The Wag Pack

Oh my gosh I love The Wag Pack!!! This place is amazing, affordable, and accommodating. First of all… I LOVE our dog walker Sherry. When we first signed up she came for a home consultation and met our hound dog Sherman. We absolutely adore our pups, but they are not the easiest to walk. Sherman (who is 75 plus pounds) can sometimes take you on more than a run than a walk. He loves to sniff, pull, bark, and run around when he barks. Sherry handles him perfectly! When we got are second dog Eddie, she came back to meet him. Our pups absolutely adore Sherry. She spends extra time to give them loving, give them fresh water, and even dry them off in the rain or snow. She also always leaves a note to tell us how the boys were on their walk :) And sometimes I will be at work and she will post an instagram or facebook pic of my boys. It makes my day!
The management team is also amazing! I love Beth and Isabel. When we first signed up, we received a hand written card in the mail from the owner. We get notes, Christmas cards, and even a frame with a picture of our pups.
I feel like I am in this elite fancy dog walking club! You would think with all of these great services it would be super expensive but it is not! It was only $ 4 extra dollars for our second dog. Scheduling is so easy, you do it online and can set up reoccurring walks. They also accommodate last minute walks even with a 1 – 2 days. We have crazy working schedules and they always help us out.
I know I sound like a crazy dog lady… and honestly i kind of am… but I love this place. Do yourself a favor and use The Wag Pack. You will never have to worry about your dog walker.

Five stars without a doubt!!! Where do I start? Maybe with the fact that I’m so over protective of my cats (yes catS, I have 3), I have a hard time leaving them and I’m always wondering/​worrying about them while I’m away. HOWEVER, that all stopped when I started using TWP about 4 years ago. It’s so amazing now, when I leave for a trip I can totally rest assure that my babies are in the best hands. So much so, that my boyfriend would pet sit for free if I wanted him to, but I find the fare well worth what TWP provides me. Because one of my cats is diabetic I actually have them come twice a day, Sherri comes twice a day specifically. Which I haven’t even gone into how freaking awesome Sherri is!!! The first time she met my diabetic cat, whom is also blind, she walked right up to him and shared a sweet moment face to face. They totally made a connection through the heart and it makes me so entirely happy. Sherri gets my mail, takes my trash out, plays with the cats, gives my special needs boy love and most importantly makes sure he eats all his food! You have to chase him around with the plate to remind him of the food and Sherri is so great about this she always gets him to clean his plate. Fortunately he no longer needs insulin, but when he did Sherri kept up with the changes and made me feel at ease. Also, the owner Isabel sends me emails and picture updates while I’m away. Isabel is the best, it’s no wonder her staff is amazing– I know she’s very thorough with who she hires and the training she gives them. I can’t tell you how much better it makes me feel to know that they are in fact doing ok and all is still well in their world. TWP even left me a Christmas present while they watched my babes over the holidays; they gave me a sweet picture frame with photos of the cats and it really touched me. I highly recommend TWP, and if you’re looking for your own sitter… look no farther.

Wag Pack is wonderful. They have helped me out with dog walking many times, often with short notice. The dog walkers leave adorable hand written notes about my dog. I would highly recommend them to all dog owners in Alexandria.

Working with Isabel and Tina has been a breeze. The online system is SUPER convenient for booking, paying, changing reservation, adding notes about the house and our cat, etc. Really love the daily report they document so we can see how things went while we’re away, and once when our alarm went off, they sent us a special note + picture to keep us informed. Can’t say enough good things about the care they have for our pet AND our experience.

I have been so happy with the Wag Pack and Sherri, who has now watched our 2 cats 3 separate times and they have gone above and beyond each time.
We have a new kitten as well as an older cat who is adjusting poorly to the kitten being in the house. Sherri took the time to get to know both of them and even took food up to the bedroom, where our super grumpy older cat has been hiding under the bed (room service!) and talked to her while she ate. Her fur looked better when we got home than it has looked in weeks so obviously she let Sherri pet her, something we haven’t managed to accomplish since adding the kitten to our house. Our younger one seems worn out when we get home, so you can tell she’s been playing with him too. They also bothered to learn our recycling schedule (!) after only being told once, which seems really above and beyond.
She even came over early on Thanksgiving when my wireless thermostat gave an error message and I was worried the house had burned down or something. She figured out how to set the thermostat to vacation which I haven’t even figured out yet.
Finally, communication with the company has been great. Having Isabel and Beth as middle men seems weird at first, but it works for them, and it seems like the owner really respects her employees and doesn’t want them hassled, which, if true, means a lot to me and is probably why our pets seem so happy when we get home. :)

