How low should you change your rate for someone?

It's up to you if you want to provide discounts or not. I'm not against discounting (especially for multiple bookings), though I'm hesitant to discount for people who don't respect the work that I do or its value. She may have been joking, but her comments indicate that she considers you to be unskilled labor and not worth the money. What minimum wage employee only works for 30 mins at a time? At $10/walk, you would have to spend at least 4 hours of your day just walking dogs, not including travel to and from each location to make the same income you would for one shift (8 hrs) at a minimum wage job. But unlike someone working an 8 hr shift, you're putting far more wear and tear on your vehicle, you don't get any health benefits, and you actually have to pay additional taxes for being self employed. You are a business owner. Your time is valuable. You're providing a custom service to your clients and their pets.

Your rates are already low, and that will likely make you a target for price shoppers: people who want the best deal, no matter what. These people want professionals for the same cost of the kid down the street. I'm not saying you shouldn't have discounted for this woman, but in the future, I'd emphasize your qualifications and the quality and convenience of the services you provide and accumulate clients who value you. It will make your job much easier and happier.

I strongly second everything Laura said. In addition, I do not negotiate with people because it feels unfair to my other customers who had to pay full price. Your rates are already plenty low. Typically when people ask for a discount that I can't accommodate, I refer them to LivingSocial and Groupon, which often have discounts for Rover services. For example, RIGHT NOW, Livingsocial.com has a deal on Rover dog walking services where you buy the deal for $15 and it's worth $40 of dog walking services on Rover for new customers (aka $35 off!). This doesn't affect how much you get paid at all. Here's the link - https://www.livingsocial.com/deals/15...

I think you should stick with your price and don't discount it for anyone unless necessary. I take offense when people try to lower my price, I had this happen once and I did not budge. Like Jean said, you can refer them to Livingsocial or Groupon. I have a customer who just booked me and said she has a $50.00 coupon. Not sure where she got it from but they are out there. People tend to not value what we do as if anyone could do our job. We make ourselves available to dog owners, we take pride in our work, we love and care for these dogs as if they are part of our family and sometimes stay up all hours of the night making sure they are comfortable. Yet they ask for discounts with no regards for our care of their beloved pet.