About Dote — GPS-Tracked Dog Walking, Built on Trust

Our story

Dogs. Outdoors. Thrills. Every day.

It starts with a goodbye at the door

If you have ever loved a dog, you know the moment. You pick up your keys, and a pair of eyes follows you across the room. The tail slows down. You say "I'll be back soon," as if they could count the hours. Then you leave, and for the next stretch of the day your dog's whole world is waiting for you to walk back in.

For a lot of dog owners, that wait is made a little easier by a dog walker. And that means handing the leash of the most loved member of the household to someone else. That small act of trust is where Dote began.

The question we could not shake

Trusting a stranger with your dog is an act of faith, and most dog walking apps ask you to take it on faith too. You get a profile, a badge that says "vetted," and a text afterward that says "all good!" We kept coming back to one uncomfortable question: if something happened to your dog on a walk, would you actually know? Not eventually. Not because someone chose to tell you. Would you know in the moment, with proof?

We did not think a badge was a good enough answer.

What we saw when we looked closely

So we looked closely at what has gone wrong in this industry: lost dogs, vague "trust us" marketing, complaints and legal disputes, and walkers paid so little that the good ones leave. None of it surprised us. Most of it came down to the same few things. Owners could not see what was happening. Promises were broader than what anyone actually checked. And the people doing the walking were treated as an afterthought.

We decided to build Dote around those exact failure points, from the first day, instead of patching them later.

What loving dogs asks of us

Dogs do not care about apps. They care about a familiar face, a predictable routine, a walk that is long enough, and someone who notices when something feels off. Anyone who has watched a dog light up at the sound of a particular voice on the stairs knows how much that familiarity matters.

That is why every walk comes with a live map and a photo, and why every walker is checked before they can accept a request. A good walk should be something you can see, not something you have to take on trust.

The people on the other end of the leash

The best dog walkers love dogs the way their owners do. They know which corner a nervous dog hates, which puddle a puppy cannot resist, and when a senior dog needs to take it slow. They deserve a platform that treats them like the skilled professionals they are.

So on Dote, walkers choose which requests to accept and keep their schedule their own. Dote sets a clear price for every walk and pays walkers for each walk they complete. We would rather build a place that good walkers want to stay in, because the dogs benefit from that every single day.

What we decided to build

Specific checks, not a vague badge. Every walker completes identity verification and a criminal background check through a third-party screening provider before their first walk, with periodic re-screening afterward.
A live map on every walk, from arrival to drop-off, so you can see where your dog is.
A photo and a recap when the walk ends, so the answer to "how was the walk?" is real.
The price shown before you request, with free cancellation until a walker is assigned. After that, a 30% fee applies, shared with the walker for their time.
A clear way to report a problem, directly to our team, with no runaround.

We are also honest about the limits. A background check looks at records. It cannot promise that nothing will ever go wrong, and we will never claim that it can. That is why the checks, the map, and the photos work together.

Why we are growing one city at a time

A walker who knows the blocks is worth more than a walker spread across a whole map. So Dote is growing city by city, starting with New York City, and we only add a new area once we are confident our standards hold there. It is slower than launching everywhere at once. We think it is the only way to keep a promise to the people who trust us with their dogs.

Why we are honest about being new

Dote is new, and it has no customer reviews yet. We could have filled this site with invented five-star quotes, as some companies do. We would rather earn real ones. When real owners and walkers have something to say about Dote, you will see their words here, and not before.

What the name means

To dote on someone is to love and care for them deeply. It is a good word for what happens between a person and a dog, and it is the standard we want to hold ourselves to: for the dogs, for the families who love them, and for the walkers who look after them while the rest of us are away.

Come walk with us

If you love dogs, you already understand why we built this. Get started as a dog owner, or sign up as a walker. And if you have questions, our team is a message away at hello@doteusa.com.

The short version

Most dog walking apps answer the trust question with a badge that says "vetted." We looked hard at what has gone wrong at other dog-walking apps — lost dogs, vague "trust us" marketing, and walkers paid so little that good ones leave — and decided that wasn't good enough.

Dote is built so the answers are checkable: you can see exactly what we screen, watch every walk on a live map, and get photo proof when it's over.

How we're different

Specific, not vague

We tell you exactly what we check instead of asking you to trust a badge.

Clear, upfront pricing

Dote sets the price of every walk based on the needs of the dog, and owners see it before they request.

Honest about being new

No made-up reviews. When real customers walk with Dote, their words will go here.

Where we're headed

We're opening city by city across the United States, starting with New York City, and never faster than we can guarantee the same standard of trust in each new place. See the cities we're building toward.

We built the thing we wished existed.