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The 6 Things You Need to Consider Before Hiring a Pet Sitter

One of the things people often ask me is about the process of choosing the right pet sitter. I decided to talk a bit more about it and share the key signals that indicate why you should, or shouldn’t hire someone. The well-being of your pet is in their hands, after all, and it’s our responsibility to choose the one individual who’ll do their job well, and won’t just sound good on paper.

You’ll know you’ve taken the right decision only if you are looking for a few specific things in the person in front of you. Let’s see what these are:

1. Check out the website.
It all begins online. When you open the homepage of their site, see whether the design and usability are good enough. The company or individual must have invested some time and resources to make their platform user-friendly.

A few elements should be in place too, such as an About page and testimonials.

2. Make sure they’ve been in the business for at least 2 years.
You want expertise, you want to see they’ve made enough clients before you happy. So what better than seeing they’ve been doing cat sitting San Diego professionally for years now?

If I’m about to trust somebody, I first need to see how long they’ve been practicing what I’m about to require from them, and thus be convinced they will provide good service for me too.

New companies show up every day, in every market. But most of them don’t last more than a year. That’s why the 2-year minimum is something you need to take into consideration.

3. Ask for license and liability insurance.
Someone is about to walk into your home, to whom you’ll hand your keys and give control over your dear pet. Require to see some documents during your first meeting, so that you can feel comfortable leaving town and knowing a licensed person is taking caring of everything for you.

4. You’d want a family company.
What more trustworthy than seeing a man and a woman, who adore pets and have been running a company for professional pet sitting for decades now? Or it could be sisters, a mother and a daughter, or even two generations together who turned their love for pets into a serious business.

That means hiring a cat sitter San Diego would be a much easier process, knowing their background.

The opposite of this, is something I see quite often in the field. That’s pet sitting companies working with contractors. For a start, they themselves don’t know the person well yet, even if they’ve checked his or her portfolio and see they’ve done previous jobs like that. Such workers are flexible for the owners, but also more likely to change their boss, to prefer one-time projects rather than working with a few clients for a long time, and more.

For you, this means being introduced to different people every time you’re looking to hire a pet sitter, and feeling some discomfort as there’s no time for you to get to know each well, and for your cat or dog to get used to them.

That’s why the better option is to look for a family-owned company.

5. Don’t rely on one person only.
The next thing you should think through before heading out of town is to have a backup plan. Meaning, if you hire an individual and something unexpected comes up or they get sick during your 2-week getaway, you’ll get quite stressed and anxious trying to find a new one on the phone or online, and not being sure who’s entering your home.

What’s more, so many people out there claim to be pet sitters, but loving animals alone is not enough to make them work with clients and be in the business.

6. The first meeting is crucial.
When you’ve found a company and are about to meet with the potential dog or cat sitter, you should keep your eyes open for how they behave and treat the animal.

Communication is key here. And yes, first impression matters. If the person is not just polite, but also genuine, friendly, and already making contact with your pet and showing he cares, then it will work.

I believe following these tips will help you find the professional sitter you’re looking for. When that happens, you’ll know you have a guy or girl to rely on for all your next vacations, and it’s one less thing for you to worry about.