Writing a dog walking cancellation policy
A cancellation policy is capacity protection, not a penalty. A recurring slot is part of your route that you did not sell to anyone else, and a walk cancelled at 8am cannot be resold that morning. Decide a notice window, decide what happens inside it, write it in plain words, say it at the Meet and Greet, and apply it the same way to everyone. The consistency matters more than the exact hours.
It is about capacity, not punishment
A cancellation policy feels like a penalty schedule, which is why so many walkers write one and then never enforce it. The frame that makes it enforceable is different: your route has a fixed number of usable slots in a day, and a recurring client is holding one of them.
You did not sell that Tuesday 11am to anyone else. When it is cancelled at 8am on Tuesday, it does not become available again in any useful sense, because nobody books a dog walk for three hours from now. The hour is simply gone, along with the drive you had already planned around it.
Once you see it that way the policy stops being about whether the client is behaving badly. Most of them are not. It is about who absorbs the cost of a change, and the default with no policy is that you absorb all of it, every time, silently.
The four decisions
Everything else is detail. These are the four you actually have to make:
- How much notice do you want? Long enough to be worth having, short enough that reasonable people can meet it.
- What happens inside that window? Full charge, part charge, a credit, or nothing. Any of these can be right; drifting between them is what is not.
- Is a recurring slot treated differently from a one-off? It usually should be, because it costs you differently.
- What are the exceptions, and who decides? Decide this while nobody is upset.
Recurring walks are the case that matters
A one-off booking that cancels costs you one visit. A recurring Tuesday and Thursday that cancels repeatedly costs you the ability to give that slot to somebody who would have used it every week — which is the difference between a route that fills and one that keeps almost filling.
Two things worth writing down for recurring clients specifically:
- A pause is not the same as a cancellation. Holidays happen. Decide how long a slot is held for a paused client and say so, because the alternative is deciding it differently each time under pressure.
- Repeated short-notice cancellations are a schedule conversation, not a fee conversation. If a slot is cancelled most weeks, the honest answer is that it is not really a recurring slot, and both of you are better off saying that.
The situations to decide in advance
| Situation | What to decide |
|---|---|
| Notice given in time | Usually nothing charged. Say what "in time" means in hours. |
| Short notice | Full, part or nothing. The most important line in the whole policy. |
| Nobody home, dog not accessible | You drove and you were ready. Usually charged; say so in advance. |
| Client on holiday | How long the recurring slot is held, and on what terms. |
| Public holidays | Whether you work them, and whether the rate differs. |
| Severe weather | Who decides, and what the visit becomes. A shortened visit is often the honest answer. |
| Dog is unwell or injured | Usually an exception. Say that plainly; it earns more goodwill than it costs. |
| Client emergency | Have a discretion clause and use it sparingly and consistently. |
| You cancel | What the client gets. A policy that only binds one side is the one clients resent. |
Weather deserves its own decision
Weather produces more disagreements than late cancellations do, because both people believe they are being reasonable. The client thinks the walk should go ahead; you can see ice, or a heat index that makes pavement dangerous for paws.
The workable version is to say in advance that you make the call on safety, that you will always contact them, and what the visit becomes when you shorten it — a garden break, a shorter route, a drop-in with water and company. Clients accept that easily when it is a stated policy and resent it when it looks like a decision made on the day to save effort.
You cancelling matters too
A policy that only points one way reads as one-sided, and clients notice. Write down what happens when you cannot make it: how you will tell them, how quickly, whether there is a backup walker, and what they are not charged.
Including this makes the rest of the document easier to enforce, because it stops being a list of your rules and becomes an agreement about how the two of you handle a changed week.
A plain-language template to adapt
This is a starting point to adapt in your own words, not legal drafting and not legal advice. It is deliberately written in plain sentences rather than formal contract language. Fill in every bracket with your own decision, and if your terms carry meaningful money or you are taking on staff, have someone qualified read them.
Cancellations. If you need to cancel or change a visit, please tell me at least [your notice window] beforehand. Inside that window I charge [full price / half price / nothing], because the slot is held for you and cannot usually be filled at short notice.
Recurring visits. Your regular slot is reserved for you each week. If you are away, I will hold it for up to [number] weeks at [no charge / a holding rate]. After that I may offer it to someone else and will talk to you first.
If I cannot get in. If I arrive and cannot access the dog, the visit is charged in full. Please let me know in advance about changed locks, codes, alarms or anyone else being home.
Weather. I decide whether conditions are safe. If they are not, I will contact you and the visit becomes [a shortened walk / a garden break and indoor time] at [the usual rate / a reduced rate].
If your dog is unwell. Tell me as soon as you can. Visits cancelled because a dog is ill or injured are not charged.
If I cancel. If I am unwell or cannot reach you safely, I will tell you as early as I can and you are not charged. Where possible I will offer [a replacement time / a cover walker].
Emergencies. Life happens. If something serious comes up, talk to me and I will use my judgement.
Saying it is more important than writing it
A policy a client first encounters on an invoice is a policy that causes an argument. One they heard at the Meet and Greet is a policy they already agreed to.
Cover it in the same conversation as keys, vets and feeding — briefly, without apology, as one more normal thing about how you work. The Meet and Greet questions guide covers the rest of that conversation.
Then apply it the same way to everyone. Enforcing it for a new client and waiving it for a long-standing one is understandable and it is how a policy stops being a policy. If you want to be generous, be generous through the discretion line, deliberately, rather than by letting the rule quietly lapse.
What it is worth
One cancelled recurring slot a week is not a small number. Work out what a visit is really worth to you per working hour in the route profit calculator, then multiply by the visits that quietly disappear in a normal month. That figure is usually what finally makes a walker write the policy down.
Read next
- How much should you charge for dog walking? treats cancellation terms as part of pricing rather than as an afterthought.
- How to get your first 10 dog walking clients explains why a tight, reliable route is worth protecting.
- What to ask before the first dog walk is where this conversation actually belongs.
Common questions
What is a normal cancellation notice for dog walking?
There is no standard, and anyone presenting one as required is guessing. Common practice runs from the evening before to twenty-four hours. What matters more than the number is that it is written down, said out loud at the Meet and Greet, and applied consistently.
Should I charge for a late cancellation?
That is your decision, and both answers are defensible. If you hold a recurring slot that you turned other work away for, charging inside the notice window is reasonable. If you do not charge, decide that deliberately rather than by avoiding the conversation each time.
What about bad weather?
Decide in advance who makes the call and what happens to the visit, and write both down before the first storm. Weather is the situation most likely to produce a disagreement, because both people feel they are being reasonable.
Do I need a lawyer to write this?
For a plain-language policy attached to ordinary domestic work, most walkers do not start there. If you are hiring, taking on commercial clients, or your terms carry meaningful money, having someone qualified read them is worth it. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
Last updated 2026-08-30.