Dogsitters near me – Is this what you need?
Every dog owner needs dogsitters at some point in their pet ownership lifetime. Your particular search may start with your imagined picture of the ideal petsitter or indeed a feeling you get when you meet and talk to the dog minder. And you might first look up a professional petsitters or pet sitting services in your locality. Or consider a range of kennel alternatives. However, most people will start their search online looking for dogsitters near me!
Here are some tips on what to look for when you need someone trusted to look after your pooch.
Search 1 – Dogsitters near me
How to find a dogsitter
Finding sitters that the pet likes is important. Searching for dogsitters near me is not always the best start to your searchDog sitter
A generic advert for dogsitters near me
It used to be the case that we would post a card in the window of a local newsagents or shop looking for ‘ dogsitters near me ‘. Today we can search on line, look in specialist directories and join a pet and housesitting website to find suitable pet care.
Pet lovers next steps – The housesitter
Finding local petcare and local dogminders
As a pet parent your primary goal in looking for suitable pet care if that is available when you need someone. After all your pet cover is for when you are away. Likely you are looking at a range of options including kennel alternatives. Though some people like dog kennels and if they find a good one they settle on that.
It will not surprise you to hear that today most searches start online with 85% of people looking for sitters, and often they add a local suffix in their search bar or web browser.
What comes up as a result of this first search is usually a collection of local and global pet care solutions! Wading through the professional petsitter options and online petsitting networks you then find some reviews for each service. These can be entertaining and encouraging.
Family petsitting friends and neighbours as dog sitters – The ultimate local solution
As any obliging family member of a pet owner you become popular come the holidays.
- ‘Please could you feed the cats for us, we’re only away for the week’
- ‘Do you mind having Fido for us, we’ll be back by Sunday night’… it’s all very familiar.
Pet sitting friends – Close pet minding or petsitting circle
Some friends and family always pick up the slack on pet minding and pet feeding. With dogs, the pet care is always a little more involved, because they need engagement and stimulation and exercise! So usually people go for an external pet care solution.
Some people simply have way with dogsSearch 2 – Professional dogsitters near me
Once the search for a local solution has waned a little, your family and friends have also booked holidays in August, you start to get serious about your search. You look for professional pet sitters and dog minders. And as the date for your holiday approaches you decide, well, they don’t have to be too local. After all I have made the decision to pay for a dog sitter, so let’s find the best one.
Once you search for a professional and you actually add up how many days cover you need it can be a shock. So your holiday is 15 days, coz you have that extra day on your holiday. Then you need the live in dog sitter to come to your home a day early so you can show them the pet care routines and introduce them properly to Fido.
At time of writing this blog the average dog sitter charges £50-75 (GB) per day and night to stay in your home. That’s a minimum of £ 800-1200 (GB) for the gig without any extra trips or petrol added for incidentals! This is taken from Rover. What else could you do with that grand?
Local and friendly professional dog walkers
Sometimes a professional dog walker will take your dog into their home or betters still become your live in house and petsitter. But they still have their dog walking duties so that has to be factored into the time you are away. This may be your quick solution to your original search for ‘dogsitters near me’, and it may not.
In house pet sitting
What is a live in dogsitter? And what is a dog sit?
Whether you end up choosing a professional pet sitter or a live in dogsitter you need to understand your options. Check out this article on ‘what is a live in dogsitter‘ for reference.
Well it is a professional service you wanted, and these people are taking care of your beloved pet. They will manage feeding routines, walking and exercise routines and they’ll be living in your home taking care of whatever happens in the house.
What is a dog sit?
A dog sit is a arrangement where a petsitter will come into your home to care for your dog.
Dog sitters tips for a dogminder in your own home
If you are inviting a dogminder into your own home, after searching for dogsitters near me, make sure you help them understand your pets. Ask them to come early, perhaps a day or two to help them get to know your dogs and vice versa. This will pay dividends later. And most importantly make sure you give them as many dog sitters tips as possible about your dogs.
