House sitter for my pooches

[Bluetitsfly]

How much is reasonable to pay for a sitter to stay in our house per day? 7 day holiday coming up and can't take the dogs (2 × patterdales)

We have booked a house sitter to stay for a week and look after our kittens. We have paid to join a website which screens and vets people but that's it. We won't be paying the people who stay at all. We advertised on the website and had lots of applicants. We do have cute kittens!

Trusted housesitter website? I did this for someone and I wasn't paid at all. Just got a bottle of wine. The idea is that you are putting them up and giving them a free "holiday". Having said that, I couldn't do it, myself - I would pay them £10 to £20 per day as a Thank you.

Someone local offered to do this (dog and cat) and I would pay them £25 per day. I said they would need to feed the chickens too (2 min job) , and they put it up to £30 a day!
Instead I paid a dog boarder £25 per day, and a teenager £4 a day to feed cat and chickens. Cat has a cat flap and lots of friends so wouldn't be lonely.
Tbh I didn't really want anyone I didn't know well staying in our house.

Are the dogs a nightmare (remember twatterdale thread) though?

ours charges around £15-£20 per night. It's a service run by a local dog trainer/ walker and cheper than kennels.
It's basically a house sitting service and you can have up to 5 pets (cat dog chicken rabbit and a hamster!), before he charges more. All the sitters we have had came from the local veterinary school.

I'm a professional dog sitter and I charge £40 per night for two dogs, plus £5 for any other animals in the home. I'm surprised anyone who needs to earn a living would do it for £20.

It's a big big commitment going to stay at someone else's house - you have none of your home comforts, you never sleep as well as you're in a strange bed in a strange house with someone else's pets.

I do this on top of professional dog walking so I have to be able to leave the animals home alone for a few hours each day to do my regular jobs and also to sort out of own animals, walk my own dog etc.

£40 per night includes three visits during the day including an hours walk. If they want extra walks then they need to pay for that on top - for two dogs it would be £17 an hour.

IMO it's not comparable to home boarding or kennels. It's a premium service that is time consuming and tiring!

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

I'm a professional dog sitter and I charge £40 per night for two dogs, plus £5 for any other animals in the home. I'm surprised anyone who needs to earn a living would do it for £20.

It's a big big commitment going to stay at someone else's house - you have none of your home comforts, you never sleep as well as you're in a strange bed in a strange house with someone else's pets.

I do this on top of professional dog walking so I have to be able to leave the animals home alone for a few hours each day to do my regular jobs and also to sort out of own animals, walk my own dog etc.

£40 per night includes three visits during the day including an hours walk. If they want extra walks then they need to pay for that on top - for two dogs it would be £17 an hour.

IMO it's not comparable to home boarding or kennels. It's a premium service that is time consuming and tiring!

Curious as I'm considering going this route for our dog instead of kennels or boarders (he's much happier in his home environment). Totally get that you'd have to leave to do your regular dog walking, but 3 visits a day sounds more like you'd be in and out checking in rather than staying in the house with the dog and only leaving when necessary. Is that right? And how long would you say the dog would be alone for during each day?

But yes I agree - £15-£20 a night sounds insanely cheap. I'd expect to pay around £40 for my (one) dog.

I pay mine 40 a day. she's there pretty much all day just pops out to the shops for her dinner for example, but other than that -she's with the dogs.

Hi @goodwinter :) yes, that's probably accurate.

It's three visits through the working day, plus I guarantee to be there constantly from 5pm-7am, so they always have company in the evenings and overnight. I walk dogs for 5-6 hours a day so I can't be there all day, but my clients know that and are happy with that.

I can't cancel my regular dog walks for the sake of a one-off sitting job as it makes no sense financially, and I have my own animals to look after as well, so I have to balance everyone's needs.

So a typical day is something like:

6am - up, breakfast, toilet break.
7am - left for two hours.
9am - back for a toilet break/company - normally for an hour.
10am-12.30pm - alone.
12.30-2pm - lunchtime walk and company.
2-5pm - alone.

All my clients are aware of how long the dogs will be left and are happy with that. If I can be there for longer during the day, I absolutely will be, though, and at weekends I'm there much more - normally 20 out of 24h, on average.

