Hired her a few years ago for in-home care and she never came and my dog was left alone for the day/night. I thought it was an honest mistake and I didn't want to leave a bad review and hurt her business. Now I have been reading horrible stories (including the death of two dogs in her care) and I feel I need to do my part to stop her from having anything to do with dogs. read more

I was looking for a boarding facility for my two dogs. After scheduling a free consultation, cathy informed she would pick up my dogs for two hours and take them to the boarding facility in St. Louis park. When I asked to see the facility ahead of time she did not respond to the message and then when I canceled the free consultation she responding saying there is too much risk having dogs around strangers. Well, I'm sorry but I'm not going to send my dogs somewhere I have never seen. Cathy seemed really nice and accommodating but it's not worth it. Also, I cannot find a St. Louis park address either? Where is this facility? I'd be curious to know if anyone has actually seen the boarding facility. Also they did not inquire about pet vaccinations, which is highly concerning. read more

The Urban Dog - Here is the communication. - Dog Walkers Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

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The convenience of this service is what drew me to this business. However, after my dog was bit by another dog while under their care - I found out first hand the careless nature of this business. It took over two weeks to get the check I was promised to help pay for only part of the vet bill. Additionally, I never found out the rabies information because they didn't have it on file. They never double checked that they had all the other dog's information and just assumed the owners sent it. I recommended a friend in my same apartment building. Regretfully so, but it turns out she had problems with no shows. Her dog was left alone while she was at work event for 14 hours without a bathroom break or given his food that was on the counter. My friend has told me she has repeatedly try to get in contact with to no avail. Do not recommend! I've found many better dog walkers in the area. read more

Our dogs have always been in Cathy's care when we are away. The facility is in St. Louis Park (and yes we have seen it). Our dogs come home happy and healthy. read more

Bud is so happy when she gets home after staying with the Urban Dog. Thanks to Cathy. I really appreciate knowing she is in good hands while I'm gone. read more

The Urban Dog - Dog Walkers Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Former client here. When I signed up, my friend who referred me explained that it's a great service for the price as long as you can deal with the owner's flakiness. That was certainly accurate. I do think the owner, Cathy, cares deeply about the animals, but she is not a good business owner. She's extremely unreliable and seems to have more business than she can handle, and the service suffers as a result. On numerous occasions, our dog wasn't returned until 8-9pm despite repeated requests to have her back at a reasonable time. Our neighbors had the same experience on a regular basis. I also never saw the facility where dogs are brought when it's too cold or hot, which makes me uncomfortable to this day. If it weren't for the fact that we liked our primary walker, we would've left long before we did. I do not recommend. read more

This business is as shady as it can be. The location listed isn't even accurate, you can't tour the facility because *News flash* the facility isn't properly licensed for what it is. The owner treats the employees terribly, several of them have had to threaten lawsuits just to get paid, and then when they inevitably leave, she treats them badly (during their notice) and talks badly about them after they leave. Please do not give your business to this woman. It's a lovely idea of a business, but she treats her employees terribly as well as her clientele by not caring to be upfront about her business or to get the proper licensing. read more

