Essential House Sitting Tips: How to Care for Homes and Pets Like a Pro
As a house sitter, providing quality care for homes and pets should be your top priority. If you're new to the house sitting world, you may feel uncertain about what it takes to excel in your responsibilities. Don’t worry—you’re in the right place! In this blog post, we’ll equip you with the knowledge and skills to care for homes and pets like a pro.
With our extensive experience as house and pet sitters, we're excited to share essential tips to help you become the best house sitter possible. This guide goes beyond the basics, showing you how to ensure pets feel safe, secure, and happy while keeping the home well-maintained. By mastering these skills, you’ll enjoy smoother house sitting experiences and ensure the well-being of the pets in your care. Plus, you’ll build trust with homeowners, paving the way for glowing reviews and repeat opportunities! Let’s dive in!
Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase using one of our links. This helps support our blog so we can make more free content! Read our full disclaimer here.Understand the Pet’s Routine
Did you know that pet’s thrive on routine, and that any sudden changes can lead to anxiety and stress?
For instance, if a dog is used to going for a walk at 7 AM, and suddenly that changes to 10 am, the dog may be restless and anxious for the remainder of the morning, or even for the rest of the day!
Before you begin your house sit, make sure to ask the pet owner detailed questions about their pet’s daily routine— including feeding times, exercise schedule, and any other specifics you should know. Once you begin your pet sit, it can be helpful to set reminders on your phone to help you stay on track and ensure you don’t miss any tasks. By sticking to the pet's normal schedule, you’ll be able to keep them feeling their best.
Know the Pet’s Feeding and Hydration Needs
There are a few crucial things you should know about a pet’s feeding and hydration needs.
First, make sure you only feed the pets with the food that the owner provides. Additionally, make sure you stay consistent with their feeding schedule. Otherwise, these changes in food can lead to digestive upset. For this reason, it’s best not to feed the pet anything unusual—including human food! Do not give the pet leftover scraps—even if the pet owner says it’s okay. Speaking from experience, we can say that this is a sure fire way to be cleaning up doo-dee off the floor at 3 am (and no one wants that)!
Additionally, if you plan to care for dogs, then you need to know about something called Bloat.
Bloat, or gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV), is a life-threatening condition in dogs where the stomach fills with gas and twists, placing pressure and cutting off blood flow to other organs. Common symptoms include a swollen abdomen, restlessness, unproductive vomiting, and collapse. Bloat mainly affects large, deep-chested breeds and can be triggered by eating too quickly, drinking large amounts of water, or exercising after meals.
Bloat is a very serious medical emergency, but it can be prevented!
To prevent bloat, monitor how much the pet is eating or drinking, and how fast. Pet’s should not be devouring their meals within minutes or drinking water too quickly. Ensure they are eating their meals and drinking water in small, slow increments.
Additionally, you should always allow the pet to rest for 1-2 hours after a meal before you allow them to exercise heavily. This will help to lower the risk of bloat occurring even more.
Keep Pets Happy with Regular Exercise and Mental Stimulation
Just like us, pets need regular exercise and mental engagement to stay happy. A bored pet will become destructive, anxious, and stressed. To avoid coming home to eaten shoes and torn up furniture, make sure that the pet is receiving regular, consistent activity. This could look like going on a walk, visiting a dog park, or playing with toys.
PAWPAD PRO TIP:
What about those days when it’s raining and so you don’t want to go outside? Or, maybe the pet already had some exercise but they still have excess energy? This is our favorite solution! To keep pets entertained when they have extra energy, we recommend using pet enrichment games. Puzzles in particular are an affordable, and fun way to keep pet entertained! Here are some links to a few of our favorite enrichment toys.
Our favorite enrichment toys for dogs.
Our favorite enrichment toys for cats.
You can also look up at-home pet enrichment ideas online and find a lot of suggestions. Even doing something as simple as hiding treats and letting the pet spend 10 minutes going on a hunt can help burn off that extra energy.
