Terms of use

This site is run by chusdogwalk. When these terms say “we”, “us” or “our”, that is who they mean. When they say “you”, they mean the person booking pet care.

These terms apply when you use this website and when you book any of our services. By booking, you accept them.

They sit alongside two other documents, and all three apply together:

• our privacy policy, which explains what we do with your information, and
• the client agreement you sign before your first booking, which covers your pet specifically — its health, its temperament, and what we may do in an emergency.

If anything in the client agreement contradicts these terms, the client agreement wins, because it is the one you signed about your own animal.

When you send a booking, you are making us an offer. There is no contract until we confirm it. We will tell you clearly when a booking is confirmed — an email, and the status on your bookings page.

Some bookings confirm straight away. Others we review first, usually because they are soon or unusual. If we cannot take a booking we will say so and you will not be charged.

Before your first booking is confirmed you will need to sign the client agreement. It takes a couple of minutes and you only do it once.

The price of each service is shown before you book. It includes VAT where VAT applies. We are not currently VAT registered, so no VAT is charged.

Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.

If an invoice for a confirmed booking is not paid by its due date, the booking may lapse and the time slot goes back to being available. We will warn you before that happens.

Extra costs that come up during a booking — a vet visit, emergency food, a replacement lead — are yours to pay. We will show you the receipt.

If you cancel

Tell us as early as you can. What you get back depends on how much notice you give, and the refund is worked out and shown to you before you confirm the cancellation.

If we cancel

We will only cancel a confirmed booking if we genuinely cannot do it — illness, a family emergency, weather that would put your pet at risk. If that happens you get a full refund, and we will help you find another option where we can.

Changing a booking

Ask us. Small changes are usually fine. A change that moves the booking to a time we are not free is a cancellation and a new booking, and the cancellation rules above apply.

We will look after your pet with reasonable care and skill. That is a legal duty under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and it is not something we can sign away.

We will also:

• follow the care instructions you give us, and tell you if we cannot
• keep your home secure while we are using your keys
• tell you promptly if your pet is unwell, hurt, or behaving unusually
• get your pet to a vet if it needs one
• tell you the truth about how a booking went, including the parts that went badly

For any of this to work, you need to:

• tell us the truth about your pet — its health, its habits, and how it behaves around people and other animals
• tell us straight away if any of that changes
• keep vaccinations, flea and worm treatment up to date
• give us a way to get into your home, and tell us about alarms, other keyholders, and anyone else who might turn up
• give us a phone number you will actually answer while your pet is with us, and a second person we can call if we cannot reach you
• pay for your booking, and pay back any vet fees or costs we cover on your behalf

Hiding a history of biting or aggression is the one that matters most. It puts our team, the public and other animals at risk, and it can void the insurance that would otherwise protect you. If it happens, we may end the booking immediately without a refund.

If your pet becomes ill or is injured while it is with us, we will try to reach you first. If we cannot reach you and your pet needs a vet, we will take it to one — yours if we can get there, otherwise the nearest one that can help.

In the client agreement you tell us how much we may authorise without speaking to you. Above that figure, we keep trying to reach you and your emergency contact before agreeing to treatment, unless a vet says waiting would be cruel or dangerous.

Vet fees are yours to pay. If we have to settle a bill on the spot, we will send you the receipt and you agree to pay us back within 14 days.

Keys are labelled with a code, never with your name or address, and are kept somewhere secure. We return them at the end of a booking unless you ask us to hold them for the next one.

We only enter your home for the booking. If we find a problem — a leak, a door left open, something clearly wrong — we will tell you.

If you have an alarm, give us the code and tell us who else has one. If we are locked out and cannot reach you, we may have to call a locksmith to reach your pet, and that cost is yours.

If we break this contract or fail to use reasonable care and skill, we are responsible for loss you could reasonably have expected to follow from that. We are not responsible for losses that were not foreseeable, or for business losses.

We are not responsible for harm that comes from something you did not tell us — an undisclosed illness, a temperament problem we were not warned about, or care instructions that were wrong.

Animals are not machines. A pet can be unwell, get hurt, or escape even when everything is done properly, and we are not responsible for that where we have taken proper care.

We send you photos and updates during a booking. That is part of the service and we do it for every client.

Using photos of your pet publicly — on our website or social media — is separate, and we only do it if you say yes. You choose when you sign the client agreement, and you can change your mind at any time from that same page. We will not ask again if you say no.

Tell us. Most problems are a misunderstanding and are fixed in one conversation.

Email us with what happened and the booking reference. We will reply within one working day and give you a proper answer within 14 days.

If we cannot sort it out between us, you can take it further. Nothing here stops you going to court, and as a consumer you can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales.

We update these terms from time to time — when the law changes, or when we change how something works. The date at the top tells you when they last changed.

A confirmed booking is governed by the terms that applied when we confirmed it. Changing these terms does not change a booking you have already made.

If a change affects what you agreed to about your pet, we will ask you to read and sign the client agreement again before your next booking. You will not be caught out by wording you never saw.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and disputes can be brought in its courts.