The text messages start coming in around dinner time, a few hours after Megan Duffield has dropped off that day’s four-legged customers.
Her phone buzzes with photo after photo of really, really tired dogs. Dogs passed out on couches, on dog beds, even on the floor, with accompanying photo captions.
“My dog hasn’t moved for three hours,” one owner wrote. “What did you do to him?”
The happily exhausted dogs are the product of a new breed of dog-walking services that go beyond strolls around the block. Dubbed dog adventures, companies such as Duffield’s take groups of dogs for off-leash fun in the mountains, at the lake or at the dog park.
For dog owners, these adventures not only help stretch their legs and improve their socialization skills, they also ensure a tired and happy dog at the end of the day.
“I’m a Colorado girl and I’m glad Sophie is a Colorado dog and gets to run around in the mountains,” said Terri Slivka, who has been sending her Australian Shepherd mix Sophie to in Denver for more than five years.
The trips typically cost $30 to $55 per dog depending on the length of the adventure, and the number of dogs on a trip can range from four to 15.
The adventures take place at , such as Evergreen Dog Park and West Arvada Dog Park, but also at more wild spaces, such as Red Rocks and Cherry Creek Reservoir. Go Dog Go owns more than 100 acres of land in the mountains near Denver where four-legged customers can run around. All companies offer transportation to and from the adventure destinations.
The kinds of dogs that go on adventures span nearly every breed, including Labrador retrievers, Jack Russell terriers, Samoyeds, bulldogs, standard poodles and a wide array of mutts. Ages vary, too, and while most of the companies won’t take dogs under a year old, they all have just as much as their younger companions.
“We don’t really have one kind of breed or dog that loves it the most,” said Lynn Steele, who owns Go Dog Go. “They all kind of love it for their own reasons.”
For dogs of all ages, the off-leash adventures can prevent such as chewing the furniture, barking or getting into the trash that stem from being left in the house all day, said Adam Jones, who owns in Arvada. Jones, who also offers dog training, said many dogs need a few one-on-one sessions first to help with socialization and obedience skills before he clears them to join a dog adventure.
“The demand for private, on-leash training far outweighs the demand for off-leash, at least here in the suburbs,” Jones said, noting he has only about six dogs that he feels comfortable
Maureen Beck and her husband started using Tailwaggerz after they rescued a puppy they named Beanie, now 10 months old. At first, Jones just made training house calls, letting out Beanie and their other 6-year-old rescued mutt, Burly, and going over some basic obedience skills.
Now that Beanie is older, the two dogs go on adventures about once a month.
Beck and her husband each regularly work more than 50 hours a week, and in the winter, they get home after dark. Sending her dogs on Tailwaggerz adventures makes her feel less guilty about leaving them at home all day and also tires them out, said Beck, who lives in Arvada.
“I think I get two solid nights of sleep out of the puppy after they go on an adventure,” Beck said, laughing.
Like Tailwaggerz, Puppy Adventures and Go Dog Go screen prospective adventure dogs for basic obedience and social skills before they can join a group trip. How much time a dog spends off-leash on an adventure depends both on the dog and the company. Duffield only lets the dogs off-leash at enclosed dog parks and uses a waist leash when hiking. At Go Dog Go, some areas of the property are fenced in, but dogs that obey voice commands are allowed to run free in the unfenced areas as well.
Duffield provides of her adventures through her Instagram feed, with dog owners logging on throughout the day to check for photos and comment on the posts.
Although there are always some risks when taking dogs off-leash in the mountains, this doesn’t worry most clients, who say the off-leash component is the main attraction.
Go Dog Go provided the outlet that Bonnie McDonald’s standard poodle Willow needed after McDonald was no longer able to continue with his agility training. After McDonald’s other standard poodle died, Willow was without a playmate, so the other dogs at Go Dog Go provided much-needed “dog friends,” McDonald said.
“Big dogs need lots of exercise and going to a doggy day care or the local dog park doesn’t do it,” she said. “With Lynn, they go hiking, they run in the woods, they do what dogs are meant to do.
“You can’t get that in a little doggy day care.”
Jessica Iannetta: 303-954-1510, jiannetta@ denverpost.com twitter.com/JessicaIannetta
Adventure providers
Puppy Adventures, Denver, 970-343-4793
Tailwaggerz Dog Adventures, Arvada, 720-775-4280
Go Dog Go Canine Adventures, Denver, 303-859-1678
