Anyone here did dog sitting as a side hustle? Do you mind sharing your experience, was it worth it?

19 comments

1. I did for a neighbor in high school. They fantastically overpaid me so it was worth it. I think they would have paid a real dog sitter less.

2. Best gig in the world when you’re a teenager or sometimes college student.

3. Dog walking/ pet sitting is where it’s at!

4. I’ve done it a few times. People seem to be willing to pay a good bit of money for it because its still cheaper than boarding.

5. I’ve never done it but I think it depends on a few factors. Generally most side gigs don’t make sense financially in the long run. The people that make money walking dogs, would seem to be the ones that can walk multiple at once in cities where they have multiple customers near each other. Anything that involves you driving to someone’s house has a bunch of hidden costs that eat away your profits in the long run. It could be profitable but you need to think about all the extra costs involved.

6. I did it a lot as a teenager, it was chill and easy. Absolutely worth it, just getting paid to hang out with a dog. I still do it occasionally.

7. Yeah, I did it for some neighbors last summer. Easiest job ever and they overpaid me by way too much.

8. This day and age it’s not fun unless it’s for a friend or family member. You need contracts set up and people don’t like to pay. I highly suggest getting insurance as well. I had one lady wanted me to stay the night and visit three times during the day, all for $20 a day “because that was reasonable”.

   I’ve seen many scenarios happen, owners didn’t know a fence panel was broke, knew the dog was territorial or crate aggressive and didn’t mention it, dog counter surfed and owner left something up there they shouldn’t have and dog got into it *immediately after the owner left and before the sitter showed up*.
   Dog needs to go to the vet but owner won’t answer the phone so you take the dog anyways then the owner gets pissed about the emergency bill even though you saved the dogs life. Owner gets detained on the flight home for being drunk and is MIA on return day, hopefully your instructions weren’t to lock the keys inside on your last visit.

   And the mother of all, people refuse to pay. They won’t pay up front because they want to check the house over on return, but you left a corner of a rug flipped over you must have done something wrong, they won’t pay you. Or you walked Fido really good the last day so he’s tired you must have beaten him because he only ran 10 laps instead of 12 when they came home, no pay.

   These are the bad of the bad of dog sitting. They aren’t the norm. Overall it can be rewarding, easy money. These bad apples have a way of ruining your outlook. But you MUST protect yourself above all and have a LEGAL contract they have to sign, with agreed payment. There are fb groups for this specific industry, join one and see what’s going on. Get an idea of pricing and contracts.

   Wouldn’t hurt to get certified in dog cpr, either.

9. I do it for my grandparents when they go on trips. Really easy because their dog has all the personality of a throw rug with the BMI of a potato, and they pay me real well because if they boarded her it’d cost like $2500

10. Yeah, it was fine.

11. I was a dog sitter (and cat sitter) for a couple years while I was working retail – it was pretty great tbh. I’m sure it vastly depends on the household you’re working for, but 1) I love animals 2) they lived nearby and 3) they were so generous for what I felt like was really easy – even quite fun – work. I would house sit as well, give the dog and cat medication, walk the dog, feed them per their schedule, and then just hang out at their house in the meantime.

12. Dogsitters are mostly needed on holidays and weekends, so keep that in mind.

13. I used to watch my neighbor’s dog and 2 cats while she went on vacations back in the early 00’s. The dog was great, little well-trained shih tzu, I’d just bring him back to my house and he was cool. The cats hated me but that was ok, one was like 25 years old and blind and deaf and the other one was just an asshole. I’d just go scoop the boxes and feed them 2x/day and maybe check the blind one to make sure she didnt get stuck somewhere. Easy money.

14. I did dog, horse, chicken & cow-sitting in high school/early college, so I guess so. It was always for people I knew, usually someone I was already working for when it came to the horses & chickens.

    I don’t know that I’d want to do it for a random person because people can be weird and picky with their pets so that limited my ability for side-hustling with it. I loosely know someone who runs a doggy daycare & grooming, and seems to love the business but she’s also much better at dealing with people/clients than I am.

15. Not doing it myself, but as a pet owner, the good ones have to be booked months in advance, it’s crazy

16. My friend did it when we were fresh out of college. She was still living at home so she’d include hose sitting with dog sitting. She made a lot of money. She stopped when she got married.

17. I did it in high school, when I was living at home, and living around my home. I was lucky and my family has a very well trained Aussie that was also extremely dog friendly. Like, people loved seeing her at the dog park. That was a huge factor and all my business came from there.

    It’s extremely connection based in my experience. I basically had someone from the dog park offer me the job by chance and it went from there.

    It’s usually good money, you don’t pay utilities. It really depends on the dog too. A senior dog that requires little exercise is easy mode. A high energy aggressive dog is much harder.

    Think about 40 minutes of exercise versus two hours.

    I was lucky to live in a relatively well off area so people would pay a lot. It was way more than the labor was worth IMO.

    When I moved, my connections were worthless and I stopped after getting no real offers that weren’t total lowballs.

    I’d also try to train the dog in a new trick. You’d be surprised at the number of dogs who don’t know simple stuff like roll over, shake, speak, etc. A lot of these tricks can be taught in under an hour for a decently trainable dog. I had an Aussie, so that’s basically cheating (she learned all those in like 15 minutes max).

    I haven’t messed around with the professional side of things.

18. I only do it for co workers or close friends. So all good experiences.

19. I dog sit frequently still i’m 18, about 95% of the dogs I’ve watched have been super easy, well trained and super friendly. However one dog in particular gets super territorial and sometimes tries to bite me im lucky it isn’t a huge dog or i’d for sure defnitely need stitches. But I understand its because I dont live there and I’m not their owner which he misses probably super badly. I’d reccomend if you want to get into it to ask your neighbor, or whoever your sitting for if you can spend some time to get to know the dog and for the dog to get to know you. Most dogs when they see their owner being nice and friendly with you they associate you with friend. Now that’s not always the case as the dog listed above. It can definitely be stressful if the dog is territorial. However just keep in mind if you get to know their behaviors its not to bad and you can learn ways around it by giving them treats, taking them on a walk or just being super frinedly, what worked for me was actually petting the other dog in the house and giving him some love and eventually the territorial one came out of his shell and let me pet him, now he’ll still try to get me sometimes but I just be careful lol. But this is one dog out of many I’ve watched and all have been super easy, friendly, and just straight awesome to sit. Heck even a pitbull I sitted loved me and was just over joyed when I would show up to let her out and feed her and those are known to be the most territorial. (Introducing yourself to the dog while the owners are there *before they leave* is definitely a huuuuge reccomendation of mine and helps a ton) But as a final note overall it’s definitely a great side gig for a little bit of extra cash it won’t be too sustaining but definitely not bad, Just because I had one little territorial dog doesn’t mean you will, like I said literally all the dogs I watched were amazing and well behaved and fun to be around.

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    Edit: Most sitters charge pretty extreme prices I normally charge like $10 a day I was thinking of increasing the price, but I’d just reccomend it as a side gig you won’t make to much, basically what I make from dog sitting is my fun money, and whatever else I make from doing other gigs is my savings money. But I’ve been looking for a new job for long term money, but for a side gig depending on what you charge you can make a little bit extra cash.