Thirty years ago, it would have been considered slightly embarrassing to pay a professional dog walker to take your pooch for a stroll.
Today, it's commonplace.
Professional dog walker Philippa Bates has more than 100 households around Canberra on her books.
With her business Happy Paws, she said the industry had grown a lot in the last decade.
"It used to be that you'd hire your teenager down the road, and pay them $2 to walk your dog," she said.
"But people have realised that actually, it is quite risky in the sense that you're taking out a dog that isn't yours, and you're quite young, and if something happens, do they have the confidence to deal with that?
"People are busier now, they work longer hours, and they want to make sure their dogs are still getting a walk."
Charlie the labrador is one of her most faithful clients. His owners, who are both public servants, pay Ms Bates to take him on a walk once a week.
It's a big industry in Canberra. On Mad Paws, a pet sitter and dog walking website, more than 550 dog walkers were available to Canberra's pooches.
And according to the 2022 Pet Ownership survey, Australians now spend $500 million a year on walking their dogs.
The end of COVID created a big demand for Ms Bates' services, Canberrans heading back to the offices and leaving their dogs at home alone.
She said a lot of her clients' owners were public servants or in the defence force, and worked long hours.
A lot of "COVID dogs" have separation anxiety, she said.
"Once people went back to the office, they had a responsibility to these dogs, and because a lot of these dogs got so used to having someone around at home all day, the sudden change was not OK," she said.
"You have to teach your dog to be OK on its own."
That's where her walking services come in; on a normal day she walks 10km to 15km a day with her charges.
The role of pets in our households has also changed in the last decades, dogs increasingly an equal member of the family.
Ms Bates said there was more awareness about providing purpose and meaning for our pets.
"You should give your dog a job, even if they are a little fluffy thing," she said.
"You should think about what they are bred for. Charlie is a retriever, and so his job is to retrieve the ball and bring it back to me.
"It's a very fulfilling thing for them, and it creates that bond."