I love The Wag Pack and Isabel!
I am an EXTREMELY picky pet mom for my kitty Maddie. Her care is of utmost importance to me. She is a bit shy at the beginning and it takes time for her to warm up.
The Wag Pack was not daunted by this whatsoever. Isabel was very patient with Maddie and took the time to get to know her. I must say that Isabel set a record for winning Maddie’s trust.
I love the «report card» that they leave to let you know exactly what they did along with a note.
I am very relieved to know that Isabel will be watching out for Maddie while I am away. It is clear that she is a true pet lover and is very pet and pet-​parent oriented.
If you want awesome customer service and your fur-​baby to be loved and spoiled while you are away — The Wag Pack is for you!

I can’t say enough about Isabel and The Wag Pack. I adopted a 7 month old Aussie Shepherd mix about 2 months ago and needed to find a daily dog walker in a pretty short period of time. Isabel was incredibly responsive, flexible, and willing to help and I’ve been using Wag Pack for midday walks 2 – 5 times per week ever since. I’ve been thrilled with the quality of the service — I get detailed notes about how my dog does on his walks, have never had any issues with scheduling, and trust that my dog is having a great time in the middle of the day. Isabel not only loves dogs but is really knowledgeable and has very patiently answered many of my ridiculous «new owner» questions. Plus, my dog loves Isabel which is the most important part! We’ve actually run into her a couple of times in the neighborhood and my dog does a full body wag because he’s so happy to see her. Can’t recommend TWP enough!

I am in the hospitality business so I am all about service, experience and follow up. I got all (3) with The Wag Pack! They provided a «slumber party» service for our very sweet but high maintenance pooch, Russell. They were so responsive from our initial inquiry and provided detail on what Russell should expect from his visit and also provided a summary email following our call. I immediately felt at ease.
Fast forward to the following week — the «slumber party» occurred and when i wasn’t able to pick up Russell, they provided a «pet taxi» ride home for him. WHAT A RELIEF!!! to have someone I can trust and count on to care for our «furkid» means so much. I asked them to keep in touch and let us know how it was going and so right at bedtime we got a text with a picture of Russell snuggled on a pillow fast asleep. NOTE: they even allowed us to provide our own dog food since Russell is on a special diet. It is very rare to find such a professional pet care company, we are so happy to have found The Wag Pack and will definitely be using them again!
Thank you! Thank you!

I read thru, a little, the negative feedback. I used Wag Pack for just under a year. The entire time I was in Fairfax.
I had nothing but exemplary service. Not only from the dog-​walker herself, but aslo Isabel, the owner.
There are rules… and they are clearly set forth ahead of time. Schedule your walk appointment online, and you will get a confirmation once it is routed. If you try to do it with less than 24 hours notice, email Isabel, and she will attempt to handle it.
For over a year, I had the Wag Pack take care of my beagle, Billie. my neighbors watched for a while, to ensure that the walker was honest… and she was. We paid for a 25 minute walk, and she walked her for no less than 25 minutes. She always ensured my pet had fresh water, and always communicated with us.
The company left me feeling like my property and my dog were in good hands. I trusted them, and they never let me down. I would recommend them without hesitation. Isabel and Linda (who was the one who took care of Billie) were always polite, responsive, professional, and courteous.
Thanks, and great job. I would still be using them if I had not moved 50 miles away.

