One of the most common questions I get asked as founder of a petsitting and housesitting business is this. How do I find a dog sitter near me? And ( quick follow up question ) do they have to cost me the earth like last year? So here’s what I advise.
Dogs make us all happy, mostly
So having pets is a deep and unashamed joy, for the most part. Any pet and especially dog owner will tell you about the fun, companionship and adoring looks you get from your pup before and especially after feeding. It can be a wonderful relationship.
Yet there are undoubtedly challenges to owning a dog as a pet. Training can be frustrating if they arrive chez vous, untutored in the art of the outdoor toilet. The vets bills become a topic of some consternation as they get older. And every time you take a holiday and need to leave them somewhere, the bills with numbers like telephone number can be absolutely eye watering.
And then, we had the situation where we returned from a long holiday abroad, having left our pup in a kennels, to find that he had lost a lot of weight and lost his voice altogether. It turned out on this occasion he had not been happy there.
Dog sitters in your own home are a boost
So then we tried having a dog sitter come into our home to care for our dog, in other words a dog sit. And that worked really well. In fact we found her details in the local newsagents. She was local, a professional dog sitter, she evidently loved dogs and was used to looking after a property too so the house was tidy and clean on our return. But there was a significant bill to be paid. So the cost of lovely indulgent holiday abroad just got bigger.
A third way to find dog sitters near me
One way to get over the impact of the cost of a dogsitter in your own home is to find someone who will come to stay with the dog, but do it for free. So like many people on top of getting ready for a family holiday, finishing work, getting the kids ready, packing, checking any deliveries have someone to collect them in your absence you also find to find a reliable dog sitter that wont break the bank.
I decided it was time to create a network online, one that would help me and others like me sort out these challenges once and for all. Remembering family holidays yonks ago where my parents had agreed to feed the cat for a friend and water their garden in exchange for us staying in their home as our family holiday, made me thing I could do this. Why not build a safe and friendly network across the world even where you can connect with other like minded collaborative people to help each other?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raFAdd19SV4&t=7s
Through the wonders of modern technology we structure the adverts that people place in a way that local dog sitters will see them promoted when they look on line. One of our favourite case studies proves the point and is described in the video by the dog owners and the dog sitters who it turned out lived only 7 miles apart before being connected online.
Free house and petsitting = an exchange of services
And so Housesitmatch.com was born. We are a membership network helping to connect home and pet owners with sitters. All members are ID checked for safety online, and sitters are double checked for the peace of mind of the homeowners. The only costs are the small annual membership fee. The rest is barter, an exchange of services if you like. Free pet and house sitting for free accommodation.
In fact we as a family have moved on from having someone come into our home to look after our pet, to housesitting and petsitting ourselves as a holiday. It’s great fun. As we no longer have a pet dog at home, we love to look after other people’s animals. We’re off to Cornwall this August to care for Puffin the sheepdog. She gives us our fix as we play with her, and we get two weeks in Cornwall by the sea, for free!
Living like a local
While I still look after dogs in my own locality, I am learning more about my local area by talking to the homeowners and their neighbours. It is remarkable how moving five miles away from your normal stomping ground and hearing different recommendations can open your eyes to new discoveries. It really is the icing on the cake, getting to know a new location through the recommendations of the homeowner who is local.
All in all it has never been easier to find a dog sitter near me. Mainly because I now have this website that helps connect people through all kinds of clever and fun online games. What’s more it is a safe network, protecting all those who choose to use it. Because it is my network, that matters to me more than anything.
By Lamia Walker
Founder, Housesitmatch.com
