Finding a Pet Sitter

How to find a good pet sitter?

When going on holiday, one of the main concerns for any pet owner is finding an experienced, reliable and loving pet sitter to care for their beloved pet.

Pet sitters are becoming more popular as the demand from pet owners grows year on year. Many dog owners are no longer prepared to put their beloved pet into kennels and prefer to board in a family environment who will keep their dog in the same routine and offer the same love and attention as at home.

So how do you go about finding a good pet sitter?

There are many ways to find good pet sitters, adverts on the vet’s notice boards, a local pet shop will usually recommend someone they have had good feedback about but more commonly and convenient these days is a Google search on the internet. If you input ‘pet sitting’ with the name of your town this should bring up a list of local pet sitting services that operate in your area. Alternatively you can go to the larger pet sitting sites that have a list of registered professional pet sitters throughout the UK for example NarpsUK where pet owners can input their post code and read the 200 word profile provided by local pet sitters:- www.narpsuk.co.uk

When you contact a pet sitter there are certain questions you should be asking:-

* Will my dog be boarded with other animals?
* Are there pre-school children in the house?
* Do you have a secure garden?
* Will there be someone at home with my pet most of the time?
* How long have you been pet sitting for?
* Will my dog sleep inside the family home?

These questions may not be relevant to you in which case you should think of questions that would be for your pet.

Once you have found a pet sitter who sounds a likely candidate - you should make an appointment for you and your pet to go along and meet the pet sitter to ensure both parties are happy about the arrangement. Watch how the pet sitter interacts with your dog, check the garden for security, ask for references or check their rating and comments on the NarpsUK website where other pet owners may have left them feedback.

A professional pet sitter will ask you to fill in a booking form and give information like: health problems, walking routine, behaviour, vets details, emergency number etc.

You will need to leave a deposit, ask about cancellation terms.

Once everything has been agreed you will be able to enjoy your holiday with peace of mind in the knowledge that your pet is enjoying theirs.