A few weeks ago a coworker asked me to feed her dogs and pick up her mail and newspaper while she was out of town. The next day, her friend called and asked me to do the same for her.
I liked the jobs very much. They were easy to work around my regular job, playing with their animals was alot of fun and it was very easy extra money! In addition to the actual pet sitting part of the job, I can see where turning on/off different lights would help deter an “empty” look to the home, watering plants, etc. would be beneficial side services to offer. I’m considering this as a side business.
What do you look for in a pet sitter? Do you have any positive or negative experiences to share? What do you consider to be a fair rate for those services and what do you expect in return?
I work as a pet sitter on occasion - I keep meaning to have some business cards printed up but just haven’t done it yet. I work frequently for a lady here in town who has three cats. I charge $20/day for two visits. I feed, medicate, scoop litter, refill water bowls, bring in the mail and fill bird feeders. If she’s going to be gone for more than 2 or 3 days, she lets me pick produce in her garden and take it home!
I’ve been making my living as a professional pet sitter for eight years now, and yes, it is fun a lot of the time. When the weather is good and the pets are loving, I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do it. When the hours are long, when the animals are sick or hiding or refuse to go, when they’ve eaten shoes or the sofa and thrown up all over the rug, slipped the leash and are playing ‘catch me’ in a busy park, I can’t believe I’m doing it for the pay.
If you are looking to do it part-time, you might contact some other people doing it in your community and see if they are looking for help. You won’t make as much, but you will get to keep your life and your holidays. You also won’t have to buy the insurance yourself, or deal with the paperwork.
There are some books on getting started. I recommend ‘Pet Sitting for Profit’ by Patti Moran. I found it very helpful, and you can get it very inexpensively used at amazon, or possibly your library for free. There is a lot of information available at Pet Sitters International, (petsit.com) and also the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters.
There are some pet sitter forums as well. I found them very helpful when I was getting started, but I can no longer find the same boards.
I have a petsitter who stays overnight when I’m gone (I have a herd of dogs 'n cats). I usually pay $40 a day, which is cheap (we’re in a small town, urban rates are higher). My petsitter has the run of the house, including internet access, electronics, and fridge-raiding privileges.
I need to have confidence in my PS that they could handle emergency situations and I always have new PS over a few times before hiring them so I can gauge how they interact with my fur kids. When I’m gone, I set a time each evening that I can call PS at my house and check in.
It’s also nice if the PS tidies up after themselves, though I’m not rabid on this point.
My current PS is a farm girl who can handle any emergency and knows everybody in town; I love her!
I have a petsitter who stays overnight when I’m gone (I have a herd of dogs 'n cats). I usually pay $40 a day, which is cheap (we’re in a small town, urban rates are higher). My petsitter has the run of the house, including internet access, electronics, and fridge-raiding privileges. I usually throw in extra bucks if I’m gone a long time or if the animals need medication or other special care.
I need to have confidence in my PS that they could handle emergency situations and I always have new PS over a few times before hiring them so I can gauge how they interact with my fur kids. When I’m gone, I set a time each evening that I can call PS at my house and check in.
It’s also nice if the PS tidies up after themselves, though I’m not rabid on this point.
My current PS is a farm girl who can handle any emergency and knows everybody in town; I love her!
We have found a regular person that we like. We have cats (no other pets).
He charges $11 a day for one pet, and an additional two dollars a day for the other cat. One visit a day.
We always leave him our cell numbers and the number of wherever we are staying, and he will call us if there are any issues.
A nice touch of his is the pet log. He leave a little note every day about how the cats were acting, how much they ate, etc. Might sound like a small thing, but it was recently very helpful to us when one of our girls got sick a day or two after we had come home from a trip. We could see that she had been eating a little less, and it helped us decide that a vet trip was necessary right then rather than waiting a day to see if she felt better.