I had a terrible experience with the Urban Dog a while ago, I was hesitant to post anything about it but some friends of ours insisted that other people need to know about our experience with this particular dog walker because it was so horrifying that it was our duty to not let this happen again to any one elses dog. Last July my now husband and I were going out of town for a week for our destination wedding and planned to use Cathy's pet-sitting service. We had been using her as a dog walker and felt like we could trust her with our pet. Below you will read our detailed instructions we left for Cathy. Here is the letter I wrote to Cathy when I got back that explains what happened: Cathy- As I am returning from a wonderful wedding week in Cabo I am filled with various emotions regarding the situation with our dog. I am horrified, disgusted, angry and so very sad. I feel like when I left the information was conveyed, I felt like our dog was safe and being taken care of. Instead, I come to find out that our dog was neglected, left alone in the dark, no access to the outside, limited contact with humans, unfed and without water. I try to imagine what that must have been like for our poor sweet Stella and my heart breaks and my stomach turns to knots. When we were arranging for your services I gave specific dates and remember saying, "Wow, this is so great because we couldn't get a boarder because of the 4th of July weekend." I left a detailed letter with instructions, emergency contact and the vet we use and specifically the dates we were to be gone in bold which clearly you didn't even bother looking at. [My Husband] said that when you picked up Stella he reminded you the dates we were to be gone and when we were coming back. This is your job Cathy, I can't believe you are still in business. Did you ever wonder why we gave you a weeks worth of food? Why we never called you like you asked to confirm that we had made it home safely? Did you know that it was 92* in Minneapolis and that Stella was in a house with the AC turned off? Did you know that we had turned the lights off so she was in the dark the entire evening? Did you notice that there wasn't the normal treat I usually leave for Stella for you to give her after her walk? That her bag and crate had been in the exact location where you left it? Did you notice that the house smelled of urine and feces because no one had been letting her out? Did you notice that she was becoming emaciated? Because that was the first thing I noticed when we got home. It hurt me so much to watch her devour her food. I understand she is an animal and that I may seem neurotic about our dog, but I feel like its justified. Stella is apart of our family, I don't know what I would do if we had come home to a much worse situation. I am angry with myself for not calling and feel so stupid for being so trusting. I will not be making that mistake ever again as we will never trust you with our dog again. Our sweet dog has been traumatized and now every time we leave the house she hyperventilates and has terrible separation anxiety, we are taking her to classes at the Humane Society to help overcome this experience. For all the dog lovers and friends that have recently moved to Minneapolis, I hope you read this review and stay as far away from this business as possible. If you are looking for a GREAT dog sitter, I highly recommend Russell Brannon with Lucky Dog (http://www.luckydogpetcare.com/). We trust Russell with our dog. *Detailed instructions we left with portioned out food for the week: Cathy, Thank you so much for taking care of Stella while we are away. We appreciate you so much! We will be gone from Thursday, June 24th - Monday, July 5th and in Mexico (l don't think our phones will work down there) In case of emergency, we have set Stella up with: Westgate Pet Clinic 4345 France Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55410-1371 (612) 92s-L12t Our emails are: b.wetsv@email.Eqm and mblevertq[@gm;iil.corq Janine ****** is our emergency contact and her number is ***-***-**** So, Stella is a very picky eater and has a very sensitive stomach. She is allergic to wheat and corn. We have portioned out her food for the week.- She usually has 1 bowl throughout the day. She's one of those dogs who eats to live and not lives to eat, so don't be surprised if she doesn't get excited when you put her bowl down. We sprinkle 1 packet of forti flora over her food. We also gave you a bag of her favorite treats, she normally only gets them whenever she goes poop outside, but feel free to give them to her whenever. I hope this helps! Thanks again! read more

Looking for boarding options for my 10 month old puppy. The building is not where the listed address is. I checked and the location where they house the kennel is not even zoned for the purpose. The owner is super shady over the phone and not to be trusted. After reading reviews "horror stories" I feel that this place should not even be in business! In fact I called the county and city to investigate the site where they are keeping the dogs. I hope they get out there to investigate soon!!!!! read more

Don't ever use The Urban Dog to care for your pet. I booked owner Cathy Menard to care for my cat while I was on vacation. She confirmed the dates in writing several times, yet failed to show. I arrived home after being out of the country for 5 days to find the cat with no food or water, the litter boxes filthy and her check still on the kitchen counter. My cat is older and needs daily medication. Cathy's neglect could have killed my pet. Fortunately, he is okay, no thanks to her. When I spoke with her, all she could say was she didn't know what happened, this had never happened before. Don't take the chance of it happening again - use another service to care for your pet. read more

