TL;DR Venting but I’ll also take any and all suggestions. Before anyone gets on my case, I love this dog like he is my own. He’s the only dog I’ve been caring for under constant care. He has epilepsy. I can’t leave the room sometimes because I have to observe him.

He usually is vocal starting a few hours after my clients leave and for the first night. I don’t sit for this client very often overnights because he has gone through so many health challenges. My clients are retired and didn’t expect their dog to be this dependent upon them. They need a vacation!!!

Has anyone ever dealt with this? It is constant. He has been doing it for about 24 hours. He maybe slept for 3 straight hours? I had bouts of sleep for about an hour every 2 hours.

I’ve tried:

Petting him and using a soft voice

Taking him to the bedroom where he is the most comfortable

Letting him lay on top of my legs and waist (30 lbs of dead weight) to comfort him

Taking him out in the backyard in case he had to go potty

Getting their second dog to lay close to him

What else can I do?!?!?!

I got a call last week from a guy looking for a pet sitter because his regular sitter isn't available for an upcoming vacation his family is taking. I didn't find that unusual because I get quite a few calls like that and am always happy for the overflow work. Sometimes, people end up liking me better and switch to me for all future sits.

I was supposed to do the meet and greet yesterday. He canceled last minute due to a family illness. I asked when we could reschedule because their vacation is coming up next week. He told me the earliest he could reschedule is 2 days before they're supposed to leave.

Red flags went up everywhere. I already suspect this guy's dogs are more of a handful than he's letting on based on how he's described them on the intake form. Now, he wants to wait until the last minute to do the meet and greet (possibly hoping he can pressure me into it since it'll be so close to the day they leave).

Would you even bother to reschedule with this person? I was thinking of rescheduling, but not being afraid to decline the sit if my suspicions about the dogs prove true.

The title isn’t quite accurate but it won’t let me change it. Hi, I’m currently sitting for two cats twice a day and one of them needs to take special liquid medicine and pills every morning. The owner told me that she was friendly and would let me pick her up and would take the meds easily etc, the owner didn’t share any concern about it.

I’ve been here for two hours. The kitty in question has been hiding all around the house and refuses to let me near her. :(
She is now hiding under the bed. She won’t take any treats at all, let alone the medicine. Ive been sitting with her for a long time. I have no idea what to do? The owner is aware of this. I have other animals to check up on and can’t sit around here all day, but I care for the cat and I want to make sure she gets her medicine!! I’m supposed to do this twice a day for a week. I have no idea how to get her to trust me, and I don’t blame her for hiding. I know it’s scary for her.

What would you do?

Pretty much title -

For everyone who operates independently and has their own business (no third-party platforms), do you have your own website? Why/why not?

I’m trying to figure out whether it’s worth paying for one.

So my mum accidentally put our dog’s emergency rectal Valium in his ears… 😂
Sounds ridiculous, I know.
She was looking after Whiskey, our three-year-old Cocker Spaniel, while we were away. Whiskey has epilepsy and takes a heap of meds every day, plus ear drops.
She grabbed the wrong tube.
Thankfully Whiskey was completely fine and we can laugh about it now, but it made me realise how insanely hard it is asking someone else to look after a dog with medical needs.
Every time someone watches him I send what can only be described as a novel over text. Medication times, seizure plan, emergency vet, foods he can and can’t have, weird habits… and I still spend the whole weekend wondering what I’ve forgotten.
It annoyed me enough that I ended up building a digital care guide for him, with medication reminders, how-to videos and everything someone needs to know in one place. Pet sitters, what’s the longest set of instructions you’ve ever been given? And owners, what do you do when your dog has a complicated routine?

*not trying to discuss specific pricing

I’ve seen a lot of people discuss a client not paying them, but does anyone else have clients who overpay them?

I don’t mean a tip either. I have regular clients who I dog walk for that pay me more than I asked. This has happened with honestly more than half of my clients at this point. It’s just become my rate now that they pay me.

It’s made me wonder, am I undercharging? Should I be charging more? Or am I just in a good/wealthy area? Maybe clients think I do a good job and want to ensure I am willing to sit/walk for them again?

