It was my first walk, I went for about an hour. As I'm sending pictures and messaging the owner I realize it says "start walk" at the top and I realized I forgot to push it so it's still pending at the moment. Does this prevent me from getting paid? Does this affect my profile?
Not starting the walk will not affect you getting paid nor will it impact your profile or where you show up in search results. Just an FYI some walkers don't use the App at all for their walks, but I do recommend you use them as proof you visited and walked the dog and the time you spent. To me this is very important when starting a relationship with a new client so they know they received the services they contracted with you to provide.
You will still get paid, and the owner knows you did the walk because of pictures. It will say on your profile that not 100% of clients received a Rovercard which isn't a huge deal. If you notice partway through a walk, I would go ahead and start it even though it'll think it's ending early, but it doesn't really matter as far as payment goes. Owners love the Rover cards and are important on a customer service level, especially with new customers.
I agree with above. Owners love getting "progress" report and pictures. I think it is just good business to do that.
I can't even get the Rover card to work any more