Us, Pets and Fun

We have two rescue dogs and live in Berkeley and our experience with US Pets and Fun was marginal to bad.
The owner was very rude and unprofessional when we informed her that we were phasing out of our relationship with this company. Nothing personal towards her or walkers, but the business itself seemed to have relatively high turn-​over (with the dog walkers), which made us feel as though we were not in good hands and we wondered if the dog walkers weren’t getting paid enough to care and stick around.
We stopped using the services because of several incidents that made us realize that this company was not for us.
Routinely, we noticed that the one hour walk that is advertised and that we were promised and that we’d paid for, would go something like this: our dogs got picked up at 2 pm, and returned a few minutes before 3pm. (mind you that the pick up and drop off also included picking up other dogs, dropping off other dogs, loading up at each stop, and driving to the destination of the group hike/​walk to and fro. how this could allow for a full one hour exercise romp is beyond me). we realized we weren’t really getting a full one hour walk as promised and when we pointed it out, things became uncomfortable.
we also became alarmed and stopped using the services due to some frighteningly irresponsible incidents. we learned that our dog walker was using our cloth muzzles on our dogs without discussing this with us or asking, and more importantly– without knowing HOW and when to use them. (muzzles require careful and precise training, or they can be very damaging to the dog). cloth muzzles are ONLY intended for car rides or vet visits NOT for exercise since they do not allow a dog to pant, thus being very dangerous if the dog is running or on a long walk. the dog walker took it upon herself to use our cloth muzzle on long exercise walks. this made us wonder what else was happening to our dogs that might be unsafe or dangerous. any good dog walking company that claims to «train» their employees would train them in muzzle use.
another one of the dog walkers continuously had unsafe «incidents». basically, she allowed both our dogs off leash and out of her sight on a trail with joggers. but, she had no recall over the dogs at this stage in her dog walking relationship with them, and so she had no business letting them go free. knowing this, she still allowed them to go loose and around the bend out of her sight. of course what ended up happening was that the dogs became fear aggressive and alarmed when they saw a jogger approaching, and barked/​were unfriendly towards the runner approaching them– which understandably frightened the runner and pretty soon all of the pack joined in the menacing barking. (the dog walker had no control over the dogs at this point, and wasn’t able to calm the dogs enough to calm the jogger). there was an altercation and he then wrote down her license plate and called the police, who then showed up at her home! valerie then accused our dogs of the incident, faulting them, and was unapologetic: in our humble opinion– the dog walker endangered all the dogs’ safety and potentially set them up for a terrible situation, and she also endangered the safety of the jogger, and created an usafe out-​of-​control situation that could have been really bad.
we’ve had eye witnesses report back to us that the dog walkers were allowing dogs to jump up and engage in other «bad behaviors» which any good dog walker would immediately correct. (we ourselves noticed that two of the dog walkers would let the dogs jump on them even after we expressed how important it was that they have control over the dogs and don’t allow bad behaviors or reward them).
sadly, recently, we were told that some of the «new» dog walkers are very inexperienced (some of them have never even had a dog themselves) and we were told that one in particular has a pick up truck with a high bed that she doesn’t provide a step for. this means older dogs are forced to jump up and down an uncomfortable height– which a good dog walker would recognize is NOTsafe at all for frail hips. the new dog walkers have unlined/​hard truck beds in which the dogs are tied during transport. this means they slip around on the slick plastic truck bed lining and are tied by their necks.
all in all– a shoddy, ill trained, seemingly uncaring operation at best.
it seems as if people think they can just get paid to go on a walk with a bunch of dogs and call it a dog walking service. in reality, a TRULY experienced and responsible dog walker will pay close attention to dog body language, arrange walks for success a, demonstrate being a strong pack leader, and correct inappropriate behaviors as they happen. a GOOD dog walker will ensure your dog’s safety, provide a safe walking environment, and a safe ride in the vehicle.
so, that said– we DON’T recommend Us Pets and Fun as a GOOD dog walking service. I wish i could give a better review, but i’d be lying.

Horrid Business. Rude. Unprofessional. Uncaring.
Avoid at all cost
P
Update: Here is a sample of the threats I have recieved from the owner of «Us, Pets and Fun»:
You stupid Bitch! I just discovered your fucking review that can only be a mistake as we don’t provide service in San Francisco and have no client in SF.
In addition, the stupid story you have reported has never happened. I own this business and can assure you that I have never had any complain regarding your lie, you stupid wench.
This is pure fabrication
Please remove your review asap, or you will pay.
sad and scary… right! yuck…

Pretty bad. Walker is a case, lost my dog and didn’t even inform me. Wouldn’t recommend, very unprofessional and insincere. Our dogs deserve better.

Valerie and her staff came to dog sit for me several times in my home when I first got my dog. I was nervous about having someone else care for her as she was from a shelter and quite nervous around new people. They took excellent care of my dog and I felt like I she was in very good hands. I would recommend their services to anyone looking for loving care of their pets.

Valerie has been walking and taking our German Shorthair Pointer on hikes since she was about 6 months old, and she is now almost 3 years old. Lucy has an amazing amount of energy and strength and Valerie is great with her. When other dog walkers said she was too much for them to handle because of her strength, Valerie said she looked forward to taking her.
Lucy comes home just as relaxed as can be after getting her full workout and playing with the other dogs. I know Lucy is in good hands on the days I am at work.
I can not say enough about Valerie and her wonderful way with dogs of all sizes and energy levels. When I am hiking in the hills or walking Lucy myself and we run into Valerie, Lucy immediately runs to Valerie for hugs and kisses. That just about says it all!