New Client Setup & Visit Logistics
Yes! We are licensed by the City of Alexandria, Arlington County, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have many caregivers who live and work in both Arlington and Alexandria, and who may even be your neighbor! Our insurance policy and bond are secured through the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters and the Business Insurers of the Carolinas. We carry a commercial general liability policy that includes
animal bailee coverage to cover all the pets in our care, custody, or control.
Despite our name, we love all kinds of animals! DoggyWalker.com will care for dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, chinchillas, and turtles (fish too!). If you have another type of pet, feel free to ask! Sorry, no snakes or other exotic pets.
DoggyWalker.com serves clients in the City of Alexandria, most of the Alexandria portion of Fairfax County, Arlington County, and select areas of the City of Falls Church and McLean. Please check out our
map to see our service areas in greater detail and feel free to
contact us if you’re unsure if we serve your area. You can also visit our team pages for specific neighborhoods served by our three service areas in
Alexandria,
Arlington, and
Annandale.
Thank you for your interest in DoggyWalker.com services! To get started, please complete our
New Client Form and a manager will contact you within one business day to set up a new client consultation and/or answer any additional questions you may have. Please explore our website for additional information about our
services,
rates, and
company history.
DoggyWalker.com requires two sets of keys for a few reasons, but normally it is because it is necessary for both sets of keys to be with two caregivers in cases of multiple visits in a day, substitutions, and emergencies. Occasionally, the second copy comes in handy when you have locked yourself out and need a copy of your key! If not assigned to more than one caregiver, the backup copy of your key is always safely stored in a secure location and labeled in a way which does not give away the name or address of your home.
For clients who live in apartment buildings that require a FOB, we only need one copy of the FOB (although we’re happy to have two copies if allowed!). Having the FOB allows us tto maximize the time spent with your pet(s) as opposed to waiting for the front desk or concierge to check the key out to us.
We manage a profile on every home and pet that we visit, allowing us to follow your routine and handling preferences. The profile includes important information including your visit schedule, feeding schedule, your contact information, vet information, general routines, and any quirks about your home or pet (we all have quirks!). That profile is accessible to any caregiver that is scheduled to visit your home to ensure they know what to expect.
If you need any changes to your profile information, you can inform your
service area office so we can be sure the profile reflects those changes. Our clients also have the ability to update their profiles on their own by using the
LeashTime client system.
Within reason, a DoggyWalker.com caregiver will complete additional tasks such as watering plants, bringing in mail and newspapers, turning lights and TVs on and off, etc. as part of a midday or pet sit visit. Our caregivers are not expected to and will not pick up excessive, pre-existing animal waste, perform house cleaning, maintenance, or be on call for delivery or repair people. However, they are expected to manage any illness, accidents, or damage in a way that secures your pet(s) before you return home.
We refer to regular, weekday dog walks ( between 9 a.m. -5 p.m.) as midday visits, and after hour visits as pet sitting (weekday visits before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m., as well as any visit taking place on weekend days). You can think of it as a midday visit happening while you’re away at work for exercise and a bathroom break, and pet sitting is for when you’re working late or are out of town, for exercise, bathroom break, feeding, medication management, etc. Please also note that any visit occurring on a weekend day (Saturday and Sunday) must be at least a 30-minute visit; midday visits Monday through Friday are a minimum of 20-minutes.
When dogs are young, they have smaller bladders and need to go outside frequently to help with their house training. Our puppy package provide two, 20-minute visits per day (either 3, 4, or 5 days, Monday through Friday) that fall within two, 1-hour time windows (that you can choose based on your schedule) to help with this training. This option also works well for senior dogs or those with medical issues that require more frequent trips to the bathroom. Although most of our caregivers aren’t officially trained as dog trainers, they do have enough experience that be of help to get your puppy off on the right paw. Plus, we love to help our clients with raising their furbabies, both young and old alike!
DoggyWalker.com no longer provides overnight visit options for new clients. However, we do have an “Almost Overnight” visit that similar to having someone stay in your home, but it does not include our employee sleeping there. The caregiver would care for your pet(s) for a 2-hour visit in the evening, and then return for a 1-hour visit the next morning. Both visits can include walks, feeding, medication administration, basic home care, and of course; giving lots of love and attention to your pet(s)! Please visit our
Rates Page for more details on the Almost Overnight and other visit options.
