A new start after 60: I became a dog-walker – and I've never been happier

The Guardian

26-05-2025

Brendan MacNeill had wanted to be a photographer since he was a child, and he spent more than 40 years studying and working in the field. But the economic uncertainties of freelancing meant it never really felt like a dream come true and, last year, he 'woke up on the first working day of January, and decided something had to change'. Within a week, he had set himself up as a dog-walker. He was 67.
MacNeill lives in Edinburgh's Southside, near the Braid Hills, so he already had a perfect workspace close to hand. He had an old estate car. And it was easy enough to set up a website for his business. Now he cares for eight dogs a week, among them an old English sheepdog, a cocker spaniel, a sproodle, a labradoodle, a pomeranian-husky mix, and his own chocolate labrador, Molly.
'Four mornings a week, I'm up those hills at 8.30. I have them all in the back of the car, and when we arrive they get hyper, barking: 'We're here! We're here!''
In winter, he crests the hill when it's barely light, and the land, and Edinburgh, fall away at his feet. 'I'm not big on Zen and the art of mindfulness or anything like that. But it's just great to be out in a beautiful setting.'
For MacNeill, the hardest part of starting a new career was letting go of the old one. He grew up in Dublin and, at the age of 10, was immediately captivated when his brother showed him a negative and its corresponding photograph. 'To me, photography was magic, and always has been.'
He turned his bedroom into a darkroom. 'It was somewhere to escape to.' As a teenager, at the weekend, 'I used to get on the bus, go into town and walk around for hours with a camera, finding shots. It was about me being on my own.'
MacNeill was one of seven children. 'Nine people in a family, in a not very big house. You tend to carve out a bit of space for yourself.'
He did a degree in photography at the Polytechnic of Central London, and later got jobs assisting photographers, then concentrated on his own 'black-and-white arty landscapes'. He did corporate work, freelanced for the Scotsman, then specialised in hospitality. But work was a battle.
'There was always a nagging sense of impostor syndrome … Getting doors to open was something I found difficult. Waiting for the telephone to ring was the worst thing. And trying to figure out, how do I get it to ring?
'As I got older, the gap between me and the people who were commissioning work got bigger and bigger. So many contacts are made in social situations.' With technology democratising photography, he felt his role had become cheapened. 'Valueless would be a better word.'
Even so, letting go of the sense of himself as a photographer was difficult. Last month, he gave up his domain name. 'I thought: 'Right, we're done.'' He is slowly selling off his kit. It's noticeable that his dog-walking business – Brendan the Dog Walker – feels like a statement of identity.
'I'm in a much more secure and positive frame of mind about what I'm doing,' he says. 'You're there. You're in charge. The dogs are loving it. They're looking to you for a bit of direction and leadership on the hill. You're giving them treats. I'm the boss out there. I'm the magnet. I say to them, 'Come on, we're going this way', and they follow. It's a very different mindset from photography.
'Some people might think that sounds very simple, silly … But it's lovely to have time with dogs who appreciate being out with you.'
The cashflow is more reliable than freelance photography. There is a sense of community among other dog walkers: 'They're incredibly encouraging. Any advice you need, it's there.' And MacNeill says his mental health has improved: 'getting up in the morning, having a bit of structure to my Monday to Friday'.
There was magic in the darkroom. But, now, 'magic is being able to pick up the dogs and have a really nice walk with them.'
Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?