In-Home Pet Sitting

Most importantly, your pet will receive lots of one-on-one love and personal attention while you are away. Most of our sitters have been certified in Pet CPR and Pet First Aid. We have NO black out dates! Our sitters are completely backed up by our other sitters in cases of emergency, illness or sitter vacations. Paw Pals sitters are employees who have passed a thorough background check, gone through extensive training, and are under our bonding and liability insurance as well as Workers Compensation of Paw Pals. Additionally, you will receive real time updates via our app and email with pictures and stories of how much fun your sitter had with your furbaby! But most importantly, we are loving, dependable, trustworthy pet lovers who will adore your pets just as much as you do!

There is a $35 fee for all initial in-home meet and greets.

We come to your home for the new client meeting so that we can meet your pet in his/her familiar environment, learn where you keep food, treats, bowls, leashes, etc.

All meet and greets must be scheduled and typically last about 15-30 minutes. During your meet and greet, you will meet 2 of the sitters from the team of sitters who will be responsible for caring for your pets. Each area has a team of approximately 4 sitters that covers that service area. They rotate days, nights, weekdays, and weekends. This way you are ALWAYS covered and have a properly rested and excited team member visiting your home. If you feel that you would like to arrange for additional meetings post your initial meet and greet, the standard dog walking rates will apply. Mornings before 10am and evenings after 3pm are typically the best time for meet and greets.

If you ever feel that your pets and sitter are not a great match, please do not hesitate to contact the office and we will work through finding you the perfect match.

Prior to the consultation, you will need to setup an account on our Client Portal and fill out your profile and a profile for all of your pets completely. We will then have all the information we need about your pets allowing us to spend the consultation time getting to know you and your pets. To get started, please click on the Client Portal link.

We do ask that your pets are up to date on vaccinations and require an up to date rabies vaccination.

Our goal at Paw Pals is to create a personal experience while enjoying the comforts of a professional service. For this reason, we make every effort for the same assigned sitters to visit your home every time. In cases of emergencies and last minute bookings, we will utilize any of our staff members to ensure your pet receives the care they need. If you have multiple visits in one day, you will see a combination of your assigned walkers share the responsibility of caring for your pets. Our visits start as early as 8:30am and end as late as 9:30pm (visits outside of this time frame may be requested for an additional fee). In order to foster a healthy work environment and ensure your pets are receiving the quality of care that you expect and deserve, we have your team of walkers split walks. For the occasional dog walk, pet sit, or in cases of emergency visits, we will do our best to send your usual walker/sitter however that may not always be a possibility.

Our dog walking and pet sitting visits are personalized to your pet's needs and routine. Each visit will include energizing interaction, a walk in or around your neighborhood and/or playtime in your back yard, feeding per your instructions, fresh water, dogs walked, love and play time, brushing, litter box cleaned, bird cage cleaned, medication given if needed, mail and newspaper brought in, plants watered, lights on and off. And of course, lots of TLC.

Visits depend on the amount of time you request. We offer visits as short as 10 minutes and as long as 1 hour. The visit timer starts from the moment we open the door and ends at the moment we close the door. Please keep in mind that we will need a few minutes to leash your dog, wipe paws, fill water bowls, etc during each visit, so not every moment will be spent outdoors.

We book your visits within a 2 hour time frame and will be there during that time. If you are booking a cat visit for the morning and it is during peak times such as holidays we will be there in the later mornings, unless of course you have a cat that needs medicine at a critical time. If time is critical, please let us know.

Paw Pals operates on a lockbox system. You may provide your own lockbox or buy one of ours for $20. Please keep your lockbox information up to date in your client profile.

If you live in a complex and/or unable to utilize a lockbox, Paw Pals will pick up 2 copies of your house key during your complimentary meet and greet. If we are provided with only one key, Paw Pals will make one additional copy of the key and a charge of $5 will be added to your invoice. It is incredibly important we have a second copy of the key in case there is an unforeseen occurrence (i.e. keys locked in the vehicle, switching sitters, etc). These keys must be labeled with your pet’s name and the town you live in. Please do not include your address or your last name for security purposes. Paw Pals will retain your house key unless you request otherwise. Keys are kept in a secured lock system and are coded for customer’s confidentiality.

If you choose not to have Paw Pals retain your key, picking up and returning your keys requires two extra trips and there will be a $20 charge per trip for time and mileage. A second option for key return is via U.S. mail. To cover costs, the charge for this option is $10.

Door codes and garage codes are accepted for ease of entry, however, we still ask that you have a lockbox placed with a key (especially if you are going away). There have been instances of power outages or garage malfunctions and for this reason we ask you place a lockbox outdoors so that we may still care for your pet.

If you are going away, then yes, we still require a key. There have been incidents of power outages, garage/door codes not working, and batteries dying on garage/door key pads inhibiting us from entering your home and caring for your pet. For this reason, we still ask for a copy of the house key.

No, we accept dogs at whatever stage of learning they are at. Dog walking often helps with training. We like to know and use whatever commands and behaviors you and your pet are practicing so that we can reinforce the behaviors you want to see with your dog. We use basic commands such as “sit,” “stay,” “heel,” “off “, “lay down,” and “leave it,” and welcome your suggestions. In cases where a dog is unable to be easily controlled training will be recommended before we can continue services.

No, we only walk dogs with standard leashes.

Your pet’s safety is a top concern of ours. All dogs are walked on-leash and never left unattended. All of our employees go through an intense, in-depth Paw Pals training course including classroom and hands-on training covering everything from how to hold a leash to reading animal behavior and first aid. Most of our dog walkers and pet sitters are Certified in Pet CPR & First Aid. During our initial consultation, please go over any health or safety concerns you may have with your pet.

No, all cats/small pets will be visited no less then once every 24 hours. No exceptions will be made. This is for the health of your fur-baby.

Paw Pals requests the name and phone number of a person living nearby. If the Paw Pals pet care provider is physically unable to reach your home due to impassable roads, we will contact that person. Your pets’ health and well-being is our utmost concern and we will contact you as soon as possible to keep you informed of these events. This is pertaining to snow, ice, hurricanes, severe storms, etc.

Yes, absolutely! We are use industry leading software that will provide you with real time updates after each visit including photos and a full report card.

Yes, we do. We pet sit 365 days a year. We do charge a holiday fee of $5 per visit on the following holidays. New Years Eve, New Years Day, Easter, Memorial Day Weekend, Independence Day (weekend if applicable), Labor Day Weekend, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. This is a way for us to reward our pet sitters who are giving of their holiday time.