Walk reports
Do you send a photo after each walk?
A walk you did not see is a walk you have to take on trust. The photo and the note replace trust with a record. This page covers what arrives after each walk, what a good note tells you over a season, and how to ask for the specifics that matter in your house.
The short version
A photo and a few honest lines, every single walk
The photo is your dog on the walk: on the sidewalk, at the water, mid-sniff, back at the door. The note is short and practical. Where the walker went and roughly how far. Whether your dog went to the bathroom. How it moved, how it greeted the walker, whether it pulled toward home or wanted to keep going. Anything that was different: a limp, a refusal, a tick found after long grass. It is what the walker would tell you if you were standing at the door.
You get it after every walk without asking, and it is written by a person, not generated by a tracker. That matters most for the household that never sees the walker: the Rockport line commuter who leaves before seven and reads the note on the evening train home, or the nurse on a twelve-hour shift. A walker who has to write it down also notices more.
- A photo of your dog on the walk, every time
- Route, length, bathroom, mood and anything unusual
- Sent after each walk, single or pack
- Written by the Dogtown staff member who held the leash
What a good note tells you
Read the notes as a series, not one at a time
One note tells you today went fine. Thirty notes tell you something you could not otherwise know. A senior whose walks have quietly shortened over a month, a puppy whose leash manners are improving, a limp that appeared twice in a fortnight: these show up in the pattern, not in the moment. Keep the notes, skim them monthly, and bring the pattern to your vet or to our training team when it starts to look like something.
Cape Ann adds its own lines. From April to November the note says if a tick was found and where, which is what your vet wants to hear when you ask about prevention. From December to March it says if the streets were salted and the paws were wiped. And in the off-season, when Gloucester's beaches take dogs from October 1 to April 30, a photo on the sand at Good Harbor on an even-numbered day is a fair sign of a good morning.
- A shortening walk in a senior: a vet conversation
- A repeated limp: a vet conversation, sooner
- Improving leash notes in a puppy: keep going
- Ticks, salt and beach days: the Cape Ann lines to watch
How it works at Dogtown
Tell us what you want in the note, then act on what comes back
The note is better when you shape it. When you set the schedule with the front desk, say what you most want to know. A house-training household wants to know whether the puppy went and where. A senior's household wants to know about stairs and stiffness. A reactive dog's household wants to know which streets were quiet. Put it in your setup notes and the walker answers it every time.
Then use it. If a note mentions a limp, call your vet; the City of Gloucester keeps a list of local emergency veterinary offices, and the Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital in Woburn is a 24-hour emergency hospital. If a note says your dog would not walk past a particular house, tell the front desk so the route can change. If three notes in a row say the walk was cut short for heat, add a daycare day on the turf that week.
- 01
Tell the front desk the two or three things you most want the note to cover
- 02
Read each note the day it arrives and reply through the app if something needs a change
- 03
Keep the notes and look for patterns monthly
- 04
Take a limp or a shortened-walk pattern to your vet, and a leash or fear pattern to our training team
- 05
Adjust the length, the window or the route with the front desk as your dog changes
What it means for your dog
The note works hardest for the dogs who cannot tell you themselves
Puppies change weekly, and the note is how you watch house-training and leash manners progress on the days you are not there. Seniors decline slowly, and a walker who sees your dog three times a week at noon may notice a change before you do. Anxious and reactive dogs have good streets and bad streets, and the notes map them. Convalescents on restricted exercise need the note to confirm the walk stayed short and flat.
For a social dog who is doing fine, the note is mostly reassurance and a photo you will end up sending to your family. That is fine too. Dogtown's daycare report cards do the same job for daycare days, so a household that mixes walks and daycare gets a fairly complete picture of its dog's week.
At Dogtown
The walk, and the daycare day with its own report card
A note after every walk and a report card after every daycare day: two ways to see the parts of your dog's week you miss.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
How soon after the walk does the photo arrive?
Is the walk tracked by GPS?
Will the note tell me if my dog would not go to the bathroom?
Can I ask the walker a question about the note?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
- Gloucester emergency veterinary offices
- Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital
- Gloucester beaches
- CDC ticks
Rules and dates change. We re-check every beach, licensing and ordinance page each spring and fall; the source above is the current word.
Keep reading
Next step
See every walk you missed.
Book the free evaluation, set the schedule with the front desk, and tell us what you want the notes to cover.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