Does anyone else have this happen? I live in Connecticut for context.

Could you share the methods you use to track mileage (and related travel expenses). I’m especially interested in apps that make this easy. If you recommend against using certain apps that’s helpful too.

Instead ... this is what I get. Immediately blocked him

Need yalls input here. I’m on overnights about 40-50% of the time. When I’m not on overnights, I ride my scooter to and from home because I don’t live in the city I work in (but easily get to my walk area in 20ish minutes on my kick scooter). When I’m on my overnights, I don’t bring my scooter because 1) my walks are all within a 5 minute walk of each other and 2) it’s just another heavy thing I have to bring with me in an uber in addition to my bags.

Recently a client moved from my regular area to a building far enough away that I wouldn’t normally service. I’m on an overnight right now and it took me 20 minutes just to walk to that client’s new building (today was my first walk with him in this new building, and they moved from the same block as my current overnight so it was really convenient before). They need walks twice a day, two days a week, every other week. They didn’t even ask me if it would be something I’d be willing to do, they just told me the address and their moving date. They have said to me in the past that they don’t trust anyone else with their dog, but I think they’ve loosened up on that a bit since he started going to daycare a few months ago.

My conflict is, I spend a total of 60 minutes with him between the two walks a day, but I’m now spending 80 minutes a day just getting to and from his building. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem on days I’m coming from home with my scooter, but I’m not sure it is worth it to continue to do their walks when I’m on overnights due to the time it takes me to get there.

Would I be justified in increasing their rate considering it’s now taking much more time out of my day? Or would that be inconsiderate? I feel like they wouldn’t mind paying me more, but I’m not sure if it’s entirely right to charge them more just because they’re further away now. They are aware that all of my regulars are within this area and that they moved well out of my typical radius. I would understand if they wanted to find another walker who might charge less than me and it wouldn’t kill me, but I don’t want to drop them myself. I would just like to be compensated for the amount of time I’m spending getting there. I don’t know what to do or how to handle this situation.

One of my clients lives in what I would call an upper-middle-class 55+ gated housing development. It has an adjacent entertainment complex with restaurants, shops, etc., lots of activities, and is a very desirable place to live from what I've heard. Many homes are also owned by snowbirds. My client and his cat are wonderful but sadly will be moving in a few months, and my first reaction upon him telling me was THANK THE DEITIES because this development has absolutely the worst front gate visitor access ever and often cuts well into my visit time.

Like most gated communities, there's a guard shack at the gate to check visitors' IDs and stuff. The one thing the guard shack is missing is an actual guard. 🤨 Instead, there's a call box by the door to the gate - not to input a guest access code, which would be fine - but to call the guard and wherever they are, they can open it remotely. Problem is, the phone often rings several times before anyone answers, sometimes no one answers at all and the call disconnects, and sometimes the guard is outside taking care of other stuff and can barely hear me. Then there are visitors who weren't told by the resident they're visiting what to do at the box and take ages figuring it out. I got out of my car once to help somebody with it.

It's not uncommon for me to wait close to five minutes to enter, and even longer on occasion. If my time is flexible that day, it's an annoyance but one I can deal with. However when it's very busy such as during the winter holidays when all the snowbirds return and invite their friends over, it completely wrecks my carefully planned schedule and delays the pet visits that follow.

I assume the property management decided to do away with the gate guard to save money, which IMO is ridiculous considering what these places cost. New build 2/2 duplexes start at $300K and resell for about $450K, and then there's the HOA fee on top of that. These costs are higher than average for this and surrounding cities. You'd think they could handle salaries of 2-3 humans to work at the gate, especially as these tend to be low-paying jobs, but the problem only affects visitors so they obviously don't care. I've considered starting my timer as soon as I get to the gate, but that wouldn't be fair to my client who likely has no idea there's such a delay. For the time being, I simply added 10 minutes to the sit on my calendar to allow for it.

