<\/p>\n
Annika Geisler walks several dogs at\u00a0Crissy Field in San Francisco, where spending on luxury dog walking and day care services is booming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Ricky lounges on a couch at Dogwalks\u2019 headquarters in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Giselle Agredano watches while dogs play in the outside space at Dogwalks\u2019 headquarters in San Francisco. For canine enthusiasts seeking to sidestep the 9-to-5 grind, a career in dog walking and day care can sometimes feel like the ultimate life hack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Dog walker Dawn\u2019s pooch howls from the front seat of her car as she arrives at Dogwalks\u2019 headquarters in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
While taking a golden Labrador\u00a0named Barley for a bathroom break last week, a San Francisco dog handler noticed something Barley\u2019s owners needed to know about\u00a0\u2014 immediately. After alerting them through a mobile app, the handler sent her boss a detailed note.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The next day, seated in the lobby of Bark Avenue, his luxury dog day care in Mission Bay, Craig\u00a0Cucinella chuckled as he reread part of the message: Barley\u2019s poop is getting slightly softer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bark Avenue owner Craig\u00a0Cucinella holds his dog, Archie, in San Francisco. According to the most recent U.S. census data, the city\u2019s number of pet care employees more than doubled from 2013 to 2023, from around 340 to about 740.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the thing our clients care most about,\u201d Cucinella said, a cacophony of yips and barks emanating from the small-dog playroom down the hallway. \u201cBut, hey, that\u2019s why I made sure our app came with \u2018soft poop\u2019 tags.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Such meticulous service is becoming the norm in a San Francisco dog care industry packed with high-end options. Bark Avenue is often fully booked despite rates that approach child care levels<\/a>, from $799 to $1,699 a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n In many parts of the country, paying such steep prices so a pet isn\u2019t home alone all day might seem excessive, maybe even absurd. Not in San Francisco. This is a city where pampered pups can alleviate their anxiety with the help of an hourlong Reiki massage<\/a>, chow down on a $75 tasting menu at a dog-only caf\u00e9,<\/a> and visit a vet clinic with such perks<\/a> as genetic testing and data-driven care plans.<\/p>\n Pricey day cares and walkers thrive as dogs fill family roles.<\/p>\n Jessica Christian, Wendi Jonassen<\/p>\n By comparison, a luxury dog day care with poop-related automated alerts isn\u2019t merely another satire-worthy example of San Francisco\u2019s\u00a0tech-fueled opulence<\/a>. It\u2019s a sound business model in a city where cramped living, wealth and loneliness often intersect.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Dogs have long outnumbered children in San Francisco<\/a>. But now, after a pandemic-spurred boom in pet ownership<\/a> overlapped with some of the lowest birth rates in U.S. history<\/a>, more dog owners have come to consider their canines as much a part of the family as their spouses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n This trend has helped increase\u00a0the American pet care industry\u2019s valuation by about 65% since 2019<\/a>, from roughly $96 billion to around $158 billion. Along the way, dozens of opportunistic entrepreneurs such as\u00a0Cucinella, 49, went all in on San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n Longtime Bark Avenue employee Estelle Barboza walks Frankie and Devon to the Mission Creek Channel promenade in San Francisco. The dog day care service is often fully booked despite rates that approach child care levels, from $799 to $1,699 a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n According to the most recent U.S. census data, the city\u2019s number of pet care employees more than doubled from 2013 to 2023, from around 340 to about 740. That doesn\u2019t account for the gig economy, which includes many of San Francisco\u2019s solo dog walkers and dog sitters<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though not all of the city\u2019s dog care professionals charge premium rates, those who do have noticed that higher prices often boost business rather than hinder it. Data compiled by Rover, the nation\u2019s largest online pet services marketplace, ranks San Francisco as America\u2019s most expensive city for dog boarding.\u00a0<\/p>\n Its average nightly rate of $75 is nearly twice the national average, with some of Rover\u2019s San Francisco dog sitters even charging more than $250 a day.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sarah Fulk works with dogs at Bark Avenue Doggy Day Care in San Francisco. Factors including cramped living quarters and a pandemic boom in pets have led to high demand for dog day care.<\/p>\n Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s happening in S.F. is an extreme example of what we\u2019re seeing nationally,\u201d said Kristin Sandberg, Rover\u2019s director of corporate communications. \u201cFor many dog owners, things that used to seem like unnecessary expenses\u00a0\u2014 doggy day cares, expensive dog walkers, you name it\u00a0\u2014 are now just part of being a good dog parent.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not only San Francisco\u2019s canine fervor that makes it uniquely positioned to capitalize on a surging market.\u00a0<\/p>\n Perched at the epicenter of America\u2019s housing crisis<\/a>, it has far more apartments and condos than single-family homes, which means many of its affluent tech workers can\u2019t simply let out their dogs to tinkle in the backyard. But these busy professionals, many of whom are Gen Z and millennial workers who adopted dogs in lieu of having kids, tend to have plenty of disposable income to spend on dog walkers or dog day care.