Pet Sitting

Age Category 12 - 70
Requirements: Knowledge of Basic Animal Needs and Care, Responsible

"Help! I need someone to care for my dog while I'm out of town!"

Sometimes when people go on trips out of town and can't take their pets with them, this is what happens. They call their friends and family from all over town seeing if someone can care for them while they're away. Allot of the time if they can't find someone at all, they'll go into the phone book or online to find a person offering a Pet Sitting Service. That is when (hopefully) you come into play.

What do I need to know first before taking on this job?
The first things you'll probably want to know and have before hand are as follows:

• Knowledge of Different Animals (Very Important!)
• Responsible Behavior (Also Very Important)
• Animal Toys & Supplies (Optional)
• Having  your own Pet (Optional)

Knowledge of many different animals should be your number 1 objective. You don't have to go ape and start borrowing every animal book at your local library (unless you want too), but common information should be known. Most of the pets you'll be caring and watching over will primarily be dogs and cats, so learn more about them first before anything else.

Responsibility is just as important as knowing about the type of animal your watching over. Without a strict stance of responsibility, then no one, and I mean NO ONE will give you a chance. You need to prove to the owners of these pets that your not some misfit. With a solid responsible behavior, people will put their trust into you easier and that means that you'll be able to do business with those people.

You might want to offer to the owners if they wouldn't mind if you brought toys over to help keep their pets occupied. More then likely they'll pass since they'll already have their own toys for their pet(s), but it doesn't hurt to ask. However if an owner says its alright, please, please make sure the toys are sterilized, because of you don't clean them with bleach or something, you could get get that owner's pet sick cause it was contaminated. Would you give your own child a toy from another kid who is sick? I sure wouldn't.

Having your own pet can prove to that owner that you know how to care for animals and it tells them that you love animals too. Offer to show them your pet or even talk about your pet. Pet owners like talking about their pets. It creates a common interest between owners.

I would like to make special note that was brought to my attention by a friend and fellow pet owner. The worst scenario, other then the pet getting hurt while under your care, is to have the pet escape. If this were to happen, well.. I'm just gonna say the consequences would not be good at all. You could be sued and forced to pay XXX amount of dollars for negligence. You could also be Black Listed from doing Pet Sitting ever again... Now that we got the negative part of the job taken care, shall we continue to something more positive? *smile*

Where do I start looking for people that need a pet sitter?
Best place to start is start letting Friends, Family, and Colleges know that your trying to start a side business and are offering to watch and take care of people pets. Even if those people don't have pets themselves, you should still tell them cause they could reference you if someone you don't even know asks. (This is called networking by the way.)

Another way for yourself to be heard is to start up your own website to advertise your services. Learning Basic HTML isn't that hard (I learned it when I was 10.) or you could always have someone make one for you, but usually people are gonna charge you for that. Also you can post your service up on Craigslist which is free. There area also Pet Setting Directories online which you can upload your all your info to.

You could also post up fliers around your town advertising your service which is another great way to get yourself heard. I'll post link to a flier template for those that are interested at the bottom of this blog.

The Pay
Now usually, the pay for any job already has a set amount, but pet sitting is vert different cause your the one that has to figure out how much to charge your client for certain tasks. For this, I'm gonna give you a link to an already thought out process on how to charge clients. I'd recommend you read it word by word. Link is at the bottom.

Conclusion
Pet Setting can be a very rewarding job and even business if you start one up. You get to be with animals you love and care about (Hopefully you do care about them.) Plus the pay isn't bad once you figure out that part when you start everything. Be a loving, responible person, and you'll go far! I promise you that.

Links
CraigsList - http://www.craigslist.org/  
Figuring how much to charge for Pet Sitting
Flyer Template