I updated my sitter profile to say that I no longer accept sits in this community due to the absurd amount of time it often takes to get in, which sucks because I can see this place being a gold mine for sitters. Maybe I should buy a house there and sit for the entire development to pay my mortgage. 🤭

So I have been at a cat sit since july 5th and will be here until the 29th. Was supposed to be the 17th but got extended. Do you give some money off if it is a longer stay?

I just need to get this off my chest because I feel really upset about the whole situation and I don’t really know how to process it. It was my first time cat-sitting.

I was asked to look after my manager’s friend’s cat while she was away. He was only just over a year old. I knew that he had been unwell about a month beforehand and had been on antibiotics, but the understanding was that it had been a one-off infection and that he had recovered. He seemed okay while I was looking after him.

After about two days, I noticed that his breathing seemed strange, so I contacted his owner straight away. She agreed that his breathing didn’t seem normal, and we decided he needed to be seen by a vet.

It was a Friday and she initially thought we might be able to wait until Monday, but I managed to get him an appointment immediately and took him in. The vets decided to keep him in, and he ended up staying there until the early hours of Tuesday, when sadly he deteriorated and was put to sleep. He had a mass on his lungs.

The vets had been giving me updates while he was there, and I had been passing those on to his owner. Then they asked for her number so they could speak to her directly. The update they gave her was apparently completely different from the ones I had been receiving. She was told that he had deteriorated, and then later that he had passed away.

I feel really guilty and upset, even though I know I noticed something was wrong and took him to the vet straight away. I keep replaying everything in my head because I was responsible for him at the time, and I just feel awful that he died while I was looking after him. He was only just over a year old, and I don’t think anyone realised that the illness he had a month earlier could have been connected to something much more serious. We all thought it was an infection that had been treated and resolved.

I think I am just posting this to get it off of my chest and to see if there’s anything else i can do. Should I leave a condolences card in the flat for her return?

Not asking for specific numbers here so hopefully this is allowed.

Not a huge deal but I will occasionally have a client who will come home early and ask me to stop visits…but then I still have to return their key. (Many don’t have keyless entry.) I’m considering charging a small drop-off fee for the extra trip because normally I would have left the key in a hidden location on the last visit.

Does anyone do this?

I also, surprisingly, still have clients who don’t use electronic pay and I have to pick up cash from they after they return. Another extra trip.

Mine was a family having me come over AND NOT HAVING THE DOG YET! Which the omitted from all conversations prior. I've been doing this for years and somehow I missed that because of how they were talking and wording things.
When I did meet them a second time while they had the dog they wanted to pay me for two 15 minutes visits as one half hour. I explained that when I leave and come back it's a separate visit and I need to be paid accordingly. And in the end I didn't take that job.

Another time I met with someone she had me take photos of her for her volunteer badge. Everything went really well and then she decided to have her friend watch the dogs instead. So I spent almost 30 minutes there took photos of her and didn't get the job.

I had one non-hire where they had me walk the dog with them to learn the route and leash habits and commands. Fine, whatever. The dog bit their kid a few days later and the surrender him. I dodged a bullet with that one.

Lastly, I met a couple who had a dog walker but wanted a back up and they spent 30 minutes talking about everything but the dog no matter which way I try to steer the conversation. And then I never heard from them again. That was an odd one. Not nearly as weird as the first two.

I win some, I lose some when it comes to this job. Those are the only four meet and greets that didn't go well and the only four times I've not followed up with the work after. (Or they went with someone else). So in the long run I'm doing pretty dang good.

I now charge for my meet & greets. However, I deduct the amount to the first hired visit. So if my time is wasted I can at least have a financial recoup for it. In the end I have not taken the deposit payment on all my meet & greets but one. Because in the years I have been doing pet care my instincts tell me that I'll definitely get the job. That fee is more of a security to not have my time wasted. And people who want to waste my time won't pay so they don't have me do a meet & greet. Saves me time and weeds out the occasional oddball.