Try to help them understand their routines and habits. And try to explain their body language if you can, some dogs will have particular habits that are best explained.
Of course the more time they spend with your dogs the better. And if they are dog sitters who are located near you then there are real advantages to their being present and available when you go away, because the dogs will be familiar with them.
A dog walker usually exercises several dogs at the same time. But will searching for dogsitters near me deliver the dog minder you need?Search 3 – Dog kennels – Dog minding in a kennels
Perhaps there is a cheaper professional service you hadn’t considered. You start looking for friendly kennels near home. Despite perhaps an early experience in pet care where you dog came home with kennel cough, or rather dirty because there was no weekly bath etc. you consider this. Some pet hotels are rather lovely and the pets incredibly well cared for.
Once again having read the reviews and asked about the prices you think about the costs. That is not so say that kennels are not good. Many are accredited with professional insurance policies on display.
Search 4 – Kennel alternatives and petsitting and housesitting websites
As your search for dogsitters near me continues you remember a friend telling you about housesitting websites online. These websites, offer housesitters and petsitters with petsitters telling you which pets they love to care for.
Other dog minding and pet sitting services
What are you looking for in your ideal petsitter
Think carefully about what you actually need in a dogsitter to cover your holidays. What is it you really need in your ideal petsitter – :
- A flexible dog minder who can adapt to living with a dog they are getting to know
- Calm demeanour to help them manage a situation and dog behaviour they may not be used to
- Trusted petsitter – one you can rely on to do the right thing and the best thing for your dog
- An experienced dogsitter – one who can handle a dog and what to do if there is a problem
- A reliable petsitter who wont let you down
- Most importantly you want a petsitter who loves animals and will love your dog when you are away.
Dogsitters near me – Is that what you need?
Dogsitters that come to your house
So the idea of inviting a petsitter into your home to care for your pets and your property becomes a good idea. And housesitting and petsitting networks will connect you to checked sitters with reviews of previous assignments published against their profile.
- Do I need a professional pet sitting service? – Before you commit to paying vast sums of money to a professional pet sitting service, consider all our options.
- Dogsitting and housesitting duties combined – If a dog sitter is living in your home and caring for your pets then they will also look after your property, keeping it clean the grass cut and similar chores.
Check out what are the responsibilities of a housesitter.
While petsitters are staying in your home they will care for your property
Free house and petsitting
One of the least publicised advantages of this petsitting arrangement is that once you have joined a network the rest is free. This is a marked difference to searching blindly on Google for dogsitters near me and paying the dog minders fee. In this arrangement no money changes hands between petowner and petsitter.
The arrangement and the respective benefits are that the petsitter secures free accommodation and in exchange they offer free pet care and housesitting. So your home and pets are cared for while you are away. And it costs the price of a membership fee.
Free dogs
A final word on searching for dogsitters near me and what you need
Finding a live in dog sitter is a fantastic idea. It means your home and pets are cared for with one friendly solution. The live in house and dogsitter could be a single person, or a couple or in some cases a housesitting family. They will take care of any costs that they incur in travelling to you, and in their living costs. No need any longer to search for dogsitters near me and stress about not finding anyone.
All you have to do is provide all the dog needs to ensure they can care for your pet safely in the pet’s own home. It makes for a great pet care solution and an affordable one, and if you are kennel averse house and petsitters offer an alternative to dog kennels.
Join Housesitmatch.com a professional service that offers access to help you find free checked live in petsitters and housesitters, for a moderate annual fee. These petsitters will help you keep pets at home safely and happy in their daily routine. You no longer need to search blindly on Google for dogsitters near me.
Further reading about dogsitting with Housesitmatch
At Housesitmatch.com we always try to share useful and informative blogs and practical advice with our members. Read on to find some helpful articles with useful tips for dog owners and dogsitters about dogsitting.
Top dogsitting tips for beginners
Dog sit – What does it mean and where can you go?
Dogsitters’ tips – Dog’s body language and how to read it
