Policies
Meet and Greet Policy
Before beginning your pet sitting or dog walking service, we require each of our clients to book a free Meet and Greet which will take place in the client's home.
This is a great time for you to show us where you keep treats, pet food, water, pet medicine etc. We’ll share a little about the company, and you can ask any questions you might have. Additionally, if you decide to choose us as your pet sitters, you can give us keys at the meeting if you’re prepared to do so.
Client Portal Policy
We use a portal for storing and updating all the information we need for our clients and pets. The portal is also where you’ll schedule the services you want, read our visit summaries, see messages from us, sign contracts, and view and pay your invoices (although you’re welcome to pay with cash or check if you prefer.)
Vaccination Policy
For your protection as well as ours, we require all the pets under our care be up to date on their vaccinations. There’s a section in our online portal where you can upload information about your pets’ vaccinations.
Cat Policy
We require that cats under our care be visited at least once a day. We believe this is important for their own health and safety, so we don’t offer any every-other-day visits while you’re on vacation. If we do a vacation pet-sit for a cat, it must be at least once a day while you’re away.
ID Tag Policy
We highly recommend your pets wear ID tags or be microchipped while they are under our care.
Home Arrival Notification Policy
We request you let us know once you arrive safely back home if we’ve been caring for your pet(s) while you’re out of town. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll continue caring for your pet(s) until we do— if you’re delayed, we want to make sure your pet’s care continues until you arrive safely at home. If we have to make more visits than originally planned because you were delayed coming home, or you came home but forgot to let us know, we’ll have to charge you for whatever extra visits were made on your pet’s behalf.
Requesting Service Policy
We have an online portal (and app) where you can request all the dog walks and in-home pet sits you want. You will receive an approval notice once we have approved your requests. If you don’t receive an approval notification, please let us know— don’t leave for a trip, assuming we are coming if you haven’t had your requested service approved yet.
Payment Policy
We accept credit cards, debit cards, ACH/e-check payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay, cash, and checks.
Home Access Policy
If your home requires keys for access, we request that you provide two keys for us. It’s up to you if you’d like us to keep those keys in our office in-between our services to you, or if you’d like us to return them to you at the end of each stay. We prefer to not lock the keys in your home at the end of the last visit in case you’re delayed coming home and need us to provide additional visits. If you want us to return the keys for you, a good option could be a lockbox or something similar. We can also return the keys to you in person after you return home— please note, there is a small fee for trips made to your home specifically to pick up or drop off a key.
If you would prefer to have us come in using electronic codes instead of keys, that’s totally fine! Just please realize if the electronic lock malfunctions and we are unable to access the home, it would leave your pet without care. We do always request you give us an emergency contact, so in a situation such as this, if your emergency contact had a key, we would try to get in touch with them to access the home so your pet could still be cared for. We would also first, of course, get in touch with you to discuss the situation. Regardless if we are able to access the home or not, we’d still have to charge you for the visit since we came to your home and took time trying to get in.
Aggressive Pets Policy
We reserve the right to stop service at any time if your pet poses a danger to the safety and health of itself, other pets, other people, or our sitters and walkers. We do not accept pets that have a history of attacking others.
Inclement Weather Policy
We will use our best judgment while caring for your pet(s) and will carry out your instructions and preferences to the best of our ability. If the weather makes it too dangerous to drive to your home, the service schedule may be changed, interrupted, or altered. If it is not possible to get there safely you will be notified of the change.
Pet House and Yard Clean-Up Policy
We will clean up and properly dispose of pet waste that occurs during our visit in your outside waste receptacle, as well as clean up any accidents your pet(s) may have made inside to the best of our ability. We are not responsible for staining on carpets or other areas by your pet(s). We ask that you provide cleaning products for us to use in case of accidents.
Flea and Tick Issue Policy
We highly suggest you use preventative measures to keep fleas and ticks from being an issue for your pet(s). If we see fleas or ticks are a problem, we reserve the right to cancel service until the bug situation is resolved. If this happens, there will be no refunds. We will contact you immediately to let you know about the situation and so you can find alternate care for your pet(s) until you arrive home. We cannot risk spreading ticks or fleas to other homes.
Rain and Hot Weather Policy
In the event of extreme heat, 90 degrees Fahrenheit or above, we reserve the right to use our best judgment in caring for your pet(s). If we feel like it’s safer for them to have a shorter time outside, we will shorten the outdoor portion of our visit and spend more time inside playing.
In the event of rain, we again reserve the right to use our best judgment in caring for your pet(s). Typically, if it’s just light rain, we’d still do a normal walk. The harder the rain is, the shorter the walk will be. This also depends a bit on your dog(s) since some dogs refuse to go outside in the rain. We will at least bring them out to use the bathroom in that case, and whatever time we don’t spend outside will be spent in additional playtime indoors. We always do our best to provide your dog with the safest longest walk possible.
Sitter/Walker Safety Policy
If a client makes one of our sitters/walkers feel uncomfortable and/or feel like they are in danger, we reserve the right for the sitter to immediately end the visit and leave. We do not tolerate any type of harassment or violence to our sitters and will immediately end service if any sitter is harassed, threatened, or treated in a violent manner. In those situations, the visit will not be refunded because it was ended by the client’s actions.
Harness Policy
Repeated pressure applied to a dog’s neck (like the pressure applied when a dog pulls against a leash attached to their collar) can cause tracheal damage. This damage can be as mild as causing a bit of a cough, or severe— it can even be severe enough to include tracheal collapse and suffocation, leading to death. We never want to risk contributing to tracheal damage for any dog, so it’s our policy to only use harnesses.
After a great deal of research, we believe the harness we’ve chosen is the best fit for the dogs in our care as a comfortable safe option. It allows your dog to enjoy the outdoors without putting their health at risk. We replace our harnesses and leashes any time they start to look a bit worn. We also measure your dog (and update their measurements if they grow) so your dog can always have the highest quality walk possible.
We feel confident our walk set up will keep your dog comfortable and happy, while also not giving them an opportunity to slip out of their harness and run off.
*We can make rare exceptions to the harness policy for dogs who have been trained to walk with a collar and are very good about not pulling. We also can make exceptions for senior dogs who have never walked with a harness and would have a difficult time learning now— as long as they aren’t pullers.
Leash Policy
We not only bring our own harnesses, but our own leashes as well for each visit that involves a dog being walked. Again, these are sanitized in between each walk. Bringing our own leashes not only helps make sure they are in excellent condition and not at risk of fraying, but it also allows us to use a type we consider a safer kind. Ours are all a fixed length (not retractable as retractable give less control), and they have a secure lockable clasp.
We also prioritize your health and believe it’s more sanitary for you to not have to share your leash with anyone since they are such high touch objects.
GPS Dog Tracker Policy
We have never lost a dog, but since technically the risk of loosing a dog is never zero as soon as they step out of your house, we always attach a small GPS tracker to your dog’s collar (or harness) for your dog to wear during our walks. This way, if somehow a dog were to ever escape from a sitter, we could track them to immediately bring them back. We hope this will never actually be needed, but we use it each walk just in case to be extra secure.
Client Key Tracking Policy
Any time a sitter is given a key for a client’s home, the key is placed on a key ring connected to a tracker. We’ve never lost a key, but this gives you an added layer of security knowing we always know exactly where your keys are.
Off-Leash Policy
It’s one of our policies that we never take off a dog’s leash while outside unless they’re in their own fenced yard.