Dog sitting rates

[Tinydogssitter]

I'm just after some opinions if I may. What sort of prices would you expect to pay for dog sitting in your home?

What would you pay for sitting that cover 6pm - 8am, a walk and most of the time spent at your home but with periods where the sitter may leave for a period no longer than 4 hours.

Likewise what would you expect to pay for house-sitting/ dog care where the pet requires constant supervision - i.e a case where the pet has separation anxiety for example? The sitter would not leave your pet alone and would be present for the entirety of the booking. What would you consider an acceptable rate per day.

Would you expect there to be a premium price for puppies who are under 1 years old?

All opinions welcomed. Many thanks.

If I had multiple pets though it would be more appealing as we used to have to pay for the cat sitter to come in as well as to board DDog somewhere, so a in-home sitter would work out more favourably.

We have 2 different sitters we use who stay in our house. They usually take our dog on two walks each day and we have told them we are happy for them to go out for 2-3 hours when they are staying for more than one night. One charges £40 per overnight and one charges £45. Both take excellent care of our dog and he loves it when they look after him.

Hi OP, I offer pretty much this exact service and charge £50 per night which includes an hour of exercise and full-time care from 5pm-7am.

My service is aimed at people who work and hire a dog walker (normally me) at lunchtime, so the dogs are used to being left alone for 6-8 hours a day already (obviously with a break halfway through).

Extra dogs are charged at £10 per night but I don't charge extra for cats. Horses and small animals I charge a nominal fee per night depending on how much work they are.

It's definitely not a service for everyone and as you can see, lots of people wouldn't ever leave their dogs that long, but in my experience as a walker, it's incredibly common and the dogs are just fine.

My dog walker minds my dog at 40 a day but she lives 2 min away so can pop home if she needs anything, can leave him for up to 4 hrs at a time so will go and walk other dogs etc, gives him 2 or 3 walks a day and stays at my house. My dog needs a lot of attention, exercise, stimulation.

She sounds great.

I love looking after dogs that need lots of walks and enjoy enrichment games etc. A great indicator of how happy a dog is and whether their needs are met is how much they sleep - a happy dog sleeps a lot - so leaving for a 4 hours shouldn't be an issue! They need rest as well as walks and stimulation!

Same here!😳
What’s the point of a sitter if the dog will be left for 4 hrs?

Plus you will need insurance.

My friend does dog sitting where they aren’t left alone- He charges £50 per 24 h overnight per dog

Never more than 3 dogs and if three then two need to be from same family.

He’s very responsible and reliable.

Is that dog boarding in his own home?

Some people actively specify that they can be left that long – presumably they would have non-stop care for the other 18 hours of the day?

I do have first aid training, DBS, insurance and relevant experience of working with dogs.

Different strokes for different folks but, for me, this is not enough. I would want actual foundational qualifications (even if just Compass's advanced diploma or similar). I've met far too many people who think they know dogs because they've worked with them. Their version of knowing dogs and mine has been very different (see a gundog trainer I once saw pull a dog off the ground by a choke chain, a puppy trainer who tried to 'train' a rottie not to resource guard by snatching food out of its mouth, another puppy trainer who's idea of socialising the puppies was a 15mins free-for-all at the start of class, a groomer who snapped the dog with the back of a hairbrush to stop it wriggling).

Not the malign you, OP - I am sure you are fab. I just no longer trust 'I've worked with dogs' as much of a qualification. Sadly.

The "point" is that the dog gets to stay in their own home, surrounded by their own stuff, with a trusted person who follows their own routine

I know it goes against MN "rules" about how long dogs can be left, but the reality is that millions of dogs are left all day while their owners work, with someone popping in to walk them at lunchtime. And they're absolutely fine.

I'm a dog-sitter and the dogs are (gasp) left a maximum of eight hours a day in total, generally split into two blocks. It's absolutely no different to their usual routine, except I come and spend the evenings/nights with them and not their owners.

I charge £50 a night. If someone wanted constant care (where the dogs could never be left) I'd be charging at least three times that.

I totally understand where you are coming from. Getting some professional qualifications is something I am very much considering.

I spend a lot of time educating myself on dog behaviour, body language but it certainly something I would like to back up with an accredited qualification. I don't work with reactive dogs or claim to be a dog behaviourist - a meet amd greet with every potential client is non negotiable.

I agree that are many very misinformed and dangerous people working with dogs. All.of your examples are horrifying. However I would also expect that if I did hire someone with professional qualifications I would expect that to be reflected in the price I paid.

However I would also expect that if I did hire someone with professional qualifications I would expect that to be reflected in the price I paid.

Absolutely!