Pet sitter pay?

charlottesmom0626

Hey ladies--looking for advice on how much to pay the pet sitter 

The job:

3-4ish days (a half day, two full days, and a half day) at my home

One cat: fed once daily (she won't have to worry about the litter box, I'll do it before we leave and first thing when we get back) 

One lazy English bulldog: fed twice a day, let out into fenced backyard to go potty 4-5 times a day. She won't go for walks with anyone except me (even FI) and it's a process to get her to walk, so I won't expect the sitter to walk her.

The sitter:

One of my unpaid interns 

Lives at home with her parents and they drive her to/from work

The details: 

I wanted to have someone stay in my house because it's easier on the pets/ their routine. I live within  5 minute walking distance from our workplace. 

I'm asking her to stay at my place but I don't mind if she has people over/ someone stay with her if she doesn't want to be in the place alone. 

I'm also leaving my car, if she needs it

The trip is during the work week so shed just have to feed the animas/let the dog out before work, and then open the door for her to pee 3-4 times as needed after work/evening. 

I was thinking of offering $100, but I don't want to be cheap. Over 4 days that's only $25, which seems low, but I wasn't sure if the other "perks" (house to have someone over, the car, close to work) matter or if I should ignore all of those things and offer her something closer to the going rate I saw on a website ($80 per night)...I really have no idea how much to pay because whenever I've watched friends/families homes and pets I've done it for free or for a bottle of wine, etc. 

jdluvr06

I've never hired a pet sitter that wasn't family so I'm not sure. When my cousin watched the fur babies, she stayed in our house. I paid her $100 and left a few gift cards for her. A couple to some restaurants and one so she could rent some movies.

NYCMercedes

I pay $25 a day for a cat and a dog, same as you, with no litter box duty and just letting the dog out to the fenced backyard 4x per day. I give the college kids the option to stay at my house and have ONE friend over. They can clean out the fridge too, for all I care. The middle and high school kids do not get the option of staying over.

RebeccaFlower

I think $25 a day is good, plus maybe a GC to a local pizza/chinese place would be a nice touch. I pay my pup's daycare $30 a night. 

charlottesmom0626

Thanks ladies. Originally I thought I'd be happy receiving that amount per day, but then I second guessed myself.

charlottesmom0626

And here is the princess handing out candy tonight

BrandNewJ

All the sitters out here that we trust with our dog are between 50-75$ per day.

RebeccaFlower

charlottesmom0626 said:

Thanks ladies. Originally I thought I'd be happy receiving that amount per day, but then I second guessed myself.

Maybe this isn't good, but I also think with her circumstances, $25 and a break from mom and dad might be welcome. If it was me, I would not want to leave H for $25 but her circumstance is different. 

LabLove86

I used to pet-sit all the time (I'm a Licensed Vet Tech - so I would get recommended to clients at the animal clinic I worked at, then referrals from there. . . . ) 

I havn't in a few years because my own cat started getting too stressed out when I left her - so I gave it up. But I do miss the extra $$ . . . 

Anyway - my breakdown of charges was always:

$15/stop over ($10 if you were pretty close AND it was an 'easy' job)

$30-60/night depending on circumstances (# of pets, cat/dog, medical issues, necessary duties)

So in your circumstance I would have charged $90 total. 3 Nights, with 'easy' pets, no medical issues, and I don't have to touch the letterbox OR take the pup for a walk? Easy-peasy. (Remember that most of my clients had elderly/sick pets with very specific needs and 184398 medications)

We will have a pet sitter split the time with BF's dad when we go on vaca in a few months, and I will leave the agreed upon amount of cash, plus a gift card for Tim Hortons (coffee shop) for the sitter. That little gift card, or extra cash, or small gift, or whatever are really nice touches. I loved it - I knew my clients appreciated doing the pet-sitting for them . . . .but the little extra was just a nice added bonus. 

lyndausvi

We are paying our pet sitter $400 for 10 nights 2 dogs.    Plus we got her a huge bottle of Crown Royal and loading her up with some other beverages and snacks at the house.

I have an active English bulldog and a sort-of active rescue dog.

charlottesmom0626

lyndausvi said:

We are paying our pet sitter $400 for 10 nights 2 dogs.    Plus we got her a huge bottle of Crown Royal and loading her up with some other beverages and snacks at the house.

I have an active English bulldog and a sort-of active rescue dog.

Active bully?! Tell me more about this magic!

