Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Tips For Choosing Good Pet Sitters

By Earlene McGee


A vacation or a trip abroad can be more productive and relaxing when you know you have a responsible professional looking after your beloved pet. Professional pet/animal sitters are the individuals you will entrust to enter your home and take care of your animal that may be stressed up or be upset due to being alone at home. The problem however lies in finding a good pet sitter. In fact, choosing a good caregiver to your animal is more difficult than even choosing a home contractor: this is because you will not personally be present to supervise his/her work. Below are tips to help you choose the best pet sitters in Houston TX.

Amongst your friends, neighbors and colleagues, you cannot fail to find someone who has worked with a good pet caregiver in the recent past. Input from such people is usually very invaluable as they have firsthand experience. However, you should not make your decision based on referrals alone. There are several other factors you will need to consider when looking for the best caregivers around.

You will also have peace of mind knowing that your animal is in the hands of experienced sitter. It is true that everyone has to start from somewhere. However, you do not want to risk the life of your companion by leaving them with a novice. Experience does not only refer to the number of years one has been in practice but also the number of similar pets he/she has cared for in the recent past.

When meeting the sitter, it would also be good be good to find out if he/she has commercial liability insurance to cater for accidents with your pets or negligence in your home. For instance, should the caregiver accidentally break your kitchen window playing with the dog, his/her insurer should always cater for the damage. Apart from the commercial liability cover, the sitter will also need to have a personal injury cover.

Cost of contracting the sitter is also very important. Despite the fact that you want to hire the most competent sitter, there is also the question of how much you can afford to pay them. This therefore calls for comparison shopping. After all, choosing the most expensive caregiver will not guarantee you quality services.

While it is not necessary for a dog sitter to hold bachelors degree, it would be good if you can find someone with basic training on animal caring. If you can find a professionally certified sitter, that would be an added advantage. There are various organizations that provide certification to animal caregivers after they have been trained on basic pet handling, routine care and crisis prevention.

Before you let any sitter start working for you, you should also ask him for a binding contract. This will ensure that everybody know his/her roles and what to expect from the other party. However, before you append your signature on the said contract, you should be sure that you understand its contents.

With the above tips in mind, finding a good dog sitter will not be such a big problem. You however ought to start the search early enough. This is meant to avoid last minute rush.




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