Your pet is a part of your family, and they must go everywhere you go, what that is possible most of the time, because places and establishments become more pet friendly, there are just instances when you go somewhere, and you can’t bring your pet friend with you. There are several options that you have on where you want to leave your pet, you can leave them in a pet hotel, but you run the risk of them having anxiety, and they might not be looked upon well enough. It seems like finding a pet sitter is the better option. We have compiled ten tips that would help you find a great pet sitter.

Tips For Choosing The Right Pet Sitter

1. Take Advantage of Your Vet’s Network

Just like with any job, if you are good at it, chances are, you’re going to have a network of people that repeatedly wants to do business with you. And when it comes to pets, who better to ask than your veterinarian, there is a considerable chance that they would have encountered a perfect pet sitter at some point in time taking care of pets. An added bonus is that, when something unfortunate happens with your pet, your pet sitter can quickly bring it to the vet in cases of emergency so that it will give you peace of mind.

2. Look Personally For Recommendations

With the advent of the internet and social media, there are a lot of pet sitters online that would appear to have an excellent track record and an impressive profile. But nothing beats old-fashioned word of mouth, can you really put a price when someone you know well tells you about their positive experience with a pet sitter? That alone would make you think you have found one already.

3. Ask Questions To Your Pet Sitter

You can start asking them things like how many pets have they taken care of already? How long have they been in this industry? And once you have covered all the basics, it’s time for you to get down on more important things like can they assure that they can cover the losses if something terrible happens with your pet.

4. Ask For Their References

A perfect and highly qualified pet sitter must have a host of repeat clients, and previous customers and establishments that they worked for that are willing to swear by the quality of their work. See if you can obtain a list of people and businesses you can call and make sure to ask all the relevant details about your pet’s needs.

5. Choose One That’s Certified

If you are unable to find a pet sitter when you tried to ask for personal recommendations based on actual experiences, the government has you covered, because two national agencies specialize in giving training and certifications to qualified pet sitters, you may look up the Pet Sitters International (PSI), or The National Association of Professional Pet Sitters (NAPPS).

6. Look in Pet Hotels

Even though at the beginning of the article we explicitly stated that individual pet sitters have a higher chance of being better at looking after your pet while you’re out somewhere, the experience, facility, and the expertise of pet hotels can give you peace of mind too if you leave your pet under their care because being an entire business would at least ensure you that they have the proper resources, tools, and people to provide excellent care to pets.

7. Make Sure You Read The Contract

This is very important because your selected pet sitter would not only take care of your pet bet they would have access to your home and all your stuff too, so make sure that the contract covers all the aspect when it comes to the security of your pet and your belongings, and double-check the inclusions of the service they would provide that you will be paying for.

8. Make Sure Your Pet is Comfortable

Once you have picked a pet sitter from your extensive list of potential candidates, make sure you consult your pet if they like who you have selected to take care of them. Ask your petsitter over at your home and introduce them to your pets so that both of you would be able to see if they would have a good rapport, and imagine how comfortable you would be while you’re away, knowing that your pets are having a great time with their temporary carer.

9. Talk About Emergencies

We cannot tell when unfortunate things would happen, sp before you select your pet sitter, you should talk with them about emergency scenarios, because you would want someone that would do the same thing as you if ever something happens to your pet. If your pet happens to be older or does have special needs, you should discuss with the pet sitter about your pet’s feeding requirements, medication schedule, and other special health needs. It would be better if the pet sitter has a connection with a veterinarian so they would be able to coordinate quickly and efficiently when emergencies arise.

10. You And Your Pet Sitter Should Agree on Service Level

Pets are not all created equal; some pets require as little or as much care as playing, training, outdoor exercise, live-in care, grooming. Pet sitters are not created equal either, while most of them could provide almost every need a pet would require, talking to them is still the best way of determining what terms both of you can agree on. Some pet sitters might not be able to provide every single one of your pet’s needs if the list is extensive. Or let’s say that your pet isn’t high maintenance. Still, your pet sitter is a highly qualified one, which can offer a ton of services, you may not agree on something if that’s that case because they expect their level of expertise to get compensated, make sure that you and your pet sitter can agree to meet in the middle.

John Diep

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Founder, Editor-In-Chief // A native Angeleno. John studied engineering at UCLA; founded Schmoozd, an offline social tech networking event in LA with 30,000 subs; ran a startup accelerator (StartEngine). Worked for several major brands like Toyota, DIRECTV, Hitachi, ICANN, and Raytheon. A mentor at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Entrepreneur School, Dr. David Choi. And advises a dozen local LA startups building amazing tech in various industries; and invested in some. // Let's Connect: john@lastartups.com