Terms of Service
Please review these carefully and, if you have any questions, please contact us directly on ted@teds.dog
By continuing to place a booking request it is deemed that you have agreed to our Terms of Service.
By using services provided by Teds.Dog you’ll be deemed to have accepted the terms and conditions outlined in this document.
Contents:
· Welfare
· Bookings
· Payment
· Information & Data Protection
Consultation:
Before we commence with any services, we need to complete a consultation first. During the consultation process we look at whether our services are a good fit for you and your dog.
We have a number of requirements we deem necessary for all the dogs in our care to enjoy their time with us in a safe and secure environment. Added to that, we also need to ensure we can operate an efficient and sustainable business providing the very best service possible.
We’ll run through all of these during the consultation and they’re also detailed in this document.
Trial Period:
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Even with the most robust consultation, sometimes dogs can react unexpectedly in an unfamiliar environment and it may turn out that we weren’t right for their needs.
If this happens, we may find it best to end a dog’s trial with us. We will make constructive suggestions on what service may work better or the training required to bring a dog up to the standards we would require. Our Group Walks section will give you more information on how we determine suitability.
Our main priority is providing a service that’s right for your dog – one that they can enjoy safely and have a fantastic experience.
Group Walks:
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Group walks can only take place safely if the dogs in our care can work together. We need to make sure they’re safe for our dogs, our team and the public using the same outdoor spaces we work in.
To make sure we can do this we have some minimum requirements for all our dogs:
i. Strong name recognition and focus
ii. Good, consistent recall on command
iii. Sits on command
iv. Doesn’t stray when off lead
v. No aggression whether relating to food/toys/space/play
vi. Able to loose-lead walk on a fixed lead
vii. Not excessively vocal
viii. Able to wait/stay on command
As you can imagine, walking up to six dogs at a time is no simple task which is why we need to ensure we can rely on our group to do what we need them to do when we need them to do it.
Minimum Use:
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Our minimum requirement for our customers is a ‘one walk a week’ policy.
This is in place for a two main reasons:
• Ensures familiarity for our dogs – not only with our routines but also with their play pals
• Teds.Dog can provide a sustainable service and make resources available to all our customers as and when they need it.
We provide an extremely flexible and reliable service, and this extends to our ‘Minimum Use’ requirements.
You have the flexibility to book any day of the week that works best for you and this can be amended weekly as required or we can apply a recurring booking to your account on request.
We are also happy to offer 8 weeks per year ‘holiday’ to all our customers upon request. This runs on a 12 month rolling basis and is calculated pro-rata in arrears.
We can also apply flexibility by reviewing each month’s bookings and assessing the average walks per week to determine whether the criteria has been hit.
For any deficit, Teds.Dog will apply a ‘retainer’ fee to your account.
Teds.Dog retain the right to discretional application of this policy.
Welfare Policy:
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To ensure that all the dogs in our care can enjoy their walks without risk of contracting sickness from another dog in our care, all customers are requested to inform us of any sickness that takes place the day prior to any booking.
We are unable to walk any dogs that display any symptoms of illness in the 24 hours prior to their booked service start time. Examples of this are:
• Vomiting
• Coughing/wheezing
• Diarrhoea
• Unusual drop in energy levels/unexplained change in temperament
In addition, without prior agreement so that circumstances can be correctly managed, we will not be able to walk any injured dogs or dogs in recovery.
Failure to notify Teds.Dog in advance of sickness/injury will result in the full service charge being applied.
If a dog soils one of the vehicles due to a known issue, a £50 fee will be charged for vehicle cleaning/sanitising.
All dogs being exercised must be fully vaccinated and on a regular flea and worm control regime.
All adult dogs (9+ months for the purposes of this policy) must be spayed/neutered.
Equipment:
Dog tags
It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that their dog has a suitable dog tag for their walk. This must include the required legal information:
The Control of Dogs Order 1992 mandates that any dog in a public place must wear a collar with the name and address (including postcode) of the owner engraved or written on it or engraved on a tag. Your telephone number is optional (but advisable)
We are unable to take dogs on walks without this and will only have time to be able to give the dog a comfort break in your garden/directly outside your property. The full booked service will be chargeable.
