We are a small-scale, selective-entry model of care providing incomparable peace of mind for our clients since 2011. We offer dogs the comforts and rhythms of our home, a fenced yard on 25 wooded acres for supervised outdoor play, and the personal attention made possible by life in a small pack.

All members of our pack meet our prerequisites and pass a socialization overnight.

For more of our pack, visit us on Flickr or Instagram!

NOTES

Note #1: After a dog’s stay, we email invoices for online payment. These invoices are emailed by evening on the day of your dog's return to you. We thank you for payments made no later than the day after your dog's return. If you do not see an invoice in your inbox, please check your spam/trash/junk folders. For payments made past the invoice's due date, a $15 (per late day) surcharge will apply.

Note #2: The rate for a dog's stay is the current rate at the time of boarding (vs. the rate at the time a request for boarding is made). Ex: if a request for boarding August 3-12 is made on June 11, the rate for the stay will be the rate that is current August 3.

TRANSPORT NOTES

Note #1 (Zip Code Zones): Zone 1 is our primary service area and includes 20007, 20008, 20009, 20010 (west of 16th St NW), 20011 (west of 16th St NW), 20015, 20016, 20814, 20815, 20816, 20817, 20852, 20854. Zone 2 includes all other zips.

Note #2 (Key access): If provided key access and directions for entry, we can pick up or drop off if you are not home (not applicable for clients in apartment/condo buildings--please see Note #3 below).

Note #3 (Clients in apartment/condo buildings): We ask clients in apartment/condo buildings to meet Tony curbside at the time of pickup or drop off. Tony will not leave dogs unattended in our car while he goes out of sight into an apartment/condo building.

Note #4 (Non-standard receptions): Pick-ups and drop-offs at our home outside our Tue/Thur/Sat window are rare exceptions. We add $75 to the total cost of a stay for each pick-up or drop-off that occurs outside our Tue/Thur/Sat window.

Note #5 (Meeting at The Shops at Sumner Place): This option makes our model accessible to clients outside our primary service area by establishing a transfer point within our primary service area. On the morning of your dog's transfer, Tony will text you a target window for arrival at The Shops at Sumner Place (this target will be a smaller window within our 11am-12pm window). Please plan to arrive prior to Tony's texted target window. There is plenty of space to walk your dog in the surrounding area. There is also a specialty dog store (Westwood Pet Center), coffee shop, bakery, etc.

Our "view-only" 2026 calendar of availability is here. Please note: we cannot guarantee availability more than six months into the future. Availability status more than six months into the future should be considered tentative. For reservations please contact Tony directly by email/text/phone.

All dogs who visit us must be in great current health as defined by the following criteria:

1. Up-to-date on the following four vaccinations: Rabies, Distemper/Parvo, Bordetella, and Canine Flu.
2. No active or unresolved GI issues. This includes chronically loose stool, even if that condition is your dog's "norm" and not an indicator of illness. Chronically loose stool is not sustainable in a pack setting. If your dog has chronically loose stool, please ask your vet how changes in diet, dietary supplements (e.g. VisBiome Vet probiotic), and possibly medication can restore your dog's digestive system.
3. No significant mobility issues. Must be independently mobile.
4. No continence issues.
5. Must be groomed appropriately (coat clean, unmatted and cut to an appropriate length for the season, vision unobscured, sanitary areas not overgrown and soiled, shedding coats brushed). We do not mean your dog must be professionally groomed *right* before their visit. But if your dog has not been professionally groomed recently, we do mean that you should ensure the above areas are maintained appropriately in between grooms.
6. Spayed/neutered.
7. Not recovering from surgery and not in advanced stages of terminal illness. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide rehab, assisted living, or hospice level care for dogs who are experiencing the after-effects of a surgical procedure or ongoing effects of a terminal illness. If you need rehab, assisted living, or hospice level care for your dog, we recommend you arrange for a caregiver who can stay with your dog in your home.

At the beginning of your travel, your dog should be transferred directly from your care to our care (you should be the last person to care for your dog before we do). At the end of your travel, your dog should be transferred directly from our care to your care (you should be the first person to care for your dog after we do). We will not receive a dog from or deliver a dog to extended family members, friends, neighbors, or commercial caregivers. This policy ensures reliable logistics and transparent responsibilities. Of course, an emergency at our home creates an exception to this policy. In the event of an emergency at our home, we will deliver your dog to your designated emergency contact. If you cannot be home for your dog's pick up or drop off, you will need to provide us key/code access. 

All dogs who stay at our home must have a designated emergency contact in the DC metro area. Friends or family outside of the DC metro area will not be able to help you, us, or your dog in the event of an emergency at our home. Your emergency contact should be someone who could guarantee receipt of your dog in the event of an emergency at our home. If you do not have someone in the DC metro area who could serve as an emergency contact, a commercial boarding facility in the DC metro area may be used (but only if your dog has been pre-socialized at that boarding facility). While we never expect a compromise in our capacity to care for your dog, we do acknowledge there are forces beyond our control (a death in our family that calls us away from town, a loss of climate control during extreme heat/cold, etc.).

KIBBLE/FREEZE-DRIED: We require that you pack your dog's dry food in no larger than a gallon-sized bag/container. This bag/container must be airtight. The length of your dog's stay may require multiple bags/containers, but no single bag/container may be larger than a gallon. You may either 1) use gallon-sized bags to create a “bulk” supply from which we measure individual meals here or 2) pack pre-measured meals into individual sandwich bags. Eco-friendly options include Lunchskins bags and reusable silicone bags (the SPLF brand has a great gallon-sized option). Of course, we also accept Ziplocs. We cannot accept a bag of dry dog food straight from the store shelf regardless of the length of your dog’s stay. And we cannot accept any container larger than a gallon.

COOKED/RAW (Farmer's Dog, Ollie, Nom Nom, Home-cooked, etc.): If you feed commercial cooked or raw food, please pack this food along with a dishwasher-safe storage container for us to store thawed portions. If you home-cook food, home-cooked food should arrive prepared and in dishwasher-safe storage containers. Depending on the length of your dog’s stay, we may need to freeze a portion of your dog’s home-cooked food. This portion should arrive already cooked and in a separate dishwasher-safe container. If you feed raw, we require that you use glass storage containers.

CANNED: We ask that you pack an airtight lid with your dog’s cans.

Please note: we surcharge $25 if food is not packed according to the above specifications.

By boarding your dog with us, you authorize us to seek medical attention for your dog at our discretion. You authorize us to do so at our vet, an emergency vet, an urgent care vet, or your vet. You also assume responsibility for all costs associated with your dog's medical care.

Trips to the vet are rare. Taking a pack member to the vet is something we have had to do almost exclusively as a result of a dog's pre-existing conditions or circumstances preceding a dog's arrival at our home (e.g. a dietary indiscretion at the dog's home prior to its arrival at ours). In the days and weeks leading up to a boarding visit, we ask you to set your dog up for success by managing (and communicating with us candidly about) these pre-existing conditions or circumstances.

Given our small model of care, a $75-per-hour service charge will apply for time spent obtaining veterinary care for pre-existing conditions and/or issues arising from circumstances preceding a dog's arrival at our home.

Existing clients who refer a new dog to us receive $100 toward future boarding. Existing clients receive this credit after

1. The new dog successfully passes a socialization AND
2. The new dog stays with us for regular boarding within 4 months of its successful socialization.

We will notify existing clients whenever a referral credit has been earned according to the above criteria. There is no limit to the number of referral credits an existing client may receive.

For dogs who have passed a socialization but have **NOT** yet stayed with us for regular boarding:

Your dog's first regular boarding visit should occur no more than 4 months after your dog's socialization. This policy preserves the relevance and reinforces the success of that socialization. This first boarding visit must be at least two nights.

Dogs who do not board at least two nights within 4 months of a successful socialization will need to pass another socialization. Please re-complete the steps on our JOIN page (review prerequisites, complete client info form, schedule socialization).

For dogs who have passed a socialization **AND** stayed with us for regular boarding:

During any 12-month stretch your dog should stay with us for at least 4 nights (either in a single visit or spread across visits). We regard this as the minimum threshold for preserving your dog's comfort with our pack (and, in turn, our pack's comfort with your dog).

If your dog does not stay with us for at least 4 nights during a 12-month stretch, you may renew your membership by re-completing the steps on our JOIN page (review prerequisites, complete client info form, schedule socialization).

WHAT WE CAN DO: Maintain regularly scheduled transport to/from your home if all of these conditions are met:

• Our driveway hill is safely passable (cleared and de-iced). 
• The roads between our home and yours are clear to the asphalt. 
• Your street is clear to the asphalt with safe parking available and adequate room for two-way traffic (if your street is normally a two-way street). 

IF ANY OF THE ABOVE CONDITIONS ARE NOT MET: We cannot assume the risk of transporting your dog. Instead:

• We can arrange a mutually workable time to receive you at our home (at the bottom of our driveway hill if necessary). Or 
• Tony can transport on the next available day when all above conditions are met. Or
• If your street/neighborhood is the only barrier, Tony can meet you for transfer at a nearby cleared location (school lot, shopping center lot, primary road with safe parking available, etc.)

DETERMINING IF CONDITIONS ARE SAFE (as defined above)

• For our driveway: we will update you on the status of our hill. 
• For roads between you and us: if Montgomery County Public Schools and/or DC Public Schools are closed due to weather, we likely will cancel transport. On non-school days, we will exercise common sense and appropriate caution. 
• For your street: please update us on your street conditions. 

CLIENT RESPONSIBILITIES

• Please pack extra food for your dog in case their stay is extended.
• If a storm might impact your dog’s planned arrival, please consider an earlier arrival using our standard arrival options. 
• Please arrange an alternate caregiver if necessary. 
• Extended stays due to inclement weather are billed at our regular rate.

In the week leading up to your dog's stay, Tony will email a link to our boarding check-in form. This form is only for confirming a pre-existing reservation. This form is not for requesting a new reservation. To request a new reservation, please contact Tony directly by email, text, or phone.