How much to pay pet/house sitter

[tl_swift]

For our trip coming up over Christmas break we will be gone for 2 weeks. We have a new dog this year, he is a cocker. Our previous dogs were large labs and we would have one of our neighbors come over to feed and check on them. They were outside dogs anyway so it wasn't a problem. But, our cocker is an inside dog. The local boarding place wants over $300 for boarding. We asked a couple of very responsible (I know their families well) girls to come stay at our home while we are gone. That way he gets the attention he needs and won't be outside over night. So, the two 19 year old girls get a house to themselves. (I know what you are thinking. Their parents will be checking on them a lot and like I said I do trust them. Their families have been going to church with us a long time.) And, they will have use of the groceries and such while we are gone. We don't have any major yard work that needs to be maintained. The sprinkler system goes on/off automatically. Our mailed will be held. So, what is a service like this worth? Never done this before.

 

[ess]

I haven't got an answer for you but you may want to post this on the Budget Board and see if someone there knows what the going rate is. My son will be paying $20 a day for the people across the street from them to go in and feed the dog. He can't board her as she's 15 and her home will be the best place for her. his friend will also be stopping by to check on her.

 

[Lil'Mermaid75]

We pay our pet sitter (actual service, licensed, bonded,etc.) $15/visit to check on our 14 year old lab. So, we pay $30/day. Well worth it in our opinion to be able to keep our pet in her home and environment that she is familiar with.

 

[Soupermom]

We pay two high-school/college kids (family friends) $25/night (total, not each; there are two people because we live in the country and everyone always brings a sibling because they are chicken to stay at our house alone!)to stay at our house when we are gone. All they have to do is bring the mail in, feed/water the dogs, and love the dogs. They have the use of our home/computer/big-screen. (Their parents monitor them as well)

 

[tl_swift]

We pay two high-school/college kids (family friends) $25/night (total, not each; there are two people because we live in the country and everyone always brings a sibling because they are chicken to stay at our house alone!)to stay at our house when we are gone. All they have to do is bring the mail in, feed/water the dogs, and love the dogs. They have the use of our home/computer/big-screen. (Their parents monitor them as well)

Wow, for two weeks that is just as much as a pet boarding house. I thought that by having a couple of teens come over that it would be cheaper. The boarding house even provides the dog food if I don't have a finiky eater.

 

[whgrn]

Wow, $300 for 2 weeks is CHEAP!!! Around here, you'll pay $25 to $30/night for a kennel, and $35-$50/night for "doggie daycare" and boarding.

When we went to Turkey this summer for 3 weeks, I didn't want to go that route, so we had a dog sitter who stayed here. Now, she went to work each day, so Dukie was alone for about 9 hours at a stretch, but she more than made up for it with all her loving when she got home! She would not let me pay her, just asked for a donation to her missions fund at church. I figured $25/day was fair.

 

[englishteacha]

Hmmm...good question. I bet they'd be thrilled with $100. I know I would have been at that age. Are they high school kids?

 

[disneyjunebug]

I used to use some of my basketball girls (I was the scorebook keeper for my local high school for over a decade), I would give them $25 for a weekend or $75 a week to sit with my yorkie. I would also stock the fridge with drinks/snacks etc. and they knew they would do "suicides" if anything happened! They loved it, their parents would check in on them from time to time, and my yorkie had lots of attention.

 

[Soupermom]

Wow, for two weeks that is just as much as a pet boarding house. I thought that by having a couple of teens come over that it would be cheaper. The boarding house even provides the dog food if I don't have a finiky eater.

$25/night for TWO dogs is a deal I think. I would pay close to double that at a good kennel. This way the dogs aren't traumatized by leaving and my house doesn't sit empty either. The students love the $$$ and my dogs love having "company" at their house!

 

[chuckcasey]

We're paying a boarder $16/day for the dog includes food and play time in a couple different grass yards. We're paying a friends daughter $5 a day to feed two cats, take in the paper and the mail. We'll tip her for a good job and buy her something from the trip. 10 days is too long for us to leave the dog at home (he's use to being in the house).

 

[Pakey]

I paid $200 for a week for a sitter in March when we went to Maui. I have two little house dogs, one of which is too timid to be boarded at a regular doggie daycare place.

