Rolling Bone Dog Walking

We highly recommend Alex and Rolling Bone! He has taken care of our cat many times, sometimes short notice and is always a wonderful help. Alex is professional, trustworthy and caring. We’ve been able to count on him to check on our home, our cat and care for her needs without hesitation. Giving Alex our keys was a reassurance if anything, we’re so grateful there’s someone so reliable and awesome in Hyde Park to pet-​sit for us! Alex sends us pictures and updates, an extra touch we really appreciate when away for longer trips. Highly recommend!

Fantastic! Can’t say enough good things and will actually have to come back later to provide more detail. Wanted to make sure I remembered to write a review though. I’ve been using Alex and Rolling Bone as my dogwalkers since February now and I can’t say anything but positive things about the experience.
My doggies love him. He’s always in communication– leaves notes, detailed when they need to be, every day, let’s me know if he’s running late, always responds to my texts about extra walks or cancellations, lets me know if someone other than him will be coming to walk my dogs, and lets me know if he’s concerned about something w/​either of my dogs. One time, he even took my dog to the emergency vet (after calling me) when his abdomen was tight and he had been having weird bowel movements for a few days.
Pretty much– amazing dog walkers and great customer service. I would highly, highly, highly recommend them… and I’m not the easiest to please when it comes to who is going to take care of my dogs/​come into my home every day.

Deciding to trust someone with keys to our home and our fur baby felt like a big deal to my husband and I, so we definitely took the time to call around for recommendations. We received rave reviews about Rolling Bone from our neighborhood groomers (Parker’s) and so we gave them a call. Alex, the owner, was kind, professional, and courteous and very willing to answer all my questions regarding scheduling, billing, and even explained to me what it meant to be licensed, bonded, and insured. I also appreciated how open he was about the past negative reviews posted online and took the time to explain what transpired with the former owners and how it happened that he was given the opportunity to purchase the business.
We have had walks with both Alex and Nikki for the past 3.5 months and have been extremely pleased with all the communications and flexibility from this company! I have even participated in their referral program with my neighbors and friends at doggy playtime. I love that they are in the neighborhood, very personable, and so reliable. Thanks for the great service!

They are GREAT! My work schedule moves around a lot and they are really flexible to accomodate me. I don’t need everyday dog walks since I work at home 2 days per week, but they are able to assist me as I get asked to switch days often.
Also, I love that the owner now texts me to confirm my voicemail with dog walking requests. This give me great peace of mind knowing the message was received and will be done. The dogs love the walker so I feel confident when I leave them. My 2 dogs Rex and Shitake give 2 thumbs up :)

These guys are great. Their under new ownership as of early 2011 and since have only gotten better.
I would highlight, first and formost, their flexibility and attentiveness with scheduling. In a pinch, I can call, add an appointment and they always find ways to accommodate. Super fantastic.
Nice folks, great service and Patch (My mut) sends his regards!

Walkers are trustworthy, but there were a few scheduling mistakes. Nothing too serious.

I love these guys. They always leave me great notes, and are really great about getting in last minute and evening walks.

rolling bone has a fun, friendly, and reliable dog walking/​pet sitting staff. jayla is really great about last minute requests (with in reason). and the dogs are always happy and healthy after having spent time with rolling bone! i definitely recommend rolling bone to anyone with dogs or cats in need of a pet care service.

I’ve been using Rolling Bone for quite a while, and really did like them. They always left notes so I knew what happened on the walk. But last month, they didn’t pick up the dog (we had canceled a trip and were home, so we knew they didn’t come) and I have called and called and not gotten any response. I went to their office to get my keys and no one but a general receptionist was there who said she’d leave a note for them. So I’m not sure when or if I’ll get my keys back, and it looks like I’ll have to spend the money to get our locks changed. This is really, really awful. I’ve never had this kind of problem canceling a dogwalking service before. I would try some other service. You can’t trust that your dog will get picked up and you can’t even get anyone to talk to you at Rolling Bone anymore.
Update: I got an email from the owner, Jayla, who explained that an ex of hers started running the business in December which is when things started to go awry. Apparently he’s having some personal issues. Anyway, Jayla’s now taking over again full time, so perhaps things will improve. She is sending back my keys and zeroing out my account (it was only 1 walk, but it’s nice after all this mishigosh). I’m still getting another dog walker, but at least I got an explanation after all this time.

I have used them in the past and was perfectly satisfied until now. I had called at least a month in advance to schedule my dog walking for the week and then all of a sudden I came home and no one had shown up to walk my dog. I did not receive any call saying someone could not make it and when I called to find out what happened they did not return my call. Kind of scary for a company that has keys to your place. Do NOT use this company, they are incredibly unprofessional.
UPDATE:
It took me over 3 weeks to get my keys back from them. When I told them I was going to contact the BBB due to their extreme rudeness and unprofessionalism, they threatened to keep my keys and have an attorney contact me. Excuse me?! Also I tried to go to their office on MLK day and when no one was there the owner told me that the secretary took the afternoon off because she cares about MLK and it’s too bad that I do not care about MLK. I did end up contacting the Better Business Bureau about all this and Rolling Bone never returned their calls or emails either. That’s just plain dumb if you ask me.
Take your business somewhere (anywhere) else.

Do NOT use! I had used Rolling Bone for over a year and ended it when they did not show up for 2 days. I went out of town, just a quick over night trip and did not want to board the dog for that short of time. When I got back, no one had been there and my dog was VERY sick.
So, for the full review, if you got past the first part… The first 8 or 9 months were great. We had an awesome walker, except she left to go back to college. This is when the problems started. We ended up setting up video survalence and found one of the walkers raiding our fridge, meandering around the house, talking on the cell phone while he was supposed to be walking the dog. And then, we found that the dog was getting 2 and 3 minute walks and they wouldn’t even let her be out there to do all of her business. The short walks didn’t occur once or twice it was more toward 80% of the time, would get better when the manager would come, but then would slip back to the less than 5 minute walks. Each problem we had they would not charge me for the walk and said they had fired that problem person. I didn’t want the person fired, I wanted a solution so that these problems would not happen. Yet, they never came up with anything, no supervision, no random checks on the walkers, no use of our home phone to track time in and out.
My dog is my baby and it was very hard to bring in some stranger to walk her, but that was the only option I really had. I really regret giving these people so many opportunities to take advantage of their customers and neglect my dog.
We had them in a couple of times for the cats while we were out of town and although there were notes there saying the fed them and cleaned the litter, the food dishes were cleaned of every last crumb and I could smell the kitty litter as I opened the front door.
I am completely disappointed that someone could run such a poor business and still have customers.

They are great. Very understanding, and always available.

If you need dog/​cat sitting in a pinch, and you live on the north side, this is the place to call. They are very understanding and always call you back when you have questions or want an update on your pets.