The Dandy Dogwalker
Personal, Premier & professional Pet Care For Your Creature’s Comfort
{est. 2013}
“It is not an overstatement to say that Hadley and Dandy Dogwalker changed our life. ...Hadley, who lovingly, patiently brought [our dog] around to thriving in pack walks and overall becoming more trusting with new dogs and people. ...Hadley was always reliable and communicative, and... somehow makes you and your doggie feel like a celebrity every single day.”
Gracie, Tiny, Arrow, Riley, Wrigley, Archie, Fredo, Luna, George, Indi | Alameda, 2018
Our Founder: Hadley Raysor
STRUCTURED PACK WALKS | Coaching
HADLEY was born-and-raised in New Hampshire, and holds a B.A. from Wellesley College with a major in History and a minor in Italian. In 2006, Hadley co-founded Translate Gender; from 2006-2010, Hadley worked with various single-sex college and university administrations to dismantle gender oppression, with a focus on admitting transwomen to women's colleges + creating access for trans and/or gender non-conforming students both currently on campus and alums. Hadley additionally facilitated various workshops, organized events, and sat on many panels speaking about gender justice. From 2008-2010, Hadley worked as a Travel Personal Care Attendant for various friends in the Disability Justice Movement, and helped create collective community access for sick and disabled people. Hadley has been working with and rehabilitating dogs since 2010, both in New York City and in the SF Bay Area. Hadley currently lives in Alameda, CA with their rescue tabby cat, Franklin.
HADLEY began walking dogs professionally in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City in 2010. Since their first day walking dogs, Hadley has worked with anxious, fearful and sensitive creatures, initially through a positive reinforcement based dog walking and training company, then with the incredible Brooklyn Dog Walk. A calm, confident, gentle, and intuitive person with firm behavior boundaries, Hadley is able to connect with creatures and to form long-lasting deep bonds with the animal companions they walk and care for. In 2013 Hadley began their own dog walking business in Brooklyn - The Dandy Dogwalker - and, in late 2015, Hadley relocated to the SF Bay Area. For a year and a half, Hadley worked for and mentored under balanced trainer Elijah Weiss of The Working Walk, during which time Hadley learned a different style of dog walking (structured pack walks), and seriously improved their dog behavior and training skills. Hadley currently offers structured pack walks in Alameda, CA as well as integrative behavior consultations both in-person (SF Bay Area) and over Skype.
Photo by Greer McGettrick | Alameda, 2021
Our History: The Dandy Dogwalker
The Dandy Dogwalker has been offering professional, personal and premier award-winning dog walking services since 2013 in both Brooklyn and The Bay Area. Founder Hadley Raysor felt a strong pull toward pet care, animal behavior & queer/TGNC (Trans & Gender Non-Conforming) entrepreneurship.
Hadley began walking dogs in 2011 for a queer- and TGNC-owned, positive-reinforcement-based, dog walking/training company that served Downtown Brooklyn & Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Hadley left the company in 2012 to pursue a more independent style of dog walking, and was the first employee hired by Nancy Soyer, founder of queer-owned/-operated Brooklyn Dog Walk, one of Downtown Brooklyn’s finest, most professional & caring pet care companies. The Dandy Dogwalker grew from Hadley’s mentorship & friendship with Nancy, who is a longtime Downtown Brooklyn resident, artist and independent dog walker.
Flyer by Ketch Wehr | 2015
In 2013 Hadley branched off to form their own dog walking business and, until 2015, The Dandy Dogwalker was primarily Hadley in Downtown Brooklyn. During this time, Hadley garnered both local and international attention for both The Dandy Dogwalker and their dog photography. Hadley’s dog photography was displayed at a small Times Square Cafe, and was also featured on NBC 4 New York’s nightly news. A travel book writer from Germany followed Hadley for a day, interviewing them and taking photos. With this momentum and a handful of fanciful fliers by Ketch Wehr, Hadley helped a second Dandy Brooklyn chapter open in their former neighborhood, Crown Heights, in 2015. This chapter was active & loved on a whole lot of dogs through 2021 when it closed.
By the time Hadley relocated to San Francisco in late 2015, they were able to lovingly leave dozens of clients & two dog walking routes for folks in their community. Zachary, Hadley’s former substitute walker and now longtime independent dog walker, still has a route in Downtown Brooklyn (and is still accepting new clients!) with some of the same dogs from 2013.
Photo by Robert Stoetzel | Brooklyn Heights, 2015
Upon arriving in San Francisco, Hadley began working under experienced structured pack walker and balanced trainer Elijah Weiss. Elijah started TGNC-/queer-owned The Working Walk and hired Hadley as his first employee in late 2015. Under Elijah’s cool guidance, mentorship and expertise, Hadley began to learn how to confidently lead packs of 6+ very different dogs - with different behavior challenges and training needs - through anything the East Bay tossed at them. Hadley learned the foundation, structure and framework for their own pack walk program from Elijah; Elijah taught them (and still teaches them!) insightful and smart suggestions on how to address dogs’ behavior blips.
Trooper, Hazel, Maizie, Zoey, Mabel, Milo, Scruffydog, Julio, Puppins, Hank | Photo by Hadley Raysor, 2021
In spring of 2017, Hadley again branched off on their own and launched Dandy Dogwalker California, which provides structured pack walks in Alameda, CA. Dandy Dogwalker California additionally provides behavior consultation and coaching services to humans with dogs, along with learning opportunities for queer/TGNC folks wanting to start their own dog walking businesses. The Dandy Dogwalker was voted “Best of Alameda” in 2019 and is proud to serve the dogs of Alameda and the East Bay, and hopes to continue to do so for years to come.