Cannot read property length of undefined

The id of the input seems is not WallSearch. Maybe you're confusing that name and id. They are two different properties. name is used to define the name by which the value is posted, while id is the unique identification of the element inside the DOM.

Other possibility is that you have two elements with the same id. The browser will pick any of these (probably the last, maybe the first) and return an element that doesn't support the value property.

perhaps, you can first determine if the DOM does really exists,

function walkmydog() {
    //when the user starts entering
    var dom = document.getElementById('WallSearch');
    if(dom == null){
        alert('sorry, WallSearch DOM cannot be found');
        return false;    
    }

    if(dom.value.length == 0){
        alert("nothing");
    }
}

if (document.addEventListener){
    document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", walkmydog, false);
}