These are clients who normally leave their dogs all day while they work (with a lunch break) so it's probably more company than they'd get on a normal week day anyway.

I hope that clears things up a bit!

Thank you @fairylightsandwaxmelts! I haven't seen a routine broken down into that level of detail before, so I really appreciate it.

No problem :)

It's obviously not for everyone (or for all dogs) but it works for my clients and their situation which is all that matters at the end of the day. We have a great local daycare/kennels that I would recommend if they wanted more full-time care, and I would happily pick up/drop off from daycare if they wanted that, and then just spend the nights at the house.

I couldn't spend any longer at the house during the working day without cancelling regular walks and therefore charging a lot more money to compensate for that.

I mean, I can earn £30-40 an hour doing a group walk so to cancel that to sit in someone's home where I'm earning way less than minimum wage (for hours spent) would make no financial sense whatsoever, lol.

No I totally get that! I think I was expecting one 3-4 hour block out of the house for regular walks, which my dog is used to/fine with. But I suppose it's not always as simple as that! I don't think he'd do well with kennels as he loves being around people too much and won't do well alone overnight - so I guess I just have to weigh it all up :)

@goodwinter

No I totally get that! I think I was expecting one 3-4 hour block out of the house for regular walks, which my dog is used to/fine with. But I suppose it's not always as simple as that! I don't think he'd do well with kennels as he loves being around people too much and won't do well alone overnight - so I guess I just have to weigh it all up :)

Yeah, that's the dilemma lol.

It's not a set-up that would suit my own dog either as he dislikes being alone for long periods but luckily I have a friend with the same breed who home boards so he can go and stay there

I think many dogs without any form of anxiety do adapt short term and will be fine with plenty of evening and overnight company. I know in the US it can be common for dogs to be left overnight and they just have a few pop-ins each day but I really couldn't bring myself to leave a dog for that long!

@goodwinter
If you look around for home boarders you can find ones who will take only 1 or 2 dogs, which can be better. Your dog wouldn't be left alone.
This is the best option for us.
This would usually be people who have additional work from home jobs etc, to make it financially viable.

Home boarders must be fully insured and council licensed. It's a full time job for most and not something to do on the side.

Really helpful comments thankyou all... I was expecting £ 40ish and thinks that's reasonable. Would it be charged 40 per calendar day or by night?

7 days away but only 6 nights

My sitter charges for each 24 hours, so depends on when they start. She charges £30 which includes chicken care and occasional walks.

mine charges 40 for each 24 hour period, depending on what time they start.

I charge per overnight. Overnights (for me) finish at 7am on weekdays and 9am on weekends.

So I have a sitting job next weekend for a week. I'll be going at 9am on the Saturday and will finish at 9am the following Saturday.

So my client will pay me 7 x £40 for that, but she also wants an extra walk on the Saturday lunchtime as she won't be home until mid-afternoon, and I charge £17 for two dogs to be walked for an hour, so she'll pay that on top

So her rate in total is £297 for the week, including the extra walk on the Saturday. That includes one hour walk a day (can be split into shorter walks if they prefer), two daytime visits and 14 hours overnight care from 5pm-7am.

I have been asked (in November) to house-sit a large country house and estate in the south east of England (in an isolated location) for three weeks over Christmas and new year, including Christmas eve, Christmas day, Boxing day and New Years Eve / Day.
The client is out of the country on holiday during that time.
The house is about 20 minutes from my own house.
There are 2 dogs that need regular walks twice per day, and the expectation is that I live in to maintain the look of someone still living there.
I would not be allowed visitors.
I would get the afternoon / early evening of Christmas day to celebrate with family or friends, but not at the house, and not for more than 4 hours.
I would be responsible for buying my own food and supplies, but could use the kitchen at the house.
I would need to send updates via mobile phone to the owners every two days.
I would not be able to leave the house for longer than 4 hours during the day in order to do shopping, visit friends etc, and would stay overnight.
Under these conditions, do you think £60 per day is reasonable to ask?

Over the Christmas period, I'd be asking for £100 a day at least.