Professional dog walkers aren’t the problem. Out-of-control dogs are.

There are irresponsible or inexperienced owners and paid pack-walkers alike.

The main difference is that one is getting paid. Arguably, more dogs mean more risk, but not necessarily.

It is tempting to focus on regulating the number of dogs a paid walker may have as a one-size-fits-all solution to this safety issue.

However, any number of dogs can be out of control – whether with a loving owner or a pack walker.

The best professional dog walkers have more control of a pack than inexperienced owners with only one dog.

The true professionals choose places to walk a pack where no chokepoints or sensitive areas could bring them into close contact with the public.

Rather than punish responsible professionals and deprive busy, dog-loving families of an affordable and convenient way to exercise their pet by imposing what is essentially an arbitrary six-dog limit on pack walks, it might be better to try something from the e-scooter playbook first.

Councils could establish a licensing system for dog-walking professionals to enhance safety, monitoring, training, and enforcement.

Ideally, pack walkers would be trained, assessed, regularly monitored, and observed to determine their suitability.

They could be required to be tested and relicensed annually. This would, of course, be user-pays.

The focus would not be on dog numbers but on the skills, experience, and safety orientation of the paid pack walker.

There might also be rules about where pack walks can take place.

Paid walkers might need to register before walking more than, say, three dogs.

This idea isn’t novel. E-scooters created some new problems after they became popular.

Swift and smart regulation, including close monitoring and enforcement by councils, quickly improved what was becoming a Wild West situation.

Let’s find a better way to keep everyone safe.

Paul Jamieson, Ōmaha.

-NZ Herald