I met Hollyce almost 2 years ago. I was frazzled as a day old dog mom, with a 6 week old puppy in…read moremy arms, buying a bottle of wine at my local corner store. Hollyce noticed I might need help. She gave me her card and I called her the next day. She has helped me take care of (and learn to take care of) my baby ever since. She is incredibly flexible and reliable, and there is literally no one else I trust my dog with. Prior to Covid, I was working in the field as a social worker. Sometimes I would get stuck at work for hours past when I supposed to get home. On those days, Hollyce always came through, and would pick up Pancho or hang on to him for the entire day. Literally sometimes I wouldn't be back home until 8 at night. Now that I'm mostly working from home, I still ask Hollyce to pick up pancho (because we love her) and if she notices I'm stressed, she'll just hang on to him for me and he'll get a few extra hours of attention in (probably why she has so many dogs on certain days). She is exceptional as a dog walker and trainer, and just as importantly, as a human. We love her so much, sometime we will coordinate trips to the dog park on days Pancho doesn't go with her, just so we can have the joy of playing with her and her well-trained pack. So, if you're looking for for a dog walker who will literally walk that extra mile with your dog, Holly is your gal!!

Holly is so fabulous! I've never felt more comfortable leaving my cat with anyone, including my…read moreclose friends, neighbors, and family members who see my cat on a regular basis. My cat has a ton of energy and is an escape artist--she wants to go outside so bad! Holly took care of our baby while we were away and was extra cautious when coming and going. She stayed for a few hours each visit to play with our cat and form a relationship with her while we were away. It felt so good knowing our sweet girl was in such good hands.

Hands down, Christi is the best dog walker in the East Bay. She is a first a dog lover, who is…read moreconscientious, organized, and thoughtful. Her pack walks exhaust the dogs while being safe and exciting for them. Her dog sitting sets my mind at ease as she knows dogs, her level head and knowledge ensure peace of mind while we are away.

this is also a long overdue review, I have used BARK AROUND THE BLOCK for many years. and…read more her staff are excellent. my dog; Rommel, a French bulldog he absolutely loves walking with her. She socializes the dogs with the group walks offered in the afternoons or morning walk. during the ongoing months The scheduling and communication is excellent ! My dog has improved greatly in all aspects of his socialization as well as his obedienc. Believe it or not for his breed he is so chill now. He loves his group walks! The trails are varied which is fabulous and keeps it interesting for the dogs. I have been extremely pleased with the excellent level of service provided by Bark Around the Block She is deserving of the Best Dog Walker of Alameda for the consecutive years, it has been awarded to her Company!

If you're looking for a dog walker in Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, etc ... LOOK NO FURTHER!!!…read moreThis is the last review you need to read because Michelle is AMAZING and I'm positive we wouldn't have made it through the first six months of life with our 60 lb. rescue pitbull without her! As I'm sure you've discovered, the majority of dog walkers in the East Bay offer off-leash, group walks through the spectacular scenery of luscious Tilden blah blah awesome, great, I'm sure they're lovely. But what if my dog doesn't like other dogs!?! And needs to be walked on-leash, on her own!?! I had no idea finding someone to fit that criteria would be so difficult and we were at wits end when I came across Oaktown Dog. Thank GOODNESS. Not only does Michelle offer solo walks for super reasonable prices, she's also flexible on days/times of the week (some weeks she walks our girl twice, others she walks her every day) and most importantly she truly cares about our pup. When she first started walking our pittie, she asked to come to a session with our trainer so she could reenforce what we were teaching our girl on their walks! Didn't ask to be paid, just showed up! When it's hot out, she takes our girl to a secret beach so she can play off-leash in the ocean without having to worry about other dogs. When it's cool, she has secret fetch spots. And after COVID hit and we hadn't seen her in 6 weeks, our girl FLIPPED OUT WITH EXCITEMENT the first time Michelle showed up to walk her again. So seriously, stop reading reviews. Get in touch with Michelle. You and your dog(s) will LOVE her. Oh, and she does house-sitting too. Pretty sure our dog was sad when we got back because that meant Michelle was leaving.

It's such a relief to have found a walker who is dependable and genuinely affectionate with our…read moredog. Even though we aren't going into the office anymore due to COVID, it's been a big help having Oaktown Dog come by twice a week on days when we have lots of meetings.

We had a troubling experience boarding our dog Zazie, with Jet Dog. After successfully working with…read moreJet Dog to take our pup on weekly walks, we were excited about the prospect of them boarding her while we were away. Unfortunately very disappointed with the experience. While being boarded, our dog Zazie was bitten by another dog. We were never informed that she would be boarded with dogs she had never met, nor were we notified when the incident occurred. In fact, we only learned about the bite two full days later, and only after a wound became visibly noticeable. When we spoke with the boarder, we were told the bite did not warrant a vet visit because the wound was "nice and red and not smelly." We had to push for veterinary care ourselves. Once seen by a vet, it was clear this assessment was wrong, as the wound required cleaning and stitches. Unfortunately, the problems didn't stop there. The cone that was placed after the initial vet visit either came off or was not properly monitored, resulting in the stitches coming out. Zazie had to be taken back to the vet for a second procedure involving staples. That visit cost $280, and despite the injury and follow-up complications occurring entirely under Jet Dog's supervision, they refused to cover even a portion of the cost. Incidents can happen in group settings, but what matters is transparency, urgency, and accountability. Jet Dog failed on all three fronts:     *    No disclosure about unfamiliar dogs being boarded together     *    A two-day delay in notifying us about a serious bite incident     *    Downplaying the wound that required medical attention     *    Refusal to take responsibility for resulting veterinary expenses When you leave your pet with a boarding service, you are trusting them with your dog's safety and well-being. In our experience, that trust was not respected and we are sharing this so other pet owners can make an informed decision.

