Meet Your Neighbor: Daniel Oviedo
The guy on the hill with three dogs and a report card
If you walk Bernal in the morning, you’ve probably already passed him. Daniel Oviedo is usually somewhere on the north slope with a small pack, never more than three, heading up Ellsworth at a pace that suggests nobody is in a hurry.
That’s on purpose. Daniel runs The Long Way, a small-group dog walking club serving Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, and now Noe Valley. His favorite route climbs to the top of the hill, pauses for a long sniff at the summit, comes down the Esmeralda steps toward Precita, and loops home. It is not the efficient way to walk a dog. That’s the point.
The Long Way: A Neighborhood Dog Club in San Francisco
How he got here
The name came from his own dog. Daniel lives in Bernal with Luka, a husky who has, in Daniel’s telling, never once conceded that a walk was long enough. Between the two of them, they learned the neighborhood on foot — the fog coming over the hill, the stairways that stretch a ten-minute errand into forty, the particular dog attached to each particular stoop. He knew the dogs well before he knew the neighbors.
The rule that runs the business
Three dogs, maximum. Same walker, every single time. Daniel is blunt about it: he’s the one at your door on every walk — not a team, not a rotation. Walks start and end at the dog’s own front door, on foot, for an hour, in streets the dog already knows.
New dogs don’t just get added to a group. Daniel does a home visit first and writes everything down — temperament, commands, routines, quirks, medical needs, how to get in, who to call. Then he deliberately matches dogs to groups rather than to whoever’s available. He describes good care less as something you promise and more as something you follow, step by step.
The report cards
Every walk comes home with one. A recent Wednesday: Lucy, a Bernal member, out with Luka and a wirehaired newcomer named Freya. Two-point-two miles, 335 feet of climbing, loose leashes the whole way up. Freya earned high marks for sniffing — a serious student of yarrow, very satisfied with her research. Lucy got an A+ in hosting for making the new dog welcome without adding much drama to the proceedings. Water topped off. Door checked twice on the way out.
A small problem with the matchmaking
It may be working too well. One member’s owner reports being hauled mid-errand off their usual route and up the front steps of a clubmate’s house — tail high, total confidence, entirely the wrong day. The two dogs walk together on weekdays. Nobody has explained to either of them that the friendship has hours.
Nights, too
Daniel recently added Long Way Nights, overnight house sitting in the same neighborhoods. Same philosophy, stretched past bedtime: when he travels, he’d rather someone stay at his place with Luka than move Luka somewhere new. So he does that for other people’s dogs — he comes to the house, and the dog’s world stays exactly where it was.
The Long Way — Neighborhood Dog Club
Small-group weekday walks, never more than three dogs, same walker every time. Overnight house sitting at your home. Report card after every walk.
Walking now in Bernal Heights (the hill, the stairways, Holly Park) and Potrero Hill (the slopes, McKinley Square). Noe Valley groups are forming — Douglass, Upper Noe, and the flat blocks.
First meet-and-walk is free. Se habla español. Text BERNAL to (415) 658-5703 · thelongway.dog · Instagram @thelongwaysf
Taking the Long Way – A New Kind of Dog Walk Comes to Bernal Heights
Mike Doherty serves as Chief Experience Officer at Greening Projects, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming underutilized urban spaces into vibrant green areas
