We first began walking dogs in 2017, a year before we began our full time pet sitting journey. In the early days, our kit consisted of whatever the owners gave us for walks with their pooch. Over the years, having trialled hundreds of different dog products at pet sits with a variety of dog breeds, we’ve slowly put together the dog walking kit we now use for every single walk. Some items are swapped out depending on the season, or the weather, but for the majority of our walks every item below comes along in our bag! Read on for our dog walking essentials.

Dicky Bag

We’ve talked extensively about our Dicky Bag being our number one item for dog walking – so much so that we’ve written a dedicated review for it! We book a lot of countryside house sits where we’re required to walk through rural places for our daily walkies with dogs, and it used to be so frustrating to have to carry full poo bags for miles with no bins in sight. Once we invested in a Dicky Bag, our dog walks changed forever! It is essentially a portable, odour-free bag for carrying dog waste – simply grab a poo bag from the top compartment, tie up your dog waste and pop it in the bottom part of the bag until you find a bin. Dicky Bag have air freshener disks that are designed to sit in the bag and keep it smelling fresh, and the bag is machine washable at 30 degrees. We have a few different styles, but we love the Neo Skin bag – it’s water resistant, so perfect for walkies in the rain!

Poo bags

An obvious one for a dog walking kit, but stay with us! With well over 100 house sits under our belts, the majority of which have involved caring for dogs, we’ve tested A LOT of different poo bag brands. As every seasoned dog walker knows, when it comes to poo bags you get what you pay for! We’ve completed a few too many dog sits where owners only have the cheap black bags or baby nappy sacks for picking up dog poo. Not only are these thin and rip more often than not, but we dread to think of the environmental impact. After years of trialling different brands, our top recommendations for dog poo bags are Earth Rated (each bag is made from recycled plastic) and Beco’s compostable range. Both are super strong and won’t tear, and we feel good knowing we’re doing our bit for the planet!

Dicky Treat Bag

We love our matching Neo Skin treat pouch from Dicky Bag. This neat little bag has a zip to fill it with treats and keep them secure, with a slot at the top just big enough to fit your thumb and finger for quick-to-grab treats on the go! It’s surprisingly roomy, so you’ll never run out and your four-legged friend will be happy. Like the Dicky Bag, this treat bag is machine washable so any greasy or stinky dog treat smells are easily washed away.

Business cards

It’s always fun chatting to dog owners we meet on our walkies, for finding out local knowledge or just getting to pet their dogs! People are often surprised to learn that we are pet sitters, and don’t own the dogs we’re walking, as we’ve become adept at bonding with dogs. In the cases when owners ask for details of our pet sitting business we give them our MOO business card with our website and contact information. We spent way too many years haphazardly trying to write our info onto scrap pieces of paper! If you have a pet care business, we highly recommend using MOO to print your business cards – even the basic option uses high quality card stock and the text and images are sharp and clear. Use our link for 25% off your first MOO purchase!

AirTags

These coin-sized devices are trackers that pair with your iPhone to allow you to find particular items. We use Apple AirTags for a variety of instances – from the one on our van keys, to the ones in our wallets – but we also put them on a dog’s collar if their owner lets us know their dog loves to run off on walkies! There are dedicated AirTag holders available, including ones designed specifically to slip onto a dog collar, but you can always do as we did and make your own! Just make sure it’s secure so you don’t end up tracking the AirTag through a grassy field if it falls off your bouncy pooch’s collar.

Water bowl and bottle

Even in Winter we hardly ever take this dog bowl out of our dog walking bag, just in case our pooch needs to hydrate on walkies. The lightweight silicone material is designed to collapse down flat, so it won’t take up valuable space in your bag or weigh you down! This bowl is super affordable and durable – so it’s a no-brainer! For a water bottle, like many people we have a plethora of different designs (aren’t water bottles to walks as mugs are to the home – we all have hundreds of them?!). Our favourites for dog walkies, however, are our Klean Kanteens for their lightweight design, with a loop on top perfect for clipping onto our dog walking bag.

