British Canine Academy

Carol is AWESOME! I first reached out to her in December about having someone visit my guinea pig while I was out of town for a few weeks. I requested that it be a female, since that made my female roommates more comfortable, and Carol offered to stop in herself. She took great care of my piggy, stopping in to feed her and clean her cage every other day and even sent a couple email updates. Carol was very professional, and her prices were very reasonable– I had no problem leaving a nice tip afterwards! I highly recommend her and her staff for all animal care.

I really love Carol, Israel and Michael of British Canine Academy and — more importantly – so does my rescue pitt bull mix, Andi. Even though the company is small, I can almost always get emergency walks when I need them and Carol is super flexible about setting a different schedule based on my needs every week. As a bonus, I’ve been using them for over two years and never a price bump.
Andi has even stayed over at Carol’s for weekends and the affordable price, plus my happy pooch, make this company a no-​brainer.

We used to use British Canine Academy (BCA) to walk our dog during the week but have switched over due to their unprofessionalism. Let me qualify this review first by saying that my dog was always happy with their walkers and that I think they treated him well. That is what earned them two stars since I want this to be a fair review. The reason why they did not earn more is because ensuring my dog was walked everyday is only one part of the total experience. The actual process of working with BCA was horrible overall — a huge headache and pain. Let me explain:
1. Over the space of 8 months we had 4 different walkers — even though we were only supposed to have one over the whole period so our dog could get used to him. It isn’t an issue if they need to sub for a period of time etc. but the reason why we had 4 is b/​c Carol couldn’t control our dog first and then her other staff kept quitting or being replaced. The other issue with switching is that they often switched walkers before telling us — so we had a stranger walking our dog and having keys to our apt without being told me. We only realized this when the hand writing on the daily notes they provided started to change.
2. One day I came home from work early and found one of their dog walkers (who thankfully I had met before) hanging out on my couch. He looked a bit surprised when I walked in (as I’m sure I did). The rationale — it was cold outside and he had to wait to drop off keys to BCA.
3. We had left on a 2 wk holiday and arranged for our dog to be kenneled in Long Island while away. Before leaving, we spoke with Carol to advise of when walks would start again. She said ok, but that our walker would change upon our return because the current walker felt uncomfortable with our dog. That was fine; not ideal since our dog was used to him but fine. He had already had 3 different walkers up to that point so what was one more? To be up front here, our dog is large and can get possessive when he has food. That walker had tried to take some food from our dog that he (the dog) had found in the street in an attempt to be helpful. Unfortunately he didn’t use any treats to try and switch. However when we returned we contacted Carol 3 days before walks were due to start and left a few messages. THE DAY BEFORE walks were meant to start again she finally called back and said that BCA would no longer walk our dog. THE DAY BEFORE — and not the morning but in the afternoon. After having 2 weeks to let us know, they decided to wait until the day before causing a huge amount of stress. They did say that they would continue walking him for a week to «let us find someone else» but heck no was I going to continue giving them business after being so unprofessional. Also just to note — we were on holiday in the US –with access to our cells and email so they could definitely have let us know ahead of time.
It’s not so much the fact that BCA did not want to walk our dog anymore (it turned out to be a positive since we found an awesome company — reliable, friendly and great with our dog!) but the fact that they were so unprofessional in how they ran their business. With the first two points above, I had wanted to switch over many times but my husband convinced me to stay with them since our dog was treated well. Big mistake — I should have known that if a company can’t run themselves in a professional manner for the day to day service, their overall service would be worse.
I know this is a long review but I think people should know what their getting themselves into if they use BCA. It could have been just our experience but let the buyer beware. I think it’s important that your pet is treat well (no complaints here) but it’s also important to feel that you can depend and rely on the service you are paying for. (not so much the case for BCA). There are a lot of dog walking services out there so why just settle?
One more thing — if you notice, all their other reviews before this one have been flagged as inappropriate since they were all uploaded on the same day…

I cannot tell you how wonderful this small dogwalking company is. They are ultra-​dependable, and never feed you any lines. They seem to take my dog on endless walks (often longer than they’re supposed to just for the sheer love of the work or of walking, or, I don’t even know what), call or text whenever anything happens, etc. When my dog seemed to be limping, they gave her a little puppy massage just to make her feel better, around Christmas we got the most amazing present (which I will not give away so you can be as delighted and surprised as I was by it). and there was even a mysterious mother’s day card left for me by my dog.
I have worked with loads and loads of dogwalkers, some good, some bad. These guys are your guys. Trust me. I know this is like an absurdly glowing review, but I just love my dog so much and I want everyone to have the feeling of comfort that I have had this last year knowing that she’s well-​cared for.

I have been using BCA for daily walks for a year now, and I couldn’t be happier with them! My dog Millie is an older dog who has some anxiety issues, and she warmed up to Carol and her walker Taylor right away. Millie loves and feels so comfortable with them, and that gives me great peace of mind when I’m at work for so many hours every day.
The best thing about BCA is Carol’s flexibility. She responds to my texts and emails almost instantly, and always makes herself available for last minute walks when I find myself away from home longer than expected. She is also so accommodating to my schedule, which often changes at the last minute.
Carol leaves a personalized calendar (with pictures of Millie!) in my house and they write me daily notes to let me know what Millie did on her walks. They have so many sweet, personalized touches to their dog walking service and they really make me feel like they love Millie. I’m so thankful that I found them!

Congratulations, your search for a caretaker for your dog is over. Carol and Michael are the end-​all!
My beagle mix (Kona) is a scared little rescue dog with stomach issues. I am incredibly careful about who I let her spend time with, and moreover, who I recommend to others who ask. With that said, I would recommend BCA to any dog owner, without pause! From day-​1, they have bent over backwards to accommodate Kona’s unusual food and ambiance needs, and assure that she has everything she wants. The come and go in my apartment as needed, and I fully trust them. They are affordable, caring, and sweet. And most importantly, when they walk in the door, Kona stands on her back legs and reaches to the sky to hug them! That is not an often sight for an 11-​year-​old dog!
You will be thrilled with the service that they provide. I wish there were more superlatives I could pack into this review, they are fantastic!!! I consider them more friends than anything else.

My partner and I have used BCA to care for our cat Esperanza on two occasions so far (during a 10-​day trip to the West Coast and over 4^th of July weekend) and we will definitely be requesting their services again. They are very reliable and friendly to deal with.
Carol took great care of Esperanza, watered our plants, brought in our mail and sent us regular updates via e-​mail while we were away. An amazing service for a very reasonable price in the Park Slope area.