Stay Alert to Changes in Pet Behavior and Body Language
Obviously pets can't communicate verbally, but they can express their feelings through behavior and body language. For example, did you know that a dog yawning can be a sign of anxiety? It’s true! Other behaviors like pacing, excessive panting, crouching, or sudden aggression can also signal that something is wrong. By staying mindful and aware of these cues, you can better understand how your pet is feeling and respond to their needs promptly. If you want to learn more about these topics, here are some awesome resources to check out!
This book: Doggie Language: A Dog Lover's Guide to Understanding Your Best Friend
This book: Kitty Language: An Illustrated Guide to Understanding Your Cat
This blog post by the AKC: How to read a dog’s body language
Don’t Force Interactions with the Pet
Pets are sensitive. Even if they LOOK like they are really excited to see you, they are likely still experiencing nervousness and anxiety on the inside.
When you first meet the pet, don’t force the interaction. Allow the pet to approach you on their terms. You should maintain this approach throughout the entirety of the house sit. This will build trust and make the pet feel safe around you. Here’s a great resource that speaks more on this topic!
This Blog Post: How to Approach a nervous, shy, or anxious dog
Maintain a Clean and Healthy Environment for the Pet
Keeping a pet’s space clean isn’t just emptying the litter box or wiping their paws after a walk. It’s also important to wash their food and water dishes with hot, soapy water regularly to avoid bacteria buildup.
Additionally, don’t forget about grooming—especially for pets with long hair. Regular grooming not only prevents mats and tangles in their fur (which can lead to skin irritation or infections) but also helps reduce shedding and dander, keeping the home cleaner and more comfortable for everyone.
If you want to add a great grooming tool to your pet sitter tool kit, this brush is fantastic for removing excess pet hair and dander.
Know Basic Pet First Aid
Pet emergencies are scary and can occur at any moment, but knowing how to take action can make a life-saving difference. This is why we recommend that every new pet sitter take a Pet First Aid course. By taking a course, you will be equipped with the tools and knowledge needed to respond a pet emergency confidently and calmly.
The course we recommend is the Pro Pet Hero: Pet First Aid and CPR for Pets.
We took this course ourselves and we can highly recommend it to fellow pet sitters (and pet owners). This comprehensive course not only teaches you what to do in case a pet goes into cardiac arrest, it will also teach you how to respond to common pet emergencies and illnesses that could happen on the trail, in the heat, or snow. This course is just under $50 and a worthwhile investment knowing you will be prepared to handle any pet emergency with confidence.
Additionally, we always carry our own Pet First Aid Kit so we don’t ever have to worry about lacking the supplies we need to handle a pet emergency. This is the one we have, and we can highly recommend it.
Click Here to Buy Our Favorite Pet First Aid Kit
Regardless if you bring your own kit though, you should always ask the pet owner where they keep pet emergency supplies so you can quickly locate them in case of an emergency.
Stay in Touch with the Pet Owner
Our final tip is to communicate with the pet owner regularly. Providing daily updates along with photos can go a long way to make pet owners feel reassured that their home and pets are in great hands!
It’s especially important that you notify the pet owner if you notice anything unusual about the home or pets. Whether it’s something urgent like the pet is ill, or something small like a light that went out in the bathroom, pet owners will appreciate knowing these situations right away so they can instruct you what to do next.
Also, if anything gets broken or lost, it’s best to reach out and notify the homeowner. We promise you that they will be far more forgiving about the situation than if you try to hide it from them. Honesty is always the best policy.
By having great communication, you will provide the homeowner with immense peace of mind, helping you get that 5 star review!
Start your House Sitter Journey with Confidence
By following these tips, you’re already on the path to becoming a top-notch house sitter, ready to care for homes and pets like a pro. Of course, there’s so much more to learn, and this blog post only scratches the surface. If you're serious about excelling in house sitting and want to dive deeper into all the tips, tricks, and strategies for success, check out The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to House Sitting! It’s packed with insider knowledge, expert advice, and everything you need to confidently navigate your house sitting journey. Don't miss out on this essential resource—get your guide today and take your house sitting skills to the next level! Thanks for reading, and happy house sitting!