Absolutely love having the services that Cathy provides available for my boxer Oakley. He went on his first field trip I day and he came back completely exhausted so I know he had a great time. It's super convenient and totally reliable! I highly recommend it! read more

The actual care of my dogs was fine, as far as I know. The nightmare with this place is that they lost the first house key I gave them, so I made a second copy. A year later, I've now found that second key under my doormat with a tag attached with my dogs names on it. I am horrified it's been there for a year. When I emailed the owner, she said they only do that if owner gives permission. There is no way in hell I would have ever agreed to that. The owner now will not answer me in regards to where my second key is. She simply won't respond. Now I'll need to change the locks. If you want to hire someone who is utterly disorganized, may lose your keys and then can't even deal with issues - by all means hire these people. read more

Cathy and her associates have walked my dogs for many years now, and I've used the boarding service as well. I have never been disappointed. Everyone who has come to my house has been reliable and good with the dogs. Cathy is very accommodating and goes out of her way to be helpful. I've been reading the other reviews and, although I don't know a lot about Yelp, I can't figure out why most of the negative reviews show an out-of-state location. Particularly goofy is the guy in San Jose who doesn't have a dog and has never done business with her - just complains about the grammar on her radio show. Seriously??? I agree that Cathy is extraordinarily busy and sometimes she can't return the dogs home as early as planned, but she works very hard to get it all done while putting the dogs first. I trust her completely. My dogs have always done well in her care. read more

Former employee here. First of all, this isn't even an accurate address for the business. This is Cathy (the owner's) HOME address...The actual building she runs the dog daycare out of is 6610 West Lake Street in St. Louis Park. After working there over a year (alongside several others who were forced to quit after failing to receive regular payment or a W-2...EVER...) I can safely say many Cathy's business practices are shady if not illegal. Not only is Cathy forgetful, flaky and unreliable (making life extra difficult for her walkers/employees) - she also seems to be running the dog daycare in a building that isn't properly zoned for that purpose. And judging by the condition of the actual facility, if a health inspector was to visit I'm guessing an eviction notice would be soon to follow. read more

Cathy had been watching my cat while I travelled for work. One week she just forgot my cat. I came home after a week to bone dry food and water bowls, puke and feces on the floor. She apologized and said she got busy and simply forgot to come by. I had read the review about someone having a similar experience with Cathy and wish I had listened to the warning. I switched to Lucky Dog and have had no issues- I can focus on work without being distracted, worrying that my pet has been forgotten by the person paid to care for her. read more

I have used "The Urban Dog" for over 7 years. I've had her walk my 100 pound dog when I was still working and, more recently, my 7 pound Pomeranian. He stayed with Kathy when I was away on vacation in NYC for 10 days. Kathy is great with dogs and cats. She has walked my neighbor's two Dachhunds every weekday as my neighbor is employed full time. Kathy does everything she can to be accomodating. I like the people she employs. I have to remind her when I owe her for her services. I read the negative reviews and I was very sorry to learn that Kathy's business has not run as smoothly as my long experience lead me to believe. What a shame. My long, extensive history with her has secured her a place in my confidence and affection. read more

My dog has a difficult temperament (fearful), but I have found the care Cathy and her staff give him to be great. I recommend them.

I can't recommend Cathy enough. She takes our Bernese Mountain Dog out almost on a weekly basis. He leaves for his field trips and comes back exhausted and obviously very happy. I highly recommend her convenient and reliable services. read more

