Straight answers

£26 for one dog for one adventure. A dog's first time is £23.40, which is 10% off and is applied for you at checkout.

That is one price whatever the weather and whatever the traffic, and it covers collection from your door, around two hours in a private, fully fenced field, the drive home, the photographs from the day and a note about how your dog got on.

Collection from home and back again inside a published window, with a tighter window sent the evening before. Their own secured space on the bus, with the interior temperature logged and water on board. Around two hours in a private, fully fenced field with up to 12 dogs, 2 trained people and never more than 6 dogs per person. Water through the day, a treat unless your profile says no, a paw check and a towel-dry before the ride home. Photographs and short videos through the day, shared that evening. A short written note about your dog. And a ticket, a reminder the evening before and a live status on the day: bus on its way, on the bus, home safe.

Not at the moment. A second dog takes a real seat, a real place in the field and real handler time, so a big discount would not be honest about what it costs to carry. If you have two or more dogs, message Ian: two dogs at one door is one stop for us, and that is worth talking about.

At the moment you book, by card, through Stripe's hosted checkout. We never see or store your card number. Our confirmation email is your receipt.

On a weekly plan we take each week's fare 7 days before that adventure, and we always email you 10 days before, with a one-tap skip in the message. Nobody should ever be surprised by a charge.

More than 48 hours before the day: cancel it yourself in your account and choose a full refund or a free move. Between 48 hours and 18:00 the evening before: a free move to another day within 8 weeks, because by then there is not enough time to offer the seat to someone else. After 18:00 the evening before: the seat is charged — but if we fill it from the waiting list, we refund you in full without you having to ask.

If your dog is unwell on the morning, tell us before the bus leaves and we will move it free. Once per dog in a rolling six months, and we will not ask you for a vet's note.

You get a full refund to your card, started automatically, or a free move if you would rather. You choose. We cancel for weather, a road closure, a problem with the vehicle, staff illness, a field we cannot use, or too few dogs on the day to run it properly — and when it is the last one, we will usually offer to move everybody to the other day of the week instead.

No. There is no membership, no minimum number of adventures, nothing that expires and no cancellation fee. A weekly plan is a held seat, not a tie: skip a week, pause for a holiday or stop altogether from your account.

We collect your dog from home inside a window we confirm the evening before, drive to a private, fully fenced field, and spend around two hours there playing, sniffing and running about. Then everyone goes home in the order they were collected.

It is around four to five hours door to door, about two of them in the field, and most dogs sleep for the rest of the day.

Not more than about ninety minutes in one go, and usually less. That is the whole reason the first route is only six towns across about twelve miles: a longer corridor means a longer ride, and a longer ride is worse for your dog even if it looks better on a map.

Because otherwise the first dog collected is also the last one home, and on some routes that is a two-hour difference for the same fare. Dropping in collection order costs us a few extra miles and means every dog is away for about the same length of time. That is the promise printed on the ticket.

The published window is thirty minutes. The evening before we narrow it to about twenty, and if the bus is running more than fifteen minutes behind we text you. Times on the website are planned times; your ticket carries your own window.

The bus waits two minutes, with one call and one text, and then has to move on: eleven other dogs and a field booking depend on it. The seat is charged.

That is why every first address is agreed in advance as one of four things — a door with somebody in, a key safe, a key we hold, or a K9 Bus stop. Most of our customers are out at work, and the arrangement is the answer to that rather than a problem with it.

Yes, and it is often better. A K9 Bus stop is a named spot with a published time — a village car park or a green, always with the landowner's written permission — where three or four owners meet the bus at once. You get a two-minute window instead of a thirty-minute one, and four doors become one stop, which is what keeps the whole timetable honest. If three or more customers live within a short walk of each other, we will suggest it.

A private, fully fenced field that we have to ourselves for the session: no other dogs, no roads and no gate anybody else is opening. Leads stay on between the bus and the gate.

We are not naming the field until the agreement is signed, and no route goes live until it is. "A private, fully fenced field" is a claim we can keep; a name we have not signed for is not.

The bus runs. Dogs like rain more than we do, and the field is still a field. We carry towels and seat covers, every dog gets a paw check and a towel-dry before boarding, and between November and March we add fifteen minutes to the drops for exactly that reason.

We cancel for amber or red weather warnings, for ice or flooding on the route, and for a road closure that makes the run impossible.

Warm weather changes the day rather than cancelling it, up to a point. Around 20°C we shorten the field time, water every fifteen to twenty minutes and use the shade. Around 24°C it is a morning run only, we prefer a field with water and shade, and any dog flagged as heat-risk on its profile is offered a free move instead. At 27°C, or with a heat-health alert on the route, the day is cancelled and refunded.

Those numbers are prompts, not verdicts: the handler makes the call on the day with the humidity, the ground and the individual dog in front of them, and records what they decided and why.

Yes, all day, and the album is part of what you are paying for. It arrives with the day report by teatime.

