Free tool
Midday Walk Window Capacity Planner
Set the window your clients expect and the real length of a stop, and see how many dogs you can promise without running late.
Free tool, no sign up
Dog Walking Route Margin Calculator
Enter your rate, your stops and the minutes you burn between doors, and see what an hour on the route actually pays you.
A twenty five dollar half hour walk sounds like fifty dollars an hour until you count the walk to the next building, the elevator, the key that sticks and the two minutes you spend writing the owner a text. Travel and handoff minutes are the difference between a route that supports you and a route that just keeps you busy.
This calculator prices the whole stop, not just the leash time. It also lets you subtract the share a marketplace takes if some of your book still comes through one, so you can compare a direct client against a platform client on the same line. Change one number at a time and watch which lever actually moves your hourly.
Your result
Gross weekly billing
$875
What the owners on your route are billed in a full week.
Weekly take after any marketplace share
$700
What lands with you before fuel, insurance and taxes.
Hours actually worked per week
24.5
Leash time plus the travel and handoff minutes nobody bills for.
Your real hourly rate
$28.57
The number to compare when you weigh a tighter route against a higher rate.
This is gross of vehicle costs, insurance, self employment tax and unpaid meet and greets, so treat it as the ceiling rather than take home pay.
Why the minutes between stops decide your rate
Walkers usually protect leash time and let travel time float. That is backwards. Leash time is what the client bought and it is fixed by the service you sell. Travel time is the only variable you control by choosing which buildings to say yes to, and it is where a route quietly loses an hour a day.
Run the calculator twice. Keep everything the same and change minutes between stops from twelve to six. The hourly jump is usually larger than a five dollar rate increase would give you, which is why walkers who cluster a route by block beat walkers who chase every inquiry across town.
Using the result to set or raise a rate
Decide the hourly you need before you decide the price of a walk. Take the number this tool gives you, subtract your vehicle costs, your insurance and roughly a third for self employment tax, and see whether what remains would keep you doing this in three years. If it would not, the fix is either the rate, the clustering or the number of stops.
When you do raise a rate, raise it on the clients who already get a mapped route, photo cards and a daily potty log. Proof of service is what makes an increase a conversation rather than a cancellation, and it is the reason walkers who send real reports hold rate better than walkers who send a thumbs up emoji.
Questions about this calculator
Should I include meet and greets in the walks per day field?
No. Meet and greets are usually unpaid and they do not repeat weekly, so putting them here would flatter your hourly. Track them separately and treat them as an acquisition cost against the client's first month.
What should I put for minutes between stops?
Time yourself for one real week rather than guessing. Most city walkers land between eight and eighteen minutes once stairs, elevators, doormen and key fumbling are counted. Suburban routes with driving between houses often run higher than walkers expect.
Does this account for group walks?
Only roughly. If you walk three dogs together, enter the combined rate for the group as your rate per walk and count the group as one stop. Check your city permit rules and your insurance before you price a group that way.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The Dog Walking Incident Report Template
One page to fill in when a walk goes wrong, built so the record you write in the first hour still holds up months later.
Now make that number do something
The figure above only matters if it changes a stop, a rate or a promise you make to a dog owner. Walkers who send a mapped route, timestamped photo cards and a daily potty log hold their rate better than walkers who send a thumbs up text from the corner. Book a demo and we will turn one of your regular dogs into a finished walk report you can look at.