So, You want to be a Pet Sitter?

That’s wonderful news!

Our members are among some  of the most fabulous Pet Sitters around and we think you could be one of them! If you are interested in growing your pet sitting  business, now is the perfect time to start.

Pet Sitting can be fun and exciting. But before you start designing your pamphlets and fliers, knock on your neighbors doors or even better, BECOME A MEMBER of PETLOVE.love. As part of the services you provide, you could also offer dog walking in your area as a means to add an additional revenue stream to your pet business.

Take a moment to consider the following:

• Pet Sitting is a wonderful way of exploring your passion and love for pets
• And if your love is true and noble, taking care of your neighbor’s pets when they are away from home can be a wonderful way of building a successful pet sitting business for yourself.

As a business, Pet Sitting can indeed be a very rewarding enterprise, but if you think that all a pet sitter does is feed the animals, pat the pooch on the head from time to time, and relax in the comfort of the pet parent’s home, then you might be in for a big surprise .

Indeed, pet sitting is not the easy job that some people think it is.

If don’t want to be one those pet sitting companies out there who’s premature demise from the business was in part caused by their misunderstanding of the most basic aspect of this business model..

It may be a wonderful business to be in, you may even be the perfect candidate for it but make sure this is the best business move for you.

With the state of national employment being what it is, many people are interested in becoming professional pet sitters.

The truth is, all too often, they have no idea of what is required to be a successful pet sitter, let alone a successful PELOVE.love pet sitter professional.

Reputation is everything in this line of business, and a hankering for “easy street” convenience will get you none of it. Great reputations are cultivated after treating the pets of your clients with the dignity and respect befitting a member of the family.

Often, pet sitters begin doing this work part time, as a way to bring in some additional income. Here is where they attempt to wrap their pet sitting around their personal and professional lives. Part timers circumvent many of the harsher sacrifices made by those who sit pets for a living.

If you truly want to get a feel for the work, it is a great idea to team up with someone who is already doing this work. Trail them for about a year. This will give you a first hand introduction to the plethora of minuscule responsibilities to numerous to mention in this concise briefing.

Many are those who jump into this line of work full time with confidence and ambition, the large majority will be jumping out before they complete their first year. Mostly because they fail to truly appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of pet sitting.

With Pet Love you can…

Advantages of Pet Sitting as a Full-time Job

Of course, there are many advantages of taking on pet sitting full time. In addition to the many hilarious and funny encounters you are sure to have, pet sitters enjoy…

• Plenty of coffee in the mornings. Gotta be up and at’m early. (so you also enjoy the best time of the day everyday)
• Enjoy the best time of day everyday.
• Be your Own Boss. In a hectic and subservient kind of way…
• Spend lots of time in the company of animals. If that was not your first reason for pet sitting, you are in the wrong line of work, my friend.
• Meet new people everyday. Buff up those social graces.
• Lots and lots of work — never a bad thing.

Disadvantages of Pet Sitting as a Full-time Job

Of course, it won’t all be sunshine and poodles. There are some things about pet sitting that can be tough…

• Animals are as unpredictable as humans and just as hard to understand.
• They will have accidents (due to their sensitive digestive natures vomiting and diarrhea are quite common)
• They might bite, scratch, peck and then they run off.
• And when you’ve caught up with them, they can even decide they have had enough and want to be carried the rest of the way home.
• The most “mischievous” among them may realize that any destruction they themselves cause will be eventually blamed on you.
• They may not be overwhelmingly cooperative when you call.

A good pet sitter always cleans up after the pets in their charge, even, and especially, if told just to leave the mess be. This is as much for the well being of the pet as the reputation of the sitter. “Ouch”… bitten by a mean-spirited beast? Well, bite back the tears and get creative. You can’t NOT take care of a pet just because he/she bites.

• Emergencies, emergencies, emergencies…. It’s always an emergency with pet owners.
• There will be times when you will need to report for duty at odd hours.
• Then there is the constant threat of sickness and accident that will require you to respond decisively, to save life and limb.

Are you prepared to help Mrs. Schumacher find her Pekingese who escaped at three in the morning? There is no one better qualified than you.

• Clients can live in remote locations and planning your route and agenda (while keeping it all subject to change) can be a juggling act. Furthermore, what are you going to do when you arrive at this remote location and find your keys don’t work? What if you get inside and find a broken window, pipes or other such incriminating circumstance?
• Come rain, shine, snow or sleet, you had better be out there with them doggies. You could even be coming down with the flu, but your responsibilities stand and can’t be shirked. Before your personal needs, come the very basic needs of a whole slew of animals that can’t be postponed. Walks, feeding, medications and water will still be needed, so get up, take an aspirin and get to work.
• You may find little time for yourself. A pet sitter who is working in earnest, will have little time for much else. As your reputation and services become highly valued every waking moment will be pet sitting or planning for it. This will include plenty of eating on the run, cancelling personal time and such. This is not the line of work for someone with any other domestic or professional responsibilities.

Overview of the Pet Sitting Business by Experienced Experts

Any pet sitting service that is worth it’s salt will constantly be striving toward the highest level of customer services and professionalism. Not only will this require generous portions of responsibility and reliability, but also the dedication, experience and knowledge to do this job properly. Needless to say a certain affinity for animals of all kinds will be indispensable to success.

These qualities will not only allow you to perform your work confidently, but will also impart confidence in your ability to the pet’s owners and, more importantly, to the pets in your charge. It will be important to let pet owners know and feel that their dear friends are in good hands and you can handle any situation that arises.

Furthermore, not all pet sitting services are the same, differences include levels of knowledge, experience, training, personality, educational background, services provided and of course, customer relations. There is no cookie cutter approach to this work, nor could there be. It is important that your service will provide a unique style of service that will resonate with your clients, this can take time to develop properly.

But in the end, this is what gives you and your venture the reputation it will need to make a success. A good reputation takes time and consistency to build, bad reputations can sprout up overnight. From the first pet taken into your care you must approach every aspect of pet sitting with the same care, diligence and overall professionalism you hope will attract more customers.

A good pet sitter is on call anytime, often this can lead to a high-demand for a reputable sitter. Top-notch sitters will often see as much as 60 to 70 hours of work in one week.

In Closing — if you are still sitting there with that smile thinking “pet sitting is the life for me”, your persistence is most impressive. If you have the dedication and precision to match, you will make a fine pet sitter. Begin by availing yourself of as much information as you can and see if you can partner up with a reputable pet sitter for a year to get a feel for the real deal.

With hard work, creative thinking and dedication, you will be the reputable, and successful, pet sitter showing some up and coming rookie the ropes…I mean leashes. Good Luck!