Seeking dog services in ATX

July 12, 2009 8:41 PM

Seeking pooper scooper and dog walker service in Austin, TX.

I just have one dog, so only need scooper service about once a month and am willing to spend about $25/mo for that and about $20/wk for the walking. I'd like to hire a walker for about 2x/week and it would be really nice if I could use the same service for both, especially if there was some kind of package deal. There seem to be quite a few choices but not much in the way of reviews. Does anyone have a favorite pooper scooper/dog walker that they'd recommend?

posted by youcancallmeal to Pets & Animals (7 answers total)

Could you hire a neighborhood kid? My siblings and I used to do that for our neighbors when we were 12-16.
posted by jschu at 8:51 PM on July 12, 2009

Response by poster: I'd rather hire a service that is insured and stuff in case anything happens. I just lost a cat to getting run over, I'd like to minimize the odds of that happening to my dog.
posted by youcancallmeal at 9:04 PM on July 12, 2009

I'm not sure about the dog walking, but have heard good things about We Scoop Poop.
posted by meta87 at 9:21 PM on July 12, 2009

I'd be really surprised if you could get two walks a week out of $20. All of the professional (bonded, insured, do-this-as-a-living) dog walkers in Durham, NC charge at least $17-20 for a 30 minute walk. Some of them have a cash discount depending on the time of day, so maybe you'd knock that down to $15 a walk. Of course, the costs in Austin could be completely different, but there's one perspective for you.
posted by barnone at 9:59 PM on July 12, 2009

I can't speak to the scooping aspect as I have a husband for that, but for dog walking in a large suburb in southern NJ, I pay $20 per visit. Of course, the visit includes the very nice lady feeding all of my cats and walking both of my dogs, but the price would be the same if she was just walking a single dog. So your $20 per week would get you a single walk from a licensed, insured professional.

On the other hand, I walked dogs as a teenager, charged a lot less, and never lost one. Truthfully, I would have done it for free back then because I'm the crazy animal lady. If you find the crazy animal teenager in training in your neighborhood, I'm sure you can work something out.
posted by crankylex at 5:40 AM on July 13, 2009

Nthing other posters who have said that a professional dog walker will run you somewhere in the vicinity of $20 per 30 minute walk. Regarding the lack of online reviews, a good professional dog walker will have references and won't hesitate to give them to you if you ask.
posted by kitty teeth at 6:53 AM on July 13, 2009

I use the wescoopoop.com company Dog Duty. I have two dogs and have them scoop the backyard every friday and it runs me $10 a week. I don't know if they offer once-a-month service but they are very quick to respond on email (if you ask). My feeling is that they don't since the poop would pile up four times as much.
posted by mattbucher at 1:51 PM on July 13, 2009