Getting Started as a Petsitter

There have never been more pet sits available than in this ‘post’-pandemic world we currently live in. People who got pets during lockdown are now free to visit family and friends they haven’t seen for years. This means that pet sitters are in high demand.

So how to get started as a pet sitter?

The first thing you are going to need to become a pet sitter is petsitting experience. Or more specifically, experience being around and caring for animals. If you want to become a full-time pet sitter, it’s best to start taking local sits or animal care gigs as early as possible so you can get some decent reviews and recommendations for your profile.

There are a few ways you can do this:

Friends and family:

It’s likely that some of your friends, family, coworkers, or neighbors have pets. Let them know you are available to look after their critters if they ever need to go away for a long weekend. Because they know you, it adds a level of trust that may not be inherent through a house sitting site. Get a few of these under your belt and then, when you set up your profile on the various house sitting sites, you’ll have references you can post (and some photos of you with animals) that will help you get sits.

Local sits:

Once you have a few references, set up your profile on one or more house sitting websites. We use Trusted Housesitters, the “House Sitting” family of sites, Nomador, and word of mouth to find the majority of our sits, but I’d suggest choosing one site to start. They all cost money, so the less you invest to start, the better. Trusted Housesitters is good in that they are international, so you pay one fee and you can search for sits all over the world. For now, look at your local area. Apply for sits that take your fancy and be sure to let the pet owners know that since you are starting out, you’d like to get some sits closer to home for now. Local sits also give you the opportunity to come around beforehand to meet the owner, the pet, and learn how everything works.

If you want more insight into how each of these different sites works, you can check out our blog about our Top 5 House Sitting Sites here.

Volunteering:

If you can’t take on sits right now for whatever reason but still want to get animal care experience, consider volunteering. Shelters, farms, zoos, and other places that keep animals typically accept volunteers to help with feeding and cleaning, walking, or socializing. Try to apply for something you can do at least once a week for at least 8 weeks. This will give you enough of a rapport with the staff to get a few references, and also help you gain valuable experience.

Going Full-Time and/or Long Term

Once you’ve gotten some great reviews and learned some lessons about pet care on the small scale, you can start to look for sits further afield and for longer durations. Below are some do’s and don’ts for applying to these sits.

DO: apply for multiple sits at once.

Applying is really an expression of interest. If the owner is interested in you, you can then have a phone or video conversation (here’s why we insist on video calls) and make a final decision. Some sites (like THS) require the sitter to be invited by the owner and then to accept the invitation, so there are a few steps that must be completed to finalize your sit. All this to say, don’t feel that by applying you are committing to the sit. You’ll find that even with the shortage of sitters, many people are slow to reply or don’t reply at all.

DON’T: book tickets just for a housesit.

If it’s a place you wouldn’t go anyway, don’t go just for the sit. If something happens and the sit is cancelled, will you still want to go to this destination? Would you go if you had to pay for accommodation? We pick a place first, and then see if there are sits. If so, yay! If not, we will likely still go (or may choose another place for that time period).

DO: ask a lot of questions.

Some sitters are so excited to be accepted to do a sit that they don’t ask a lot of questions in the meet and greet stage. This can lead to disappointments or miscommunications down the line. While some of these are simply life lessons on a shorter sit, being stuck in a long term sit doing something you hadn’t bargained for can be discouraging. You can check out our list of questions for home owners here.

DON’T: book months in advance.

Some people are planners, and that’s great. Obviously do whatever works for you. However, we’ve found that circumstances can (and often will) change down the line, and this may result in you or the homeowner needing to pull out of the sit. Our thinking is, the longer the sit, the further in advance we are willing to book. A weekend sit may be safe to book a few weeks ahead of time, but we personally wouldn’t lock in something 6 months down the line that was less than 6 weeks in duration.

DON’T: schedule filler sits first.

You may be tempted to book a two day sit in the middle of your trip thinking you’ll be able to find sits before and/or after to fill in the time. This could happen, but it’s risky to lock yourself into such a short duration without knowing what your schedule looks like before or after. If you see a longer sit that overlaps your ‘filler’ sit, you may be tempted to cancel. This is not only very bad sitter karma, but it can also result in penalties or even been banned from the site you have come to depend on for your sits. Remember that committing to a sit is just that, a commitment, and it should only be broken in the event of an emergency.

DO: get outside contact information.

Once you’ve confirmed your sit (or even at the meet and greet stage) you’ll want to exchange some sort of outside contact information. We usually rely on WhatsApp as it’s international and very widely used. If we have a local phone number, we may also supply that after confirmation. This way, you have several channels of communication in the weeks approaching the sit to check in about any last minute details, ask questions, and confirm arrival times. By solely relying on the platform messaging system, you may run the risk of an unresponsive homeowner who isn’t getting their notifications, has forgotten their login, or simply deleted the app once they secured a sitter! Not everyone is tech-savvy, so alternate forms of communication are key to a smooth sit.

DON’T: get discouraged.

When you are first starting out it can be easy to get discouraged if you aren’t getting responses from homeowners or if you are doing video chats but aren’t being selected. Getting the first sit can be challenging, but once you secure it things should get easier.

Have questions about pet sitting or house sitting? Want more insights into full-time travel? Leave a comment below and be sure to subscribe to our blog!