How to Become a Dog Walker on Rover

Rover keeps its entry requirements narrow: the platform's own rules decide who can sign up, a third-party background check decides who clears, and your local laws decide what you may need on top.

If you are still weighing app work against company jobs or your own clients, the dog walker career guide compares all three routes.

Age comes first: Rover requires sitters and dog walkers to be at least 18 years old.

That is the platform's stated minimum for signing up, so under 18 you cannot become a Rover sitter or walker.

Rover treats sitters and walkers as independent contractors running their own small business on the platform, not Rover employees.

That is the platform's own classification, and it frames the whole arrangement: you are building a small service business through Rover rather than taking a job with an employer.

Rover's sign-up includes a background check run by First Advantage, a third-party provider.

It covers identity details such as citizenship and your Social Security number, your driving record and your criminal history.

Your credit history is not included, and US applicants need their full legal name and SSN to complete it.

Rover also requires all of its pet sitters and dog walkers to complete a safety quiz during sign-up.

Licensing is the one requirement that is not Rover's to set.

Rover does not require its sitters and walkers to be licensed or bonded; it requires you to follow your local laws on licensing and other requirements, which it says vary by location.

The licensing question is answered by your local government, not by Rover.

Rover's sign-up runs through a fixed sequence of setup you do once: your services, your rates, your profile, your quiz and your background check.

Rover says you should hear back within 10 to 20 business days, and it notifies you by email if your profile is approved.

Getting paid runs through Stripe: Rover pays providers through Stripe, and you supply your Social Security number and bank account information to receive deposits.

Your profile carries the pitch: Rover's own sign-up sequence puts photos, services and testimonials at the center of it, and each is worth doing deliberately.

Start with the dog work you have already done.

Rover asks sitters to request testimonials from past clients, and it says testimonials build trust with future clients — so neighbors whose dogs you have walked, family friends and anyone who has paid you for pet care are the natural people to ask.

Set your rates and availability to match the work you actually want.

Rover lets you set your own schedule and prices, so a walker who only wants evening walks after a day job can build the profile around exactly that, instead of pretending to full-time availability.

List the service mix you can honestly deliver: dog walking, boarding, doggy day care, house sitting and drop-in visits are the services Rover gives sitters.

Dog training is the exception — Rover offers it only to credentialed trainers, so it is not an add-on for a new walking profile.

A new profile has no reviews yet, so everything that makes you easy to find and easy to say yes to matters more at the start than it will later.

The clients who rebook are worth the most, in more ways than one.

Rover's fee pilot rewards repeat business, because in the pilot cities your fee drops as a given client's booking history grows — the tiers are spelled out in the policies section below.

Once the bookings exist, the job itself is the craft any walker owes a client: keep the dog safe, follow the owner's instructions, and report anything odd — a limp, a lost appetite, a lump — to the owner, whose veterinarian handles anything medical.

Rover's fees decide what a booking is actually worth to you, and they are not one number everywhere.

Under the standard US terms Rover described as of October 2026, the platform applies a 20% service fee per booking, so you keep 80% of your earnings.

California works differently: the base rate you enter is what you take home, and the fees sit on the owner's side of the transaction — a 25% Rover marketplace fee added on top of your rate, plus an 11% booking fee.

Rover is also piloting tiered fees in the Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue, Chicago/Naperville/Elgin and Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington areas.

In the pilot, the fee on bookings with a given client depends on that client's booking history with you: 30% up to $599, 15% from $600 to $1,199, and 10% at $1,200 or more, with training and grooming bookings excluded.

Participation is automatic in the listed areas, and this was the pilot structure as of October 2026 — re-check it on Rover's help center before you set rates.

Payouts run through Stripe.

Funds for a booking appear in your Rover account two days after you complete the service, then transfer by direct deposit, which Rover says can take up to five business days to land.

Rover's terms keep payment and communication on the platform.

Accepting payment outside Rover removes your Rover Guarantee and support coverage, and it can lead to account suspension for both you and the owner.

The Rover Guarantee is a platform program with terms of its own, and our research could not verify its coverage terms from Rover's public pages — so read the current terms on Rover itself before you count on it.

Two classification points sit underneath all of this.

Rover treats you as an independent contractor, so the business side — your rates, your schedule, your taxes — is yours to run.

And Rover does not require licensing or bonding; that stays with your local laws, so the local-government check you did before signing up is worth repeating when rules change.

Career information, not legal or tax advice: Rover's fees, pilot programs and policies change, so confirm the current terms on Rover's help center, check licensing with your local government, and send tax questions to the IRS or a tax professional.