Welcome to APSE

When you hire a pet sitter to visit your home to care for your pets, the more information you can give them about your pets routine and habits the better they are able to care for your pets!

A professional pet sitter will always visit your home for an initial interview before the first pet sitting visit is scheduled to meet your pets, learn about their regular routines, collect keys and familiarize themselves with home security, and find out where the food, toys, cleaning supplies, and other pet supply necessities are kept.

At this visit the pet sitter will fill out a pet sitting contract where this information is documented and that tells you about the policies and terms of the pet sitting service.

Instructions for A Pet Sitter

When the pet sitter visits your home it is also useful if you can leave them some notes about critical information such as:

1. Any changes in food, exercise, or location of supplies that have occurred since the initial interview
2. Instructions on administration of medications to the pet
3. Detailed instructions for any task that you want to be done in a particular way – for instance if you want the sitter to warm the wet food before serving to the pets
4. Places where the pets may hide – for example if you cat loves to sleep in the top basket of the closet where they may not be easily found by the pet sitter
5. Details of phobias to loud noises during storms or fireworks displays
6. Allergies your pet may have to particular foods or medications – just in case if for any reason they are taken into vet care while you are away

All In The Family

Pet sitters understand that your pets are members of your family. They don’t mind catering to any special requests that you may have because they want to go out of their way to do everything that they can during their visits to ensure their comfort.

So make sure you let them know what they can do to make your furry four legged family members feel at home!

Professional Pet Sitters Say…

Here is a sampling of how some of our professional pet sitters view the importance of leaving notes:

Van O Briain

Keep all pets’ vaccination records, microchip details and rego records in an easily accessible place for me to access if I need to do so. Inform me of whomever else has access to the home even if you ‘think’ they may not visit. If the only way into your home is via your automatic gate, show me how to over-ride it if it shorts out or there is a black/brown out. Give me keys!! You don’t know when a brown/black out will happen and having keys help me ensure your home is safe as well. Keep all the food in an accessible location with instructions on the food bins or on a piece of paper left on the kitchen bench.

Holly Cook

The dirtiest secret… if the dog is going to have an accident in the house, where do they usually do it? This is such an important fact that no one wants to talk about, but sitters need to know. Loooove notes!! The more details, the better! And, I encourage my clients to text me for updates.

Lynn Aubrey I try to cover all the basics with my clients info forms, but I have some customers who keep very detailed instruction lists on their computer. They update and print out as things may change over the years. I love the detail and it always seems to be customers who have used pet sitters in other areas that they have lived. They know all the important facts that may or may not come up with their pets. Others think we are mind readers :)

Notes = Good

It looks like communication is key.

Pet Owners: If you’d like to share your take on this, please leave your thoughts in a comment below.

Pet Sitters: Feel free to add to the conversation with a comment below.