I’ve been a full-time pet sitter for years, mostly doing drop-ins and dog walks. I only house sit for a handful of long-term clients because my schedule stays pretty booked. The one thing I really struggle with is house sitting when the bed is uncomfortable. Most clients are wonderful people, but one in particular has the hardest mattress I’ve ever experienced, and it honestly feels like someone laid a row of bricks across the bed frame or is conducting medieval torture. I'm in agony all night and wake up sore every time. For those of you who house sit regularly: how do you handle situations like this?

• Do you just politely decline those jobs?
• Do you bring your own bed topper, mattress pad, or sleeping bag?
• Any other tricks or products that have saved you?

It feels like a silly question, but I genuinely like these clients and want to keep helping them. I’d love to hear how other sitters manage this without hurting the relationship

I’ve had this client for around 9 months. And it’s getting harder everyday to deal with her. I’m supposed to be there an hour Monday-Friday. I walk him for how ever long he wants, not very long- 20 mins tops. And then I’m supposed to sit with him for the rest, play or just chill if he wants. The owner works Monday- Friday so that’s why I’m there. But it’s more and more often that I’ll get there and she will be home. I then feel there’s no point in being there. She’s totally capable of doing what he needs. It’s not as bad if I’m taking him out as then I can leave her but at the moment it’s summer and most days it’s too hot so my job is to let him in the garden for a wee. And she will be there most days and it’s really irritating. Why am I there when she’s there and can let him out. And she’s really chatty so I’ll get him out to wee and then she will talk at me for 55mins. Another thing is her son is living there and he’s 30. Sometimes I’ll get there and he will be there in the living room playing Xbox etc. so then that makes me feel awkward. I did express this months ago and finally got her to agree that I could leave early if I’ve gotten the dog to go pee and fed him etc. but now she’s telling me that if the son is there then I should take the dog to her bedroom and watch tv in there while the son is downstairs. He’s perfectly capable of watching this dog.
This all makes me so uncomfortable and I don’t want to work for her anymore but I need the money. I never complain and am a people pleaser.
Another thing
My aunt cleans for her and now I’m being made a messenger for her. Anything she wants to say to my aunt she tells me and I have to pass it on, my aunt is rubbish with her phone so I guess my client finds it easier to pass it through me. But also she never pays my aunt on time so then I get that complained to me and then I have to tell my client. I hate being involved in something that has nothing to do with me. She’s giving me the responsibility of getting money to my aunt, weeks late. And also getting me to reschedule things for her.
It’s all really overwhelming. Whenever I get to her house I get so irritated when I see her car is there. Because then I sit there for an hour being talked at and feeling awkward. Some people would probably think that’s cool you’re basically being payed for nothing. But I’m not. Im always being told to do things, turn all the fans on, close the windows, open the windows, close the blinds, put the tv on and put the volume on 4 for the dog. Like what the hell is going on. I’m here to look after your dog, I’m not your personal assistant/therapist.

She told me to close all the windows recently while she was at work. I did the upstairs ones and the son was downstairs and I didn’t want to get in his way so asked him to do those ones, he said yes. He didn’t do it so my client moaned at me for asking him to do it.

What would you have done in this situation?

A new client messaged me asking to house sit August 4-10. I have those dates free and we scheduled a meet and greet. They rescheduled the meet and greet day-of. Then, on the revised meet and greet, they called to cancel the sit altogether saying that their grandson was gonna do it. Ok that’s fine! I moved on.

A week or so later (yesterday), they messaged asking if I could still do it, but changed the dates to August 5-11. I happen to still have those open, but I’m out of town now until the 29th of July. I said I couldn’t do a meet and greet until the 30th at the earliest, which doesn’t leave much wiggle room incase I don’t feel like a good fit for the sit. Which, I had a gut feeling I shouldn’t do it anyways just due to the lack of consistency.

I asked if we could do a FaceTime or phone call to establish expectations and duties and talk about the dogs so I could see if it feels like a good fit. She said, “I mean, we can do that… but I need you to meet them in person as soon as you get back because I need you to meet the dogs and vice versa.” Ngl I felt like her tone was a bit demanding considering she was springing this onto me after cancelling lol. So I KINDLY told her that I recommend finding another sitter who can do a meet and greet sooner than I can, just to be safe. What if I met them, didn’t want to take the job, therefore only leaving them with 5 days to find someone new?? It just felt like they should find someone new entirely at this point. And I also hate working for demanding and flakey clients, which I could sense in these people. She left me on read and never replied back.

