Terms & Conditions

Last updated: July 2026

1. About us

This website and the services booked through it are provided by Mel McDowall, a sole trader trading as Tailblazing(“we”, “us”, “our”). We provide dog walking (group and solo walks), doggy day care and overnight dog boarding in Wandsworth, London and the surrounding areas. Day care and boarding take place in our home.

You can reach us on +44 7843 382831 or at mel@tailblazing.co.uk. Our business address, including for correspondence and service of legal documents, is 8 Nevinson Close, London, SW18 2TF.

2. Bookings and payment

Bookings are made online for one service at a time and are secured with a £10 deposit, paid at checkout and processed securely by Stripe. Your booking is confirmed once the deposit succeeds and you receive a confirmation email with a booking reference. If the deposit is not completed, no booking is made and the slot is released.

The balance is paid to us on the day of the service, and can be paid in cash. Your booking confirmation email, and your account page if you have one, both show the total, the deposit you have paid and the balance still to pay.

Each booking covers the number of dogs you tell us about, and you must complete a short client form for every dog. Up to two dogs can be booked online; for more, please contact us directly and we will arrange it with you. Prices are shown on the Services pageand calculated automatically when you book. Group walks are shared with other clients’ dogs, with never more than four dogs in a walk.

How long each service runs. A walk is one hour. Day care runs from one hour up to a maximum of eight hours in a day; longer than that and we would ask you to book an overnight stay instead. A boarding stay can run up to 16 days in one booking — for anything longer, please contact us and we will arrange it with you. The booking form will not let you choose times outside these limits.

Online bookings need at least 7 days’ notice. For anything sooner, please contact us directly and we will help if we can.

All prices are in pounds sterling and are the total you pay — we are not VAT registered, so no VAT is added, and there are no booking or card fees on top of the price shown when you book.

3. Prices, collection and drop-off

Service prices are as displayed on the Services page at the time of booking, and the price shown at checkout is the total you pay.

Collection and drop-off are free. If your address is within 2 miles of our base, we will collect your dog and return them home again at no charge, on any of our services — or you may drop off and collect yourself, whichever you prefer. The distance is measured from your postcode when you book. If your address is further than 2 miles away we do not offer collection or drop-off; the booking form will let you know, and your dog will need to be brought to us and collected from us.

While we always aim to be punctual, drop-offs, pick-ups, collections and returns may occasionally run up to 30 minutes later than the agreed time — for example because of traffic or the needs of the dogs in our care. Where we are running late we will let you know as soon as we can, and a delay within this window does not entitle you to a refund.

4. Cancellations, changes and refunds

Plans change — we understand. If you cancel 48 hours or more before your booking starts (the walk time, or the drop-off time for day care and boarding), we will refund your deposit in full to your original payment method, and nothing further is owed. If you cancel with less than 48 hours’ notice, the deposit is non-refundable, though we may at our discretion offer to reschedule as a goodwill gesture. To cancel or change a booking, contact us on the details above with your booking reference.

If we have to cancel — for example because of illness, an emergency or unsafe weather — we will offer you the choice of a full refund of your deposit or a rescheduled booking, and nothing further is owed.

Because you book online without meeting us first, you also have a statutory 14-day right to cancel under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, running from the day your booking is confirmed. Those Regulations exclude some services booked for a specific date or period, and it is not always clear whether dog walking, day care or boarding fall within that exclusion — so we do not rely on it. Instead, the following applies to every booking:

• Within 14 days of booking, you may cancel for a full refund of your deposit, as long as the service has not already been carried out. This applies however close to the service date you cancel, and so overrides the 48-hour rule above where the two differ.
• If your booking falls inside that 14-day window and you ask us to go ahead anyway, the right to cancel ends once the service has been fully carried out, and we may charge for what we have already provided.
• After the 14 days have passed, the 48-hour rule above applies.

