Questions to Ask a Pet Sitter
For interviewing a pet sitter before you hand over a key. These questions cover insurance and training, what a visit actually involves, how they handle medication and a sick animal, who covers if they cannot come, and what happens to your key and door code.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How long have you been sitting, and how many clients do you have now?
Why ask it
An easy opener that also tells you whether this is a business or a favor with a price. Someone juggling forty regulars is reliable but stretched; someone with three has time but may not have met a crisis yet.
Are you insured and bonded, and can you send me the certificate?
Why ask it
Insurance covers injury to your animal or damage to your home while they are working; bonding covers theft. Ask for the actual document rather than a yes, because plenty of sitters believe they are covered by a policy that lapsed or that never included pet care.
Have you done pet first aid or CPR training, and when?
Why ask it
Certificates expire and the practical part is what matters. A useful answer includes what they learned to do about choking or bleeding, not just the name of the course.
Will you personally be doing the visits, or do you send someone else when you are booked?
Why ask it
Larger services rotate staff, which means the person your dog met at the interview may not be the one who turns up. Ask to be told the name in advance and whether backup staff hold the same insurance and training.
How long is a visit, and what happens during it?
Why ask it
A thirty-minute visit and a fifteen-minute drop-in are different services often described with the same word. Ask them to walk through it minute by minute: feeding, walk, litter, water, play, medication, lights.
How many other homes are you visiting on the same day, and in what order?
Why ask it
This is what determines whether the evening visit lands at six or at ten. Sitters with a heavy route often keep to a rough window rather than a time, and it is better to hear that now than to watch a camera at nine.
What are your rates, and what costs extra: holidays, late bookings, medication, a second animal?
Why ask it
Holiday surcharges and per-additional-pet fees are standard and usually fine; what you want is the full list before you book. A sitter who cannot produce one in writing will produce it in the invoice.
Can I speak to two or three clients with an animal like mine?
Why ask it
Similarity matters more than the number of references. Someone excellent with cats may be out of their depth with a reactive large dog, and previous clients will tell you about lateness and communication in ways a sitter never will.
What do you do with a dog who lunges or reacts to other dogs on a walk?
Why ask it
You are listening for management: quiet streets, distance, timing walks for low-traffic hours, and no yanking or correcting devices you have not approved. Anyone who says they will train the behavior out of your dog in a week is a problem.
If my pet hides and will not come out, what do you do?
Why ask it
Common with cats and with anxious rescues, and the wrong answer is dragging an animal out from under a bed. Good sitters describe sitting quietly, confirming food and litter have been used, and telling you if they have not seen the animal at all.
Have you given injections or pills to an animal who resists, and how did it go?
Why ask it
Insulin, thyroid tablets and eye drops all need to happen on time whether or not the patient agrees. Ask them to describe the technique they use, since the story tells you whether they have really done it.
What would you do if my pet stopped eating, or had diarrhea on the second day?
Why ask it
You want a sitter who notices and reports rather than waits to see. Listen for whether they would tell you immediately, and whether they know what a change in water intake or litter output might mean.
At what point would you take my pet to a vet without reaching me first, and who pays?
Why ask it
Set this before you leave. Agree a spending limit, leave a signed authorization with your vet, and decide whether they use your practice or the nearest emergency clinic. Sitters who have no view on this have not thought about the worst day.
What happens if you get sick, or your car breaks down?
Why ask it
The single most important logistical question and the one most often skipped. You want a named backup who has met your animal and can get in, not a promise that it has never happened.
How and how often will you update me, and will you send photos?
Why ask it
Agree the channel and the rhythm, since a sitter who texts once at the end of the day and an owner expecting a photo per visit will both be unhappy. Ask what happens if you do not reply, particularly across time zones.
What do you need from me in writing before the first visit?
Why ask it
A professional will ask for vet details, feeding amounts, medication times, habits and hiding places, and a signed contract. If they need nothing in writing, they will be working from memory on day four.
Do you do anything in the house besides pet care: mail, bins, plants, blinds?
Why ask it
Many sitters include a few of these and some charge for them. It also matters for how lived-in the house looks while you are away, which is worth agreeing rather than assuming.
Who else will know my door code, and where do you keep my key while I am away?
Why ask it
A key with your address on the tag in an unlocked car is a real risk. Reasonable answers include a coded tag, a lockbox on your property, or a temporary door code you can delete when you return.
How would you handle it if something in the house got broken or went missing?
Why ask it
The answer tells you how they respond to bad news generally. Someone who says they would photograph it and tell you the same day is easier to trust than someone who assures you it never happens.
What sort of animal or situation do you turn down?
Why ask it
A sitter with limits is a sitter who knows their competence. Refusing aggressive dogs, unmedicated diabetics or homes with unfenced pools is a good sign; claiming to handle anything usually means they have not been tested.
Hiring a Pet Sitter You Can Leave the House With
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
The Meet and Greet
Hold it in your home, and watch the animal
How your dog or cat reacts to a stranger in their space tells you things no reference can. Watch whether the sitter lets the animal come to them, whether they crouch rather than loom, and whether they ask questions about behavior before touching.
Do a paid trial visit while you are still in town
Book one visit before a trip, go out for the hour, and see what the update looks like and whether the timing held. It is the cheapest way to learn how someone works, and it lets your animal meet them twice before you fly.
Verify the insurance yourself
Ask for the certificate and check the policy is current and covers pet sitting rather than general liability for something else. If they use a booking platform, read what the platform's guarantee actually covers, since most exclude pre-existing conditions and cap payouts.
Write the care sheet before the interview
One page: feeding amounts and times, medication with doses, vet name and number plus an after-hours clinic, your contact details, the backup human, the spending limit you authorize, and where the leash, food and carrier live. Handing this over is also a test of whether they read it.
Before You Leave
- Leave written vet authorization and a spending cap, and tell your vet the sitter's name so they will treat without you on the phone.
- Confirm the times of the first and last visits against your actual flights, including delays.
- Show them where the water shutoff, breaker box and cleaning supplies are.
- Leave more food and litter than the trip needs, and say where more can be bought.
- Test the door code or lock with them present rather than trusting it on the day.
- Tell a neighbor a sitter will be coming, and give the sitter the neighbor's number.
- Note anything a camera will show them doing, since recording someone inside your home without telling them is both rude and, in some places, unlawful.
Signs to Walk Away
- No insurance certificate, or a policy they cannot describe.
- No contract, and no written record of feeding or medication instructions.
- No named backup for illness or car trouble.
- Cash only, with no receipt and no invoice.
- They do not ask about your animal's behavior, triggers or medical history.
- They talk over you, or dismiss a concern about anxiety or reactivity as fussing.
- References are all friends and family, or cannot be contacted.
- They arrive late to the interview itself with no explanation.