JetDog has been great for our family (oh, and the dog!). We always feel like she's having fun and…read morekept safe on her pack walks! The JetDog crew communicates very well and makes everything super smooth.

Karen is awesome and takes wonderful care of our dog when we are on vacation - she hikes her every…read moreday and my dog is so happy when we show up at Karen's door - we recommend Piedmont Pet whole heartedly!

We are very thankful for Karen and Piedmont Pet! We have entrusted our animals to Karen for…read moreseveral years and have only ever had great experiences. Piedmont Pet is an excellent in-home boarding and daycare provider for small dogs. Nervous pet owners like me will appreciate the genuine care, attention to detail, and communication Karen brings to every pet care interaction. Our little 17-lb terrier mix has a few health issues and is on a special diet and meds, and needs to be in an environment where he will be handled gently. We never, ever worry with Karen! She was extremely thorough when we first started working with her, making time to ask lots of good questions and answer all of ours. She is a confident and very experienced animal lover who organizes and handles small-dog pack walks like the pro she is. We get daily photos of his adventures when our dog is with Piedmont Pet which we really, really appreciate. Karen takes care of him like one of her own (little sweaters in the winter, no-pull harnesses, comfy beds and blankets, etc.), and we can tell he feels secure and comfortable with her and his "vacation pack". His time there is a great mix of snuggles and downtime and walks and enrichment time. Karen also provides drop-in visits for our cat when we're away which we really appreciate. Our cat doesn't like anyone and she actually plays with Karen and allows pets (we get pics and videos of this too)! We feel secure knowing our sweet little dog buddy is in great hands and our less-sweet but still loved cat buddy is getting wet food and playtime when we can't be there. Strongly recommend Piedmont Pet, especially to anyone with small dogs in the East Bay in search of secure, loving home boarding or daycare!

I met Kristina while walking my Oggie Doggie around the lake. She was hanging out by the boat…read morerental with the Ladies of the Lake just before they were about to get their row on. I used to row the lake with the boat club so I already had a soft spot for that aspect but I actually appreciated her asking about my dog and giving me her card for future reference. I had only adopted by a dog in January from Rocket Dog and had as-of-yet, not left him with anyone day or night. He had been loyally by my side for many months in my disability and unemployment. My family does an annual trip to Reno in July so as the date approached, I tore up my house looking for the card she gave me. Once I located it, I both text her and called her. She had just had a tooth pulled so she wasn't feeling 100%, the date I needed boarding was over a month away so I said let's touch base when she was feeling better. A couple of weeks go by and as I was thinking to myself, I should call, text, or email her again. No sooner had I had that thought, had I opened up my email to find correspondence from her saying just that! I have read a couple of negative reviews on here about her personality. I like to do that when I am getting to know a business to see what others have had issues with. Even after reading those, I still stand confident that for my older dog, who is half-blind due to coming out of a hoarding situation, she is a good fit for us. We initially did a meet and greet for about an hour with the dog, my 10-year-old daughter, and myself in her backyard to see how Oggie did with her other dogs, both resident dogs, and boarded dogs. He did great and neither Oggie nor my daughter wanted to leave. The next step was a day boarding so he could rest assured that his new adoptive mommy, me, was not passing him off permanently but temporarily and I would return after 8 hours and take him home. The final step in our Reno trip coming up on Saturday for a few days will be to take Oggie there the night before we leave and pick him up the morning after we return home. I am confident that Oggie and Kristina will do well together. If not, I will update this review to reflect such... To be continued...

