Last updated: 27 July 2026

This policy sets out what you may and may not do on OnlyPaws. It applies to everyone — dog owners, walkers and anyone else using the app or the website — and forms part of the Terms of Service. Walkers are additionally bound by the Walker Agreement.

Breaking this policy can cost someone their income or an animal its safety, so we enforce it.

1. Who may use OnlyPaws

You must be 18 or older and legally able to enter into a contract. You must use your own real identity — one account per person. You may not create an account for someone else, share your login, or use OnlyPaws while suspended.

Walkers must be legally entitled to work in South Africa.

2. Animal welfare

This is the part we care about most.

You must not:

• Treat any animal cruelly, roughly, or with intimidation — including choke, prong or shock collars used as punishment
• Leave a dog unattended, tied up outside a shop, or in a vehicle
• Walk a dog in conditions that endanger it, including extreme heat on hot tarmac
• Fail to disclose a dog's bite history, aggression, illness, or that it is in season
• Give a dog any medication other than what its owner has recorded and instructed
• Continue a walk when a dog is injured, in distress, or showing signs of heatstroke
• Use OnlyPaws to arrange breeding, the sale or rehoming of an animal, or any veterinary procedure

Suspected animal cruelty will be reported to the NSPCA and, where appropriate, to the police. We will cooperate fully with any investigation.

3. Conduct towards people

You must not harass, threaten, stalk, defame or discriminate against anyone. That includes discrimination on any ground protected by the Constitution — race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language or birth.

Do not contact anyone through OnlyPaws for a purpose unrelated to a walk. Do not use another user's contact details, address or photographs for anything other than carrying out the walk they relate to.

4. Honesty on the platform

You must not:

• Give false identity, address or reference information, or submit a document that is not yours
• Impersonate anyone, including OnlyPaws staff
• Write a review that is untrue, that you were paid or pressured to write, or that concerns a walk you were not part of
• Manipulate ratings, create fake bookings, or use multiple accounts to influence matching
• Misrepresent your experience, qualifications or insurance status

5. Payments

When payments are live, you must not:

• Arrange payment outside OnlyPaws in order to avoid our commission, after being matched through the platform
• Use OnlyPaws to move money for any purpose other than paying for a walk — it is not a remittance, lending or money-transfer service
• Use stolen, cloned or unauthorised payment credentials
• Make a chargeback claim you know to be false
• Use OnlyPaws in connection with money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, or the proceeds of crime

We may withhold a payout, reverse a transaction, or report a transaction to the relevant authority where we reasonably suspect any of the above.

6. Prohibited and restricted activity

OnlyPaws is for dog walking and related pet care. It may not be used for anything illegal, nor for: firearms, drugs, alcohol or tobacco delivery; adult services; gambling; the sale of animals or animal products; unlicensed transport of people or goods; or delivering items of any kind on a walk.

7. Security and the app itself

You must not attempt to access another user's account or data, probe or scan our systems, interfere with the service, scrape the platform, reverse-engineer the app, or use it through automated means. Report any vulnerability you find to support@onlypaws.co.za rather than exploiting it — we will not pursue anyone who reports in good faith and does not access other people's data.

8. Content you upload

Photographs and videos taken on a walk must show the dog and the walk. Do not upload anything featuring other people without their consent, anything unlawful, sexual, violent, hateful, or anything you do not have the right to share.

You keep ownership of what you upload. You give us permission to store and display it to the people involved in that walk, as described in the Privacy Policy.

9. How we enforce this

Depending on severity, we may: remove content, issue a warning, restrict features, withhold a payout, suspend an account, terminate an account permanently, or report the matter to the police, the NSPCA or another authority.

Serious cases — cruelty, violence, fraud, endangering a dog or a person — result in immediate permanent removal without warning.

If your account is actioned we will tell you why, unless telling you would prejudice an investigation or put someone at risk. You can dispute a decision by emailing support@onlypaws.co.za, and a person will review it.

10. Reporting a problem

Report anything that breaks this policy through the in-app report on the walk, or by emailing support@onlypaws.co.za. If an animal or a person is in immediate danger, contact the emergency services first — 10111 for police, or the NSPCA for animal cruelty — and then tell us.

Nothing here affects your right to complain to the National Consumer Commission, or to the Information Regulator of South Africa for a privacy complaint.