Read Our Pet Care Policies and Procedures

An Urban Tailz manager 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.

Urban Tailz will provide you with your own lockbox for a one-time $12 setup fee ($25 for larger lockbox if your keys do not fit in regular box). You’re able to choose your own 4-digit code and we will note the location of the box on your account so your keys are accessible to you at any time. We do ask for a second set of keys which is kept in office just in case your lockbox is frozen or maybe you forgot to put the keys back in the box after using them. We will replace any broken lockbox free of charge.

We understand not everyone is comfortable with using lockboxes or you may live in a door person building where a lockbox is not needed. We will work with whatever you are most comfortable with. 

PLEASE NOTE: There is a $5 admin charge added for each night/weekend walk scheduled if you do not have a lockbox installed at your home or if you do not live in a door person building. 

Our regular midday dog walks are between 10am to 4pm Monday through Friday. Any walks outside that time frame are considered after-hours or weekend walks. For more info on after-hours and weekend walks, please see our services page. Our last time window for a regular midday walk is 3-5pm. We provide a 2-hour window for our regular midday walks and a 1-hour time window for our puppy 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 $5 short-notice surcharge fee. For weekend walks, we ask you schedule your walk by 9pm the night before. If not scheduled before 9pm the night before the walk is subject to a $10 short-notice surcharge fee. We do not charge a fee for scheduling last-minute evening visits during the weekdays.

You are able to cancel your walk up to 9am the day of for regular midday dog walks. If cancelling after 9am, then there is a 50% cancellation fee. We ask that you cancel weekend walks 24 hours in advance. There is a 50% cancellation fee if weekend walks are not cancelled within 24 hours. Please cancel walks through the Time to Pet app by clicking the pencil edit button next to the visit you would like to cancel.

There is a $5 admin charge added for each night/weekend walk scheduled if you do not have a lockbox installed at your home or if you do not live in a door person building. 

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.

All of our rates are for clients scheduling 4+ times per month. If scheduling less than 4 times per month, our rates are as follows:

Puppy Walk: $20/visit

30-min Visit: $30/visit

50-min Visit: $45/visit 

This is primarily your choice. We will never walk more than 2 dogs at a time. 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.

We do our very best to schedule the same dog walker for each visit. We feel that it is important to build a relationship between the dog and the walker. Sometimes a walker may need a day off, in which case we will try to let you know beforehand that another walker is coming that day. We have all the information about your home and your dog listed on your account, so a substitute walker is ready before they get to your home, and they will have all the necessary information they will need. We cannot guarantee your regular walker if scheduling an off-peak or weekend walk, but we will always check their availability first before asking other walkers.

Urban Tailz uses the Weiss Walkie leash for all of our dog walks (unless a pup has special needs). The Weiss Walkie is a leash/harness combo that attaches to your pet’s collar like a regular leash and wraps around their body. Read more about the Weiss Walkie here.

PRONG COLLARS AND CHOKE COLLARS: Urban Tailz will never use a prong/pinch/choke collar. While they are great tools for training, Urban Tailz believes these types of collars are dangerous to use consistently. We want nothing to happen to our pups!

Urban Tailz provides frequency discounts to our midday dog walking clients. We offer $1 off each walk when scheduling 3+ walks per week and $2 off each walk when scheduling 4+ walks per week. These discounts are automatically adjusted on your monthly invoice. 

Urban Taliz does like to use lockboxes whenever possible. There is a one-time $12 lockbox charge ($25 for larger lockbox if your keys do not fit in regular box) when starting, but the lockbox is your’s to keep, and you are able to set whatever 4-digit code you’d like. That way you know where your keys are at all times. Any replacement lockbox needed if your lockbox breaks will be provided by Urban Tailz free of charge.

We ask that you provide two sets of keys to your home. One stays in the lockbox that is accessible to you at any time, and the other set stays in our office in case of emergencies. We should never have a key problem if we have the backup set. We are happy to use garage or door codes when applicable. If you live in a doorman building, then leaving a set with the doorman works for us! We also very comfortable with alarm systems. Many of our clients give us our own code similar to a babysitters code.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a $5 admin charge added for each night/weekend walk scheduled if you do not have a lockbox installed at your home or if you do not live in a door person building. 

Urban Tailz will hold onto keys for up to 1 year of client inactivity for dog walking clients and 2 years of inactivity for our cat sitting clients. We will destroy keys if client inactivity is past these time frames.

