Everything & The Dog

They have been great over the past year for my two cats. Don’t know about the negative reviews… perhaps one sitter is unreliable. Sometimes I have to prod them for a confirmation or an invoice, but they always come through. Will keep using them for sure.

I’ve used this company for several years but I’m just not feeling it anymore. Over the summer I had to cancel a trip and sent an email to EATD. Apparently they didn’t bother to read it and the sitter just came on in – waking me out of a pain-​killer supplemented nap. Not good.
Wednesday night I ordered service online for a Saturday trip that was iffy until the last minute. Their app informed me that it was less than 72 hours in advance (I’ll grant that it WAS only 68 hours in advance) and they couldn’t guarantee the order — if I didn’t hear from EATD within the next business day I was to phone them. By the time I got home they were closed for the day and there was no confirmation e-​mail. Looking online it appears that the reservation might be booked (shows on the calendar) but I’m not sure.

Have used Everything & The Dog over the past 2 years on an as needed basis and could not be more pleased! Easy to arrange appointment, walker leaves me a sheet noting her visit and usually texts me as well. Feel completely comfortable leaving my dog under the care of EATD.

I have had Everything and the Dog come in mid-​day to walk my pup for about a year now and have had a very positive experience. We have had 2 walkers, first one for several months, and then another when the first one moved away. Both came to the house first for a meet and greet at no charge and Pepper, who can be stand-​offish with strangers, took to them both immediately. They knew how to approach her gently without posing a threat. Since then, I have been very happy with their service, and so has Pepper.

We’ve been using Everything & the Dog for over 10 years (originally as Pet Attention); they’ve taken great care of our cats when we’ve been away over the years. Most recently, the sitter even called me to say that our refrigerator was making strange noises; it gives us great peace of mind to have someone in the house to report anything strange like that. I wouldn’t even think to go anywhere for pet sitting services.

Really like this service. They have been very consistent, and their prices are competitive. They use quality pet sitters, who are very reliable and detail-​oriented. I have been using this service for years, and continue to be very happy with the quality care they provide our pets!

We have been relying on Lydia and Everything & The Dog to provide in-​home care for our cats for many years. The cats love their sitter, who even adeptly gives our tuxedo boy his daily pill. The company is always very responsive to our requests and questions. We highly recommend Everything & The Dog!

We were grandfathered in to Everything & The Dog as longtime Pets N Plants customers. Our overall experience has been very positive.
I am very particular about our cat (s) and how they are cared for in our absence. We have been very happy with the quality of care that we have received from our pet sitter from Everything & The Dog. From the timing of visits to the detailed summaries we receive when we arrive home, we feel very comfortable with this service.
We live in Alexandria and are not necessarily within the «sweet spot» for the location of most of their pet sitters. We did have one situation back in early August where they had problems finding a sitter for our whole stay and we had to work closely with them to understand the situation and make alternate arrangements. However, the greatest majority of the time we have been very happy with this service.
Online reservations are easy and it is nice to be able to pay in advance rather than try to remember to leave a check. I would recommend their service to anyone.

Love when they care for our cat and give her wonderful care. Thank you for everything you do,

I’ve used Everything and the Dog a few times when traveling on vacation or for holidays. They have always been wonderful to deal with. My cat isn’t especially fond of strangers but he seems to like our sitter (Katie). Our house is well taken care of and they are great to send a text to let me know they’ve been and all is fine. Their prices are reasonable, their service top notch and they are always available when I call. Can’t recommend them enough!

Everything and the dog has been great at providing a pet sitter for last minute requests as well as those times when we can plan ahead. Dakota loves his care givers and they are perfect giving him his medication, adhering to his diet restrictions and making sure he has his muzzle on for walks.

We’ve worked with E & TD since 2007 for mid-​day dog walking. The owners and their walkers go above and beyond. They walked our last rescue dog, Truman, from the day we adopted him that year to literally the day he died, this past summer. They grieved with us. They sent a hand-​painted card of him with our cat. They truly care about their four-​legged clients and the two-​legged owners, by extension. We have a new rescue dog now, and we called them the same day we adopted him. Shannon watched over Truman, and now she cares for Buddy, and we have peace of mind, knowing that she is there for him, and E & TD has her back.

Everything and The Dog rocks! Teresa treats our pups like her own, braving bad weather or good. She can be counted on for regularly scheduled walks as well as last-​minute, OMG, unscheduled visits. Whole-​heartedly recommended!

I’m not going to lie, I heavily rely on Unilocal reviews and had I seen the reviews for everything and the dog, I probably would not have used them. However they came highly recommended by a neighbor, and being new to the area and needing someone desperately to take care of our cat, we went for it.
I can only speak about our experience and –it was great! We needed a sitter because we were going out of town for our wedding, so you can imagine we didn’t need any unnecessary stresses. We met with Beth prior to leaving and explained where everything was for our cat — food, water, litter, toys, trash chute, etc. Beth sent us text updates with photos of our cat, having a good time. That was not expected and a nice surprise. It was also nice to come home and find a «report card» with comments on what Beth did with our cat and other little tid bits. He was happy and had plenty of food, fresh water and his litter box was clean.
We are traveling for the holidays and look forward to using Everything and The Dog’s services again!