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sandra Luu works with small dogs at Bark Avenue in San Francisco. The day care counts 80 dogs on its current roster.<\/p>\n Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n It\u2019s a need places like Bark Avenue are built to meet. On a recent Wednesday morning at that boutique business on King Street, Cucinella \u2014 a soft-spoken Midwesterner with a 5 o\u2019clock shadow, black puffy vest and gray beanie \u2014 thumbed through the day care\u2019s most recent \u201cdoggy yearbook.\u201d Walking past a wall covered with photos of some of Bark Avenue\u2019s 80 current dogs, he chatted with an employee about an upcoming interview.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t with a prospective dog walker or trainer. It would determine whether a 1-year-old Havanese named Dill was the right fit for Bark Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Craig\u00a0Cucinella greets Justin and Caitlin Suh as they drop off their miniature schnauzer, Napkin, at Bark Avenue Doggy Day Care.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n With return-to-office mandates ramping up<\/a> throughout the Bay Area, some of San Francisco\u2019s top-rated dog day cares report long wait lists. Caitlin Suh is grateful her 6-year-old miniature schnauzer, Napkin, made the cut. When her office in San Jose stopped allowing puppies, the 31-year-old tech-marketing manager worried about leaving him home alone in their Mission Bay apartment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whenever she now finds herself missing Napkin, Suh scours Bark Avenue\u2019s Instagram<\/a> for the latest pictures of him or messages with handlers about how he\u2019s doing. Those updates became especially important to her in January, after Napkin spent two days at a pet emergency room recovering from a diabetic episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cucinella had been one of the first people to call Suh after the emergency to see how he was feeling.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cNapkin really does feel like my firstborn child,\u201d Suh said. \u201cWhen I go to the office, I feel so much better knowing that he\u2019s in good hands.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Not every dog owner, though, wants to pay for a pet to be gone from the house the entire day. Dog\u00a0walking companies provide a less intensive, more affordable option.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are walkers who take packs on scenic hikes up mountains and across streams. Ones who\u00a0use GPS collars<\/a> to track dogs\u2019 activity levels. Ones who let pooches recover from long walks at a \u201cdoggy mansion\u201d<\/a> with tons of plush dog beds and yard space. Even ones who host puppy socials<\/a> at sprawling private ranches just outside the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n For canine enthusiasts seeking to sidestep the 9-to-5 grind, a career in dog walking and dog day care can sometimes feel like the ultimate life hack.\u00a0<\/p>\n Owner Julia Frink drinks coffee while greeting dogs at Dogwalks\u2019 headquarters in San Francisco.<\/p>\n Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Though their jobs often require 12-hour workdays picking up poop and breaking up fights, these workers get to play with pups all day without fear that AI will suddenly eliminate their field<\/a>. Julia Frink, owner and founder of Dogwalks, reflects on her chosen career\u2019s relative stability whenever she sifts through dog walker applications and sees r\u00e9sum\u00e9s from laid-off tech workers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n She quit her own tech job in 1999. After she started walking dogs to earn some cash while she plotted her next move,\u00a0Frink stopped getting invited to get-togethers with her old tech friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI felt completely ostracized,\u201d she said. \u201cNo one wanted to be seen out in public with someone who walked dogs for a living.\u201d<\/p>\n Dogwalks owner Julia Frink and walker Annika Geisler work with pets on the beach at Crissy Field in San Francisco.\u00a0Frink, 61, oversees a 13-person staff responsible for around 80 dogs a day.<\/p>\n Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Twenty-seven years later, Frink, 61, oversees a 13-person staff responsible for about 80 dogs a day. Though she declined to specify how much money she makes, she conceded that it\u2019s way more than she ever expected to earn \u2014 in any field.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her financial adviser recently talked her into buying a house in Marin County, which she now rents out on Airbnb. Frink\u2019s Bay Area real estate portfolio also includes that \u201cdoggy mansion\u201d in the Inner Richmond.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Silicon Valley is to venture capitalists, San Francisco is to dog care workers,\u201d said Jonathan Miller, co-owner of the dog\u00a0walking business Miller\u2019s Menagerie.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mario Pietrygo greets dogs in the kitchen at Dogwalks\u2019 home headquarters in San Francisco. Compared with dog day care, dog-walking companies provide a less intensive, more affordable option.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Cucinella\u00a0recognized as much when he purchased Bark Avenue last June from its founder and longtime owner. His 10 years navigating corporate politics at ticket resale giant StubHub had made him want to run a business of his own.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nothing energized him more than the idea of taking care of dogs for a living. He described his bond with his 12-year-old beagle-Jack Russell terrier mix, Archie, as \u201cone of those special connections where you can just sense that this creature was built for you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Tens of millions of dog owners can relate. A 2023 survey of American pet owners reported that about 53% believe their pet knows them better than anyone else does, including significant others and best friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n