Barkbud

Lil Teddy has been getting walks with BarkBud for quite a while now, so I thought I’d share my experience. Like most people in NYC I work full time and unfortunately don’t have time during the day to give Ted enough attention. Best part about this company and their walkers are the reports.
Every day while I’m at the office I get notes and pictures of the walk. Love seeing that cheeky little guys tongue hanging out while he’s getting a belly rub! Definitely a peace of mind knowing he’s in good hands, getting exercise, and most importantly is getting enough attention and care. Too often dog walkers are just on their phones completely ignoring the dog the entire walk, not cool. I can tell my walker actually cares and enjoys seeing teddy, which is very important to me.
Anyways, I think I’ve gotten my point across. use this company if you are looking for a daily companion for your dog.

The process on setting up a walker for my dog, Pepper, was so smooth and easy! I really enjoyed getting a video bio of my walker and after that I met with her and she seemed great. We’ve been working with bark bud Lauren for almost 3 months now and I’m so happy with the service. I also enjoy the doggie reports after each walk– they make my day

met with both walkers before hand when we started up, they did a great job. The dogs loved them them and we never had any issues.

It all sounds great on the website. Prices seem too good to be true, and so do the early reviews. But when you speak to the walkers, you find out a lot more.
Most of their dogwalkers do not meet Casey, the owner, nor do they meet anyone at Barkbud. Interviews are done online, and it sounds like they’ll hire just about anyone. We lucked out and get a good one after the 3^rd assigned walker, but this dogwalker told us the ugly truth about the hiring process and the lack of communication between the company and them. I almost feel taken trying them for even a few months, and she left very quickly.
On my communication with the company, I can just say they changed the terms of the service while we used them to the point that we couldn’t use them any longer. Mandatory scheduling of an entire month in advance, with very little room for flexibility. Dogwalkers come and go quickly while lots of various people have access to your keys, your pet, and your belongings. Sometimes it would takes days and days for any of my emails to get answered, and I mostly get a response of «we’d love to keep you as a customer, but understand if you need to cancel» instead of trying to work with me and my basic requests.
Look elsewhere, and find someone you trust who isn’t part of a service with too many unknown variables. I lucked out and have a great one. It’s just not that easy to find, but you can do it!

I do not recommend Bark Buds services, especially for people without a doorman building. They were extremely unreliable and for the following reasons we left after about 3 months of service.
1. Our first walker took our dog for a 7 minute walk (when we paid for 30), went MIA, and then resurfaced a week later claiming she was robbed later that day and that our apartment keys were stolen. (For that week she was missing our dog went without walks).
2. We had to request a new set of backup keys, and we also requested a new walker. A day before the second walker was supposed to start, he inexplicably couldn’t so we got a 3^rd walker.
3. This walker was sweet and our dog seemed to like her, however, she took a lot of days off and we were given many different sub walkers. This made our dog very nervous and a few times he was so nervous he wouldn’t go outside for his walk.
4. additionally, ⁹⁄₁₀ times our walker was absent, we had to leave work to meet the new walker with our keys, and then meet them again after the walk.
5. There were always glitches in the walking software with specific walkers, which was questionable.
6. Finally, with 4 hours notice, we were told that our walker had left BarkBud and that they would try to find us a replacement. At that point we decided it was time to find a new service.
I will say that the owner, Casey, always reimbursed us for the walks when no one showed up and when the service was inadequate (as I would expect). However, that never made up for the fact that my dog was scared or ended up not getting a walk. BarkBud needs a better system to eliminate these issues.

I hate to put up bad reviews, but I have not had the greatest experience with this service.
We’ve used them for 1 month, been through 3 different walkers, and most recently with less than 2 hours notice, our walker was sick and unable to walk our dogs, and Bark Bud was not able to send a replacement. Ultimately with an issue like that, who suffers? The dogs!
The service, when it actually works, is great, BUT if you’re unable to hold staff, and send a sub when your walker is sick on such short notice, the service becomes unreliable and thus we will move on.

My older sister recently moved to NY for a new job and took our new dog, Chandler, with her. We were worried about Chandler being pent up in her new apartment all day, especially because he’s so young and full of energy. I did some research before she moved and we set up with BarkBud right away. She met with the walker and was relieved that they seemed very knowledgeable and asked a lot of detailed questions about caring for Chandler. Chandler gets 3 walks a week as of right now and we’re considering bumping it up. We love the fact you can check the GPS of exactly where your dog has walked, this is a must-​have feature! We know exactly where and how far he has walked, which is a great peace of mind.

Our barkbud has done an excellent job of taking car of our dog. Chloe is a rescue and has had some anxiety issues, and our walker has really helped Chloe improve. Also, the bark reports are always a fun read and it’s really cool seeing where my dog was walked. Definitely not your run of the mill dog walkers!

I just started a new job in the city and with the hours sadly I couldn’t stay home with my dog anymore. I had just a few days to find someone who could take my dog on his walks, feed him and play with him. I found barkbud on Google and looked into them more. I didn’t feel comfortable booking right away so I called them and the owner reassured me that they have experienced, caring and trustworthy dog walkers. He sent me up with a meet and greet. After the meet and greet, I honestly did feel better about leaving my baby with our walker. We have been with barkbud for about a month now and I’m more then satisfied and so has my dog! Also, I’ll get cute videos or pictures of my dog from our walker a few times a week and it makes my day while I’m at work!

Awesome service! I was a bit skeptical in hiring a dog walker for my 1 year old Maltese.
I met my BarkBud (Andy, the walker). Very nice guy & extremely friendly. I felt extremely comfortable leaving Dexter (my Maltese) in his care. He seemed to be very knowledgeable with dogs as well, which left me feeling even better about my decision in hiring BarkBud.
So far everything has been going great and their pupreports are just great! really cute that they do that, plus it’s fun to read.
I also found the pricing to be affordable compare to the other dog walking services in the area.
Thank You!

My mom lives in Manhattan and is getting older and still has her two dogs that need to be taken out to walk daily. I went on Unilocal to find a dog walking service for her and BarkBud has some good reviews so I gave them a call.
After talking with Casey, I booked a dog walker online. I felt at ease because of their satisfaction guarantee and dog walking should be easy, right?
The «meet and greet» was scheduled for right before the first walking session and Robert, the walker, was great with my mom’s dogs. That put me and my mom at east that barkbud cares enough about the walker/​pet relationship to do a meet & greet beforehand.
I talked to my mom the evening after her first service and she was very impressed. Since her bad knee prevents her from walking the dogs I’m happy I was able to find a dependable service to help out her and her two pups. I recommend Barkbud to anyone looking to free up some time and get an honest service to help out with their pups.

I honestly can’t say enough good things about BarkBud! Our BarkBud (what they call their dog walkers), Andy, was very personable and friendly. He really works off my dog’s energy, which is important because my dog gets antsy and stressed easily.
They are also very accommodating and flexible. I usually only have them walk my dog in the mornings, but when I got sick I had to have them come in the afternoons too. I called them up and they got me sorted out quickly, no problems. I also really like the updates they send after each walk. Some of the pictures they get of my dog being a troublemaker are pretty funny. I know my dog is being taken care of and that he’s having a good time.
If you need a dog walker DON’T look any further, BarkBuds got some really awesome people working there!

I would absolutely recommend Barkbud to anyone. While I don’t personally have a dog I wanted to find a premium service to help my grandmother with the hardest part of her day, walking the dog.
A friend recommended this service and he was spot on. My grandmother has nothing but great thing to say about the friendly and knowledgable walker, Rob. Her dog comes back each time calm and tired after a great walk. Thank you!