Are You A Dog Walker That Got Hurt On The Job? Know Your Rights
Walking a dog may seem like an innocent act, but it can actually lead to a non-fatal fall if you are not careful. If your job is a professional dog walker, it puts you at a higher risk of it happening to you while on the job. Do you know what your rights are if someone's dog causes you to fall and injure yourself while walking them? You need to know your rights if you want to get the compensation you deserve for an injury.
Prove That The Dog Isn't Obedience Trained
You will need to start by proving how the dog that caused your injury did not receive proper obedience training. A dog needs to be able to listen to commands while on a walk with a leash. If not, then they could be posing a safety hazard to you as a dog walker. The owner must let you know that the dog has problems being taken for walks, which will give you the option to accept the dog walking job or not.
In addition, dog owners should let you know about any habits that they have that could cause a problem on a walk. Does the dog love chasing after cars during a walk? Does the dog need a muzzle to help control them around other dogs and people? Does the dog not know how to respond to simple commands like 'heel' or 'sit'? If so, you should be made aware of these things prior to being hired to walk the dog.
Injuries can easily happen because of a dog's behavior that is completely out of your control. You'll need to prove that being aware of behavior problems could have helped prevent the injury or caused you to not want to take the job to begin with.
Demonstrate Your Skills As A Dog Worker
Another aspect of demonstrating fault will be to show your personal history with dog walking. For instance, if you have been walking dogs for several years and have not had an injury happen to you, it would show that you are more than capable of walking a dog. This will help demonstrate that the behavior by the dog was not normal, and you were not prepared for it in all your years of experience.
When you find yourself injured by a dog that you are walking, be sure to meet with a personal injury attorney, like one from Hardee and Hardee LLP, that can help with your case.