I’m going to be out of town for two nights, coming home before the third night. My 19 year old granddaughter will be house sitting and watching my two dogs. She will be staying over both nights. I will be getting in some of her favorite foods, although she knows whatever I have in the house is hers to eat. How much should I pay her?
She’s your granddaughter, so you should pay her more than you would a stranger. No less than $50 a night, and bring her back a gift from the trip.
Does she normally live at home with her parents? Is it a treat for her to be on her own for a few days? When I was that age, I would house sit for family members just for chance to be own my own for a few days. You’re already stocking the fridge with her favorite foods, so it sounds like there aren’t any expenses for her. Still, she should get something, $50 for the whole weekend is probably good.
I charged $65 per overnight for dog/cat care, but I did this professionally and am insured and have pet first aid training and a small cut went to my employer. I was there from 7pm to 10am, with visits during the day so the animals weren’t left alone too long.
Hi so I’m in Co Springs. I am going home for a visit next month and I’ll be gone just about an entire month… I had a dog sitter that was watching our dogs sometimes through a service that employs several sitters so she’s just an employee, but she’s the one we’ve always worked with… she’s familiar with me and my house and stuff… and I fairly well trust her as Iet her take care of my dog babies several times. Well because I’ll be gone a whole month I started getting nervous about that the past few days… what if a pilot light went out and gas was leaking in the house for a long time? or just… something a pipe bursts yadda yadda… I just felt I’d feel better if she’d come by every 2-3 days walk around the house just to make sure nothings amiss. already got a bunch of lamps on timers near the windows and they are set on the random setting so it can look like I’m home even though I’m not… actually I’ve quite enjoyed them on a regular ole day because of the convenience of them turning on and off on their own. The service normally charges 18$/per 30 minute visit which allows the time to let the dogs out and feed them if necessary… if she’s only going to be here 5-10 minutes every 3 days and she’s not needing to bring in the mail or water plants or clean or anything, simply walk around for 5 minutes and make sure everything looks normal… How much would be reasonable to pay her per visit or for the month. I asked her to do this freelance since it’s not dog sitting but we are already acquainted and so she would get 100% of the fee. she made it sound like she’d be happy to do it for free but I’m not going to let her do that. I’d like to pay her half at the start and the other half possibly an extra tip when I get home. She only lives like… maybe a mile if that from my home… what’s reasonable since she’s not going to be doing a whole lot? To me, it’s just amazing she’s willing to do it so to me it’s a lot to give me peace of mind.
In the three years that have passed, we’ve used the same pet/house sitter many times. Everyone is happy with the arrangement. She treats it like a vacation (trading her efficiency apartment for a big house in the country). We have even taught her some basic horseback skills.
Agreed. My three kitties have a regular replacement servant, who charges $12 per half-hour or so visit. I think she may spend longer if she has time and someone wants to play. She changes litter, checks and refills dry food, replaces water, scoops the litter boxes (there are 3 when I go on vacation), gives anyone who comes out wet food (it’s a treat), and plays with anyone who comes out and wants to play. She also turns on/off the tv/radio, and turns on/off lights so it looks a bit like someone is home.
She also vacuums the house the day I come home, which is amazingly nice to come home to.
$12 a day isn’t much for 3 cats, so I also give her a little “thank you” gift card.
I pay one of my kids to leave their life and come home for my vacations. The dog gets to stay home and spend time with people who love her and the kids get some extra money. I always pay them what it would cost me to board, ensure that should they ever have a conflict I’m still covered in my vacation budget.
We’ve been fortunate in having friends and neighbors who are happy to watch our dogs (when we can’t dig up a zombie! ;)) They are folk who like dogs, but don’t want to own one. And our goldens have always been excellent guests. So it is like a little pet-cation for the sitters. I’m confident they would be willing to do it for free.
Our starting point is to offer whatever it would cost to kennel the dog, which we think entirely reasonable, since we would have to pay that anyway, and we acknowledge that the dog is getting more personal attention and less stress. Every time the sitters have said that is way too much. With the previous ones - who watched our dog in their house, we would just give them some decent “round” amount - maybe $100-200 based on length of time. Enough to show we appreciated it and to allow them to treat themselves to a nice dinner or something. Currently, the boys next door are thrilled to do it, and their parents won’t let us pay them more than $20 a day. Heck, the boys would probably be willing to pay US to be able to mess around with our dog when we are gone. We are truly fortunate.
We have a kid that lives across the street look after our cats and the house. He comes over in the morning, opens the curtains and checks on the cats. Then after work he repeats it.
We give him 10 bucks a day. Ten days, 100 bucks. Easy money.