Who is The DoggyDesk?
The DoggyDesk was born from our experience as dog owners, trying to find nice people to look after our dog without paying a fortune.
Our friends, who are also dog sitters and dog walkers, needed software with a booking calendar. To get it, they either had to go through a large, faceless corporate platform or pay monthly fees somewhere. All of this adds cost for both the dog owners and the dog carers.
So we built The DoggyDesk. Right now it is a fully working booking system that you can send to your existing dog clients, so they can book with you directly.
Development of this software
We have a very small team of developers working on this software. The DoggyDesk is a small organisation with no outside funding. We built it so that dog sitters, dog walkers and dog owners can have a set of professional tools to manage their business, free to use.
All we ask is that you help us iron out any bugs and give us feedback. For now, the best way is to email us at [email protected]. We are also planning a community forum where you can leave comments and ideas, and we will announce it here when it is ready.
How does The DoggyDesk make money?
We only make money if you decide to take credit card payments. You can read why that is worth considering in “The advantages of taking card at booking” on our pricing page.
The revenue from card payments helps our team develop and run this site. You can use The DoggyDesk for free, but everything it does costs us money to run.
Remember what many booking platforms cost. On Rover in the UK, sitters pay 15% of one-off bookings (5% on repeat bookings), and owners pay a further 15% service fee on top, capped at £49 a booking.¹ Added together, that is between 20% and 30% of a booking before the cap: money that comes out of your pocket and your clients’.
In February 2024, Rover was bought by the private equity firm Blackstone in an all-cash deal valued at about $2.3 billion.²
Please help spread the word about The DoggyDesk on your social media.
Sources
¹ Rover UK Help Centre, “What are the service fees?”: sitters 15% on one-off bookings and 5% on repeat bookings; owners a 15% service fee, capped at £49 per booking. Figures checked 2 September 2026.
² Blackstone, “Blackstone Completes Acquisition of Rover”, 27 February 2024: an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2.3 billion.