I don’t like to quickly pass judgment with businesses, but once our third experience was less than impressive, I have to strongly recommend against using the Wag Pack for pet services.
Initially, the service was expensive but worth it. Our pet sitter was very nice and over a weekend would send us a pic of the dogs to let us know everything was going well and relieve any anxiety we had about being away from home. However, scheduled this past weekend’s sitting/​walking several weeks ago and though we received a confirmation email at the time — had no follow up in the days leading up to our departure. Both of our dogs are rescues and the smaller of the two was very abused and has a lot of anxiety, so we’re overly cautious regarding his care.
I thought perhaps I was being too much of a worrier and we left Friday afternoon as planned. Something felt very off about the situation however, and so I sent our sitter a text asking if she had seen the dogs this evening and all was well. No response. Saturday morning… no response. So I called her, and reached her voicemail identifying her (so the number was correct) but no answer or call back. By Saturday afternoon I’m very upset. I call the owner of the company, Isabel, and leave a message that we’re concerned about our dogs.
She calls back and leaves me a message; when I listen to it I’m first met with a reprimand for having our pet sitter’s phone number (which the sitter gave to us) and tells us we’ve gone against policy etc… then she follows up by saying that yes, there was an issue with our smaller dog and he refused to leave the house to go to the bathroom. This was extremely upsetting because has we known this at the time, we could have sent a friend over to work with him. This was most disturbing because the usual pet sitter has never had ANY problems with them.
We decided to send an email response that we were changing our plans and coming home — to please discontinue our service for the weekend. Upon this email, Isabel calls my phone and proceeds to be extremely belligerent and assuring us that this situation is my fault. Isabel insisted it was the usual sitter and that, again, we shouldn’t have tried to call her because it’s against policy — AND that her number was changed and that’s why we couldn’t reach her. I said that seemed odd since we reached her voicemail. She then said that they both, she and the sitter, had called us — but we received no other messages aside from the first one. Her voice was raised and she was embarrassing me and my boyfriend, as we were surrounded by family when this exchange was occurring.
When we said we simply wanted better feedback, she said we had to ask for that up front. For the amount that we were paying, I think that a bit of reassurance and feedback isn’t a lot to ask… and in fact, we shouldn’t have to ASK for it. I was so upset that my boyfriend took the phone and told her we would discuss this another time and we disconnected the phone call. As I’m trying to tell my family goodbye and apologize for our early departure, Isabel calls back and proceeds to become even more aggressive and verbally erratic — making erroneous personal attacks.
At no point did we ask for a refund, we just wanted to discontinue service because this type of business wasn’t for us. If having the sitter’s number wasn’t allowable, it would have been nice to know this ahead of time and perhaps they can think of a way to allow them a business phone to reach pet owners. The fact that were used to hearing from our sitter the previous two times made us worry something was drastically wrong when we didn’t hear any response at all. Likewise, perhaps a pet sitting log can be made online so that owners can log in and make sure their pets have been tended. This is all we wanted to discuss with Isabel, but at a more convenient time. Unfortunately, she made this impossible and hopefully she reads this here and saves some worry for others in the future.
Thankfully, when we returned home other some loose bowel situations during their walk, due to anxiety I’m sure, but they were fine. On the log sheet however, there was a discrepancy in handwriting between Friday and Saturday — so we’re guessing that the originally requested sitter wasn’t the only involved. I understand this situation can occur, and I’m certain whoever came was reputable and conscientious — but it would have been nice to know.
When I attempted to log into their online system to delete my personal information, regarding our home address and details — I found we were blocked from the system. As they have our house keys, I hope Isabel plans on returning them or disposing of them and letting us know the action taken. Unfortunate situation that ended well, but please think twice and verbalize your expectations if decide they are adequate care givers for your furry ones.

Update: After a horrible experience with A Dog’s Day Out Alexandria (grooming/​neglect), Isabel touched base with us to see how Drake was doing before we had received any response from A Dog’s Day Out.
As our dog walker, I shared out experience with her, and she shared what to look for and followed up several times over the week.
Isabel and the Wag Pack truly do care about their clients!

I suppose I should give the disclaimer that this is my first Unilocal review. I started my Unilocal acct. in January of this year but until now I hadn’t received review worthy service.
I adopted a puppy a little over a month ago. After having «Doc» for a week I decided that I needed a dog walker for the couple days a week that I am not working from home. I had bumped into a couple in my neighborhood while out with my dog that gave The Wag Pack a strong recommendation so I gave them a shot.
Since I have had the Wag Pack walking my puppy I have observed a significant change in his behavior. Before he was anxious and acting up when I would return home but he has been much more relaxed since having the Wag Pack walk him.
We were fortunate enough to get the owner, Isabel, as Doc’s walker. Isabel has provided a level of personal service that is above and beyond what anyone would expect. Her inquiries into Doc’s health and notes after every walk let me know she takes great pride in her work. Her comments and any concerns have helped me become a better pet owner also.
Beyond the exceptional personal service, scheduling and payment on the Wag Packs website has also been a breeze. Just like anyone else, time is hard to come by most days so being able to quickly schedule my recurring appointments/​payments in less than five minutes was an added bonus.
If you’re on the fence about a dog walking service, don’t be, the wag pack earned every one of these stars from me and I am confident you can expect the same level of quality service.