FAQ

Currently we walk extensively in Mt. Pleasant and Columbia Heights, and are building routes in the Meridian Hill and Adams Morgan neighborhoods. If you are in another neighborhood and would like us to walk your pup, let us know. We can try to accommodate you; if we are unable to do so, we can possibly refer you to some great independent walkers and/or services.

At Fox and Hounds DC , we generally walk between 7am and 7pm Monday-Friday. While the highest demand for walks is 11am-2pm Monday-Friday, sometimes your schedule doesn’t match your pup’s. Maybe you have a new baby in the house and need a little help with the pup in the morning while you master parenting. Some days in the office are guaranteed to run past 5:30pm, and your pup could use a potty break and some dinner while you are still pushing paper. We can cover you.

We may be able to offer coverage on weekends or late evenings on a special request basis from existing clients. Give us a shout and we will see what we can do.

For regularly scheduled walks, we may not be to the minute, but for the dogs’ clocks we are reliable. We will try to accommodate any time requirements you may have, but dogs don’t do time the same way we do, especially when they are walking – there’s sniffing and playing and stopping and staring to be done. There is weather and toweling dogs down, and getting gear on and off. All these factors can make it challenging for walkers to arrive at your place to pick up your pup at an exact time. What we can promise is that we will pick your pup up within a half hour window of our target time of regularly scheduled walks – and we are usually within 10 minutes. And, on the extraordinary instances where we are way off schedule, we will text you to let you know that the schedule has gone pear-shaped, but we are on the way.

Yes, we will make every effort to accommodate current clients’ needs for a last-minute walk. Just let us know what you need, and we will find a way to make sure your dog gets out of the house. The price is the same as it is for your regularly scheduled walks.

We prefer to build our relationships with the pups in less pressured circumstances; it’s better that the dog knows who is coming through the door and trying to put gear on them. (It is also good that we know where their gear is housed.) We cannot take on-demand or off-hours requests from non-clients. But! You can fix that by becoming a client for regularly scheduled walks.

Look. We understand that schedules change (though the dogs don’t do as good a job with that). If you’ve scheduled a walk and you wake up sick and can take care of the dog, let us know as soon as you can, and thanks for saving us from your germs. Aim for 24 hours’ notice to give us flexibility in rescheduling that slot, but we won’t charge you unless we’re already on our way to pick up your pup when you tell us the walk is off.

We build group walks as demand exists. We have some routes that can be adjusted to accommodate new members to a pack. Adding your pup to a pack is determined by factors such as how many pups are in the pack already, how we think your pup and the existing pack members will get along (we may work on introductions outside of the first time your pup walks with us), and how the physical route is affected by the additional stop along the way. You likely will have met with the other pups in the pack at least once. But, we can tell you about the other pups in the pack or we can send a few pictures of the pack in action at the beginning of your pup’s walks with us (we are unscheduled with picture-taking as we fall into routines) so that you can see how well it is going.

A decision about walking solo starts with you. You may just plain want your dog to walk alone. There are other considerations in the decision for a dog to walk solo. Your pup may be of an age at which the pack’s play on walks isn’t fun anymore. Or your pup may be recovering from sickness or surgery and not be up to hanging with the pack. Your pup may also tend to aggression or be generally anti-social. If any of these is the case, it’s best that your pup get the walker’s undivided attention and support.

Walkers often use commands such as stop, sit, and stay, but we are not trainers. If you think (and we can give you some thoughts on our experience with your pup) you and your pup need a trainer, ask us for some names of trainers and we’ll give you references.

We will take your dog for a walk, but probably not to the dog park because of insurance restrictions. We do not have coverage for off-leash activities, so have decided it’s best for us to stick to walking your pup with appropriate gear.

Yes. We are both insured and bonded.

We generally want to work with “good citizens”, that is, dogs who are not known aggressors. And, as noted above, we are not trainers. If your pup is particularly aggressive or already has a history of fighting or biting, we ask you to be honest with us about their character. While we might not be able to bring your pup on as a client, as our insurance wouldn’t cover it, we might be able to assist you in finding the right trainer to help your pup onto the Good Citizen register.

Yes, weather can be a big factor in how long a walk is. Generally walks are 20-25 minutes, and this is true on cold, rainy days and hot, sultry days. However, sometimes the weather is so hot and humid or so icy and cold that a walk really isn’t enjoyable for the dogs or the humans, safe for the dogs or the humans, and/or may require a lot of follow-up in the forms of toweling off, wiping muddy feet, and cleaning up the entry area. When the summer temps are in the 90s and the humidity is high or the winter temps are below freezing and there is snow or ice, we’ll shorten the walks to around 15 minutes for everyone’s health, safety, and enjoyment. Of late, air quality has been a consideration affecting walks. When the AQI hits 100 (UNSAFE) we will reduce the time of the walk. There may be other conditions that affect the length of a walk – we leave it to the walkers to judge whether it is safe for them and the pups.

We’ll give you the heads-up that we expect to shorten the walk and explain why – if need be – as we are gearing up to go out.