A PROFESSIONAL dog walker has revealed the reason for starting her own business instead of working for someone else.

After working full-time for a friend for a couple of years in Haywards Heath, Jane Lievens decided to set up her own business in February.

She said: “I started on my own to save driving to Haywards Heath every day.”

With a business called Rover’s Return, the 47-year-old has gone for the angle of “a mature and responsible dog walker”.

Miss Lievens moved down from Cheshire and has lived near Preston Park in Brighton for 20 years. Sticking to her local area as well as Seven Dials, Hove Park and Patcham, she said: “You tend to very much sort of do your patch.” She is happy to carry out last-minute and ad-hoc walks rather than people having to commit to a schedule.

She said: “Obviously I’m happy if people do want to commit but it doesn’t have to be that way.”

Miss Lievens accepts that, like other services, it is for people who are working full-time and have the income to pay for it.

Happy walking any dog, she said she does have a policy on numbers.

She said: “I’m keeping it to small groups of dogs, about four or so. You see some walkers with nine or ten dogs and that’s too much really.”

With her own dog, a rescue Jack Russell cross, she is also capable of dog boarding in her terrace house.