Whether any of it goes any further is entirely your choice, and it is three separate choices on your dog's profile: the private album for the day (on by default, because it is the thing you bought), using your dog on our social media (off unless you switch it on), and using your dog's name (off separately, because plenty of people are happy with the picture and not the name). You can change any of them at any time in your account.

We never photograph people at pick-ups or drop-offs, and never house numbers, street names or number plates.

That is a question for Ian rather than for a website, and it is exactly what the call and the meet-and-greet are for.

Broadly: 6 months and over, fully vaccinated, microchipped, happy with other dogs, and happy to travel and be handled by someone who is not you. Nervous travellers are fine — they sit next to a handler. A dog with a bite history or serious reactivity is not right for a group bus, and we will say so kindly and point you at a one-to-one service instead.

Core vaccinations up to date — DHP and leptospirosis, with the primary course finished at least two weeks before the first adventure — and we see the certificate at the meet-and-greet rather than taking your word for it. Kennel cough is recommended. A microchip, which is a legal requirement anyway, and a collar with an ID tag; we add our own tag with the day's contact number. Regular flea, tick and worm treatment. And a well-fitting harness or collar.

Three steps, and no dog boards without all three.

A full profile with the vaccination record, your vet and an emergency contact. A fifteen-minute call with Ian about your dog, its habits and the pick-up arrangement. Then a free meet-and-greet, twenty to thirty minutes, in person: a handling check, a look at the harness, the certificate seen, and a stationary boarding test — on the bus, in its own space, doors open, engine off, for a few minutes.

Then a recorded decision: approved, approved with conditions (sits with a handler, no group treats, a meeting point rather than a door, first few adventures on quieter days), or declined, kindly and specifically. The meet-and-greet is free and there is no charge if the answer is no.

In the field, off lead is the point, and it is safe because the field is fenced and private. If your dog's recall is patchy that is fine — it is a fenced field, not a fell — but you tell us on the profile and we handle it accordingly. Leads are on between the bus and the gate every time, without exception.

Most do, and the boarding test at the meet-and-greet is there to find out before you have paid for anything. On the first adventure a new dog boards last, sits next to a handler, and goes into the field on a lead with that handler while the others settle. We write you an honest note that evening about how it actually went.

There is never more than one newly approved dog per handler on a run, so a first day is never a bus full of strangers all arriving at once.

Not in season — typically three to four weeks out, and please just tell us, we will move the days free. Entire males over about twelve months are welcome at our discretion once we know the dog, which usually means after the first adventure.

From 6 months, and only once the primary vaccination course has been complete for at least two weeks. A bus day is a long, stimulating day and a young puppy is better off with something shorter first.

By arrangement, recorded on the profile, and agreed with Ian before the first adventure rather than handed over at the door. The same goes for allergies and diet restrictions: put them on the profile and the manifest carries them to the handler on the day. A dog flagged for diet, weight, allergies or guarding never gets a treat.

We can't currently accept dogs subject to a Dangerous Dogs Act exemption. Our group, transport and insurance arrangements haven't been designed to meet the individual legal and handling conditions these dogs need, and we'd rather say so than get it wrong.

If that is your dog, message Ian: he would rather point you at somebody who can do it properly than leave you guessing.

Register your dog, have the call and the meet-and-greet, and then a booking is about two minutes: pick a day, confirm the dog and the address, pay, and the ticket lands in your account and your inbox.

We gate it that way on purpose. Nobody should get to a payment screen and only then discover that their dog has to be met first.

As far ahead as the calendar goes, which is usually eight to twelve weeks. A weekly plan holds your seat 8 weeks ahead on a rolling basis, so it is always the furthest ahead anybody is booked.

18:00 the evening before. That is when the manifest is printed and the reminder with your narrowed window goes out. After that, message Ian — sometimes there is a way, and he will tell you honestly if there is not.

Join the waiting list — it is free, it takes one tap, and it is per dog per day. If a seat comes free before the cut-off we offer it to the list, with a one-tap "take the seat" that goes straight to payment. Inside twenty-four hours we offer it to everybody waiting at once and the first to pay takes it, which is fairer than making everybody wait their turn on a seat for tomorrow morning.

Pick a day and we hold that seat for the next 8 weeks, rolling forward as the weeks pass. We email you 10 days before each charge and take it 7 days before the adventure. Skip a week with one tap, pause for a holiday and choose your return date, change your day, or cancel the whole thing — all in your account, all free, no notice period.

Plans never take more than three-quarters of a day's seats, so there is always room for a new dog's first adventure and for someone who has just found us.

Put your postcode into the checker at the top of the areas page and it will tell you honestly: on the run that is going now, in an area that is not open yet, or not on a route at all.

That answer is indicative. The operational answer is your address, which a person looks at before your dog's first adventure — because a postcode district covers plenty of lanes a bus is not going up, and it is better to say so at the start.

We do not know, and we will not guess. An area opens when there are enough dogs on it to run a full day properly, when there is a signed field agreement, and when the insurance and licensing position for that field is settled. Register your interest and you will get one email the week it opens, and nothing else unless you asked for it.

