Johnny's Dogs: The Best Dog Walking Services the Hamptons Has to Offer

The Hamptons themselves are the best of the best, so when searching for a dog walker or pet sitter, you should only settle for exactly that – and that’s Johnny’s Dogs LLC.

Founded in 2022 by John Navan, Johnny’s Dogs LLC is a small business with a big heart; Navan and a dedicated team of pet lovers offer dog walking, pet sitting, transportation and more services. With the rapport they’ve built over the years, they were nominated as Best Dog Walker in the Dan’s 2025 Best of the Best contest.

We spoke with Navan to talk about his company’s services and what exactly they offer.

A Chat with John Navan of Johnny’s Dogs

Tell us about Johnny’s Dogs. Who are you and what do you do?

It’s a small company, basically just run by by me. It’s a one-man-shop kind of a deal, but I do have a small team of people. They don’t work for me full time, but I utilize them if I need coverage somewhere. We’re just a small pet service company that offers dog walking and dog sitting, and then any mix of services in between. And we’re not just limited to dogs, I’ve done all types of animals. I’ve done chickens, fish, guinea pigs, cats. So we’re an all-things pet service. The only thing we don’t offer, really, is boarding. As much as I would love to be able to board dogs, I just don’t have a place to do that. So the main focus of our business is really dog sitting at the home of the owner, and then dog walking. We work throughout all the Hamptons, but predominantly, I would say, Bridgehampton to Southampton is our main area of business.

What inspired you to start this business?

I fell into it by accident. I’ve always loved dogs, but it was never something that I thought I make a career out of basically. But right before COVID, my family got a German Shepherd. And obviously you want to take proper precautions when you get a dog like that. So at the time, my mom used to work at London Jewelers in East Hampton, and one of her clients was actually a dog trainer. And I was able to sit in with a session with him when he was training our dog. I was very fascinated, and he saw that.  I started helping him out, because he did training, but also would watch dogs as well. So I kind of helped them out with that. I went back to school for my senior year. I went to school for music, originally, and said I’ll start doing this on the side. And then I remember the summer after my senior year of college, the same trainer got me my first big dog sitting gig, where I stayed at a house for two weeks. I realized that there’s a market for this. As much as I want to go into music, I was like, ‘That’s not really going to pay any bills anytime soon.’ So I rolled with it. And then January of 2022 I made my business official.

You are more than just a dog walker, of course. Tell me about your other services like transportation.

For example, one of my clients, I drove their dog to and from Florida, back to New York. That doesn’t happen a lot. Moreso the transportation is usually smaller stuff, like, ‘Hey, any chance you can bring our dog to the vet?’ But I am open up to the idea of driving through the states to deliver, because putting a dog on a plane, sometimes it doesn’t really work.

What are some interesting pets you’ve walked or watched in the Hamptons?

I’ve taken care of some rare breeds. But for the most part, I haven’t had anything exotic yet. I did have someone ask me about horses once, and I love horses, but I’ve never taken care of a horse before, so I didn’t really want to put myself in a situation where I was going to mess anything up. I’ve taken care of couple Weimaraners, which you don’t really see often at all, and I’ve taken care of some Vizslas, which aren’t the most common breed. The most common dogs are any type of doodles, yeah, everyone has those. So those are those dogs I take care of all time. I’ve also taken care of Bernese mountain dogs, which most people don’t really, especially out here, have. So it’s been cool to have the opportunity to stay with dogs like that. Because normally out here, you don’t really see that.

While it’s mostly a one man show, you do have employees. What’s their role at Johnny’s Dogs?

It’s mainly during the summer months, is when I need extra hands. And basically in the past years, I sent out job applications out on Indeed, just looking for extra hands during the summer to help with dog walking and sitting. And that’s basically how I met everyone that’s listed on the teams page. Some of them are just like friends. I do have my go-tos, because when I first started my business, I thought by now I would have like a team of like 20 people but I’ve come to realize that less is more, and I’m kind of looking to shift my business probably by the new year, to be a lot more, not so private, but just me helping out the clients that I know on first come first serve basis, instead of going through the headache of like trying to reach out to this person, asking him if they’re available, and then scheduling them. But all the members of the team have past pet experience. Most of them have worked at either animal shelters or other places before they came to me, soI don’t just hire any random person. They need to obviously have experience with animals before and stuff like that.

What else about Johnny’s Dogs do you want the readers to know?

It’s a great job, and it allows for a lot of freedom, which I really value. I wouldn’t be able to do half the things I do if I didn’t have this job. And there’s a lot of great perks. I get to stay in like, really crazy houses, and sometimes – I don’t go out of the way to get this – the clients let me drive some of their nice cars out of courtesy for bringing their animals places. I love it. I don’t really see myself doing anything else. I love animals. I love the relationships you build with the clients. When you when you do something that causes you to be invited into other people’s houses and to take care of their animals in their homes, there’s a lot of trust and relationship building with the clients. Some of my clients, I feel like we’re at the point where they would step in to help me out with things outside of work, which is really just nice to know. It’s an ‘I take care of them, they take care of me,’ kind of relationship. And I think that’s really my favorite part about the job is building relationships with clients.

For more information, visit johnnysdogsllc.com, email johnnysdogsllc@gmail.com or call 631-905-5646.