The intake process shouldn’t be too complicated.  You will call, email or text the professional pet sitter/dog walker as  stated before there is a good chance you will get their voicemail or reply.  There will be a good chance they are out walking dogs or on the other line.  Their voicemail should indicate when they will get back to you.  

When you contact you will be asked a few questions at least.  You may be asked what town and/or street you live in.  Some pet sitters/dog walkers have a radius they cover and want to make sure you live within their service area.  If you don’t they may suggest another professional pet sitter/dog walker who covers the area you live in.  Something to keep in mind, you may only be 10 minutes over the line but the pet sitter could be coming from the other side of town or in another town around the time you want service.  It could take them 15 minutes to get to the town line then another 10 minutes to your house.  Their next visit could be 20 minutes from the town line.  Travel time alone is 55 minutes which means they will lose an hour of pay for 10 minutes over the town line.  We are not being difficult, we just can’t give up an hour of pay every day.

They may ask if you have dates in mind.  If you are looking for vacation visits or overnight stays and have dates let the pet sitter/dog walker know so they can check the calendar for availability.  Word of caution, the pet sitter/dog walker may have the dates available but it’s not guaranteed. You have to fill out a profile, go through a Meet & Greet, request visits through their software, some pet sitters/dog walkers will want a deposit and finally receive a confirmation email.  

If you are looking for dog walks or cat visits, they may ask you if you have a start date.  Keep in mind that if you want to start the next day they will not work.  As stated earlier a Meet & Greet is required which may not be able to happen that day or evening.  We do understand that emergencies happen but we have to think about the pet being ok with us coming into the house.  If the pet is not comfortable the pet may defend their home and no one wants that.  Also the pet sitter/dog walker may not be available.  

Professional pet sitters/dog walkers try very hard to be accommodating however there are times when we can’t.  We may be booked and cannot take on another visit.  There are limits for several reasons, we need time to get to every visit and we do need down time to rest.  When working with animals you have to be on the top of your game so everyone stays safe.

When all questions are answered, each pet sitter/dog walker has their own questions, you will ask you to fill out some form.  The form will most likely be online in their scheduling software.  They will ask you to fill out the profiles completely.  What they mean is to fill out the profile completely.  When asked about food one of our clients wrote dog food.  I’m not sure if they were being funny but if we couldn’t get in touch with them we don’t know what kind, how much, where to feed the dog, if there are two dogs do they each get a special corner, etc.  When filling out your profile, put how much food, what kind of food, if it is special food, where do you buy, do you add water or bone broth, anything we need to know about the food.   Potty habits are very important, it is an indicator of illness.  If you are filling out a profile for a cat, roughly how many pee clumps, how many poops, any issues with eliminating.  Any behavioral things  we will need to know such as a dog is afraid of a broom, doesn’t like baseball hats, loud noises.  If you have a plan in place to deal with loud noises please put that in the profile. You want to put everything in the profile in case you go someplace and don’t have cell phone reception.  

The best course of action is to have the profile filled out before the Meet & Greet so that you can clarify anything for the pet sitter/dog walker. I would also suggest, unless you have been told otherwise, request the dates, time and service you are looking for.  The pet sitter/dog walker can let them sit until after the Meet & Greet or approve them.  Either way at the Meet & Greet you can go over the dates.