FAQ

We have training and experience caring for all types of pets including dogs (all breeds), cats, ferrets, rabbits, pocket pets, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and even backyard livestock and poultry.

We schedule on a first, come first serve basis and recommend booking pet sitting services as soon as you know your travel dates. Most of the time, booking 1-3 weeks in advance is sufficient, but during major travel holidays and other high-demand times we sometimes book up a month or more in advance.

To keep your pet’s stress level at a minimum while you’re away, we recommend trying to adhere to your pet’s normal routine of eating, exercise, and potty when deciding when and how often to schedule pet sitting visits. For cats, we recommend two visits a day, and for dogs, we recommend at least three visits a day to ensure they get enough potty breaks and don’t have accidents in the house.

We offer multiple length of pet sitting visits for you to select from, starting with 30 minutes, so you can choose the length of time that best suits your pets’ need and the tasks you want your pet sitter to complete.

The first step to contact us to confirm availability and discuss your pet care needs. Then, we’ll create an account for you in our online scheduling system and book your FREE Meet & Greet with your dog walker or pet sitter.

We serve all of Takoma Park, Maryland and the surrounding area including Silver Spring, Takoma DC, and Shepherd Park.

Our rates vary based on the service selected and the specific needs of your pets. You can view our basic rates on our Dog Walking and Pet Sitting pages. If you’d like to get an exact quote, please contact us and discuss your pet care needs. For most households, our rate for pet sitting and dog walking is $20-$30 per visit/walk.

We accept payment by credit card only and require all clients to have a credit card on file in our online scheduling system. When you make a scheduling request, your credit card is charged when your booking is approved. For recurring weekly dog walks, we’ll set up an automatic payment schedule of your choice, such as weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

We understand that unexpected things happen and plans can change. We adhere to a strict no overbooking policy, which means we have to turn away clients once our schedule is full. To ensure that our appointment slots are available to those who need them most, cancellations with less than 24 hours notice are charged at full price.

All that we require is a reliable way to access your home and care for your pets while you’re away. Some clients prefer to give us keys to keep on file, some prefer to keep their keys in a lockbox at their home and provide us with the code, and some have electronic locks on their doors and give us a code for that. If you do choose to keep your keys on file, we keep them safe by not labeling them with any identifying information and keep them locked in a secure storage cabinet on days when we’re not visiting your pets.

If you only have one dog, we will walk him or her alone. If you have more than one dog, we can walk them separately or together depending on what works best for them. In addition to dog walks, we also offer group dog hikes where your dog will be hiking in a group of no more than four dogs.

We have three different options – Potty Breaks are 15 minutes, Standard Walks are 30 minutes, and Extended Walks are 60 minutes. We’re also happy to do custom length walk for your dog — just contact us to discuss your needs.

When the weather is bad, we have a few options for making sure your dog gets their exercise and potty break:

• We can adjust the visit time and come a little earlier or later to avoid the bad weather.
• If the weather’s not too severe and your dog doesn’t mind, we can go for our usual walk and towel your dog off when we get back.
• We can shorten the walk to a quick potty break and spend time playing with your dog indoors.

Occasionally, the weather is severe enough that it’s not safe for our dog walkers to drive to your house and we may have to cancel your walk for that day.