A dog, a pint and £1,000 — someone in Wales is about to get paid to visit ten pubs this summer

If your idea of a perfect summer involves a cold pint, a beer garden, and your dog sprawled under the table — someone is about to pay you £1,000 to do exactly that.

Rover.com, the pet care marketplace, is recruiting eleven “Tavern Testers” across the UK — including one for Wales — to spend six weeks visiting ten pubs each, rating every venue on its dog-friendly credentials. That means assessing the welcome from staff, the availability of water bowls and dog treats, outdoor space and general pup-friendliness. Each tester gets £1,000 for their trouble.

Applications are open now at Rover’s website and close at 6pm on Saturday 7 June. If you have a dog and a working knowledge of what makes a good pub, this may be the most relevant job advertisement you’ll see this year.

It is not the most demanding job description ever written. But before you assume any pub-visiting dog owner in Swansea, Llanelli or Neath is a shoo-in, it’s worth knowing that last year’s most dog-friendly pub in Wales — the Blaina Wharf in Newport — set a fairly high bar. Whoever takes the job this summer will need to find somewhere that beats it.

South-west Wales is well placed to produce strong contenders. Swansea has previously been ranked as one of Wales’s most pet-friendly destinations based on analysis of more than 73,000 pet owner reviews — a reflection of the city’s beaches, parks and generally relaxed attitude towards four-legged visitors. The Gower Peninsula alone offers enough dog-friendly pubs to fill a tester’s entire six-week itinerary several times over.

The dog-friendly credentials of the area go beyond pubs. The Quadrant Shopping Centre in Swansea became Wales’s first dog-friendly indoor shopping centre — a move that reflected just how central dogs have become to daily life in the city. The Rover role is, in some ways, the logical next step.

Rover’s research into what makes a perfect pub visit has produced findings that will not surprise anyone who has ever brought a dog to a beer garden. According to a survey of 2,000 UK dog owners, the perfect pint happens at 7.30pm on a warm Friday evening, sitting outside, with live music playing and a bag of dry roasted peanuts on the table. The dog, naturally, is essential.

The numbers behind the research are striking. Some 78% of dog owners say they regularly take their dogs to the pub. More surprisingly, 60% say their dog is their preferred drinking companion — ahead of their friends (49%), their partner (53%) and their family (30%). Whether that reflects well on dogs or badly on everyone else is left as an exercise for the reader.

Dogs apparently also serve a practical function on a night out. Nearly two thirds of owners — 61% — say their dog helps keep them in check, with 41% reporting a timely paw on the lap, 40% getting the stern “time to go home” look, and 29% being physically nudged towards the door.

The research also addresses the morning after. A significant number of dog owners credit their pet as the ideal hangover cure — citing the combination of cuddles (61%), no judgement (63%) and a non-negotiable reason to get out of bed for a walk (79%). Hair of the dog, in every sense.

It is perhaps not surprising that dog owners are increasingly reluctant to travel without their pets. Research published previously found that around 40% of UK dog owners opt for UK holidays specifically so their dog can come along — a figure that has likely only grown since the pandemic reshaped how people think about travel and companionship.

As for which breeds make the best pub dogs, the Golden Retriever tops the list, followed by the Labrador, the Cocker Spaniel and the French Bulldog. The Corgi — Wales’s most famous four-legged resident — makes the top ten at number ten, which feels like it deserves a recount.

Rover’s canine behaviourist Adem Fehmi advises anyone new to pub visits with their dog to start at quieter times and choose a table on the edge of the venue with plenty of space. “Give your dog a comfortable spot to relax alongside something positive to focus on, such as a long-lasting chew or food-dispensing toy,” he said.

“Over time, you can build up to longer visits and busier settings,” Fehmi added. “It’s important to choose pubs that are genuinely dog-friendly and welcoming — not just places that allow dogs.”

Applications to become a Rover Tavern Tester are open now and close on 7 June. Full details and the application form are available at rover.com/uk.