Tipping Pet Sitters

[jamesglewisf]

Question:Would you tip a pet sitter who comes to the house every other day and feeds the cats and is paid a set rate per day? No extraordinary circumstances during the time the pet sitter was coming over.

[jamesglewisf]

Answer: It's not required. Tipping at Christmas is nice.

Pet-sitters who work for a company don't make a whole lot. Tipping them 10-15% would be appreciated, I’m sure.

If the person owns the pet-sitting service and sets his own prices, then I probably wouldn't tip.

[theyeti]

Whenever we're gone we just have our neighbor or relatives take care of Mystic.... I didn't even realize there's companies that do pet-sitting.

[Grimey]

It seems like you can hire somebody to do just about anything these days. I wonder if you can hire a plant sitter?

[isis]

I normally use family members for pet-sitting duties when I travel, but once in a while I use a pet-sitter. Lucky for me, there is a woman who works for my vet, who does it for us. I always pay her fee up front and instead of a tip, I bring back a gift from wherever I travel.

I find it more personal to do that when I know the person performing the service. I mean, how can you tip cash to someone you know without the possibility of offending them?

[jamesglewisf]

Here is another question I got via email:

I read the tipping section almost in its entirety, despite the fact that information on tipping pet sitters was easy to single out. Very valuable information. Thank you.

I do have further questions about the tipping of dog sitters though.

First, I wonder if there is a different standard for, say a professional service or individual that one might use on more or less a constant basis, as seems to be addressed on the site, versus a non-professional (with respect to pet care) individual who looks after one's dog/s only occasionally when one's parent might otherwise do it but is not available.

Specifically, I travel once in a while, and often my Mom stays at my home, with her dog in tow, and takes care of my dog. (And cleans my basement....) I don't pay my Mom, because when she is away, her dog stays at my home.

However, we were (past tense alludes to my other question, to follow) planning a trip this year on which my Mom and I would be traveling together, and both of our dogs would need to be looked after.

My neighborhood is very pet-friendly, and a number of us in the area trade out letting one-another's pets out or feeding/medicating them when any given one of us gets trapped at work a bit too long or are gone just overnight or the like. I tapped one of the neighbors to take care of both of the dogs, in my home -- and she could choose whether or not to run back and forth across the street a lot, or utilize my guest room, hang out at my home, etc.

Which brings me to the second question.

Due to an illness and iminent death in the family, we will be postponing our trip until next year.

As the "sitter" in question (who is not a prefessional pet sitter, but lives in a home with a dog and loves all the neighborhood dogs) is a long-term roommate in the home across the street, and could, theoretically move at any time, we would wait until about 6 months before the trip next year to secure her for sitting then, which involves basically asking her to committ to not going out of town or such during the several-weeks period over which we will be away.

I should probably specify that neither of our dogs, a Keeshond and a Pom, are "walked" but rather simply run around like nuts in the fenced-in yard for exercise and to do their business, and need not be supervised while doing so. Other than perhaps some shoveling if it snows, the sitter will basically feed and water the animals, talk to them a bit, and be their doorman. I will tend to yard clean-up when I return. If there is a problem, she may need to run them to the vet, but both are healthy in general, and no routine veterinary maintenance or grooming will need to be addressed in our absence.

She was probably counting on about $320 base for the trip we'd planned. We want her to feel okay about blocking out a chunk of time next year if that is still feasible at the time, and we also feel bad that we are canceling her services on short notice this year. We are considering giving her a gift certificate or cash equivalent to some portion of what we would have paid her to take care of our dogs.

What would be appropriate, and in what amount?

[jamesglewisf]

My answer:
I think you are making this too complicated. You tip pet sitters that do it for a living. If it is a friend, neighbor, or a relative, you either reciprocate or give a thank-you gift. In your case, when it is someone across the street that you are paying to do it for you but who isn't a professional, you pay what you agreed to pay unless something extraordinary happened and you feel like more is warranted.

With regard to the cancelled trip, that's what happens with trips. My wife just cancelled one last week due to illness. If you didn't discuss anything in advance about trip cancellations, then do whatever you want, but you don't owe her anything. Next time, it would be better to discuss the possibility in advance. I don't think most pet sitters would be expecting anything, especially given the circumstances (imminent death in the family).