Chris O, Brecksville – Sophie and Ollie
We have two 80 pound Labrador Retrievers – Ollie who is almost 8 and Sophie who is 1. As you might guess, Sophie is full of vim and vinegar, while Ollie, being mature and easy-going, prefers to sniff, roll and be content. Our work schedules vary and we are out during part of the day so even though we were only gone for 4-5 hours tops, we felt that was too long for Sophie to remain idled. Before we ran across Jen and Eddie’s Especially 4 Paws, we utilized another professional, large-company’s dog walking service and the dog walker was unable to successfully walk both of our dogs at the same time as Sophie is a handful — tons of energy and wanting to pull on the leash to see other dogs, etc. While Sophie is a sweet natured and smart dog and still in training, she is strong and definitely needs a firm dog walker. Moreover, Ollie wants to sniff and be easy-going and Sophie is the exact opposite. Imagine trying to satisfy both of these competing ideas. The old dog walker finally resorted to walking them each independently, and still charging us the same price, so each dog only got a 15 minute walk, not the full 30 that we were paying for. I was home during one of these visits and noticed that while Ollie was being walked, Sophie was crying incessantly at the window, and vice versa when it was the other dog’s turn for the walk. This just didn’t seem like a workable solution so we ran across Especially 4 Paws ad in the Brecksville Magazine and got Jen live on the phone. They scheduled an appointment for the next day. Jen had her laptop and was taking notes and pertinent info (quite impressive I must say), and when we told them the problems we encountered with the last dog walker as we didn’t want them to be surprised or feel compelled to take on our two labs if this would be too much for them, they didn’t even blink and suggested they go take them for a trial walk. We watched them disappear down the road and came back a bit later, everyone was intact — both walker and dogs! 
We instantly liked Jen and Eddie. They were so responsive from day 1, professional, organized, prompt, honest, and beyond efficient.
We were on pins and needles if our two dogs would be too much and were keeping our fingers crossed, and each day, Eddie would leave a short note saying how they had a good walk, pace varied depending on the temperatures, etc., and it was like the whole thing was on auto pilot. If that weren’t success enough, Eddie asked if he could bring his own dog along for a 3-dog walk, and I thought: Man, I’m not even sure I could handle 3 dogs, and he said it would be good for socialization, and I am a huge fan of canine socialization, so I said: Have at it! Eddie said all three dogs were good, and Sophie actually took some cues from his dog.
As a small business owner myself who takes great pride in trying to exceed my clients’ expectations, I truly cannot speak highly enough about both Jen and Eddie. On a scale of 1 to 10, they are a true 10! I told Jen and Eddie to please have prospective clients call me if anyone wants to speak to a reference.
Sincerely,
Chris Olsen, Brecksville
Chris Cell: 216.702.0537