 I adopted Charlotte two years ago and she was 20lbs over weight and had food allergies. We got those two fixed up but struggle getting her to walk...she's completely content with snoozing for 20 hours a day, eating, pooping, and perhaps some tug of war.

STARMOON44

$100 and I'd ask her to scoop the letterbox daily. That's going to get gross and there's no reason she can't do it. I'd expect to take care of that if I agreed to pet sit.

labro

I've never paid anyone to petsit but I used to do a lot of "stay in the client's home for a week or more" type of deals during summers off from college. I'd say I would usually average between $150 and $200 for the week so $100 seems kind of low. However, my parents live in a fairly wealthy area and that may have bumped up what I was making. I never requested a specific daily rate, I just took what was offered to me. The jobs were almost always for a single dog home, no other pets, average activity level, usually no health issues.

Echoing what someone else said, I'd ask her to clean out to litter box daily or every other day at least...but I'd maybe consider giving her a little more money than $100 for the week. I'd make that much babysitting two kids over a long evening sometimes.

lyndausvi

charlottesmom0626 said:

lyndausvi said:

We are paying our pet sitter $400 for 10 nights 2 dogs.    Plus we got her a huge bottle of Crown Royal and loading her up with some other beverages and snacks at the house.

I have an active English bulldog and a sort-of active rescue dog.

Active bully?! Tell me more about this magic!

 I adopted Charlotte two years ago and she was 20lbs over weight and had food allergies. We got those two fixed up but struggle getting her to walk...she's completely content with snoozing for 20 hours a day, eating, pooping, and perhaps some tug of war.

I have no idea.  We got him a 8 weeks.    Do not get me wrong he can be lazy.  It's 9:35am and still has not woke up yet.    Then there are times all he wants to do is play.   I will be trying to work and he is jumping on me with a rope to play tug of war or fetch.

He is an AW.  Walks = attention to him.  Since he likes attention so he likes to walk.   He will go on 2+ mile walks.  Loves the dog park.  Riding in the car. 

SmileDamnit

We usually have a good friend come stay at our house when we travel and generally stock the fridge and give her a hundred bucks or so. She lives in a small apartment and likes having all the space, and she looooooves Gus so it works out quite nicely.

charlottesmom0626

Thanks everyone for your responses!

And on the cat's litter box: Don't think she's being mistreated. She has a very large box, I usually scoop every other day/every three days. I'll be scooping it in the afternoon, leaving for 2 whole days, and scooping in the morning when I return. Before she lived with me, FI would sometimes go away for the weekend and she was just fine with the two days.

penguin44

I pay $20 per dog per day at the kennel. I think $100 would be fine. I would stock the fridge before you leave as a nice gesture. 

sophhabobopha

charlottesmom0626 said:

lyndausvi said:

We are paying our pet sitter $400 for 10 nights 2 dogs.    Plus we got her a huge bottle of Crown Royal and loading her up with some other beverages and snacks at the house.

I have an active English bulldog and a sort-of active rescue dog.

Active bully?! Tell me more about this magic!

 I adopted Charlotte two years ago and she was 20lbs over weight and had food allergies. We got those two fixed up but struggle getting her to walk...she's completely content with snoozing for 20 hours a day, eating, pooping, and perhaps some tug of war.

Me too.

loveislouder

I watched my friends 4 cocker spaniels and one bulldog for a week. Her mom had them trained to go out once an hour so when I got home from work I had quite the mess to clean up. She paid me 80 bucks. Oh. And whenever I'd put the bulldog in the kennel the cocker spaniels would pee on him. Have you ever tried to give a bull dog a bath? No thank you.

lyndausvi

loveislouder said:

I watched my friends 4 cocker spaniels and one bulldog for a week. Her mom had them trained to go out once an hour so when I got home from work I had quite the mess to clean up. She paid me 80 bucks. Oh. And whenever I'd put the bulldog in the kennel the cocker spaniels would pee on him. Have you ever tried to give a bull dog a bath? No thank you.

that sounds awful.  Poor bulldog getting peed on.   Chef is not a fan of baths, so i know.  Plus they are so dense and compact.  Not easy to get in a bathtub.

QueerFemme

We pay our petsitter $100 a night to stay in our home. We also have 6 pets, but they are all pretty easy to deal with. But her normal rate is $50 a night for the first pet and $10. for each additional pet.

QueerFemme

Basically, find out what it would cost you to board them, and them pay a little extra.