urbanhound began when Nina Munk got a dog named Mack.

Where are dog licenses sold? How many times a day should a puppy be fed? Can dogs be taken on the subway? Where can dogs run off-leash? Does anyone sell a good-looking dog bed? How do dogs get tapeworms?

To answer those kinds of questions, journalist Nina Munk got a copy of Creating Web Pages for Dummies, learned to code HTML, and, in 1999, started urbanhound in her living room, using a blueberry iMac and a dial-up modem. Surely (she presumed) other urban dwellers must have unanswered questions about their hounds.

In September 2009, urbanhound announced it was shutting its doors. Not wanting to see this valuable resource go away, FetchDog, a leading dog supplies cataloger and on-line destination for dog lovers, stepped in as the new owner.