Dad swaps house for van with custom made kennel for his 6.9st dog and now makes £40K a year as a security guard

A dog handler has taken van life “to the next level” by moving his home and kennel onto four wheels, earning £40,000 per year with his travelling security business while spending less than £200 per month on “rent and bills”.

James Barrie, 52, swapped his three-bedroom house in Doncaster for a “bog standard” white van, which he fitted with solar panels and a large kennel for his beloved 6.9st (44kg) Caucasian cross German Shepherd guard dog, Luna.

The pair travel all over the country together guarding valuable locations, from building sites to the luxury homes of the rich and famous, and working 12-hour shifts six days a week.

His long wheelbase Ford Transit van, which James describes as a “workhorse”, is missing a few home comforts such as a fridge, oven and shower, which means he has to rely on service stations or shopping centres.

The-father-of-six, who earns around £40,000 a year, only has to pay for fuel and insurance, but says most of his money is spent spoiling his three youngest daughters who are seven, nine and 11.

“I’ve just taken van life to the next level because my full time job is working from my van,” he said.

“I basically pay less than £200 a month on my rent and bills.”

James, who has been working in the security industry since he was 17, decided to become a dog handler two years ago.

“A dog handler is basically a security guard with a very big dog,” he said.

“My job is to guard whatever my employer wants, from the mundane to the magnificent.”

James began working in his car, but quickly found driving back to his house in Doncaster after every shift was too taxing.

“I fully moved out of the house around six months later because I had been given a really good job in Leeds, guarding an Amazon build for nearly a year”, he continued.

James bought himself a second-hand long wheelbase Ford Transit van for £1,500 and set to work making his new home.

“I’m at the bottom end of the scale of comfort – it’s a workhorse,” he said.

“There’s nothing remarkable about it externally, it just looks like a bog standard white transit van.”

But the vehicle has a unique feature inside – a dog kennel for his four-legged business partner.

“A third of the van is the dog’s kennel, from the back doors to almost the side sliding door – it’s massive,” James said.

“You could easily split it in half and house two dogs in there, but because she’s so big, she gets the whole thing.

“On top of the dog kennel, there is a full size double mattress, where I sleep.”

Luna has been trained to deal with all kinds of dangerous scenarios from chasing intruders away to taking them down.

“From sit and stay to the extreme of having to protect me and grabbing someone by the arm and taking them to the ground,” he said.

“Of course, she has to be fully under my control and the same laws which apply to me also apply to her.

“She is an extension of me.”

James has taken a no-frills approach when renovating his van, which has no fridge and only a single hob camper gas stove.

He does keep a box of herbs and spices, as well as tinned and dried foods, including gravy granules, to flavour his meals.

All of the electricity is provided by a Jackery solar generator, with two 100 watt panels, which is enough to keep all of James’ technology charged, including his phone and laptop.

Showering is however a little bit more “complicated” for James.

“A lot of the sites I work on don’t have shower facilities, but service stations are brilliant,” he said.

“There is one on the M1 and another just off the M62.

“The White Rose Shopping Centre also has facilities and they are happy for customers to use them.

“So I always find something.”

James sometimes calls on friends or family for a warm shower and says they are “always happy” to accommodate.

One of the main reasons James decided to take to the road was saving money and time.

“My annual insurance is only around £500 a year and I put around 25 litres of fuel in the tank a week, so you do the math,” he said.

On top of his own monthly outgoings, James continues to pay council tax and water at his family home, which he is keeping for the future.

“I keep a roof over my kids’ heads no matter what,” he said.

While James mainly operates across the North East, he is not tied down to a specific location.

“I can basically go anywhere because I’ve got the van and my boss knows that,” he said.

“If my boss needs somebody in Newcastle, Edinburgh, South Wales or London, I can do that.

“At the moment I’m doing six days a week, 12 hours a day.”

But spending so much time on the road has its down sides says James who only gets to see his children once or twice a week.

“I miss my kids,” he said.

“So I go home on a Friday and take my kids out and have a big blast – spoil them.

“The compromise we agreed, was that I would not come home every day and the money I saved on fuel, I would spend on them.

“The social life is also difficult, because there basically isn’t one, I work, I sleep, I go shopping, I go back to work, it’s eat, sleep, repeated.

“I’ve got a lot of friends but I just live so far away from them now that there’s no social circle.”

James says the demands of his job means that he does not “have time” for a romantic relationship.

“Not unless she wants to be a dog handler as well,” he said.

“But that’s fine, I’m an old man, who cares.”

But the pros outweigh the cons for James who has embraced van life and has no plans of moving back into a house.

“The financial benefits of working hard means I can lay down a foundation for the future of my kids,” he said.

“For me van life is a way of life, so I don’t think I’ll ever move back into my house.”