Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Pet Sitter
If you’re looking for high quality pet care, you’re going to want to ask lots of questions. We’ve compiled a list of questions/tasks we are most often asked, and some questions/tasks we WISHED clients asked us!
First and foremost, be sure the pet sitter understands what type of care you are looking for. Do you need drop in’s or live in care? Do your pets have medications? Can your pet be left alone while the sitter attends to other clients?
ALWAYS ask for a meet and greet with your sitter (not just the owner of the company, but the employee who will be assigned to you). Just like with hiring any professional, you’ll want to meet who is coming and going from your home. Remember - whoever you hire will have access to your home and pets. If someone says they do not need to meet you ahead of time, that is a RED FLAG. We offer FREE 30 minute meet and greets for all of our prospective clients. Many professional pet sitters do charge, but then use that fee towards your first set of services.
Go with your gut. Not everyone is going to be the perfect fit to care for your pet. First impressions are everything. We recommend “interviewing” 2 or 3 pet sitters. See how your pet reacts to the pet sitter - they’re usually pretty good judges of character!
If a pet sitter says they are licensed and insured, ask for the proof. We make it easy - we have all of our paperwork available on our Time To Pet Portal, for all current clients to see. This includes our recertification licenses (renewed and re-tested every 3 years), our yearly insurance and what it covers, as well as our vet release form and emergency evacuation paperwork. Ask them how much experience they have (for reference, our company has been in business 12 years, with nearly 20 years of animal care experience between the 2 of us).
Be cautious with using apps to hire a pet sitter - Apps like WAG and Rover don’t always vet the people who sign up. Usually the insurance is bare minimum, and the person does not have the continuing education a professional pet sitter would have. That’s not to say you won’t find a wonderful pet sitter that way - you might. But often, we hear the horror stories of hiring apps and that’s when we are called to take over care.
If you have a pet that is not common (anything other than a cat or dog) - ask the pet sitter if they are comfortable with caring for your pet. We’ve met with other “professional” pet sitters who are not comfortable or familiar with certain pets - even though they advertise they can care for them. Mostly, birds and exotics. If they are willing to try and are honest with you about it, consider teaching them. Hands on training is the best type of training we can get. All pet sitters need to start somewhere!
Most professional pet sitters are looking to build long term relationships with their clients. Having a pet sitting company and people you can trust is so important. Which is why we have clients that stay with us for years to come - because they know the type of care we can provide and we can offer the owners peace of mind when they have to leave home.