Leads
We use our own leads so that’s one off the list however any other equipment you’d like us to use with your dog must be made available to us and clearly outlined in the home visit routine.
Collar/Harnesses/Halti/Muzzles
If we are unable to locate any essential equipment as outlined by you in the home visit routine, we’ll try and contact you.
In situations where we’re unable to make contact, we may have to make alternative arrangements. This could be in the form of a follow-up visit, a shortened solo session in the confines of your property or a return visit.
The full service will be chargeable and additional charges may be applied if return visits are conducted.
Home Visit Routines:
To make sure we can do a brilliant job for you we’ll need to know what you need us to do when we’re picking up and dropping off your dog.
All this information goes in the Home Visit Routine section on your portal and you’re wholly responsible for keeping it up to date.
The kind of information needed includes alarm/key-safe codes, feeding information, where your dog should be when we pick them up and where we should leave them when we drop them home.
If you have any specific requirements when we bring your dog home, you’ll need to put these in here too. This should also include whether access to other areas of your house should be restricted.
As a minimum, we’ll make sure we give your dog a good drying off with a towel but only if you leave one out for us to do that and you’ll need to let us know in your home visit routine where the towels should be kept.
If you have a specific cleaning routine, please let us know and we’ll do our best to follow the requirements. If these are likely to take more than a couple of minutes, we reserve the right to apply additional charges.
In the absence of home visit routine information, we will return your dog to the same space/location they were occupying on collection. In the absence of a towel being left and, in circumstances where we are unable to contact you for guidance, your dog may be left without being towelled.
We will never leave a dog in a situation that would have any potential negative health implications.
In addition, we will not be liable for missing ‘home visit routine’ information that leads to the damage of any property or us following instructions that fail to sufficiently protect your property or belongings.
Bookings:
All bookings should be made directly through your portal. We are unable to accept booking requests via text/phone call/messaging services/e-mail other than in exceptional circumstances.
Upon request, we can populate repeat bookings on your schedule.
Bank holidays will automatically be omitted from repeat bookings and would need to be individually requested via your portal.
We love being able to provide a flexible service however, in order for this to work, we kindly ask that all bookings for the following Monday onwards reach us by midnight on a Friday. This gives us just enough time on a Saturday to organise our resources for the following week. Persistent late booking requests may be subject to additional administration charges.
If you make a booking for the current billing period after your invoice has already been sent to you, we’ll simply add the cost onto your next invoice.
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Cancellations:
We’ve always looked to provide a flexible service to all our customers as we understand that circumstances can change and sometimes walks need to be cancelled.
Starting 1st November 2020 our cancellation policy requires:
• Up to 2 consecutive days - 48 hours notice
• 3+ consecutive days – 5 full working days notice
Any services cancelled as outlined in the above timeframes will be fully chargeable. A maximum charge equivalent to 5 standard walks will be applied.
If you make a non-chargeable cancellation after your invoice has been generated, a credit note will automatically be applied to your account and updated balance visible on the ‘Account Summary’ page of your portal.
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Payment:
Once we send your invoice, your BACS payment should be received by us by the 1st day of the following month or as indicated on your invoice. This should be a maximum of 7 days from the day your invoice was generated.
Late payments will be liable to a fixed processing fee of £10.
We also retain the right to charge interest under the ‘Late Payment of Commercial Debts [Interest] Act 1998’
Information – Data Protection:
Some other information we need to provide a great service is mandatory.
You’ll need to provide the details of an emergency contact who is capable of making a decision relating to your dog in an emergency. If the contact is not available, we reserve the right to consult with a veterinary surgeon and then make a decision which is in the best interests of the animal.
We also need you to maintain your vaccination records, current Vet information and the contact details for yourself and any other named contacts.
All data is stored and maintained in conjunction with Data Protection Act 2018. Information is used only for intended purpose and access restricted for legitimate business purposes. A full copy of our Data Protection Policy is available upon request.