Does TruePath do background checks on all walkers?

Yes — a National Police Check through an ACIC-accredited provider is required before any application proceeds. This covers disclosable court outcomes across all Australian jurisdictions. Police checks are renewed every two years. We also call two non-family references and conduct an in-person interview before approving any walker — the combined process is more thorough than any other nationally operating Australian dog walking platform.

How is TruePath's verification different from Mad Paws?

Mad Paws uses online identity verification (government ID upload) and accepts self-reported references — there's no in-person step and references aren't called directly. TruePath requires a National Police Check, calls two references directly, and interviews every walker in person before approval. Roughly 35% of TruePath applicants don't complete the process — not because they're bad people, but because the process is genuinely selective.

What happens if I have a bad experience with a TruePath walker?

Report it to TruePath support immediately. We investigate every owner concern — including reviewing the GPS walk data, any photos and messages from the booking, and the walker's previous reports. We have removed walkers based on a single credible report of serious conduct. For less serious concerns, we mediate and establish whether the issue is a skills gap, a communication failure, or a match problem, and act accordingly.

Can any walker apply to TruePath?

Anyone can apply, but not everyone is approved. The three-gate process (police check, reference calls, in-person interview) rejects approximately 35% of applicants. Most are rejected at the in-person stage due to gaps between claimed experience and demonstrated animal handling judgment. We don't publish a rejection rate by city, but the intake is deliberately restricted — we'd rather have 200 excellent walkers than 2,000 average ones.

Dog walking

How TruePath Verifies Every Walker — The Full Process

TruePath requires three things from every walker before their first booking: a police check, two references we actually call, and an in-person interview. Here's exactly what that means and how it compares to other platforms.

By atticus · 7 min read · Last updated 17 May 2026

Every TruePath walker passes three gates before their first booking: a police check, two references we call personally, and an in-person meeting with a TruePath team member. No exceptions. This is the piece of our model we care about most — and the piece that most differentiates us from larger platforms.

Why verification matters more than we'd like it to

We'd prefer to believe that everyone offering to care for dogs does so out of genuine commitment to animal welfare. That's true of most people in this space. But "most" is insufficient when the product is daily unsupervised access to someone's home and their dog.

What verification can't prevent: genuine accidents, weather events, or unusual circumstances that would challenge any prepared walker. What it can prevent: walkers who don't have the experience they claim, walkers with undisclosed criminal histories, and walkers who haven't been assessed for basic animal handling competency by a human who met them in person.

The platforms that don't do in-person verification aren't necessarily staffed by bad actors — they've made a different trade-off: scale over depth. More walkers available faster, at the cost of the individual assessment that takes time and can't be automated.

We've chosen depth. It makes TruePath slower to deploy in new suburbs, and it means there are sometimes fewer walkers in your area than on Mad Paws. It also means that every walker you see in your suburb results list has been personally assessed by someone who shook their hand and watched how they interact with a dog.

Step 1: National Police Check

Every TruePath walker applicant completes a National Police Check through an ACIC-accredited provider before their application proceeds. This is the same check required for working with children, vulnerable adults, and in aged care.

The check covers:

Disclosable court outcomes (convictions, findings of guilt, charges)
Relevant national criminal history across all Australian jurisdictions

We see the result before the walker is approved. Any undisclosed relevant outcome terminates the application.

Police checks don't cover every risk. Someone with no criminal history can still be a poor animal handler. That's why the police check is step one, not the entire process.

Step 2: References we actually call

Every walker applicant provides two non-family references — previous clients, employers, or professional contacts who can speak to their reliability, character, and (if applicable) experience with animals.

We call them. Not email — call. The information that comes through in a spoken conversation is different from a written reference. We ask whether they'd use this person again, whether there were any incidents or concerns, and whether they'd describe the applicant as reliable in situations that require independent judgment.

This step rejects approximately 12% of applicants who passed the police check stage — people whose references couldn't be reached, who gave references that expressed hesitation, or whose references declined to endorse them without reservation.

Step 3: In-person interview

This is the step that matters most and that no competing platform at national scale has implemented.

A TruePath team member meets every prospective walker in person before approval. The meeting is approximately 30 minutes. It covers:

Experience and history. What dogs have they cared for? What's the most challenging situation they've managed on a walk? What would they do if a dog escaped their care?

Animal handling observation. Where possible, the interview includes interaction with a dog — either the applicant's own dog (if they have one) or a TruePath-owned dog. We're watching body language, approach style, how they respond to the dog's signals, and whether their handling instincts match their claimed experience.

Judgment scenarios. We present real situations TruePath walkers have faced: a dog showing sudden illness mid-walk, a reactive incident with another dog, a booking where the owner is unreachable. The answers tell us how someone thinks under pressure, not just whether they know the right vocabulary.

Emergency protocol. We verify they know the location of the nearest emergency vet to the area they'll be walking in and that they have a protocol for medical incidents.

Approximately 25% of applicants who pass the first two stages don't pass the in-person interview. The most common reason: inconsistency between claimed experience and the quality of their answers to specific scenario questions.

How our verification compares to other platforms

Verification step	TruePath	Mad Paws	Pawshake	Rover AU
Police/background check	Yes — ACIC National Police Check	Online identity check	Online identity check	Varies by country
References	Called directly	Self-reported (not verified)	Self-reported	Self-reported
In-person interview	Yes — with every walker	No	No	No
Animal handling assessment	Yes — part of in-person	No	No	No
Check renewal period	Every 2 years	Not publicised	Not publicised	Not publicised

The critical gap: self-reported references are not the same as references that have been called. A reference form submitted by the applicant tells you who they think will say good things about them. A call to that person tells you whether they actually will.

What verification doesn't guarantee

We're honest about the limits. Our process is the most thorough available on any Australian dog walking platform, and it still can't predict every outcome. A well-verified walker can have a bad day, make a poor decision, or face a situation outside their experience.

What it does: it eliminates the most obvious risks, creates accountability at every stage, and produces a walker cohort whose average standard of care is materially higher than a platform that approves applications remotely.

If a TruePath walker behaves in a way that concerns you — anything from late communication to a walk that didn't match the booking — report it. We investigate every owner concern and have removed walkers based on a single credible report of conduct that violated our standards.

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