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.

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.

We do ask for 24-hour notice when scheduling cat visits. There is a $10 short-notice notice fee if scheduling within 24 hours. The fee is waived if a client has a lockbox installed or lives in doorman building with UT given permission to enter.

Many clients do one single visit a day if your cat is on dry food while other clients do two 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!

We will also not share visits with friends while you are away. We want to ensure your cats are safe and well taken care of while you’re away, and unfortunately we’ve found that client’s friends are not quality cat sitters over the years. 

There is a 50% charge for less than 24-hour notice when cancelling cat sitting visits.

During all major holidays*, we ask that you cancel your visits one week in advance of your first scheduled visit, or there is a Full Charge for any cancelled visits.

*Major holidays include: Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July (July 1-5), Labor Day Weekend, Thanksgiving (Wed-Sun), Christmas (Dec 23-26), and New Years (Dec 30 to Jan 2)

How our house sitting works is you’ll let us know when you’d like us to move into your home and then when you’d like us to move out that last day before you arrive back home. We’ll move into your home and spend most of our free time taking care of your pup, and doing anything you need done around the house (bringing in the mail, watering plants, etc).

There might be times we need to leave your home to do other walks, run errands, etc, but we will never leave your pup for more than 5 hours at a time and no more than 8 hours in a day. We’ll make sure your pup is fed during his normal feeding schedule, and we’ll make sure they get plenty of walks and playtime while we’re living in your home. We send lots of fun updates letting you know how the day went, and will include some fun pictures of how we spent our day playing. We try to make your time away as stress-free as possible.

Our house sitting services are $150/day and then there’s a sliding scale for that last day when you get home depending on how long you need us to stay before you’ll be home. We treat house sitting like a hotel stay so there is a $150 charge for each night a sitter spends the night. The rate is charged no matter what time a sitter moves in on the first night. All walks and care over this time is covered in the cost.

We have many great house sitters and always try to keep thing as consistent as possible, so we’ll figure out what sitter works best for your needs and schedule, and will always ask them first when you need to schedule a house sitting. We set up an initial meeting with you and the house sitter so they can meet your pet and so you can go over everything with them. If for some reason your usual sitter is unavailable during one of your subsequent schedule requests, we will find a suitable replacement and have them come over beforehand so you and your pup can meet them as well.

PLEASE NOTE: We do require a proper bed for our house sleepers to sleep on. A couch or air mattress is unacceptable. We want our sitters to feel comfortable while they’re sleeping in your home!

Urban Tailz charges house sitting like a hotel stay. The full rate is charged for any day a house sitter spends the night in your home no matter what time they move in on the first day. Our house sitting covers all dog walks and feedings in the price of house sitting so any regularly scheduled dog walks will be cancelled during your house sitting.

There is a sliding scale on the day you arrive back home based on how long you need the sitter to stay before arriving back home. If a sitter moves out before 10am, then there is just a $35 charge. If the sitter moves out between 10am to 4pm, then there is a $60 charge the last day. If the sitter moves out between 4pm to 9pm, then there is a $90 charge the last day. A full’s day is charged for any move out after 9pm.

UT cannot provide move-ins before 9am. A dog walk must be scheduled if a client needs a move-in before 9am.

You can cancel your house sitting booking without penalty if you give us at least one-month notice before the start date of the house sitting. In this case, we will fully refund your $150 deposit.

If the cancellation occurs within a month of the start date, we will not be able to refund the $150 deposit. This includes house sittings made with less than 1-month advance notice. This policy is in place due to the limited scheduling flexibility and the potential loss of other house sitting opportunities for our sitters within that timeframe.

During holiday periods, we have a stricter cancellation policy due to high demand. For holiday house sittings, the $150 deposit is non-refundable. Additionally, if you do not cancel your booking at least 2 weeks prior to the start date, we charge 50% of the total cost of the house sitting. During holiday periods, our services are in higher demand. The stricter cancellation policy ensures that clients are more committed to their bookings, and it helps us manage our schedule more efficiently to serve as many clients as possible.

Holiday house sitting dates include: Wednesday through Saturday of Thanksgiving, December 23-26, and December 30th to January 2nd.

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 $40/visit.

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 dog walking clients who schedule 2+ times per week a priority in bookings. We are unable to take on new clients during this time.

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 short-notice surcharge for any cat sitting request made without a 1-week notice.