Hey y'all, I've been doing drop ins and dog walks for years now. But with some of my regular clients I've started housesitting occasionally. I just finished my second one this past weekend.

Something I noticed I'm reallyyyy struggling with is packing up to leave when I'm done. I *always* forget stuff. It's not the end of the world necessarily, bc they are regulars anyway. I'll be back in days to retrieve it.

None the less, I want to try to figure out how to be better about the packing up to leave process. Do you have strategies beyond double checking? Bc I always feel like I'm doing that lol

Has anyone ever done a bite prevention presentation for school aged kids? I'm trying to figure out how to make it interactive & fun for them. I don't have kids of my own, so I'm not sure what would seem fun and what is lame 😭 I have a slideshow and I was thinking of handing them all little paddles with red & green and showing different photos of dogs in red or green zones ( loose body, lip licking, whale eye, soft eyes, etc) and having them raise the paddle on the color they think matches the body language, but is that lame? Lol. I also want to send home a sticker pack and some material for parents. Any ideas are appreciated!!

They are letting me bring my dog. We are doing pack walks now to try to acclimate them, we have three scheduled this week. There’s not all we’re doing, it’s just the first step.

I do not typically do overnights, in fact I never have except for relatives. What do I need to know/be sure to do or not do. What are some common missteps?

They said they would have cleaners come by once a month. One of my main concerns was keeping the house clean.

They are long time clients of mine and are be perfectly wonderful. There are cameras. The money will be good. What’s my next move here? What questions do I ask?

I've been in home / overnight dog-sitting for several years now for the same people and friends, but I was just laid off from my full time gig and I'm not highly considering doing pet sitting full time.

Does anyone do it as their main source of income? If so, do you do it alone/independently or with an app? If independently, how do manage finances/taxes/insurance etc etc!

Any input is much appreciated! (Side details: 32F yo, Female, based in Minnesota USA)

I have a client with an orange tabby cat and a golden Cocker Spaniel, and another client who has a cream Ragdoll cat and a similarly colored pit bull mix.

I've never asked if it was intentional lol

So I dog-sit for an acquaintance/friend of mine, and she has a friend who asked about me doing a sit for her cat.

The gig was supposed to be that I pick up the cat, take it to her spay appointment, and someone else would pick her up.

So here's the thing, the cat owner lives in another town, it's a 1/2 hour drive there one way. I spend time with the cat, clean litter box all that stuff, take the cat to the appointment, which adds another hour to my service. So all said and done, it's two hours for that alone because wait times at the clinic.

I gave the owner a fee upfront, and was told I did not need to pick up the cat, because someone else was lined up.

However, later in the day the cat owner then asks if I can also pick up the cat from their spay, and the same as above, only in reverse. (And also because the cat is super hungry afterwards, I make sure it has food and water and that it can actually eat while wearing a cone.)

All said and done, I spent over 4 hours of my day, and gas money. All added up to a very nominal fee for me.

She then also asked for me to visit, clean litter box, and medicate the cat on the following day (because I sent her all the paperwork from the spay and she apparently didn't realize that a major surgery required pain medication) so I did that as well, so tack on another 1.5 hours of time.

Long story short, she was mad that I charged her 1/2 fee for the pick up her cat from the spay surgery. I thought I was being nice, but she was an absolute jerk about it. She says, "you said X$ for the DAY." No, I specifically told her it was for the single pick up and drop off.

I'm sorry, but when did my DAY become your 24 hour beck and call? It was X$ for the visit, and not X$ to carry your cat back and forth for a surgery that you should have rescheduled for a time when you'd be home. (Not to mention that the cat pissed all over itself both to and from the appointment, which leaked into my car.)

