Walter F.
Walter F.
Highlights
Pet care experience
Sitter-Psychologist for Dogs
Experience with socializing and training stray dogs and helping people learn to have a better relationship with their dogs. I am a psychologist for people, but I also have studied dog psychology. I stress the importance of daily exercise, the dog-walk in particular, especially the bonding benefits for dog and owner. I have helped train puppies & mature dogs on leashes through positive-reinforcement methods, such as those taught by Spirit Ranch in Tulsa. II can visit 3 times a day, if needed, but at least twice a day. I also offer house-sitting. Special Note on Boarding: Dogs need to comfortable with cats. We (my wife & I) board cats & smaller dogs. Also, we can only take care of one pet at a time. We have 2 young cats of our own, Nuk Nuk & Sergio, who are very sociable. If your cat is warm & friendly, we can slowly introduce them to our cats & see if they become friendly. Alternatively, if you don't consider your cat to be overly sociable, we can keep the cats separated. If your dog is lower energy, our male cats would be interested in getting to know him or her. They find higher energy dogs to be intimidating. However, like with cats, we can keep them separated.
Qualifications
Safety, trust & environment
We treat pets in our home like they were ours. We reinforce any behaviour & routines that pet-owner's request. I do correct for behavior like jumping on people. For instance, I typically use a firm voice command or finger-snapping to disrupt the behavior. I combine this with positive reinforcement, whether that's treats, petting, or praise.
Ratings and reviews
Walter is great!
Walter always takes great care of my pup!
We are so lucky to have Walter walk our foster dog! Especially in this crazy heat. Communication was great and we love Walter!
Walter is fantastic! He’s taken care of my pup twice now and he’ll be the first person I’ll go to the next time I need a pet sitter.
Thanks so much!
Walter came highly recommended and I see why! He went above and beyond to make sure my pup got fed and walked even in the snow. I’m grateful for his expert care of my dog and I’d happily use Walter again!
Calendar and availability
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Schedule
Pet care is my main line of work. I walk dogs daily. Weekends I'm usually doing drop-ins. Pets in our home are never left alone longer than 4 hours.
- Cats0 to 15 lbs16 to 40 lbs41 to 100 lbsover 101 lbsWalter can host up to 3 drop-ins per day
- If your dog is not leash-trained (e.g., leads the walk, pulls on the leash), then I would need to work with the dog before the scheduled time. This may take only an hour of training ($24/hour). I highly recommend the "Easy Walk" harness as that helps curb pulling, and if your dog does lunge or pull, the harness redirects the dog toward the person without choking or causing the dog any distress. I have used the Easy Walk harness to train both puppies & mature dogs. I am familiar with the methods taught by Spirit Ranch in Tulsa. More generally, I use positive reinforcement methods. I have 3 sizes of the Easy Walk harness, which I can bring for training & scheduled walks, if that is more convenient.