Aloka was horrible with our dog Marvin. He came home with a poopy butt (even though I provided wipes to clean) and none of his toys. I would not recommend her at all. You’re better off at Pupculture in NYC.

Aloka is a sweet girl, but it's clear she's very young and may not be fully equipped to properly watch your pet. My partner and I's experience with her can be summed in 2 words: confusing and frustrating. We contacted her and she responded in a few days saying she said she'd be happy to take care of my dog for a week while we traveled overseas. After payment, she didn't send any confirmation so I waited a few days until it was 48 hours before my flight to follow up. No response. Panicked our dog would be sitter-less, I followed up again the next day and she finally confirmed she'd be ok to watch him. Then the night we were supposed to drop off our dog we get a message from her saying she was visiting her mother in New Jersey but her brother who lives in the same building would be in the lobby to greet us. Honestly, I know things happen last minute, but there was something about the message that just raised a red flag for us. We did as we were told and passed our pup off to the man who said was her brother, it was too late for us to find another sitter at that point. We left the country and for the entire duration of the trip, Aloka never initiated sending photos or updates unless she was asked. It made me feel uncertain as to how my dog was doing, which was concerning but I didn't want to badger her constantly. Then 2 days before we were supposed to return, I got a message from someone claiming to be her sister. She said that a medical issue arose for Aloka and asked me to pick our dog up because Aloka was going to be returning to her parents in New Jersey. I was 3.5 hours out by plane in a different country. I don't mean to sound heartless if there was indeed a medical emergency, but the entire situation was just suspicious. From not being able to greet us the night of the drop-off, to no photos unless badgered, and now this. I communicated to her sister that we couldn't pick him up and that no one we knew could either. She gave a curt response saying that they would just take our dog with them to New Jersey. At this point, our hands were tied. We were not in the country and literally had no one to retrieve him so we said that it was ok to take him to NJ. We then spent the day wondering if we would even get our dog back since it was just one thing after the next. Friday (the day before we were flying back) rolls around and I ask her what time would be best to pick up our dog on Saturday. She doesn't respond for hours and then when she does, she asks if it's alright to keep our dog until Monday. We figured since she's in NJ that she wanted to stay for the weekend which was fine, even though we were eager to see if he was ok. FINALLY, it's Monday and she brings him back. He is filthy and clearly sedated. He's an 8 month old Goldendoodle with unlimited amounts of energy and when we saw him, we thought he was a different dog. He had lost weight, he barely moved, and he was absolutely COVERED in matted fur. I asked Aloka to brush him once a day because his fur is fine and gets matted easily but it was clear she didn't try once. We spent the entire day shaving off as many mats as we could find (we cut off nearly 2.5lbs of fur). Normally, he doesn't even let us get close to him with clippers but that day he just laid there with his eyes closed. It was clear there was something given to him to keep his energy levels down. On top of this, she said she had a bunch of his other things and would drop them off "later this week". I still have not heard from her about this. She has the majority of his toys and his custom $40 name tag has been removed from his collar as well for reasons which I can't understand. I never want to be the person to leave a negative review, but my experience with Aloka was atrocious. I was on edge the entire time I was away and had legitimate thoughts of never being able to see my dog again. She asked me for a review when she dropped him off (although I'm sure she meant a positive one), but unfortunately I can't provide her with good feedback, only the truth. TLDR: I cannot recommend Aloka in good conscience. She is a nice person but lacks communication skills and the condition our dog was returned to us was absolutely unacceptable. I can't imagine she's a true animal lover. My dog or not, I would never allow an animal to end up in the condition ours did.