Yorkshire Woman Quit Law Firm To Pick Up Dog Poo — Now Earns 4x More And Bought A £195K Home

Emma Garner earns more than four times what she made sitting behind a desk at a national law firm. She works roughly a third of the hours. The difference is that her income now comes entirely from picking up dog poo in people's gardens across West and South Yorkshire.

Garner, 45, of Wakefield, runs The Dog Poo Professionals, a pet waste and care business she founded in 2014 and turned it into her full-time career two years later. She previously spent 11 years as a claims assessor at a law firm earning £20,000 ($26,500) a year. She now takes home a sum in the high five figures and has used the proceeds to buy a four-bedroom semi-detached house worth £195,000 ($258,000), Buckinghamshire Live reported.

'Picking up poo has changed my life,' Garner said. 'It has given me a great work-life balance and no stress, which was something I was dreaming of when I was at my law job.'

Her Dog Poo Clients Range From Surgeons To The Housebound

Garner is fully booked, with hundreds of weekly clients. Prices start at £14 ($18.50) a week for one dog, with £4 ($5.30) per additional dog. She rejected the suggestion that her customers simply cannot be bothered.

'It annoys me when people assume that my customers are just lazy,' she said. 'I visit people that are in wheelchairs, have terminally ill children, people who have a broken leg, visually impaired, pregnant, elderly people. Even surgeons and beauty therapists that want to keep their hands as clean as possible for work.'

In a 2018 interview with YorkshireLive, Garner described how some elderly clients relied on her visits as their main point of social contact each week. 'One lady rang to say she didn't need me to clear up one week, but said come along anyway for a coffee,' she said. She also takes jobs from estate agents clearing gardens left behind by outgoing tenants with pets.

Britain's dog population has swelled to roughly 13.5 million across 36 per cent of households, according to 2024 figures from UK Pet Food, the industry body formerly known as the Pet Food Manufacturers' Association. The UK pet food market alone is now valued at £4.3 billion ($5.7 billion).

'The Best Day Of My Life'

Garner told YorkshireLive she found her previous corporate role suffocating. 'I had a corporate lifestyle in an office, working under strip lights, having to ask permission to take a break,' she said. 'The stress of it was getting me down.'

While still employed at the firm, she read an article about a man who ran a pet waste removal operation overseas and could not let the idea go. She posted an advert on Facebook and had her first client within 10 minutes. For months, she took bookings in her spare time, heading out after work with a lamp in the dark.

The firm had reassured her that her position was safe. Then came a call on her day off. 'One day they called me on the phone to make me redundant - and it was the best day of my life,' she told YorkshireLive. 'I was so happy because I would never have taken the step of setting up the business otherwise.'

When YorkshireLive profiled her in 2018, Garner charged £8 ($10.60) per dog per week. That figure has since climbed to £14, reflecting both the growth of her client base and broader cost pressures. She has also expanded her services over the years to include nail trimming, dog walking and cleaning out rabbit hutches, hamster cages, and chicken runs.

'It has also enabled me to buy a house and be financially free, which I never dreamed of,' Garner said. She is now recruiting a new staff member with a view to semi-retiring.