She did pay me, after some argument, but I pretty much just ghosted her from it, but my issue is now that she was referred to me by my friend/acquaintance, and now I'm worried that my friend may have an issue with how I handled the situation. What would you do? Should I tell my friend she was a jerk? Should I just let it go? (Obviously I won't take her as a client anymore.)

Side note: My friend was also checking in on the cat, and I can only assume she was doing it for free - so that only makes matters worse.

EDIT: Thank you everyone for the feedback and for the questions as to how I set up expectations. I really appreciate the comments and sitter perspective!

Hi all, I would really appreciate some input from sitters, please.

I have a difficult dog. 15 years old, has cancer and REALLY bad separation anxiety. Leash reactive, but we have proven ways to manage that (easily distracted and food motivated). Dog NEEDS to be on a regimented schedule because of medications, and also needs to be walked consistently every morning (use it or lose it per the vet).

Medications are very easy to administer - just drop in the food. No injections, no fighting back. Just. Drop in food.

We have a sitter that we've been working with for around a year. The first few stays were AMAZING. Followed instructions exactly, dog was happy, house was clean. Life was good.

But lately it's like the sitter has gotten lazy? Or taken us for granted? Or something?

Two stays ago, we got home and things were mostly OK. Some irritating things like empty TP rolls on the holders, but whatever.

We just got back from another trip (2 nights) and things were a bit off. Empty TP rolls on holders. Empty paper towel roll on the holder. Crusted scrambled eggs on the stove. 5 PIZZAS eaten from the freezer. Five. In 2 nights. About half our beer gone.

We also have 2 bathrooms - one is our bathroom and one is next to the guest bedroom. The sitter ignored the fresh towels in the guest bathroom and literally went through our bedroom to shower in our bathroom. There is exactly zero reason for them to be in our bedroom or bathroom. We leave the door open because the dog likes to hang out in there when the house is empty, otherwise we would just close and lock it. But that felt very intrusive to me, especially because the guest bathroom is fully stocked and we made sure to let the sitter know there were fresh towels.

But the worst part. We have a Ring camera. This is known. It's discussed. This is definitely not a secret. Porch pirates are a thing and we definitely watch comings and goings. And the Ring notifies us each time someone arrives or leaves.

There wasn't a party (which was the first though because of the pizzas and beer). Just the sitter.

But also, the dog was not walked as instructed. Yes, the sitter sent photos of the dog on walks. Yay! But the Ring showed leaving and coming back like 10 minutes apart. The dog walk route takes AT LEAST 30 minutes, sometimes 45 if the dog is feeling slow that day.

And the sitter made a point to text photos at the house with notes like "hanging out and things are great!" but then leave for 6+ hours at a time. Then go back to the house, text another photo with an update "I have to leave for like an hour but promise I'll be right back." Like ... you were just gone all day?

So here's the thing. We all have lives. I leave my house, too. I don't expect someone to be here 24/7. But 6 hours is WAY too long for this dog to be alone. Old bladders and such. If the sitter was going to be gone that long, I'd have a neighbor drop by and let the dog out for a break in the middle. It's not an issue.

It just feels like the sitter is not being very honest about what's happening? And not being respectful of our space?

My question to sitters. Is there a way that I can approach this conversation in a non-offensive way? Like make yourself at home, but not THAT at home? Please don't eat everything in my freezer and please stay out of my bedroom and please don't try to make me think you're spending more time with the dog than you are?

Or is this a situation where I should just look for a different sitter? I've just never handled something like this before and not sure what to do.

Thank you!

greetings! i'm seriously considering pet sitting. i've read a few posts and you all seem rational, kind, and people with lots and lots of knowledge, and i really could use some help with knowing anything important, or even the basis, or things i should carry already that might not be provided by the owner.. anything i should know of really.

i'm also quite younger than most petsitters i've seen (nineteen, and a girl) and the thought of getting into unpleasant situations truly makes me anxious, any reccomendations or warnings for it?

if also anyone had some magic tricks for avoiding heat exaustion while walking under the sun, i'd appreciate them 🙏 thank you!!!!

———edit: i hope i answered everyone, and i'm very grateful for every reply. my vision on petsitting widened a lot. thank you!!!