To use this right, tell us in writing at mel@tailblazing.co.ukwith your booking reference — a clear statement that you are cancelling is enough. Refunds are made to your original payment method within 14 days. None of this affects your other statutory rights, including your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to services performed with reasonable care and skill.

5. Your responsibilities

We can only accept dogs that meet all three of the following. You are asked to confirm each one for every dog when you book, and a booking cannot be completed without them:

• Your dog needs to be neutered.
• Your dog needs to be over 12 months old.
• No aggressive dogs accepted.

If we find that any of these is not the case, we may decline the service or end it early without a refund, including of the deposit.

When you book, you also confirm that:

• you are the dog’s owner or authorised keeper;
• the information you give us about each dog is accurate and complete, including likes, dislikes, feeding and behaviour;
• your dog is in good general health and up to date with vaccinations, flea and worm treatment;
• your dog is microchipped and wears a collar and identity tag in public, as UK law requires;
• you have told us about any history of aggression, biting, resource guarding, escaping or similar behaviour, and about anything else we reasonably need to know to keep your dog, other dogs and people safe.

We may decline, pause or end a service (without refund where the cause was not disclosed to us) if a dog presents a risk to people or other animals, and you remain responsible for any injury, loss or damage your dog causes.

6. Our care of your dog

We are fully insured, DBS checked and canine First Aid trained, and we care for every dog in line with our duty of care under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. On walks we follow your lead preference from the client form where it is safe and lawful to do so — we may keep any dog on the lead near roads or livestock, where signage or local rules require it, or where we judge it necessary for safety.

Dogs boarding or in day care with us live in our home alongside our own Labrador, Rocky, and are only mixed with other dogs where all dogs are comfortable. Day care includes two walks on a half day and three on a full day, and boarding includes at least three walks on each full day of the stay, at no extra charge. Please provide your dog’s usual food for day care and boarding, along with any medication and clear instructions.

If your dog becomes unwell or needs attention while in our care, we will contact you as soon as possible. By booking, you authorise us to seek veterinary treatment on your behalf if we cannot reach you urgently; veterinary costs are your responsibility unless the need for treatment was caused by our fault. Please keep your vet’s details up to date with us.

7. Insurance

Details of our public liability and animal care insurance are available on request.

8. Collection, access and keys

If you choose collection, please make sure someone is home at the agreed times or that you have agreed secure access arrangements with us in advance. Any keys or entry codes you give us are stored securely, are not labelled with your address, and are used only to collect and return your dog.

9. Weather and unforeseen circumstances

In extreme weather (such as high heat, ice or storms) we may shorten or adapt walks, or substitute garden and indoor enrichment time, in the interests of your dog’s welfare. Where a service cannot safely go ahead at all, section 4 applies.

10. Accounts and use of the site

You can book as a guest (with email verification) or create an account to see your bookings in one place. You are responsible for keeping your account password confidential. We may suspend accounts used fraudulently or abusively. We try to keep the site available and accurate but do not guarantee uninterrupted access.

11. Complaints

If something isn’t right, please tell us — contact us on the details in section 1 and we will do our best to put it right promptly. We aim to acknowledge every complaint within 5 working days and to resolve it within 30 days.

If we can’t resolve things between us, you can get free, impartial advice from Citizens Advice consumer service. We are not currently a member of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme, and we do not agree in advance to use one, but you always retain the right to take a dispute to court.

12. Your data

How your personal data (and your dog’s details) is handled is described in the Privacy & GDPR notice.

13. Liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under the law of England & Wales, including any liability arising from our negligence or from fraud. Your statutory rights as a consumer are unaffected.

Subject to that, we are not responsible for harm or loss that is not caused by our fault — for example a condition your dog already had before the booking, or the ordinary risks that come with normal dog exercise and play — and our total liability in connection with any booking is limited to the price paid for that booking. We are not liable for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable, or for business losses.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England & Wales, and any disputes are subject to the courts of England & Wales.