Your dog deserves to be intellectually and athletically challenged.
The A Girl and Your Dog team walks at our pristine property in Montara, just past Pacifica on Highway 1. This gorgeous plot of land includes mowed meadow, extensive woodland hiking trails and a creek. This space is the perfect spot for us to have grand adventures with your dog. Having a fun, stimulating experience in a safe and controlled environment is what we aim to provide all of our dogs – and Montara allows us to do this and more.
Our walkers are dedicated to working with your dog and helping them get the best experience possible! During the walks our staff will work on training basics using positive reinforcement techniques and a lot of love. Our staff captures the outdoor adventures of your pups with weekly photo updates on Facebook and Instagram. The cute dog pictures will just keep on coming!
You deserve to feel good about Fido’s care. You both deserve to relax at the end of a long day. At A Girl And Your Dog we recognize how tricky city living can be, and aim to make your life easier in any way we can. For those with busy schedules or high energy pups, we offer a daycare program where pups spend from 10AM to 4PM with our team and go on two full walks. For clients going out of town we offer boarding in our company house. Your pup will get to relax and socialize in a safe and comfortable atmosphere. We also offer weekend daycare if you ever find yourself with too many weekend plans.
You deserve the ability to relax knowing that the AGAYD team always has your back, and will work with you and your dog every step of the way. At A Girl And Your Dog we provide strong leadership, constant recreation, intellectual stimulation, emotional stability and, of course, lots of love. Please feel free to call us at (415) 939 8534 or contact us by email at admin@agirlandyourdog.com.
Charlie Castaneda – Founder, CEO, Director of Play and Training, Behavior Specialist
Charlie has been working professionally with dogs since 1995. She discovered her love of dogs as a child while spending hours in her yard play training her Belgian Shepherd Trinka. Charlie fondly remembers Trinka would do exactly as she asked as long as there was fun, food and lots of attention involved. As a result, she became fluent in dog fun.
Originally from Baja California, Mexico, Charlie started her first dog walking service, 2 Girls Walk Dogs in San Francisco in 1995, shortly after finishing an MFA at UC Davis. During the past 20 years she has built a creative and successful dog business alongside her art career. 2 Girls Walk Dogs morphed into A Girl And Your Dog when her original business partner retired in 2005. Charlie now works with Caroline and a staff of 4 who help in the dog fun business.
Charlie has volunteered countless hours at the San Francisco SPCA assisting in puppy training classes and continues her pursuit of learning everything dog. Most recently she took part in a 6 week course taught by John Rogerson in India, focusing on canine scent work. When not out playing with dogs, Charlie can be found in her art studio usually accompanied by several of her canine companions.
Caroline Cloak – Business Partner, COO, Designer of Play and Boarding Systems
Originally from Ohio, Caroline has lived in California since 2004, and has been working with your dogs since 2008. Caroline created all the branding and design for A Girl and Your Dog and continues to work tirelessly developing the company to provide the best care possible for your dogs of South Eastern SF. On a daily basis she takes a high energy group of pups out to hike and play at the AGAYD Montara ranch, helps fine tune the daily operations of the team, and tends to the needs and comfort of the boarding guests. Her other priorities include her dog Billy, running, collecting rocks, reading books, watching nature from a bike, and building things in her studio.
Erika Chan – Playgroup Supervisor, Training Specialist
Erika came to work with A Girl and Your Dog in 2012 with a background in training, a deeply rooted love of animals, and incredible artistic talent. Born and raised in Southern California, Erika grew up as a budding artist, surrounded by animals. Her family menagerie included birds, lizards, insects, hamsters, and of course, many dogs (a Husky, Sheltie, Cocker Spaniel, German Shepherds, and Belgian Malinois – one of which was K9 Officer fur-brother, Berno).
Having been an art instructor and an informal zoo educator, she came up to SF in 2010 to start a new journey instructing puppy and CGC prep classes at Petco. Her training education includes Trish King’s Canine Behavior Academy Levels I and II. As an artist, she specializes in animal portraits and caricatures, and can often be found sketching to fundraise at local animal rescue events. Erika also offers private in-home dog training outside of her work at AGAYD.
She couldn’t imagine life any different than being able to love your dogs and take them on different high energy adventures everyday, while enjoying nature. Your dogs are truly her best friends.
Veronica La Rosa – Office Manager
Veronica is our multi-tasking administrative guru who helps ensure that all our days run smoothly. She has returned to AGAYD after operating her own successful dog walking business in the East Bay to help us keep the administrative side of things running smoothly (and she missed all your dogs so much!). Veronica has extensive experience working with animals and their humans and is very excited to be working with us, our clients, and dogs again!
Veronica is certified through DogTec and has a deep interest in dog behavior and training. Her other passion is roller skating – she is currently an indispensable member of the Santa Cruz Roller Derby team. She has played all over Northern California as well as many other cities across the U.S. She is part of the international organization Chicks in Bowls and can often be found skating in skate park bowls or on long paved trails.
A Bay Area native, Veronica grew up in Marin County. She currently lives in Oakland with her husband, Alex and their 2 rescue chi-mixes, Flip and Flossie. Besides derby and dogs, Veronica’s other hobbies include snowboarding, trivia, documentaries, podcasts, hockey, and road trips. Veronica’s humor, spontaneity, organizational skills, and love of the outdoors makes her an integral part of the AGAYD family.