As a professional pet-sitting company offering individual leashed walks, we cannot take your dog to a public dog park. Although your dog may be well-behaved, we cannot predict how other dogs may react to your dog and therefore cannot guarantee your dog’s safety. Your dog’s well-being and health is our primary concern and for this reason we do not put them at risk by taking them to a public dog park. If your dog enjoys off-leash exercise, we will happily play ball in a fully-fenced yard. Based on this same concern, we do not interact with people or other dogs while outside your home.
Our goal is to keep the same caregiver scheduled for all midday visits, but having the same caregiver often depends on how often you schedule visits if you are not using the monthly contract option. For clients with regular weekly visits, a priority is to have the same caregiver with your pet(s) and doing so is easily done! For clients with less regular schedules, the assignment of your caregiver depends on the flexibility of the schedule on that day and availability of the caregiver.
When situations with our caregivers arise such as vacations, appointments, and illness; we utilize the second key that we keep secured at the office and assign a substitute caregiver to ensure your pet(s) receive the daily care that they need. We maintain your profile in our LeashTime client system so that the substitute caregiver can access the most up-to-date information, providing the same quality of service you’ve come to expect from your “regular” caregiver.
For pet sitting visits, our priority is to have no more than two caregivers conduct the entire series, though we cannot guarantee this. Many factors are involved with scheduling visits such as the number of visits per day you require and where you live in relation to the caregiver. Since most pet sits occur outside of our standard operating hours and on weekends, there may be variability in who is assigned pet sit visits. Our goal is to maintain as much consistency as possible – especially for your pet(s) while you are away – while respecting the caregiver’s time, transportation costs, other employment, and personal concerns.
DoggyWalker.com utilizes a pet sitting software called
Time to Pet that manages our daily schedule (among other things) and is our database of record. Our caregivers interact with Time to Pet to mark when they arrive to your home and complete a visit. Though our caregivers have traditionally left hand-written notes at the end of each visit, they also have the capability to submit a visit report through Time to Pet that will be sent to you through the messaging platform (with additional notification delivered to your email inbox). The electronic visit report became a required practice in June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Time to Pet can be accessed in a browser session as well as in an app! The app is available in
Google Play and the
App Store.
Caregivers
Not usually, but we can discuss the caregiver(s) who will be assigned to your visits during the consultation, based on their availability and handling experiences. The initial consultation will take place with one of our managers to make sure we can answer any questions you have about the overall process of working with DoggyWalker.com. We are happy to schedule a meet and greet with you and your caregiver before or soon after visits begin (there is a $15 meet & greet fee to compensate the caregiver). Please read more about service fees and caregiver compensation
here.
We understand the special relationships that develop between the caregiver, your pet, and your family and we are happy to facilitate this relationship! However, we ask for you to not place your pet caregiver in an uncomfortable position by offering them employment apart from DoggyWalker.com’s services. Our caregivers, as employees of the company, would jeopardize their continued employment if they accepted outside offers from DoggyWalker.com’s clients that is similar in the scope of services that we provide.
You are welcome to give your caregiver a gratuity or a small gift, although neither is expected. You may either provide your gesture directly to your caregiver, address it to your caregiver(s) and mail it to your service area office, or include it in your payment using our client system,
LeashTime (your caregiver will receive 100% of it). No matter how you do it, your gratuity will be greatly appreciated, and thank you for acknowledging the great work of your caregiver!
It is our policy to withhold our employees’ personal cell phone numbers or other personal contact information from clients. All scheduling and caregiver communication must be coordinated by a management team member to ensure that nothing gets “lost in translation” and that communication between you and DoggyWalker.com remains direct, accurate, and professional. If you would like for the caregiver to call you before arriving to the visit,
please send us an email with those details with us beforehand and we will be happy to help!
DoggyWalker.com’s responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of our clients, their pets, and their property. Our caregivers undergo a formal interview and screening process before they are hired, including reference and criminal background checks. DoggyWalker.com’s caregivers then complete a training and testing process, as well as participating in ongoing training programs (e.g. first aid, equipment, etc.). We understand that it can be a little scary to have someone you don’t know coming into your home which is why DoggyWalker.com takes the time and effort to seek out only the best caregivers. Many of our caregivers are pet parents, love the shared time spent with pets and the outdoors, and are working on educational and personal goals where being a pet caregiver with DoggyWalker.com can support them. Most importantly, our roster of caregivers have all demonstrated compassion and love for animals!
