POLICIES & PROCEEDURES

YOUR INITIAL MEET AND GREET

We will meet with you and your pet in your home at no cost to you so we can discuss our services and answer any questions you may have. We take detailed notes about your pet and your home to add to your account so the information is available for the walker or sitter visiting your pets. We will then meet your walker at your home for your first visit so we can introduce the walker to your pet and show them around.

We understand that you may feel more comfortable meeting with your walker as well, and we will do our best to accommodate those needs. We believe it's important to know who is staying in your home when scheduling house sittings, so we will always schedule a meeting with your sitter beforehand at no charge to you.

SCHEDULING DOG WALKS

Our regular midday dog walks are between 10am to 4pm Monday through Friday. Any walks outside that time frame are considered off-peak or weekend walks. For more info on off-peak and weekend walks, please see our services page. Our last time window for a regular midday walk is 2-4pm. We provide a 2-hour window for our regular midday walks and a 1-hour time window for our puppy walks. Clients who schedule less than 3 times per month are charged at $20/walk for regular midday walks. 

We understand that people are busy and schedules change, so we are as flexible as we can with scheduling. We ask that you schedule your regular midday walks before 9am the day of. If a midday walk (Mon-Fri 10am to 4pm) is scheduled after 9am the day of it is subject to a small $3 fee. For weekend walks (4pm Friday through Sunday), we ask 24-hour notice for requests. If 24-hour notice is not given the walk is subject to a $5 fee.We do not charge a fee for scheduling last-minute evening visits during the weekdays.

We do not have a cancellation policy for our regular midday walks. As long as the walker has not been to your home to do the walk, then we will cancel your visit at no charge. Please cancel walks through our pet portal or by emailing info@urbantailz.com.

PLEASE NOTE: We require 2+ walks per day to schedule puppy walks. If you’re scheduling just one walk per day, then the walk will default to a regular 30-min visit with a 2-hr time window.

KEYS TO YOUR HOME

We ask that you provide two sets of keys to your home. One stays with the walker and the other set stays in the office. We should never have a key problem if we have the backup set. We are happy to use garage codes or lock boxes when applicable. We also very comfortable with alarm systems. Many of our clients give us our own code similar to a babysitters code.

Urban Tailz will hold onto keys for up to 1 year of client inactivity. We will destroy keys after 1 year of client inactivity.

PAYMENT

We do not require payment until all services have been performed. We bill on a monthly billing cycle. We send itemized invoices on the 1st of each month, and credit card payments can be made online through our secured server. Credit cards are saved after making your first payment manually, and are automatically charged each month after. If you do not wish to be charged automatically, you may delete your credit card on-file after making payment. We also accept Chase QuickPay as well as checks from your favorite bill pay service. Payment is due 15 days after receiving your invoice. 

UPDATING YOUR ACCOUNT

All of the information on your home and your pet is stored in our online pet portal, so we ask that you update your account when needed so our walkers and managers always have the most up-to-date info on your pets and your home. All changes may be made directly through our pet portal or through the Time to Pet app. 

WILL MY DOG BE WALKED WITH OTHER DOGS?

Most of the time your dog is walked alone. We believe your dog deserves one on one time. However, if you have a neighbor that you would like to share a walk with we will accommodate that. This is primarily your choice. We will never walk more than 2 dogs at a time.

SCHEDULING CAT VISITS

Many clients do 1 single visit a day if your cat is on dry food while other clients do 2 visits per day if your cat eats wet food and/or needs medication (no extra fee for medication administered). It is completely up to you. If scheduling one visit per day, then we schedule anytime visits. You are able to choose a morning/evening visit on your first visit and your final visit. We give 4 hour time windows if scheduling 2 visits per day to ensure your visits are spaced out appropriately. 

We do require visits scheduled daily while you're away. We know that cats are very self-sufficient, but there is just too much that could go wrong if visits were scheduled every other day or 2 days in-between visits. A cat could get sick, they could tip over their water bowl and not have water for a couple days, or something worse. We want to make sure you pets are well taken care of while you're away so we want to see them daily!

HOUSE SITTING CANCELLATION

We ask that you cancel your house sitting one week prior to the start of your sitting. If one-week notice is not given, then there is a one night ($65) cancellation fee. For Holiday house sittings, we ask that you cancel two weeks prior to the start of your sitting or there is cancellation fee up to 50% of the total cost of your scheduled house sitting. Holiday house sitting dates include: Wednesday through Saturday of Thanksgiving, December 23-26, and December 30th to January 2nd. 

HOLIDAYS

All regular midday walks that fall on a holiday are cancelled automatically. Our holidays includes: Easter, Memorial Day Weekend (Sat-Mon), 4th of July, Labor Day Weekend (Sat-Mon), Thanksgiving and Day after, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years Eve, and New Years Day. If you do need a walk on one of these dates you will need to log into our pet portal and schedule your visit again. Holiday dog walks and cat visits are $30/visit. 

HOLIDAY HOUSE SITTING

Our Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years house sitting requests are booked on a first come, first serve basis. We maintain a list of requests starting in August. Due to extreme demand and a limited number of sitters available over these holidays, we do make our regular dog walking clients who use us on a regular weekly basis a priority in bookings. We are unable to take on new clients during this time, and we may not be able to accommodate our house sitting clients who do not use us as a regular, weekly dog-walking client. 

HOLIDAY CAT SITTING

Our Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years cat sitting requests are booked on a first come, first serve basis. We are usually able to accommodate all requests for cat sitting over the holidays, but we cannot guarantee requests made without 1-week notice before each holiday. We will do our best to accommodate requests made without a 1-week notice, but please note there is a one-time $20 last-minute surcharge for any cat sitting request made without a 1-week notice.We love nothing more than dedicating our time to the canines in surrounding areas. Your chosen dog walker will be a companion for your dog, and take care of them as if they were part of their own family. Your dog will be walked by the same person everyday, building trust and an important relationship. They’ll help them become confident when it comes to socialising and update you on their progress with photos & videos on Whatsapp, and keep in touch with you every step of the way. We understand just how important your dog is to your family, and we’ll keep up a rapport.

You can trust us to provide a safe environment for your dog, we have insurance and stringent police checks in place for everyone that works with us. We also try to ensure that your dog is clean upon returning home from a walk – our best intentions are to make sure there are no muddy paw prints for you to come home to! We will take every aspect of your dog’s lifestyle into consideration – from whether they can have treats to their health and care.

We offer a full pick up and drop off service, giving you peace of mind and no need to stress about the appointments, covering Dexter & surrounding areas.

If you have any questions regarding our services, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help!