0 City Dog: On Dogwalkers

I remember when I used to think Dogwalkers were an "exotic" profession used only by people in sitcoms living in huge high-rises.  And even just having a conversation with my sister who lives in St. Louis, she was surprised to hear that we actually used a Dogwalker.
While I originally got a walker because Miss M was an energetic dog needing a mid-day break, I've realized there are so many other reasons it's nice to have a Dogwalker we can call:

Getting a Break

While we really enjoy taking our pups for walks, we never wanted these walks to start seeming like a burden. When Miss M and I were living together as Bachelorettes, I had a couple of days where I would schedule a walker for her so I would could go out directly after work and not have to rush home just to let her out.

Socialization 

We've realized that it's good for the pups to get accustomed to being regularly handled by other people. Our dog walkers help reinforce our rules and the pups learn how to listen to the same commands when being instructed by different people.

Emergencies & Peace of Mind

Living in the city it can be difficult to find a neighbor willing to actually walk a dog (given that we don't have backyards) and with parking and public transportation issues it can be a lot to ask someone just to swing by. We like having a relationship with our dogwalker in case something comes up where we just can't make it home or we need someone to check on the pups. It was especially helpful during this extra-cold winter where they also helped check on our house and make sure our pipes didn't freeze.

Finding Trusted Walkers

Having a Dogwalker means that you are not only trusting that someone can properly handle your dog, but that you are also allowing them access to your home. I had heard several horror stories of people having bad experiences with dog walking services: one friend found out her dogwalker would hang out in her house and use her computer to check Facebook, another friend said she found out her dogwalker wouldn't pay attention to her pup and would just smoke and talk on the phone, someone else told me about a walker who would come to the home and sign in and not actually walk the dog. The woman thought something was wrong and she stayed home one day, hidden in her own home, to find out this was really happening.
We are a bit wary of the big services as it seems the walkers are changing all the time, and we found our Dogwalker through a friend's reference. We have had our walker for several years, and she has since started Dogma Petcare. She still walks our pups, but she has also added another regular walker for the pups. We like that the walkers needed to shadow her for several walks so they really knew everything before taking the pups out on their own.

It seems like so many of our friends out here use Dogwalkers.
Is this something that has just become a typical part of a dog-owners life? Or is it really something that is more common in cities?

Also:
What everyone always wants to know about City Dogs
In real life
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