What is a Professional Pet Sitter?

So what is a Professional Pet Sitter?

A professional pet sitter typically is not the neighbor, friend, or co worker and not a teenager. I say this outright because I can’t tell you how many horror stories I’ve heard from my clients after they’ve had the above care for their pets and home. As most of them do have the best intentions they are almost always NOT properly trained to handle emergencies or certain health problems that can arise.

A Professional Pet Sitter will look slightly different depending on who you ask in the field but the following are absolute requirements to assure that you have the Professional your pet and you deserve:

* Properly Insured (Commercial Liability)

*Bonded

*Licensed (You are not required to have a pet sitting license, but you are required by law to have a Business License if you do business in San Diego) Don’t let the pet sitter tell you differently

*Training or Qualifications (Have they taken any courses in pet sitting, or worked with animals extensively other than pet sitting, what is the background in caring for pets)

* Are they Pet CPR & First Certified (and did they take the class with respectable organization)

*Knowledgeable in basic training

*Basic knowledge about your pet/breed

*Has Back Up Plan in case they have an emergency

*Works with and knows vets in service area

So those are the absolute basic requirements for the professional pet sitter however there are a few more that should be included. Here’s the additional must have’s:

*Makes arrangements to have backups tag along on sits BEFORE emergency (backups are not kids, backups are included in liability insurance. Any child not capable of caring for themselves or animals are considered a liability while walking or caring for dogs; pets. If there’s an emergency it’s a human reaction to want to protect the child and you are paying them to protect your pet)

*Pet Sitter is known in the community (events, causes, etc)

*Requires a Meet N Greet BEFORE service starts

 It’s said that you are a master in your field when you’ve worked 10,000 hours in it. I don’t necessarily believe this is required to be a professional pet sitter because I was one 4 years ago, HOWEVER 4 years later I’ve seen and been thru a lot of pet sitting mishaps and situations. So maybe you can say JenLovesPets is a Master Professional Pet Sitter? I’ll take it!

What do you look for in a Professional Pet Sitter?