The list genuinely decides the order. It is not a marketing device.

Up to 12, with 2 trained people on every single run and never more than 6 dogs per person. Above 8 dogs there is an additional helper on board at all times.

We are not going to dress that number up. 12 dogs is a busload, and it is what most people picture when they see a bus. It works because two trained people run it, because every dog on it has been met first, and because the group is the same one week to week.

Each dog has its own secured space, and no dog is ever left unattended on the bus.

We are not going further than that yet, and the reason is worth saying: the vehicle has not been bought. The restraint system is being designed with a commercial vehicle converter and accepted by the insurer before it is built, not described on a website first. When it is signed off we will show you exactly what it is.

We call you at the time, not afterwards. There is a first-aid kit on board and a written emergency plan on both handlers' phones. We take your dog to your own vet first and to the nearest practice if that is not possible, using the vet-treatment consent you sign at registration.

You cover the fees unless the problem was our fault, which is what our care, custody and control insurance is for, and your own pet insurance details sit on the profile so nobody is looking for them in a crisis.

There is a written plan for it and we have rehearsed it, because it is the thing every owner is actually frightened of. One handler holds the group, one searches, the remaining dogs are driven home safely, and the owner is called within five minutes — not after we have had a look around first. Then the microchip database, the local groups, the field owner, and the police if a road is involved.

Leads are on between the bus and the gate every time, and the field is fully fenced with a gate that is shut behind us. That is the prevention; the plan is what happens anyway.

There are written rules for breaking one up safely, for who is checked, for which vet, and for who is told. Near misses are logged as well as bites, because that is what lets Ian see a problem forming rather than reacting to one that has already happened.

On who pays: our care, custody and control cover responds for dogs in our care, and each owner's own insurance sits behind that. It is in the terms in plain words rather than left for twelve households to find out the hard way.

Insurance, canine first aid certificates, a basic DBS check and the licensing position are all being put in place before the first dog boards. Each one appears on this site the day the document exists, with the date it was checked beside it, and not a day earlier.

On licensing specifically: we have written to both councils involved — the one where the bus is based and the one where the field is — with the exact operating model, and asked each for a written determination of whether we need our own licence. We will publish what they say. We are not going to publish our own reading of the regulations in the meantime, because that is not the same thing.

Never. That is why there are two people on every run: one can walk to a door only because the other is with the dogs. The interior temperature is logged through the day, and the vehicle specification includes a sensor with an alert for exactly that reason.

Ian and a second trained handler on every run, both with canine first aid, both carrying a lead per dog, water and the emergency plan. Ian is one of the two owners; he and his partner have owned dogs all their lives, and he spent a decade as a professional cyclist, which mostly means he is used to early starts and a routine you can set your watch by.

Settle, North Yorkshire, at the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales. The first route runs from there into the Ribble Valley, and the other five areas radiate out from the same base.

Because a walk round the block is not a day. A dog walker takes your dog out near your house; a bus takes it somewhere it could not otherwise get to, with the same group of friends each week, and brings it back tired.

It is also not day care: nobody is housed anywhere, there is no premises, and the day is a journey and a field rather than a room.

Not on a run — the seats and the handler attention are all for dogs. But the meet-and-greet is exactly that: you, your dog, the bus and twenty minutes to look at everything and ask anything.

Now and then, when the day is running to time, the bus stops on the way home and the dogs whose profiles allow it get something small. It is never on the timetable and never promised for a particular day, it is given individually to a stationary dog rather than as a shared moment, and whatever your dog had is recorded in the day report so you know.

Any dog flagged for diet, weight, allergies or guarding does not get one, and you can switch treats off entirely on the profile.

An email that lands by teatime, and always by noon the next day at the latest. It has the album link for the day and a short, specific note about your own dog. It is the part of this that people forward to their friends, and it is the one thing that never slips.

Not yet, and we are not going to invent any. When there are real ones from real customers in Clitheroe and Whalley they will be on our Google listing, where you can see who wrote them. We ask for a review after a dog's third adventure, not its first — a nervous owner on day one should not be asked to endorse anything.

The accounts are being set up. The moment they exist, the links appear in the footer of every page on this site and on the gallery. Until then there is nothing to follow, and we would rather show you nothing than a handle that is not ours.

We collect what a booking and a dog's welfare need, and nothing else: your contact details, your address and access arrangement, your dog's health and behaviour, your vet and an emergency contact. Booking and dog records are kept for three years after your last booking; day albums for ninety days; sign-in codes for minutes.

You can export or delete everything from your account, and the privacy notice lists every company that processes any of it. There is no advertising tracking on this site and no cookie banner, because there are no cookies beyond the one that signs you in.

Through the contact page, or the chat helper on any page, which will hand you to Ian for anything about a specific dog. On a bus day the team is driving between eight and three, so a message will usually get an answer that evening, and within one working day otherwise.