We had a _terrible_ experience with Kristina, and I would advise anyone considering working with…read moreher to read this review in full first. She made several decisions that made us deeply uncomfortable, both in terms of how she related to our dog, other dogs and how she treated her financial agreements with us (i.e. not honoring her word and charging us for services not received). Shortly after moving to Oakland, we had to go away on short notice and had to establish a new boarding relationship. We contacted Kristina about a week before leaving. We agreed to one day of doggie daycare that we did not otherwise need to determine if this was a good fit. This was explicitly a "test". She required us to put down a deposit to hold the boarding spot. When I dropped my dog off, she began making derogatory comments about a very elderly dog she was boarding in a confiding way, as though it would be obvious to me that the dog was a problem (it wasn't). She said the dog was very old and needed to be put down, that the owners hadn't been up front with her about the dog's problems. I was amazed she would tell a new client that another client's dog should be put down. Mystified, I asked what the dog's problems were. She said that the dog was sometimes disoriented and bumped into walls, that it sometimes vocalized and cried for its owners (as it was doing then ) and it made her feel terrible to hear this. She said she would not work with this dog again. To me, nothing about the dog's behavior seemed problematic or out of the ordinary for an elderly dog while boarding and it was only stressful to me to hear a prospective dog boarding business owner talking about dogs this way. She also said she was possibly going camping for 2 of the 4 days we would be boarding our dog, but her roommate would be around to watch the dogs. This was also alarming, but we felt we had no time to find another arrangement, so we agreed. When we picked up our dog at the end of the day, we learned that our dog had been cowering under the furniture most of the day. We'd never seen our dog behave this way, though he has boarded with half a dozen other people. He usually sits in guests' laps the whole time they are visiting. We were alarmed, but Kristina asked us to bring our dog back a second day because she'd been out of the house much of the day and hadn't been available to make our dog comfortable. She could not remember our dog's name and referred to him as a "she" (he is male). We were reluctant not only because of the red flags already described, but because we did not need daycare, only boarding, and each additional "test" day of daycare was costly. It was concerning that we'd paid for a test day when Kristina was mostly out of the house. We felt she could have planned better. We were supposed to bring our dog at 7AM the second day. We ran late. Kristina called us at 7:01 or 7:02 AM and asked where we were and told us she needed us to arrive at the time scheduled. It was stressful for us that there was so little wiggle room. Kristina indicated that she was going to a doctor's appointment that morning and needed to leave promptly at 7AM. Yet the only point of this second unneeded day of daycare was to see if our dog would be more comfortable with her if she was home, instead of out of the house. Our dog was returning again to a frightening environment with nobody there to calm him. After drop off, my partner and I realized we were uncomfortable leaving our dog with Kristina. I contacted her and said I preferred not to go forward with the boarding arrangement based on the test daycare experience and would she be willing to refund for boarding. She texted, "of course." That afternoon, 8 hours later, with no further communication to the contrary, my partner picked up our dog. Kristina refused the refund because she said we hadn't given sufficient notice, even though our whole relationship had happened within such short notice that we could not possibly have given more notice, and even though she'd agreed to a refund based on the test days. She said her policy was to keep all the money, but that she would make an exception and give us a credit for daycare. We didn't trust her anymore, and so my partner argued for an hour before she agreed to refund 50%. She agreed only after my partner asked for a written policy, which stated she would keep 50%, not 100%, as she had been verbally claiming. Seeing the discrepancy, she said she's not much of a businessperson and can't keep track of her own policy. In the end, we paid Kristina ~$200 for 2 days of test daycare to determine that this was a person we did not trust with our dog. We happily made the 8-hour round-trip drive _twice_, on work nights, to drop off and pick up our dog from a family member rather than going forward with the boarding arrangement.

Chris is amazing. My dog Dillon picked her one day many years ago. She walked Dillon for decades,…read moretook him as a border hundreds of times. I was also lucky to be part of her extended family.. She knows how to treat any dog with love and respect. Please dis regard my negative review.

We've been using Chris's dog walking services, and sometimes boarding, for about 12 years now…read more Chris will work with you to find a schedule that fits for all involved. She is very honest and hardworking. She has a key to our house and our alarm code so that she can pick up our dog while we are at work and we've never had any issues with this arrangement. Chris mostly takes her pack of dogs to Point Isabel regional park so they can run around like crazy animals and expend all that energy. Our dog comes home worn out and sleeps the rest of the day, which is nice. Sometimes he rolls in poop or dead fish or whatever and Chris will spray him off with the hose before dropping him at home. She also will text us if this happens so that we have some warning and then my husband and I can negotiate about who will get home first to deal with the dog washing. Chris is excellent at pairing dogs with the appropriate pack so that personalities mesh well and the dogs have a good experience together. We've never had any problems with injury to our pet or negative emotional health. Our dog LOVES Chris to the point where we sometimes feel jealous that he has this bond with another person outside of our family, LOL. Our dog has this whole other life we know nothing about, haha. Chris accepts cash or check only and you have to call or text her to make arrangements, so no fancy computer appointments or billing. Everything is very simple and old-school.

Dear Pam and the entire Critter Pet Care team,…read more Thank you so much for taking such wonderful care of our family kitty, Dr. Robinson, during his stay. We truly appreciated the regular updates and loved seeing photos of him enjoying himself it gave us so much peace of mind while we were away. Our family had been searching for the right cat boarding facility for quite some time, and after reading the excellent reviews for Critter Pet Care, choosing you was an easy decision. From the moment I arrived, I was impressed by your beautiful facility, the attentive staff, and the genuine care you show every pet. Thank you again for making Dr. Robinson feel so comfortable and well cared for. We couldn't have asked for a better experience, and we'll definitely be back the next time we need boarding. With gratitude, The Robinson Family

We took our 3 month old kitten here while we when to Tahoe…read more Let me just tell you, the facility is top notch. Super impressive operation. The owner Pam is super professional and sent us daily updates of our kitty. This is definitely going to be the place we used to board our pets.