Service Area and About
SERVICE AREA: Challenging Dogs staff is a pool of trained dog sitters and walkers who service a variety of areas in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. New staff are frequently added to service additional areas.
Sitters and walkers are currently located in the Baltimore / District of Columbia area and in Richmond, VA. Most staff can travel up to 30 miles outside of their location. If you are located further than that, please contact us, we may still be able to help. Please note that most staff are available for sitting (staying with your dog or dogs in your home), although there is some boarding availability. Walking services take place at your home.
For 15 years, I shared my life with Molly, a black lab mix. She was my first dog and I adopted her at six months from a local animal shelter. I knew her history – that she had been locked in a basement for the first six months of her life, but I didn’t know how much it would affect her. I didn’t know that she would react to any new dog or person with a scary display of hostility. You can see more of Molly’s story here. I learned how to work with her to develop a calm response to the things that scared her and she lived a wonderful life with a few human and dog friends. Molly died in 2017 and I still miss her. But I decided to put off getting another dog and started a dog boarding business in 2018. Not having a dog of my own, I figured I could provide a place for owners whose challenging dogs couldn’t be around other dogs.
Soon I found myself constantly turning down requests for bookings because the nature of challenging dogs inherently limited what I could do. Usually, I could only take one dog at a time (unless they already lived in the same household). Out of this came the idea for Challenging Dogs Boarding and Daycare – to increase my capacity by contracting with a small pool of other sitters who would follow the same stringent guidelines I do: carefully helping fearful dogs in a positive, safe way and ensuring a comfortable safe space for them.