I'm a little biased on this topic but I'd like to think I can give some great insight on how to select the perfect person to help take care of your home and pets. This isn't going to be specific about our area, so feel free to share with friends across the country! Petsitters can operate in pretty different ways so it's really important to pick the best fit for your needs. So here's a list of things to consider when interviewing petsitters...
- How often do you travel? If you take the occasional vacation (oh say, two trips a year) then a sole-proprietor can work well for you. On the other hand, if you travel often, needing to go out of town on business quite a bit, you might need a 'team' of petsitters... someone who can always be available at the drop of a hat. Granted, it might be a different person each time and many people don't like having someone new in their home each time. A sole-proprietor (like me) would require some more planning to schedule him or her for your needs. We need vacation too which means when we're out of town, no one is there to watch your pet, there is no back up.
- What are your pet's emotional needs? Some happy-go-lucky dogs don't mind who comes through the front door - as long as there's someone to love on them and feed them! Some other dogs are very protective and would need an established relationship with the person coming in to take care of them. Others can have a rough past and have a very hard time trusting people, these dogs need consistency in their lives as much as possible. Cats can be similar.. some are very friendly and outgoing, but others will go and hide when they hear a new voice in the house. Knowing that the same person is taking care of your pets time and time-again can be a relief.
- Does your pet have any specialized needs? Do they have a medical condition that could really benefit from a petsitter with veterinary experience? Do they have severe separation anxiety and would require someone to spend the night with them in your home? Perhaps you have a large dog that has trouble getting around, it might be best to have someone young and strong.
- Would you need pet-taxi services frequently? If you board your pet or have your pet groomed and would like someone to pick up and drop off your pet, they need especially reliable transportation to drive your beloved pet around town. If your dog is large, they'll need to have an appropriate sized-car to get them around, and maybe even a ramp so they can get in/out comfortably.
- How important is home security to you? The absolute worst thing I see around town is a car driving around with large magnet's on the side saying "Jane Doe's Petsitting, ###-####". This is an open invitation for someone to follow that car and find out where all the vacationing homes are. This is my #1 professional pet peeve!
- Does the petsitters values line-up with your own? When someone is going to have access to your home and taking care of your furry family members, it can be very comforting to know that you and your petsitter see eye-to eye. This largely means views on training and health. If you firmly believe in positive reinforcement training (clicker training, treat pouch etc) but your petsitter uses shock collars to train their dogs to sit, lay, etc. it can signal a red flag that they don't value the human-pet relationship as much as you do.
- How important is insurance and bonding to you? While many petsitters call themselves professional, if they're not investing in their own business, how sure are they in their own services? When a petsitters spends hundreds of dollars each year to be insured, they are protecting their client and themselves. Insurance can pay for a house to be re-keyed if a key was lost, it can cover a pet's rattlesnake bite if it happened during the time the petsitter was taking care of them, it can even cover the cost of carpet cleaning if say a pet urinated on the carpet due to a UTI while in the petsitters care. Also, when a petsitter is bonded, it also protects them and the client - that the client will pay the sum agreed upon and that the petsitter will render the services. Both insurance and bonding are a must in my book.
- How important is it that you have your petsitter for years to come? Petsitters come and go fast and frequent. Many people start offering petsitting thinking it will be a fun source of income, but in reality petsitting is not a job for someone needing a steady income. It takes a while to build clientele and many do not have the luxury of being that patient. I see it too often that they give up within months, move to a different town, or find something else that pays better. Those of us in it for the long haul are few and far between.
There are benefits to other options like boarding or having your friends watch your pets in their homes. Boarding would be great for very high energy dogs that need a lot of attention. The drawback is that respiratory issues can spread like wildfire in a boarding facility even with vaccinations. We're seeing viruses and bacteria mutate and vaccines are no longer protecting pets at 100%. Personally, I would never EVER board my pets. We don't travel enough and I will not have a facility dictate when I should vaccinate my animals. I also have a very emotionally needy dog that is scared to death of new dogs. The very sound of a dog on the TV scares her so a boarding facility is way out of the question for us.
Having friends watch your pets in their homes is my favorite option. This is what we do - we take turns with some friends who live a few minutes away from us. All of our dogs get along great and both of us wives are former vet techs and have very similar views in training, so we can feel completely comfortable leaving our pets with each other. This option doesn't work so well for cats though, or if your friends have a particularly busy household.
So while it is very important that your pets and your petsitter get along, there are other factors to consider. I do wish I could clone myself so I could help more families, but that's the downfall of working as a sole-proprietor. I limit myself to a small number of clients, but those clients and their pets become family. They respect that I need to go on vacation too, so I try to plan my trips months in advance and we work with each other's schedules. When I'm in someone's home taking care of their animals maybe every other month, it is routine - unless something major has changed in the pet's care, I remember exactly how much to feed, what lights to turn on, what shades to close etc.
In the end, a petsitter won't be perfect for everyone and that's ok! What matters most is that you have someone you can rely on, who you are 100% comfortable with taking care of your pets, and that your pets love them!
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