Anyone Know How To Become Professional Pet Sitter?

[KelseyCupcakes]

 I’m looking for a new job, I currently work at Macy’s and HATE IT!!! I’m more of an animal person not a people person (I like people don’t get me wrong! But rude people…. all day…ehh). I’ve been looking all over online and haven’t found anything that teaches you HOW to be a professional pet sitter, all I saw was “search for pet sitters in your area!”. Do you need to take some college courses? Online? Only online one was in the uk! I have a friend who works with a rat rescue, she also knows bunny owners, if I am licensed I’d feel safe going into someone’s home caring for their pets. So, does anyone know anything about it? I think it would be a great career for me because I want to work with animals sooooo bad. I tried applying at PetCo, and I told them I have a looooot of experience with animals, pshhhh, they didn’t care about that they made me take a frickin’ math test and I failed it. Stupid!! Anyways…. yeah, any information would be a great help. Thank you all. : )

[Mandyyy]

I applied at my petco. I have worked in three different shelters, with a dog trainer, in a dog day care and did a week-long internship at Animal Farm Foundation (A pit Bull Rescue in NY). They could careless. :/ I still don’t understand why they didn’t hire me. They LOVE people with dog training experience…

But I am pretty sure theirs no courses. There’s just “years of experience” with animals, and usually with training and different types. Like I specialize in rats, and most small caged animals. I also train and work with dogs. It’s rare but I know you can find dog training courses… but that’s about it. :/ I’m sorry. I would suggest you get a business license (if you want to start a business of it) and make a site, FB, cards and just promote like crazy. Also contact good shelters (stay away from most humane and the ASPCA. A lot of have rep), get with rescue groups, pet stores and anything else pet related so they can promote you as well.

I would also save p a BUNCH of money before quitting your job. Just so you have money to help you out.

Good luck!

[Sarita]

I’m going to move your post to the Lounge area.

I know there is a professional pet sitting organization/association, I would google them and see if their site helps you.

[kinggoblin]

I’ve worked at petco and petsmart, and petco ( I was a dog groomer ) is better than petsmart ( cashier ) but both are HORRIBLE after awhile, all the rude/uninformed/neglectful pet owners flock there in masses and won’t let you teach them any different.

I think its care.com or something that has a pet sitting option, I don’t know how often people check it though. You could probably advertise with flyers/craigslist in your area. There aren’t any college courses for pet sitting unless you wanted to be a vet tech, but then that isn’t pet sitting.

[Sarita]

You will need to get bonded for this before you can go into people’s homes, that much I know.

[Beka27]

I’m sure working at a pet store would be very depressing seeing as you ARE an animal lover. Would you be able to see inhumane conditions and NOT report the store? I can almost bet that is why neither of you were hired. Had you come in seeking a job because you “need a part-time job for some extra cash”, you would have been hired. But I’ve known enough people who have worked in pet stores to know that as soon as you walk in talking about rescue work, etc… they are going to dismiss you as being “more trouble than you’re worth”. Their focus is the bottom-line, so they can’t “afford” to have people working there and trying to switch animals to better food, better litter, or telling customers what they do/do not need, etc… The math test should have summed that up for you too: it’s a retail job, so just like Macy’s, all they want is someone who can SELL.

As far as petsitting, I would definitely try and get with a respected rescue. Start with one breed of animal and expand from there.

[LBJ10]

You need to get liability insurance, that is for sure. You don’t want to cause damage in someone’s home and have to pay for it out of pocket. Not that you would intentionally cause damage, but accidents happen. What might be helpful is taking a pet CPR and first aid class. They have them at my community college, so you might check out yours. Having insurance and knowing what to do in case of an emergency are two very good selling points. You could start out by pet sitting for people you know (and people that the people you know know) and then use them as references when you start to branch out to the general public. You can advertise on FB, craigslist, and in the newspaper (there is a services section in the classified ads). Create your own website too. Having your own domain name is relatively inexpensive now.

[Stickerbunny]

http://www.petsitters.org/index.cfm?section=Certification

And as always when working with other peoples animals: Make sure you have it IN WRITING that you can take their pet to the vet if it’s an emergency situation (and you can’t get ahold of them) and THEY are responsible for the bill.

Edit: And yes, working at a pet store would be awful – so many pet owners coming in that know NOTHING about pet care and you aren’t allowed to say anything more than “suggest” a different food etc as a sales pitch. Not to mention the other employees being careless with the animals. *sigh* I would report most pet stores I have been in in a second, so no wonder they don’t hire many animal lovers! My petco lets their animals run out of water and I annoy them enough going in and telling them to fill up the bottles, I don’t even buy anything, I just go in to check their water. 

[KelseyCupcakes]

That’s excellent! That’s just the course I’m looking for thank you! And, I know what all of you are saying. I walked in the PetCo I applied at and I walked over to the small animal section and this (excuse my rudeness) quite heavy lady with her son were looking at the rats and were like “aww look how cute! They’re sleeping!” and tapping on the aquarium window. She saw me trying to get in closer to check on the animals but she wouldn’t move!! I looked at the “sleeping” rats. They weren’t sleeping, they are sickly! They were all huddled together and all their eyes were squinting some with crust around it. Made me sick. I get so mad at people!!

[Monkeybun]

Posted By Mandyyyy on 11/20/2011 11:09 PM
 (stay away from most humane and the ASPCA. A lot of have rep)

 

Disagree. From my experience, the humane societies and ASPCAs I have been to and volunteered at are excellent. No, they are not No Kill facilities, as sometimes it is just necessary, but they don’t kill healthy animals, at least not the ones I have been to.

 

[Sarita]

I didn’t even understand what she meant by this statement MB…but I agree with you, not sure how they have any worse reputations than anyone else and SPCA’s and humane societies vary greatly from location to location as well.

[Stickerbunny]

Some do have reps though Monkey – I wouldn’t ignore them all for that, but some are pretty awful. I would just research the shelter before hand, without bias either way tbh.

[Monkeybun]

Indeed, a lot of shelters can be bad, but so can a lot of regular “rescues.” So to say to avoid them but not other shelters irks me

[Joyfull_music]

The humane society you need to stay away from is Humane Society of the United States. HSUS is no better then PETA. Local and state Humane societies can be pretty trust worthy though.

I remember a couple years back I wanted to volunteer at a local rescue near my house. First off the lady was really rude. My sister and her boyfriend were there too and were told that they could not volunteer until they were 21. Ummmm…stupid much? Then I found out they are breedists. Just seconds after she told me they do not accept pit bulls and other “pit bull type” dogs, another employee showed up and she shouted to him. “Don’t go in the back room just yet, the dog I have back there is aggressive.” WOW, just freakin’… WOW. So you will not take in a perfectly friendly pittie, but you will take in a knowingly aggressive dog that is not a pit? Just stupid.

[Stickerbunny]

A lot of rescues/shelters won’t take in pits, which I don’t agree with – but a lot of them do it based off a city ordinance as well and have no choice but to not accept them. And HSUS does a LOT to help pits in this country with their anti-animal fighting and puppy mill campaigns AND they are against anti-pit legislation. I disagree with some of their choices, but on a whole they do a lot of good for animals. I’ve been in both good and bad shelters, it all depends on who is in charge of the specific shelter, not the group they are associated with.

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