Scheduling
- Late Request Fee:
For weekday, midday visits, a $10 late request fee is added to any visits added the same day, after 9 a.m.For pet sitting visits, a $10 late request fee is added to any visit requested after 2 p.m. for the same evening through the next morning before 9 a.m. (Monday through Friday), and/or after 2 p.m. on a Friday for any visit over the same weekend, through Monday before 9 a.m.
- Cancellation Policy:
Midday visits must be cancelled by 9 a.m. on the day of the visit or they will be charged in full.Pet sitting visits must be cancelled by 2 p.m. for any visit that evening through 9 a.m. the next day or they will be charged in full. Weekend pet sitting visits must be cancelled by 2 p.m. on Friday or they will be charged in full.
- Rescheduling Policy:
Flex pack visits (either 30- or 20-minutes) can be rescheduled as long as they are canceled before the cancellation deadlines listed above.Monthly contract walks for 3 or 4 days per week can be rescheduled on any following weekday of the same month (one contract visit per day, no doubling up) as long as they are canceled before the cancellation deadline.
We have a couple different ways to schedule a visit:
- Login to your LeashTime account and request the visit yourself (don’t worry if you’re not sure what kind of visit you normally have, we’ll make sure it’s correct!).
- Email us for Alexandria customers, Arlington customers, or Annandale customers.
- Call your DoggyWalker.com Office after 9 a.m. (the numbers are listed below in the page footer). Due to staffing changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, your call may not be answered right away.
DoggyWalker.com provides services 365 days per year. We observe the following days as holidays, and close our offices. Though our offices will be closed and midday walks canceled (Monday through Friday), our client system and email communications will be monitored. These days are not included in your monthly contract: if you require a midday visit on these days and if they occur between Monday through Friday, there is an additional $10 holiday fee that is paid directly to the caregiver:
- New Year’s Day
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Eve (after 5 p.m.)
- Christmas Day
- New Year’s Eve (after 5 p.m.)
We follow the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) guidance regarding inclement weather for the Northern Virginia area. If OPM has closed the Federal Government due to weather, we will cancel all midday walks. If OPM has issued a delay due to inclement weather, we will conduct walks but may have to widen your visit window to make sure our caregivers can get to your pet(s) safely.
There are some weather events, namely extreme heat, when DoggyWalker.com will advise clients of the possibility for less walk time in order to maintain the health and safety of pets and caregivers. The full visit time will still be fulfilled but the actual time outside walking may be restricted or modified.
For any pet sit visit when you are out of town – regardless of office closure or inclement weather – we will make sure your pet(s) are cared for!
Deciding between a monthly contract or a flex pack of visits usually depends on how many days you will cancel; some months it may be less expensive for you to keep the monthly contract, where in others it may make more sense to pay for visits individually. However, many of our clients stay with the monthly contract even if they are going to occasionally be home, which gives them the freedom to work from home, run errands, or focus on other tasks during the day while knowing their pet(s) are still cared for! Since the COVID-19 pandemic has found many people working from home, DoggyWalker.com has maintained continuity of service for clients with both monthly contracts and flex pack options, keeping their dogs on schedule with as little disruption as possible.
Our policy of “use it or lose it” does not provide for pro-rated fees for monthly contracts. Since the monthly contract is calculated at a discounted rate (the average cost per visit is $18 for a 30-minute, 5-day monthly contract walk, depending on the number of dogs) and you pay for the monthly contract at the beginning of the month, we do not credit back any payment for walks that are not used. In a situation where you know ahead of time that you will be not be needing all your walks in the coming month, we can check to see if it would be less expensive for you to pay for visits individually as opposed to the monthly contract, but you must notify the office before the 1st of the month about this arrangement.
You are not committed or tied to your monthly contract, so if it’s less expensive for you to switch to a flex pack of visits for the month you don’t need as many visits, we are happy to make that switch – as long as it’s been done before the 1st of the month.
