Midday Dog Walking for Busy Professionals in Phoenix and Scottsdale

It’s the end of a long workday, and you rushed home, foregoing drinks after work, knowing your dog has held their pee for over 9 hours at this point (or had an accident inside), gotten no exercise or stimulation whatsoever, may have torn the house up, and will need your undivided attention as soon as you walk in the door. 

You love your dog, but sometimes you just want to dissociate on the couch for five minutes before someone else needs you. And really, you’d rather be spending your time with them cuddling and watching tv first. But then it’s the end of the night, and they’re bored and you’re feeling guilty.

What if while you worked during the day, your dog could get a potty break? See their favorite neighbor and get a full, one-on-one walk with them? What if when you got home after a long day, your dog was calm and ready to be your emotional support instead of the other way around?

If you’re a busy professional in Phoenix or Scottsdale, midday dog walking for your pup is the ideal situation to make sure they are staying healthy and healthy. 

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Health Repercussions of Your Dog Holding Their Pee

We get it, maybe your dog can hold their pee the whole day, you don’t come home to any accidents. But no matter the breed, your adult dog should not hold their pee during the day for longer than 6-8 hours. Any longer than that and you risk your dog developing UTIs (Urinary Tract Infections), anxiety from knowing they shouldn’t pee in the home even though they may really need to, and bladder cancer (source: GoodRX). 

Just because they can doesn’t mean they want to or that it’s not affecting them longterm. 

When it comes to puppies or senior dogs (any dog older than 7 years old), pee breaks are necessary every 30 minutes to 4 hours, depending on where they’re at in potty training (puppies) and incontinence and/or medication side effects (seniors). 

Breed Fulfillment and What Happens When Your Working Dog Isn’t ‘Working’

Unfortunately, somehow over centuries we humans have evolved to work more than ever while our dogs who were bred specifically to help us work fields, or livestock, or hunt are working less than us. While that sounds like the human dream, your dog’s body and brain has not gotten the anti-hustle memo, and breeds like Australian Shepherds, Corgis, Spaniels, any variation of Poodles, and many more absolutely need at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours of vigorous, enriching exercise to satiate their innate desire for activity (source: Best Friends Vet). 

Every day, we hear from dog parents with working breeds who come home to a hyper dog, a dog who has torn up furniture, or eaten human food, or hurt themselves because they were attempting to self-regulate their energy throughout the day with no stimulation for over 8 hours. Imagine sitting around with nothing to do but maybe listen to background noise of a tv if left on, people passing your home every couple hours, and maybe some toys. It wouldn’t be fun for us, let alone your dog who wants to chase sheep, hunt birds, or just run in a field if it was up to them. 

Even if your dog isn’t showing behaviors like this when you get home, and you spy them on the inside camera just sleeping all day…that’s not normal, either. Your dog is sleeping excessively because they are bored and possibly depressed from the lack of stimulation (source: PetMD). Dogs are inherently active creatures, and we should give them what they need for a fulfilling life. 

Separation Anxiety

The reason dogs and humans share such a special bond is because we literally made them that way, it is by design. Some (ahem, definitely us) would argue that we are meant to exist with dogs, and vice versa. Similar to how long a dog should hold their pee, there is a tolerance for typical alone time that a healthy adult dog should be able to handle before their domesticated brains start to become anxious about being separated from humans. After about 6 hours, dogs will begin to worry about whether their human family will return for them.

It’s not only sad, but it can lead to intense separation anxiety when they think that every time you leave they’ll be alone for the majority of the day, which makes it hard to ever leave your dog and have them be independent functioning adult dogs. We see it all the time. 

Now, you don’t want to indulge the anxiety all the way by never leaving them alone (something we’re still seeing repercussions from working from home during COVID), but there is a balance and that is where outside help from a midday dog walker can come in handy. Not only will your dog get their necessary exercise, but the socialization sets them up to be the happiest they can be, and not fearful either of the outside world or of whenever you leave. In fact, the dogs we see regularly anticipate our arrival and have the best time with a person who isn’t their family!

How do I find a reliable dog walker?

When you finally decide that your dog (and you) deserves a dog walker when you’re at work, you need someone who you know will show up every day, just like you’re expected to show up to work. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’re doing what you need to do for your dog, and have that fail because of another person, adding on stress to your day again. 

Most Phoenix and Scottsdale pet parents think that on-demand dog walker apps like Rover or Wag! are the easiest way to find a local person that can come by throughout the day. While there are some gems on those apps, there is no one behind the scenes actively making sure they show up, do the job, and do it well and safely. Imagine you’re in a long meeting during the time your walker was scheduled to show up, and you get out, open your phone, and see that they never showed up. The limited amount of time you have that you now have to spend rectifying the situation is not worth the hassle, and honestly anger-inducing. 

When you work with a professional dog walking company with W2 employees (no gig workers) like Hand and Hound whose sole purpose is to service our local community, you have a built-in guarantee that the job will be done, and it will be done expertly through staff training on things like leash handling and best practices for reactive dogs . If we couldn’t make that promise and we disappointed our clients, we wouldn’t be in business. And as long as we have established a relationship with you, we’re more than happy to offer more on-demand walks. 

Want to have set days we come by, and you never think about it again? That’s where we shine with our Regulars Walk Plan, discounted because we believe in giving your dog some time throughout the day! You can even see where we walked with our GPS-verified reports that get sent to you every time after we finish up, with details like how much they went potty, and how they did on their walk. It really does feel like we’re just an extension of the relationship you and your pup have. 

Are you someone whose schedule isn’t as consistent and varies week to week? We service lots of medical professionals within Phoenix and Scottsdale, so we are accustomed to working with changing schedules, and designed our Flex Walks Packages with you in mind!

It’s time to start giving your dog what they need…EVERY day. Schedule your free meet and greet to reserve your spot!

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