About Us

dogger is a friendly and professional doggie daycare, dog walking and cat sitting service head-quartered in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

It was founded in 2015 by Ian Burgess and Basia Fabian, who decided to leave their corporate careers for something more meaningful. Ian, who is originally from Canada and a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, worked in the financial industry for over 20 years. Basia was born in Poland, grew up in NJ, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She worked in Data Analytics for companies such as JP Morgan, Barnes&Noble.com, and Ralph Lauren.

Ian and Basia live in Park Slope with their pack of 6 kids and 2 dogs. The dogger Daycare and Dog Boarding Service is run out of their privately owned townhouse on 13th street and 7th Avenue.

For the dog walking and cat sitting services, we use GPS-based technology and provide the most on-time, friendly, and reliable services for your pets.

All of our dog walkers and caregivers are vetted, bonded, insured and certified in Pet First Aid & CPR.

Management Team

Ian Burgess - Co-Founder/Owner

Hailing from Canada where he was raised on ice chips, pine needles and hockey, Ian has been a lifelong dog and cat owner. After graduating from the University of Western Ontario, Ian came to NYC and had a 20 year career in the financial industry. In addition, Ian was a trained and certified foster parent to injured, newborn, and difficult dogs and cats for the NYC ASPCA for over 10 years. In this capacity, Ian specialized in preparing and rehabilitating dogs and cats for adoption.  The idea for a top-notch dog walking business was always in the back of his mind throughout these years, and is now finally being brought to fruition!

Ian lives in Park Slope with his wife and dogger co-founder Basia Fabian. All dogger daycare and boarding is at their privately owned townhouse on 13th street. They have 6 kids, all born and raised in Brooklyn, the eldest of which help out with the family business. They also have 2 dogs, Trouble and Becca, that they inherited from previous clients who could no longer keep them. He loves games and grizzly bears.  

Basia Fabian - Co-Founder/Owner

Basia is originally from Poland, but grew up in New Jersey. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania a hundred years ago, Basia spent 20 years doing what she thought was right – corporate jobs for big companies such as Barnes&Noble and Ralph Lauren. (Her career was in Business Intelligence and Customer Analytics). But there was never enough time to spend with her rescue dogs Chita, Coco, or Lisa. (Or her children for that matter). And thus a year after her husband Ian started dogger, she happily jumped right in! She's now happier than she's ever been. (Plus fitter).  

A resident of Park Slope since 2002, all dogger daycare and boarding is at the privately owned townhouse that she shares with her husband Ian. They have 6 kids, all born and raised in Brooklyn, the eldest of which help out with the family business. They also have 2 dogs, Trouble and Becca, that they inherited from previous clients who could no longer keep them. In her spare time Basia is working on a novel.

She is also the dogger in-house Pet First Aid and CPR instructor, certified to teach by PET TECH.

Erin Smyth - Operations Manager

Originally from Illinois, Erin moved to NYC to pursue a career in film and animation. Though she grew up with all cats and no dogs, Erin is absolutely thrilled to spend every day surrounded by cute pups.

She’s been with dogger since the Spring of 2020, and is our Operations Manager. This entails managing our Doggie Daycare, liaising with management and staff to ensure all appointments run smoothly, and generally being a dog whisperer. (She is still the only one who can walk our top 3 most dangerous chihuahuas who shall rename nameless).

While not with dogs or working on her art, she loves to watch the ducks in Prospect Park or play Dungeons & Dragons with her friends.

Erin is Pet First Aid & CPR certified.

Holly - Senior Manager

Holly was raised in West Chester, PA and moved to NYC to go to NYU for acting. Since she was born, she's lived with cats and finally got a dog when she was 6 years old! Ever since, she's always been around animals.

A few fun facts about about her: at home in NYC, she has a full zoo with Freya, her mainecoon cat; Georgie, the little businessman; and her sassy chameleon, Luma. Outside of acting and animals, she's an avid Dungeons and Dragons player and a fantasy lover! From Tolkien to Sanderson, she loves it all, but fair warning: if you bring up anything fantasy, she will talk your ear off about it. So ask at your own risk! Holly is excited to meet you and your pets!

Holly is Pet First Aid & CPR certified.

Staff

Trudi Rosenblum

A true New York City native, Trudi has been with dogger since 2016, and has been a professional dog walker for 17 years! Think of how many miles she must have walked by now! People pay good money to get that kind of exercise, but for her it’s an awesome lifestyle. Also her building doesn't allow dogs and she really misses having one, that's why she LOVES spending time with all the clients dogs!

In a prior life, Trudi was a magazine journalist, but after having kids (Jeremy and Caroline, who are both in college now) she decided she was happiest being out and about having fun with dogs and cats. Currently she lives in Windsor Terrace with her husband Marty and a fat cat named Jojo. We couldn't run dogger with out her, she’s a real pet professional, knows the layout of the confusing streets better than anyone, and we’re so lucky to have her!

Trudi is Pet First Aid & CPR certified.

