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Dogs are man’s best friend. From giving us their unconditional love and loyalty, to just making our days a little better when we’re feeling down, dogs are more than just pets.

Unfortunately, with our busy schedules, we are at times unable to give them our undivided attention. The new service and app, Zingy, is here to help with that, specifically when it comes to walking our furry friends.

Launched in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the service allows users to book a walk, including same day services, in 20 seconds using their phone.

Customers can select the pick up location, choose the length of service and pick the desired time window, and provide details of any additional needs such as water, treats, etc. After this, a confirmation will be sent.

Walks rage from 30 minutes up to an hour and are priced based on the time length of the walk and the number of dogs walked (there is a maximum of 2 dogs per walk). Pricing starts at $25 and ranges up to $42.

Zingy places an emphasis on education and training and employs trusted walkers, all of which undergo a background check and undergo training in the Zingy Academy. From learning how handle fearful/shy dogs to dog First Aid/CPR, you can trust that your dog is in the right hands.

Using customer reviews and ratings, Zingy monitors the performance of their walkers and have a zero tolerance, three strike policy with all walkers, making sure your dog receives only the best.

You can rest easy in knowing that Zingy provides comprehensive liability insurance in the event of any accident that may occur with the dog during its walk.

Additionally, you can track your dogs walk in real-time and will receive an instant care note and photo from the walker after each walk.

To ensure your dog is safe at all times, walkers do not take the dog off the leash and do not go to dog parks.

You can book your furry best friend a walk right this second by visiting www.zingypet.com or by downloading the Zingy app.

If you would like to know when Zingy is available in your city, download the app and leave your email address to be notified.

Below is a Q&A with Zingy CEO, Tobi Skovron.

Living Out Loud: What’s Zingy?
Tobi Skovron: We are a fun and vibrant pet community that through an app, allows pet owners to access a pool of trusted pet-care professionals.

What separates Zingy from the pack is the fully transparent, seamless and frictionless nature of the service.  We enable real-time track and trace so pet owners know where their pet has been walked and, of course, we guarantee no pack or off-lead walking.

LOL: What was the inspiration behind Zingy and how did the concept come to mind?
TS: Being in the pet industry for 14+ years and having an office in Silicon Beach where we are surrounded by explosive businesses, and the new age shared economy business model inspired us. We started to think about what areas we could make a significant impact on with a desire to enrich both pets and owners lives.

LOL: Would it be fair to describe Zingy’s app as the “Uber for dog walking”?
TS: While we appreciate the reference to being “Uber For Dog Walking” we really are so much more than that. We 6-point background check, in person interview, train and educate (at our Zingy Academy), issue a kit (which includes a Zingy Tee, and several PetSafe professional products – such as a gentle leader, easy walk harness, leashes & poop bags) and then after 23 different hoops and hurdles, a walker is live on our platform.

Beyond the fact that both Zingy & Uber are “on demand” platforms, everything else is really very different in nature and operation.

LOL: How was it working with IDEO in making the app?
TS: The experience with IDEO was first class. We learned a lot about approaching a modern, metro market and how we can best tie in our knowledge of pet care. I can’t speak highly enough of the experience and hope we can re-engage them again as we continue to ramp up our service and offering.

LOL: What can customers and their pets expect from Zingy’s Home Access feature?
TS: Our community has taken the time to get to know us, meet our walkers and has seen first hand the first class service and one-to-one care that we deliver. They’ve loved it so much that all of our walkers have 5 star ratings since launch.

With that, I’m proud to say that we’re advancing our offering and taking the next step in our relationship with our community by offering home access, with which owners can grant access to our walkers to walk their dogs while they’re not home.

Rest assured that this step is one we have put a lot of time, thought, care and protection into. Our walkers are trusted, trained & educated our service is insured and our operation is completely transparent. As a pet owner you’ll know when we’ve arrived, you’ll know when the walk has started, and you can watch in real-time where your pet is while in our care – even when you’re miles away.

LOL: Why the name Zingy?
TS: By definition of the world, Zingy means “lively.”

It means vibrant, it means energetic, it means full of pep. And that is exactly what we are, and what we hope our community to be – a group of active and outgoing humans with the goal of creating a safe, happy and healthy domain for your dogs.

The Zingy brand is more than an endorsement of the service. It reflects belief and attitude, as well as the ultimate role we want to play in our customers’ dogs’ lives, to ensure you have Safe, Active, and Happy Pets.

LOL: Zingy’s currently in L.A., but where else may we see it soon?
TS: As of April 1, 2015 we had 400+ active walkers covering Los Angeles. We have already had hundreds of downloads in other major metro markets around the U.S. We have plans to activate those markets as quickly as we can, BUT we want to make sure we get the L.A. market and our service down perfectly first.

LOL: It’s a safe assumption that you enjoy, if not love, dogs. How did that come about?
TS: It’s all about pets. We are a pet company first and foremost, but are using technology to make the biggest impact possible across the U.S. (and eventually the world).

LOL: How many dog walkers on staff right now? And how are they hired?
TS: As of April 1, 2015 we had 400+ active walkers covering Los Angeles (more cities are currently being planned). We have a 23-step process (which includes a 6-point background check, in person interviews, training and education at the Zingy Academy) and currently only 25-30% of applicants actually make the cut.

This is due to our rigorous vetting to ensure the Zingy brand is held in the highest regard and the service is executed at the highest level, because at the end of the day, we are taking care of a pet owners’ fur-baby and nothing will ever be compromised on our end. We won’t employ anyone we wouldn’t let walk our own dogs.

LOL: Zingy walkers have awesome shirts, are those available for the general public?
TS: We are working on some pet owner / consumer varied tees / caps / hoodies etc.

The ones we have today are exclusively for our walkers who have to qualify to wear it and we don’t want to mix their uniforms up with people from the general public.

LOL: What is the cost of the service?
TS: At all times (both in app) and on our website, pricing is 100% visible. The level is $25 for the first 30 minutes and $2.50 for every 10 minutes after that. For a second dog, add $3 and some change. We operate from 6 a.m. – 10 p.m., 7 days a week.

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