 

[luvmy2sams]

Our house/petsitter is a family friend in her early 30's. She's single & lives with her mom, so she considers staying at our home a vacation. We pay her $10 per day and make sure the kitchen is stocked with her requests. This works out to half of what we'd pay to have the dogs (13-year-old cocker & 3-year-old lab) boarded, and our friend still says that we're paying her too much to do something she loves.

 

[J. Galt]

I used to do this a lot when I was in college and grad school. I got paid between $25 - $30/night. They stocked the fridge for me. I stayed in the home, took care of the pets, took in the mail and did any little odd jobs that needed doing.

p.s. That is about what we pay for one dog in the kennel per night. Most of my clients just didn't want their pets in the kennel because the pet just didn't do well there (some would just stop eating, one got horrible urinary tract infections from the stress). The bonus was that I was there to look after the house too. We have a pet sitter we sometimes use too. He charges $15/visit (we have him check in twice a day) where he walks the dog, checks the house. He doesn't stay overnight.

 

[Big J]

I did this about 10 years back when I was in college. I received $15 -$20 a day on average. This job was for most of the summer, so free lodging ( very nice at that ) plus $15 a day for the whole summer seemed like a great deal to me.

Do these girls live at home? If they don't, having their "own" place for two weeks will probably be worth more than the amount of money you pay them.

 

[daisyduck123]

When we went to Ocean City in September, I paid my 14yo. neighbor $10.00 a day to come over & feed my kitten and clean out the litter box once a day.

 

[5fordisney]

We don't have anyone stay overnight at our house instead they come 3 times a day to let our 2 dogs out into our fenced in backyard, feed them, give them some loving. While they are here, they will bring in our mail, feed our bird, and possibly water 2 outdoor plants in pots. We pay $20 a day plus usually bring back a souvenir. We'll round up too, so for 1 week, we'd pay $150 plus the gift. Weekend trips are cheaper, b/c there are no mail or plant or bird duties. We do about $15 a day. Our local kennel for 2 dogs would charge around $25-30 a day the last time I checked about 6 years ago! I feel like $20 a day is a steal, as it's less than the kennel and my dogs get the comfort of their own home. My younger sister stayed overnight at someone's house to watch their dog and housesit and she was paid $35 a night. My husband thinks we all overpay yet when I told him to find someone cheaper and we'd use that person, he couldn't! Then I suggested that we could just use the kennel instead, and all of a sudden the $20 a day seemed not so bad! LOL I think different parts of the country are probably different for costs. Just like babysitting. Girls here get $8-10 an hour for 2-3 children. It's expensive to have all of our babies taken care of, the furry and the real!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Our pet sitter (a professional pet sitter who does this for a full-time job) charges $20 per visit. Our vet charges $12 per cat, per night, which would be $24.
Our cats are fine with the pet sitter coming every other day so we come out WAY ahead leaving our kitties at home. We do tip the sitter 20% of the total bill, too.
I would think $30 per day would be appropriate.

 

[darlak]

In September, we had a woman from our town/church we've known for years stay at our house for 9 days. She works, but came to our house after work and spent the nights there. She cared for my two small dogs, plus my daughters small dog and 2 cats. We stocked up on food for her and the animals and left detailed feeding instructions for our one finicky eater dog. We paid her $200. I offered her $300 initially, but she wouldn't accept that much, so we also brought her back a nice watch from WDW. I've already booked her for next March.

The vet would have been $10 per day, per animal, plus one of mine has some separation anxiety issues and would have been traumatized by being kenneled for that long. I still feel like I didn't pay her enough. It's the only trip I've taken in years that worrying about the dogs didn't damper my fun.

 

[tl_swift]

Well, the price the sitters came up with was $13.00 per day for 11 days. So that comes to $143. I can live with that. Of course we will probably have a little something from the mouse : when we come back too.

 

[Telcogirl]

I am so glad to have found this thread. We leave for Disney in 6 days and we are using a professional pet sitter for the first time. We had the initial meeting with her and she was very nice and extremely professional. We like the idea of our 7 year old Boston Terrier being able to stay home as he does not adjust well to be kenneled.

Is there anything we should be aware of as this is our first time using a service? Any tips for us? We were (are) a little nervous handing over our house key to someone we do not really know, but she is bonded and insured and we are going on that.

TIA!!!!