Finding A Suitable Pet-Sitter In Australia

Introduction

What’s more challenging than shopping for your family for Christmas?

Choosing the perfect pet sitter while you are jetting off for the holidays.

One of the hardest things for a pet lover is to leave them behind alone for any period of time. Unfortunately, all pet lovers can relate to what we mean.

Because of the anxiety of leaving their pets alone, most pet owners resort to leaving their pets with their trusted friends, family, or veterinarian.

While these are tried and tested solutions, some pet owners still feel uncomfortable leaving their fur friends. This is where pet sitting has come forwards as a relatively new option.

Pet sitting is the service offered by individuals where they spend time with the pet when the owner is not around.

While pet sitting might have become popular, you can’t just pick anyone to take care of your pet. So before you hand over the responsibility, it is important that you choose the right pet sitter for your needs – one that is professionally trained and screened thoroughly.

Selecting A Pet-Sitter

Selecting a pet sitter takes a little more effort than just dialing a number and hiring someone for your pet.

Below are a few things you must consider when hiring a pet sitter.

Start With Seeking First Hand Recommendation

The best place to start your search is by asking people around who have first-hand experience in dealing with pet sitters. If you can get references, that will be more credible than looking for them online.

If you cannot get any connection with the help of your friends and family, try asking your vet. Connecting with veterinarians and local human communities may help you with credible part-time pet sitters.

Why we say this is because if people have a full-time job, they might not be available to give their pet the amount of time their job requires.

Search Online

If you find no references and clue searching offline, going online is the only solution. The internet offers a big community where you can look for a pet-sitter.

You can find a professional pet-sitting service provider with trained individuals and a clean background check. In addition, these online service providers offer a police clearance certificate to prove their pet sitter’s credibility for the work.

Furthermore, you can read online reviews, comments, and what old customers have to say. This much information will be enough to give you an idea of what type of organization they are.

Shortlist Potential Pet Sitters

Once you have a working list of pet sitters, it’s time to set up interviews. Aside from establishing credibility and expertise, an interview is a great way to know the person and see how well they will mix with your pet.

Here is a potential checklist to ensure you are talking to the right person.

• How often have they worked with the particular species?
• What steps will they take if they suddenly become unwell?
• Check for references and recommendations, if available.

Set Up A Meeting With Your Pet

Invite the pet sitter to your house so that they can meet your pet. Watch closely how the pet sitter and pet interact with each other.

If you have a dog, for example, you could ask the pet sitter to take your dog for a walk. This can be a good experience where you will see how well they are handling your dog.

While you are observing the pet sitter, note down a few points.

• How calm is the pet sitter?
• Are they treating your dog as their own?
• Does your pet appear comfortable?

Keep Tabs

Choosing a pet sitter is not the end of your responsibility. No matter how friendly a pet sitter is with your pet, they are not their owner. Hence, you must ask for reports, photos, and activity logs to ensure your pet is being taken care of.

You can even video call a pet sitter and see what your pet is doing.

Find The Perfect Pet-Sitter

Although there are many good pet sitters out there, it is difficult to find one for you when needed. That said, here are a couple of places where you can look for a credible pet-sitter.

• Trusted Housesitters: Think of Trusted Housesitters as a form of Tinder. But in this case, the individuals you find are pet sitters. To use this platform, you must pay a monthly subscription fee of $109. Once you are ready with your account, you can search for local sitters and invite them to your house to play with your pet. All the sitters online are verified, and the police checked. For high-quality service, ensure to list every detail.
• Pawshake: Pawshake follows little different rules when iet comes to sitters. When needed, you can find a pet sitter on the platform that can take the pet into their home and take care of them in your absence. In fact, if needed, they can stay over at your place. The platform boasts about serving more than a million days. With 30K verified users and a $45 homestay, it is the perfect place to find a pet sitter for your pet.
• Booking.Com: If you want to take your pet with you on your journey, you can always look for places to visit where you can take your pets with you. What’s more, using Booking.com, you can find homestays that are pet-friendly. For people who don’t want to leave their fur friend behind, Booking.com is the perfect solution.

Keep Your Pet Safe

Whether you are at home or on holiday, if you have a pet in your home, it is your responsibility to take care of them. When you are on vacation, you can’t take your pet with you. In that case, you must find a pet-sitter who will look after your pet in your absence.

In this article, we have talked about how you can find the perfect pet-sitter for your needs. We hope that you find this article helpful. Furthermore, if there is anything you think we can add here, feel free to suggest it below. We want to do everything for our non-human family members.