Owning a pet can be challenging when you plan to go out of town for work or vacation. While sometimes you can bring your pet with you, you’ll often need to leave your pet at home. Although you may consider using a boarding facility, many pets cannot be boarded, and most owners prefer hiring a pet sitter to care for their animals and home while they are away.
Here are some tips for preparing your pet and home to ensure the person caring for your pets has everything needed to provide the best care possible.
Preparing For Your Pet
- Medications: Ensure that there is enough of each medication to cover the entire time you will be away, plus 2-3 days extra in case of travel delays. Clearly label the storage location of your pet’s medications, the required dosages, when to administer each dose, and how to administer them.
- Food, Leash and Supplies: Ensure you have enough food, treats, medication, kitty litter, poopie bags, etc. to last while you are away. Let your pet sitter know the location of your dog’s leash, harness, and poopie bags.
- Pet Routines: Give your pet sitter a detailed description of your pet’s routines, including feeding amounts and times, walking schedules, habits, and how to deal with behavior quirks/issues (such as, “My cat knows how to open the back door, so it must be deadbolted at all times.” – true story!).
- Pet Carrier: Inform your pet sitter where you store the pet carrier, if you have one.
- Caged Pets: Secure your pet’s enclosure and keep it out of direct sunlight by closing curtains or blinds before leaving.
- Toys: Bring out your pet’s favorite toys to keep them entertained while you’re away.
- Identification: Ensure you have a collar with ID tags for each dog (and each cat if they are an outdoor cat), and tell your pet sitter if your pet is microchipped (including chip number and company contact information). This will help recovery efforts in case your pet escapes.
- Veterinary Authorization: Give your veterinarian your pet sitter’s name and pre-authorize veterinary care during your absence. You may need to complete a temporary medical treatment authorization form and provide copies to your vet and pet sitter. Some professional pet sitters require you to fill out a temporary medical treatment form.
Preparing Your Home
- Clean and Organize: Clean all litter boxes and pet enclosures. Vacuum or mop the floors, clear away any clutter or hazards, take out the trash and recycling, run the dishwasher, discard any expiring food from the refrigerator, and put away fragile or private belongings. Close the doors to any rooms or cupboards where your pet could hide. A professional pet sitter will clean up after themselves at the end of the booking, ensuring your home is left in the same condition as when they arrived.
- Home Information: Inform your pet sitter of any unusual features about your home (e.g., automatically locking doors, sinks that don’t drain, toilets at risk of overflowing).
- Security Devices: Please inform your pet sitter of the location of every security, pet, or doorbell camera, and any other recording device in or around your home that is capable of capturing audio or video. NOTE: In many states, it is illegal to place cameras in bathrooms or in the room where the pet sitter will be sleeping during overnight stays.
- Thermostat/HVAC: Show your pet sitter where to find the thermostat and how to operate it. Make sure to set it to a comfortable temperature for your pets while you are away.
- Technology Instructions: Leave instructions on how to operate the Wi-Fi (including the password), remote controls, and television.
- Dangerous Items: Move potentially dangerous plants or decorations to areas that your pets cannot access. This is especially important during holidays with hazardous items such as Christmas trees, poinsettias, and Easter lilies.
- Cleaning Supplies: Ensure you stock enough pet-safe cleaning supplies, paper towels, and garbage bags, and show your pet sitter the storage location of these items.
- Safety Lighting: If your pet sitter’s first visit will be after dark, leave an outside and an inside light on for safety’s sake.
- Keys and Access: Give your pet sitter keys, key fobs/cards, and alarm/access codes, and check that they work beforehand.
- Additional Personnel: If anyone else will be in your home while you’re away, such as a friend, family member, or housekeeper, let your pet sitter know. For safety reasons, many pet sitters will not enter if someone else is there. Also, some pet-sitting businesses do not accept bookings if they have to share pet care duties or if another person is present during their visit.
Communication and Contact Information
- Updates: Be sure to update all pet, vet, home, and contact information (including emergency contact) each time you travel.
- Visit Reports: Discuss with your pet sitter how often they will provide you updates (visit reports, photos, etc.) and how they will deliver them (email, in-app, etc.).
- Out-of-town Contact Info: Share your out-of-town contact information (WhatsApp, etc.) with your pet sitter in advance. If your pet sitter cannot access your home, leaving this information on your kitchen counter won’t help.
- Time Zone Considerations: Inform your pet sitter what time zone you will be in, so they know when you are most likely to respond right away if they need to contact you.
- Emergency Contact Info: Provide the name and phone number of an emergency contact who lives nearby, can make decisions on your behalf, and is aware of your travel plans. If you use keys to access your home, give them a key in case of a lockout. Some professional pet sitters will also have you fill out an emergency guardianship form that will allow your emergency contact to take custody of your pets if something should happen to you while you are traveling.
- Landlord Notification: Give your pet sitter your landlord’s contact information if you rent, and give your pet sitter your landlord’s contact information as well. This is especially important in buildings with restricted entry, where security may not let your pet sitter in unless they have been told ahead of time.
To recap: You can help your pet sitter give your pet the best care possible by communicating clearly, keeping your home clean and ready for your pet, and giving them lots of information.