Head torch

For late afternoon walkies in Winter, or late night wee walks, we keep this Coleman head torch in our dog walking bag. Other designs may have varying brightnesses, or a flashing light setting, but we love that ours is a simple on/off design. It’s plenty bright enough for us to see where we’re walking in the dark and, in case we need to walk along roads, drivers will be able to spot us. It’s a much better option than relying on your phone to have charge to use the torch function, and a head torch is hands-free too!

High visibility bands

While we’re talking safety on night-time walks, we’ve also invested in a set of hi-vis arm bands. We attach these reflective velcro bands to our arms, to our dog’s lead, and to the strap of our dog walking bag to alert drivers, horse riders and other walkers to our presence in low light. We make sure we’re visible from all angles with the placement of these bands, but if we know we’ll be on narrow country lanes for the majority of our walk we’ll also wear a reflective jacket.

Chuck-It Balls

One for toy-obsessed doggos! We love caring for dogs that will spend hours chasing a tennis ball, but it’s sad when the fuzzy yellow ball breaks and we have to take it away from our pooch. For this reason we invested in a set of Chuck-It balls after discovering them at more than a few house sits with high energy dogs. The bright orange colour means no more rooting through bushes and tall grass to find your dog’s ball – these highly visible balls are very hard to miss! They’re incredibly bouncy and durable as they have an extra-thick rubber core, and the smooth surface means we can easily wipe it clean and put it back in our dog walking bag – good as new for doggos at our next house sit!

Treats!

The treats we carry are one of the only elements of our kit that is still dictated by the owner whose dog we’re caring for. While we’ve seen a handful of treats that have been popular at multiple sits, the treat that’s right for your dog will depend on their breed, age and energy level – hence why we won’t recommend specific ones – but your dog will thank you for carrying some on walkies. We always keep a dog’s treats in our Dicky treat bag, in case we need to easily call them back or reward them for obeying our commands.

Other items in our kit:

A few little extras that are always in the bottom of our bag:

• Tissues. Suze is always the person who has tissues on-hand when needed. We carry a little pack with us as you never know when they’ll come in handy!
• Anti-bacterial gel. Again, this is something that Suze has always carried (even pre-pandemic) but it just makes sense. From touching dirty stiles and gates on countryside walks, to the times when we’ve slipped in mud or accidentally got dog poo on our hands when picking it up… (If this hasn’t happened to you yet, your day might still be in the post… It happens to the best of us!)
• Spare dog lead. It’s never a bad thing to have a spare just in case your dog’s lead breaks, but we’ve also had to use a spare lead a couple of times when we’ve found a lost dog out on our walks. It’s much easier to reunite a pup with their owner when you’ve got them on lead! We tend to carry this bungee lead as it’s small and shock-absorbent – for times when we need to clip it on an overexcited dog!
• Sturdy shoes. Not necessarily something we pack, but something that is essential for a long or countryside dog walk. If you live in the city and walk dogs around the block on pavements, you may be able to get away with just a decent pair of trainers. As our pet sitting business takes us all over the UK, from city parks and beaches to country fields and hilltops, we both invested in a pair of good quality hiking boots to take care of our feet and ankles while we walk!

Items in our van:

Extras to keep in your vehicle, for when you have to drive somewhere to walk your dog:

• Towels. This one is definitely essential! From wiping mud from your doggo’s paws or drying them off in the rain, to simply protecting your back seats from sand or dirt while your dog lays in the back. We love to use microfibre towels for quick dog drying after a soggy walk.
• Beco bowl. In case we’re walking more than one dog, and need an extra water bowl, this light bamboo bowl from Beco doesn’t take up much space and is a little sturdier than a silicone one.
• Dog beds. For ultimate pooch comfort, we’ll bring their beds to give them a soft place to sleep after a long walk!
• Dog seatbelt. It’s vital that we ensure our dogs are secure while driving. We clip this seatbelt onto a harness (NEVER on their collar) so we know they’re safe and comfortable.
• Clothes. If a dog we’re looking after has them, we’ll bring their rain coats on a wet day, or a snuggly jumper or fleece to keep them warm either during or after the walk.