From grocery delivery to digital currencies and more, today’s world has gone digital. Companies like Uber and Grubhub have made it easy to have a slew of services available right at your fingertips. Now, new companies are popping up trying to capitalize on the many pet owners in need of quality pet care. Companies like Rover and Wag, dubbed as the uber of dog walking, are now available making it easy to hire a dog walker or pet sitter instantly. This seems like an amazing service at first glance but is it safe to hire someone to care for your fur babies through one of these services? While it may seem convenient, pet owners should be aware of the risks involved with using these services.
Extensive Vetting Process
Professional pet sitting companies, such as Pampered Petz, live and breathe pets. We pour our hearts and souls into our businesses and spend a lot of time hand-picking each member of our team to ensure that we have the best pet care providers on our team. If you look through some of our sitter profiles on our website, something becomes very evident. We LOVE pets! You’ll find that every member of our team shares their home with many furry members. You’ll find dog groomers, vet techs, and dog trainers. You’ll see that many of our pet sitters choose to spend their down time volunteering for local rescues. Our sitters are not just looking to make an extra buck, they truly enjoy and love working with animals and choose to spend their days being surrounded by them. They understand our clients’ needs. We have an extensive hiring process which includes a thorough employment application, followed by a phone screening, and an in-person interview. We look for sitters who are very experienced with animals, compassionate, and trustworthy. Once selected for employment, we use a company called Acutraq to perform a thorough background check.
While companies like Wag and Rover state that they have a thorough vetting process, this is often not the case. Typically, it’s very easy to sign up to pet sit on these sites and you can be up and running within 24 hours. There is no one interviewing these sitters to determine their experience levels and no training involved. Many pet owners end up with a sitter who does not have the same level of experience as those who work for a professional pet sitting company.
On the Job Training
Once we hire a new pet sitter to bring onto our team, we review our extensive employee guidebook with them one on one, and then they go through training/shadowing with both our owner as well as one of our senior sitters. Our training process ensures that Pampered Petz sitters learn how to properly care for your animals. We’ve been offering pet sitting and dog walking since 2009. We’ve seen just about every situation and know what to do and what to look for to ensure your precious family members are safe and cared for in the best way possible. This process is in place to make sure that our sitters not only meet, but exceed, our customers’ service expectations.
Wag and Rover are essentially tech companies with a lot of capital offering a platform for anyone to sign up to take care of pets. These companies do not offer the same amount of localized, professional training. Practically anyone with a smartphone could create a profile on one of these sites and become a “pet sitter” overnight without any training or education. If you pull a simple google search, you will find many lawsuits and stories related to poor care resulting in lost or injured pets. While there are some high-quality pet care providers on these sites, there are also just as many individuals with little to no experience. Is that a risk you are willing to take with your pet? You want a company that is invested in every individual that they hire, rather than just allowing anyone to sign up to pet sit or dog walk.
Commitment & Quality Control
Our pet sitters are employees of Pampered Petz. Each pet sitter is committed to your pet and not just looking to pick up some extra cash here and there. When you sign up for pet sitting services, we complete a consultation with you and your pet sitter. This gives you an opportunity to personally meet your pet sitter, review your pets’ routine, and ensures that you are both comfortable with your pets and each other. Moving forward, we try to maintain as much consistency as possible. Our pet sitters form relationships with the pets that they care for. They get to know their individual quirks, health issues, etc. So, you can rest easy knowing that your pet care provider understands your pets and how to best care for them. Our system allows you to give your pet sitter detailed instructions about your pets’ care that they can pull up right on their phone or add additional notes to a specific request. Because our sitters are employees, we are able to oversee the service process. If there is an issue, we are available immediately to address any concerns. In addition, our pet sitters are covered by worker’s compensation insurance and we are a fully insured company.
What if something happens with your pet sitter on Rover or Wag? Who oversees them and who do you talk to if there’s a problem? How could they possibly keep track of the quality of service being provided? What if some of their pet care methods are questionable? If you read the fine print on Rover, they clearly state that they do not take responsibility for the level of service provided. Instead of being able to call a local company and speak with a manager or owner, you would be stuck trying to contact a corporate office to voice your concerns.
Back ups/Emergencies
One last note to consider before choosing your pet sitter…. what happens in an emergency or if your pet sitter is sick? Let’s say you have found a fantastic pet sitter on Rover but their car breaks down or they have a last minute emergency and suddenly need to leave town? What do you do then if they back out at the last minute? You may find yourself needing to put your pets in a high-stress and anxiety situation at a boarding facility, or even worse, need to cancel your vacation that you planned months ago. With professional pet sitting companies, you are always covered. You have a consistent reliable pet sitter who knows your pets’ routine inside and out. However, if they have an emergency, we have a whole team of trustworthy qualified pet sitters who can jump in and deliver the same quality service.
Why take a risk by hiring a tech company when you can hire a local, trusted, professional pet sitting service? We hope to work with your furry family member in the near future!