Maggie Toth

Tommie Morgan

Tommie is a musician and a singer and a totally awesome dude. He always makes us laugh, and has the coolest smooth jazz vibes. (Which is also what he often listens too, because honestly, don’t we all need to listen to more smooth jazz in these times? Rather than, say, murder podcasts or news). 

Originally from Dallas, Tommie moved to New York in ’89 and now  lives in South Slope where he focuses on recording his sophomore solo album COPASTETIC (Pancake Studios), as well as vocal coaching and editing books. (And part time dog walking of course). In the past he’s done a myriad of interesting things besides producing and performing music, such as modeling for Ralph Lauren, performing in theaters and podcasts, working for the NYS Board of Elections, and working in a Versace Boutique among other things. He says that the best part of the dog walking gig is that: “My four legged buddies let me run songs by them, and they don't howl, run and hide”. We are so happy he’s a part of the dogger pack!

Tommie is Pet First Aid & CPR certified.

Jordan Edwards

Jordan is a writer, comedian, and George Costanza cosplayer. Originally from Florida (not his fault but he's apologetic regardless), he studied screenwriting in Boston before moving to NYC a few years back with nothing but dreams and student debt. He loves the energy and opportunities presented in New York and has decided he never wants to leave! A perpetual pet owner throughout his life, Jordan has lived with dogs, cats, fish, and even a ferret.

Dogger was a perfect fit, balancing his desire to be surrounded by an abundance of fuzzy friends for at least half of his waking life and allowing time for his other work dungeon mastering for kids. When he isn't walking or pet sitting, he can usually be found playing dnd, taking comedy classes, or feeling a sense of accomplishment from rewriting the same comedy sketch for the 40th time.

Jordan is Pet First Aid & CPR certified.

Kira Wilson

Kira grew up in rural Massachusetts and was raised with cats and dogs, and currently enjoys free time with her pet rabbit. Kira came to NYC in 2016 to study art history and pursue her passion for photography and performance art.

She loves trees and can spend endless time outdoors. Her favorite hobby is biking, and she is happy to bike all over Brooklyn all day. She is so excited to get more time with dogs as a dog walker at dogger!

Kira is Pet First Aid & CPR certified.

Cassiel Fabian

Cassiel was born and raised at the dogger HQ, as he’s dogger co-owner Basia’s eldest son. He’s worked there since middle school in various capacities, such as pet sitting, dog walking, yard maintenance, and key delivery. He graduated from Brooklyn Millennium High School in 2022, and is currently attending the College of William and Mary, class of 2026. When home from college in the summer and during breaks, he manages our website content development and social media campaigns.

Cass is Pet First Aid & CPR certified.

Harry Blom

Harry is a Dutch New Yorker and astrophysicist by training with a doctorate from Leiden University after doing research on cosmic gamma-rays.

After a career in academic publishing working for a multi-national for more than 20 years he decided to make a switch and focus on what’s also important in life: animals & people, music, and science education.

So when he is not in the streets enjoying dog walking, he is traveling to attend concerts, or teaches/tutors mathematics and physics.

Harry is is Pet First Aid & CPR certified.

Elizabeth Ward

Raised in Vermont around lots of dogs, cats, horses, and chickens Elizabeth loves all animals and has 3 cats of her own. She has spent many years dog walking and pet-sitting around the world, caring for pets while their people travel.After a full-time career in costume design for opera and theater, working often very far afield,

Elizabeth is thrilled to now be NYC based, enjoying spending her time with wonderful dogs and cats, and writing a book on the evolution of armor.

Elizabeth is Pet First Aid & CPR certified.

Rowdy Tidwell

Rowdy has lived with all sorts of animals growing up on a rural farm outside Houston, Texas. At age 30, he moved to New York to explore more career options after earning his BA in Theater Directing. He was awarded the “Dr. Dolittle Award” from the Delta Psi Omega Honor Society in college for his animal impersonations and has used them as a professional animal caretaker for several years.Rowdy’s love for theater and media are now guiding him on an exciting quest to merge his artistic talents with video game design, promising a future filled with creativity and innovation.

Rowdy is Pet CPR and First Aid Certified.

Russell Bieber

Russ was born and raised in Windsor Terrace, is now studying music, and is Pet First Aid & CPR certified. He enjoys being a dog walker because it gives him a chance to listen to music. More bio coming soon.

Isaiah Knight

Zach Raines

Luke Asente

Connor Bruce

Kyle Dobbs

Callie Kennedy

Tiggy Flaherty

Robin Foster

James O’Conner

Oliver Brill

Trouble - The Fixer

Trouble used to be a client dog, but was adopted in 2018 by Ian and Basia after his original owners had to move.

He has always wanted to be a dog walker, and did pretty well in his early days. But then he got promoted and since, he has become the dogger Fixer! Got a problem? He’s there to the rescue! We even gave him his own advice column: Trouble Times, (thought we haven’t really updated it in a long time). There, he addresses issues such as what to do if your dog ate drugs, or ran away, things like that. He takes his job very seriously.

Trouble is Not Pet First Aid & CPR certified. (Not Yet anyways)

Becca- The Boss

EMAIL:     DOGGER@DOGGERNYC.COM

HQ:            382 13th street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY 11215