Our story
Built in Dublin, for every dog in Ireland.
PawPals started in 2025 with one specific frustration: finding someone you trust to mind your dog in Ireland meant asking in a Facebook group and hoping. There was no way to check whether a walker was vetted, insured, or even who they said they were. We built the checks first and the marketplace second.
We're a small Irish-owned team of three, based in Dublin 8, covering all 32 counties. We are not a franchise and we don't operate kennels — every sitter on PawPals is an independent local person we've verified ourselves.
Who runs PawPals
Aoife Ní Bhraonáin
Co-founder — Operations
Ran a dog-walking round across Dublin 6 and 8 for six years before PawPals. Handles sitter vetting and reviews every single application personally.
Cormac Doyle
Co-founder — Product
Fifteen years building marketplaces and payments platforms. Owner of Bailey, a permanently muddy springer spaniel from Wicklow.
Niamh Kelleher
Owner Support
Former veterinary nurse in Cork. Answers the support inbox and is the person you'll speak to if a booking goes wrong.
How we vet every sitter
Dog walking is not a regulated profession in Ireland — there is no state licence to check. This is the process we run instead, on every applicant, before a profile can take a single booking.
1. Identity
Government photo ID matched against a live selfie check, plus a verified Irish mobile number and address. No profile goes live without this.
2. Garda vetting
Sitters submit Garda vetting (or AccessNI for Northern Ireland sitters). We check the disclosure date and re-request it every three years.
3. Experience interview
A 20-minute video call covering handling experience, first-aid awareness, and what they'd do in three specific scenarios — a lost dog, a dog fight, and a suspected bloat.
4. Home check for boarders
Anyone offering overnight boarding gets a video walk-through of the house and garden: fence height, gate security, and where the dog will sleep.
5. Ongoing review
Ratings, cancellations and reports are monitored. Two upheld welfare reports removes a sitter permanently — there is no third strike.
How the money and the cover work
Payments are held, not forwarded. You pay by card when a booking is confirmed. PawPals holds the money and releases it to the sitter only after the service is completed. If the sitter cancels, or the service doesn't happen, the refund is automatic.
Our commission is 15%. That's taken from the sitter's side and it's how PawPals is funded — we don't charge owners a booking fee or a membership. Prices you see include VAT at the Irish rate of 23%.
Bookings are covered. Every booking made and paid for in the app is covered by our care guarantee for vet costs arising from an incident during the booking. Arrangements made in cash outside PawPals are not covered, which is the single biggest reason to keep bookings in the app.
Reviews can't be bought. Only an owner who completed and paid for a booking can leave a review, and we never delete a negative review at a sitter's request. Reports are handled by a human, not a filter.