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Pet Sitting - It's Not Always a Vacation
In order to be a pet sitter, you really
need to have a good understanding of what types of situations
you can handle regarding the care of someone else's
pet, and those that you cannot.
There are a variety of ways that pet
sitters will care for someone else's pet. Sometimes
they will visit a few times a day, staying about 30
minutes while they care for the pets basic needs. Other
pet sitters will stay overnight.
Regardless of how the pets are cared
for, it's important to be aware that pet sitting does
not always go as well as planned.
Most people may think it's easy to be
a pet sitter. After all, the only thing you have to
do is make sure the dog or cat or other pets have fresh
water and receive their daily food allotment and if
needed take them outside to relieve themselves a few
times during the day.
Yes, it's true, the life of the pet
sitter does seem rather easy. Yet, there are situations
that a pet sitter needs to be aware of that could actually
become very dangerous.
Sometimes having to care for dogs, especially
outside dogs, can become very dangerous because outside
dogs can be very territorial. Most owners know their
dogs well enough to know whether there is any danger
for the person who may need to come into their home
to take care of their pets when there away.
This is not where the problem is. The
real problem comes in when the pet sitter is required
to take care of the dogs by entering their yard to provide
them with food and water. This is where the pet sitter
needs to have extra caution. Before accepting a job
where you must deal with outside dogs, you need to make
sure they are well behaved and well socialized.
If there is more than one dog, and you
enter their yard, the situation could become very dangerous.
If you become fearful and the dogs sense that you don't
belong there, they could see you as a threat and even
decide to attack.
Trying to cope with a nervous dog, or
worse, several nervous dogs can become a pretty scary
situation.
Always stress to the owners that it
is important for them to be honest with you and tell
you how well socialized their dogs are. You may want
to ask if any of their dogs have any tendency to be
aggressive. Do they jump up on people? Do they get nervous
when someone enters the yard? Do they have any problem
with strangers coming into their territory?
With some of the larger breeds, you
may want to have a test run when the owner is hidden
away from the house, yet close enough to help out if
needed. You can test to see how the dogs will react
when you enter their territory while they think the
owner is away.
Before you enter the yard, you need
to take note of how the dogs behave. Do they seem nervous
or anxious? Or are they thrilled to have a visitor?
If your gut tells you it's not safe, you should not
to accept that job.
It's better to be safe than sorry. Pet
sitters really need to understand that it's not always
a good idea to take every job. Before taking on any
pet sitting job, make sure you meet with both the pets
and the owners. Ask questions about how well the dogs
behave, what types of problems the owner may have or
have had in the past.
This is not only the time for the pet
owners to interview you, it's your time to interview
them as well. Never accept a pet sitting job if you
do not feel comfortable with the pets or the owners.
Most times pet sitting is truly a great
job to have. Just remember that all jobs are not for
all pet sitters. Sometimes it's best to say no.
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