I was extremely disappointed by this company. I used them years ago and they were great. Recently however, there have been issues with reliability. They have been other issues but the recent time I know foot sure she did not come ad scheduled. I came home early from a trip and the dog walker never came as scheduled. She tried to tell the owner that she had just been there but then all the water and food would not have been empty for the old dog and kittens. I don’t know what happened when I was gone but my dog was so dehydrated he wouldn’t walk or eat and I had to give him subcutaneous fluids and manually feed him food and water. No issues with my dog being sick like this before or since. Whatever happened it is definitely not ok that you cannot count on the dog walker showing up to keep you animals safe.

As a veterinarian I often adopt pets that have medical conditions that require close care, and so it is important to me that I have trustworthy, kind people to rely on to take care of our furry family members when we cannot be there. The pet sitters I worked with through Everything & The Dog took amazing care of my dog Riley while we figured out a condition that caused him to occasionally seize at the end of even short walks. Fortunately we figured out what was going wrong fairly quickly but it meant the world to me that there was someone who kept me informed as to how he was doing and knew how to take care of him in case something happened.
They were recommended to me by other veterinarians I knew who also found they took great care of their pets. Love them and recommend them to my friends and family.

I can’t say enough to express how pleased I am with the service I receive from Lydia and our dog sitter. I always receive prompt responses to requests and Lydia has been most accommodating, even in an emergency situation when we had to leave town at the last minute.
Our dog sitter, Jenny, is always on schedule with her visits and takes great care of our Kobe. She sends helpful updates and the most adorable pictures to keep us connected. We always get a great note from her at the end of her scheduled visits so we know exactly what is going on. She even takes the extra time to pick up our mail and water our plants.
Overall, the customer service is outstanding and I would not hesitate to recommend Everything & The Dog.

Lydia Best and her team have been «part of the family» since she started the business and she does a great job of recruiting people who really care about your pets. Highly recommend Everything and the Dog!!!

The WORST. I WOULD GIVE ZERO STARS IF I COULD!
The final straw was when my pet sitter admitted to NOT showing up because she «forgot»!!! I suspected there were no shows on prior days but finally just asked.
A note was NEVER left with any kind of detail of how the visit went, even after asking that this be done. When I would text to inquire after the scheduled visit I would get a simple «fine» or «good». That is unacceptable to me.
There were a number of times when our sitter wasn’t even available and once when the backup wasn’t available, so I called Lydia to discuss. She assured me we would find a third backup. After not hearing back from her after waiting for weeks, I called again, left a message and never received any type of response.
My one dog, during the time I used this company, starting urinating in the house including once on the bed, and would not want to go outside when the door was opened. We have never had these problems before hiring this company, snd haven’t had these problems since firing them! It horrifies me to think of the trauma he must have gone through.
I emailed them to discuss the matter only to receive an auto response. When I finally chatted with Pat about the situation, he didn’t show ANY signs of genuine concern but did apologize for the «inconvenience». I informed him that this situation is more of an inconvenience.
He also told me he would have the keys to my home in the mail the next day. They didn’t arrive. After waiting over a week, I emailed them again demanding my keys and a response. I was told my keys went in the mail yesterday. Two days later my keys were hand delivered to my mailbox with postage, but no USPS delivery stamps.
These people are IRRESPONSIBLE and they lie.
DO NOT TRUST THEM IF YOU LOVE YOUR ANIMALS!

I was not at all surprised to (though I sincerely hoped I wouldn’t) see that my review is not the only negative review to be left recently. I’ve been a client since 2009, and initially my experience with the company was excellent– truly 5 star service. My animals mean the world to me, and leaving them in the hands of others is always anxiety-​provoking, but I felt entirely comfortable entrusting their care to EATD. However, my last few interactions with the company have been extraordinarily disappointing.
I’ve placed service requests weeks in advance, and have failed to receive a service confirmation, despite multiple calls and e-​mails, until the VERY last minute. The last two times I was not sure if I was going to have a sitter until the day I was scheduled to depart, and had to make backup arrangements with neighbors at the eleventh hour just in case EATD couldn’t accommodate my request. It was extraordinarily stressful. I’ve given them the benefit of the doubt and stuck with them because ultimately the care my cats have received from the sitters themselves (despite me never meeting the sitters since they filled in last minute) has seemingly been good, and it’s a hassle to go through the meet and greet process with a new company.
I’ve just had another similar experience, though (failure to confirm service for more than a week), and I’m afraid I’m done. This time one of my cats is ill and our needs therefore are a bit more extensive. I’m afraid I no longer can trust that EATD has the capacity to meet those needs and provide quality care. I’ve reached out to another company that I hope can demonstrate more urgency in meeting client needs and inspire more confidence in their services, and strongly suggest you do the same.