I'm so glad that we've found The Urban Dog - Cathy is wonderful. Our 2 high energy dogs go on Field trips with her 3 x's a week. they look great, they've shed their extra pounds and they adore her. We've used the Urban Dog for daily visits too, and trust her and her staff with our pets and our home. she's a keeper. great rates and a trustworthy person. thanks! read more

the extent of unprofessional practices at Urban Dog is beyond belief. I worked there briefly, four weeks, after which we parted ways for a number of reasons which related to her deplorable practices. i walked dogs from the building on W. Lake Street (St. Louis Park) and also went to clients homes to walk them. I was never vetted, nor did i even fill out an application only a W-4, which means that she is allowing people she know nothing about to enter homes of clients. The dogs that are "boarded there" are not required to show vaccination or any medical history. The conditions at the facility are sad and very far from clean. She owes me for 33 hrs. that i worked there. I received one paycheck only which had illegal deductions and was on a non payroll check. the entire time i spent at the boarding facility, i did not see one client, as her employees pick up and return the poor dogs that spend time there. i was bitten repeatedly by a dog while i was walking with the manager of the facility which could have been avoided if good practices and sense had prevailed. During this attack i was concerned with not losing the dog. i was pleading for help and her manager, who was two feet away from me did nothing to help, i am filing a small claims suit against Cathy Menard after over a month of waiting to be paid. read more

Cathy hired my 16 year old to work for her. My daughter did her job professionally. She eventually took another job but Cathy never paid her the last check she owed my daughter. My daughter calls her, texts her, and emails her, but Cathy simply ignores her. This is criminal. My daughter has not been paid for 5 months now. read more

I will rather give a zero if I can. I will not recommend UD to any of my friends. I feel like she is too busy and understaffed. I thought I was the only know who was going through this experience but I see other reviews with similar experience. I will not recommend her for newcomers, most like she will forget something the first few days or weeks. You rather go with another service than be disappointed. read more

This is my first ever review on yelp and after our situation with Cathy I thought about yelping but felt bad doing so. I was just searching for best dog boarding businesses and hers popped up. I read the reviews and decided I had to share our story. We had been using Cathy for 7 yrs and as far as we know nothing had gone wrong. Now after reading some of the other terrible experiences people have had with her, I really wonder how poorly our dog may have been treated. A few months ago after an overnight stay with Cathy, our dog was bit by another dog. Our dog was supposed to be returned on Sunday evening but Cathy had the wrong keys so she told us she would return Monday morning. Monday morning came and went and our dog finally returned home Monday evening. It turns out our dog had been bitten on Saturday and we were just finding out Monday evening, two days later. Cathy never treated the injury or took her to a vet to get it looked at. She was telling me the story of how it happened so quickly and walking back towards her car as she was talking. She was in a big hurry to leave our house. She assured me our dog did nothing to provoke the bite and that she was positive the other dog had a current rabies shot. Our dog was very shaken up after I got her inside. She wouldn't touch her dinner which is SO unlike her. We were able to get her to the vet first thing Tues morning and she was treated with an antibiotic. Cathy said she would pay the bill but my husband couldn't get her to return his phone call for 3 days. She never paid the bill, nor did she call to check on a dog and clients she had been serving for seven years. She said this sort of thing has never happened in her business which after reading other reviews I now know is not true. We are very understanding dog owners and know this sort of thing can happen among animals but this could have been handled so differently. It is very interesting and eye opening to see how people run their businesses and are still able to retain customers. read more

I am a former employee of Cathy posting on behalf of myself and a few other former employees. I won't go into detail but basically we have had a lot of trouble getting paid. A few of us have threaten with legal action. One of us has been waiting to get paid 1,000 dollars for approximately 7 months. One of us had to call 10 times a day for months before getting paid. One of us had to borrow money from another one of us just to pay for gas to get to the dogs because he had not been paid for several weeks. The worst part is Cathy gives us no explanation or apology for her actions. Instead she tells us how busy she is and that she has not found the time to pay us, though it would take about 15 minutes to do it. This behavior is concerning and suspicious. We understand that Cathy is busy, working 7 days a week with literally no break. It worries us because this is not healthy and probably not safe for the dogs. I know that the negative comments from clients on here were a direct result of being tired and overworked. I would not want to hire a company whose owner is not healthy or treating her employees fairly. If Cathy figured out how to solve these problems, I would otherwise write a glowing review. In every other way, we have enjoyed our time working for Urban Dog. read more