3 Steps to Choosing the Perfect Pet Sitter

1. Get References

Ask animal professionals like your veterinarian, groomer, or animal trainer which pet sitters they recommend. Not only can they tell you who they like working with, but they can give you a better idea than friends or family which pet sitters have genuine skill handling animals.

Any pet sitter should provide you with a list of client references upon request.

When I was looking for Riley's dog walker, I was impressed by the veterinary recommendations I got for Everything and the Dog, the group we eventually hired.

2. Get Personal

All professional pet sitters should insist on a meet and greet before they sign on. Many will offer this free of charge but sometimes there is a nominal fee.

Every pet and every pet sitter are different. You can't tell if it's a good match without a first date!

Pet sitters should want to know what makes your pet unique.

What do they like or hate? What are their daily routines? Does your pet have specific fears? A great pet sitter should get to know your pet personally and not treat them as just another dog or another cat.

3. Find a Professional

You get what you pay for. It might seem easier and less expensive just to hire the kid from next door, but you could be setting yourself up to pay a lot more in the long run.

This is what a professional pet sitter can give you that your neighbor can't:

I - Financial Protection

A professional pet sitter should be able to provide you with written proof that they are insured and bonded.

A company that is bonded is putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to their employee's honesty. You are covered in the event that anything is stolen from your home.

Pet sitters are insured in case your pet injures someone or in case anything happen to your home while they are pet sitting for you.

You want to make sure they have care, custody, and control insurance as well. This makes sure your pet and property within your home are protected against injury.

Say the neighborhood kid forgot to put Fluffy in her cage and she ate your entertainment center. You're out of luck financially, but you would have been covered if you had a pet sitter with care, custody, and control insurance.

A good pet sitting organization will also provide criminal background checks on their employees so you can be sure no unsavory characters are coming into your home.

The Pet Sitter International Pet Sitter Locator helps you locate professional pet sitters in your area and show you whether pet sitters are insured, bonded, background checked, even if they have pet first aid experience.

II - Expertise

Professional pet sitters have more animal handling experience and many have veterinary experience too. Ask your prospective professional pet sitter about their expertise.

When my dog Riley started having seizures at the end of his walks, it meant the world to me that our professional dog walker, Kim, knew exactly what to do.

Professional pet sitters should be easy to work with, set clear expectations for you and their pet sitters, and know what to do in the event of emergencies.

Pet Sitters International has a great list of interview questions for pet sitters to help you make sure this is the case.

Membership and certification by a professional pet sitting organization shows the pet sitter is committed to providing excellent service.

Pet Sitters International has a Certified Professional Pet Sitter (CPPS) Certification program and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters has a certification program too.

Both require the pet sitters to pursue continuing education in pet health and wellness so they can provide excellent care for your pets.

After speaking at the Pet Sitters International conference, I cannot recommend this excellent group of people enough. Learn more about this great organization in my blog entry "Is Your Pet Sitter a PSI Pet Sitter?"

So remember: If you want to find the perfect pet sitter just remember 1) request references, 2) get personal, and 3) make sure you hire a professional!

You can learn more at the websites below:

Find the Right Pet Sitter for You and Your Pets - Pet Sitters International

Choosing a Pet Sitter - The Humane Society

9 Tips for Hiring a Pet Sitter - Veterinary Pet Insurance

Is Your Pet Sitter a PSI Pet Sitter?

This weekend I was honored to attend the Pet Sitters International (PSI) annual convention "Quest for Excellence".  There, I gave a speech called "Worms, Bites, and Scratches Oh My! Occupational Safety for Pet Sitters." Learn more about how I got involved with this group in this post: "The Complicated Contracts of Dog Walkers Continued"

These pet sitters' kindness and passion for animals absolutely blew me away and I had to tell you more about this organization.

What is Pet Sitters International? It is the largest professional group of pet sitters, run and founded by Patti Moran author of Pet Sitting for Profit.

We have a similar organization in veterinary medicine. Veterinarians who want to excel and hold themselves to a high standard seek American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) membership and accreditation.

Pet sitters who want to be the best join PSI and become PSI Certified Professional Pet Sitters (CPPS).

PSI provides education to member pet sitters through free monthly webinars, their Pet Sitters World magazine, and Quest, the conference I just attended. Ranging from business education to Pet First Aid certifications, PSI resources help pet sitters run their businesses better and keep the pets safer.

PSI makes background checks, insurance, and bonding available to their pet sitters so pet owners know they are dealing with someone they can trust.

But PSI members aren't just skilled, they are also compassionate.

PSI wants to leave a positive "pawprint" on each city that hosts their convention. Every year, the Quest conference puts on a charity auction and chooses a local non-profit shelter or humane society to receive all the proceeds.

Not only was the charity auction a BLAST - Rob the Auctioneer and Owner of Decadent Dog in Nedham, MA had us barking on command and singing rounds of "How Much is that Doggy in the Window" - but the amount of money they were able to raise was mind-blowing.

Since they started doing their charity auctions they have raised more than $105,000 for animal charities.

Pet sitters are not known for rolling in dough but in 3 hours I saw a group of about 150 pet sitters raise $15,115 for charity. They were bidding $300 on a $99 set of animal pillows for the fun of it and for the benefit of pets in need. Or over $500 for a $120 set of cat toys.

The auction even made the local news - see the coverage here or in the video box below.

After working with this group, I would highly recommend choosing a PSI pet sitter for your pet. My next blog entry will be about how to choose a pet sitter. In the meantime check out PSI's directory at http://www.petsit.com/locate/


(You might spot me around 1:28)

Animal Safety Pt. 1

I am proud to finally present Introductory Animal Safety.

This document is a labor of love, created over the past 8 months originally as a resource to help keep pet sitters safe.

You may remember my post in February, The Complicated Contracts of Dog Walkers, where I said I wanted to create training resources for new pet sitters to help them stay safe on the job.

Two excellent pet sitters, Chris Wooten of One of a Kind K9 and Kim Fields at Everything and the Dog generously gave of their time to make sure this document would be helpful to new pet sitters in their field.

I would also like to thank Lili Chin, Dr. Karen Overall, and Elsevier Publishing for making the animal behavior images in the document available for non-profit use.

Since I could not find any similar documents available through the two major pet sitting organizations I will also be sending this handout along to them in the hopes they can use it for their members.

Since this safety information is helpful for all pet lovers I will present it here too. It will be split into at least 3 posts. This first section focuses on how to avoid catching animal diseases:

The Complex Contracts of Dog Walkers

Have you ever hired a dog walker or a pet sitter? I interviewed dog walkers for Riley this week and it was enlightening experience. Who knew it could be so complicated? 


Did you know that most pet sitting contracts say that if something bad happens to your pet sitter while they are watching your pet, you are responsible for all of the medical bills?

Whoa!

Can you imagine just how costly pet bites, scratches, and diseases can be?

What if you pet bit your pet sitter's hand? It could damage nerves in their hand and cripple them for life. If not properly treated by a doctor, cat bites can become deep abscesses that spread infection throughout the body damaging internal organs. Did you know that your cat might carry Cat Scratch Fever? In some people, this infection can be deadly. Parasites can be spread by pets too; roundworms are transmitted through pet's poop and causes blindness in rare cases. 

I was not prepared to pay millions of dollars in medical bills. Are you?

Even if these situations are rare, that a contract felt like a gamble. Unfortunately, every dog walking company I interviewed had this clause in their contract. 

I had to ask myself, if that much is on the line, how does anybody hire a dog walker? Here were a couple of questions I asked the companies and their responses: