Company screens your dog while you’re on a tour of a fenced-in forest
A dog-walking service in Stittsville might remind you of a posh daycare, where they decide if your kid is well-behaved enough to enrol. But in this case, it’s your dog.
Boogity Dog Walking screens your furry friend to make sure it’s friendly enough to run off-leash in a 100-acre, fenced-in forest with other dogs.
Kevin Johnstone and his wife, Heidi, have been running the service in a private forest for the last 10 years.
He told CBC’s In Town and Out that he left his IT job where he was sitting at a desk all day, to become the forest manager who prunes trees and has to do a lot of heavy lifting.
“My day is very, very different from what it used to be,” Johnstone said.
Putting them to the test
While you’re on a tour of the forest with your dog on-leash, Johnstone looks at whether your pet can get along with the pack.
“Especially by having them on-leash at first, you get to see how the interactions are, you get to control the space for them,” he said. “All of our staff are trained for a full month before they’re able to walk a pack of dogs on their own.”
Johnstone said employees are also trained in dog psychology and dog behaviour to be able to recognize if the dog is going to get along with the others.
He said in a case where the dog is misbehaving, he has to turn the owner away.
“It’s never fun to have to tell somebody that we can’t walk their dog anymore.”
After the dog passes the screening test, they don’t get to go off-leash with the other dogs just yet.
“The first [day] is an on-leash walk while they learn the rules, we establish our rapport and then over time they gradually get to the point where they can be off-leash,” Johnstone explained.
Puppy bonds
Jessica Laursen, a dog pack walker, said she enjoys seeing the pack running around together.
“They make special bonds with certain dogs. It’s really nice to see,” she said.
But the dogs are not the only ones getting attached to each other.
Meaghan Bennet, another dog pack walker, said she forms bonds with certain dogs as well. In some cases, dog pack walkers pick favourites.
“Every time they move it breaks our heart. We don’t want them to leave, ever.”
