one. Register for GST once your GST turnover reaches $75,000.
How many dogs can you walk at once?
It depends on your council. Victorian councils that issue a Commercial Animal Walker Permit cap it at four animals per person. Elsewhere, ask your council and your insurer, because a policy can set its own limit.
Do dog walkers need insurance?
Not by law. Marsh notes there are currently no regulations for pet walkers. Your council may still want public liability before it issues a park permit, and without cover one injured dog or person is paid from your own savings.
How much do dog walkers make in Australia?
It depends on how many walks you fit in and how far you drive between them. At the medians we measured on 9 October 2026, two four-dog group walks a day is $316 before costs. Travel, unpaid gaps, insurance, GST and tax all come out of that.
How do you become a pet sitter?
Much the same way as a walker. Get an ABN, insurance that covers keys and other people's homes, and a police check, and check your council if you'll walk dogs as well. Start with drop-in visits for people you know, and get your own process for keys and alarm codes sorted before your first overnight.
Sources
Australian Business Licence and Information Service, Commercial Animal Walker Permit, Victoria:
ablis.business.gov.auAustralian Business Licence and Information Service, Commercial Animal Walker Permit, City of Yarra:
ablis.business.gov.auAustralian Business Licence and Information Service, Commercial Animal Walker Permit, Merri-bek City Council:
ablis.business.gov.aubusiness.gov.au, Register for an Australian Business Number (ABN):
business.gov.auAustralian Business Register, Applying for an ABN:
abr.gov.aubusiness.gov.au, Register for goods and services tax (GST):
business.gov.auFair Work Ombudsman, Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award [MA000118] summary:
fairwork.gov.auAustralian Federal Police, Apply for a National Police Certificate:
afp.gov.au
Prices are medians of the lowest published single price per business, read on each business's live page on 9 October 2026, GST-inclusive or unstated. Council fees are for 2025-26; check the current fee and conditions with your council.
