Tips On Using a Pet Sitter While You’re on Vacation

With summer vacations coming up, you might be thinking about hiring a pet sitter to care for your four legged friends. Here are some tips about getting ready.

Your vacation is coming and you prefer to have your pet stay at home while you're gone. In choosing the perfect sitter you should of course interview them, check references and make sure the sitter is licensed, bonded and insured, and LOVES pets. But there are more steps you should also take to help make sure your pet gets the best care possible:

• Schedule well in advance. Pet sitters are busy, especially during prime travel months.
• Make an appointment for the sitter and your pet to meet and get acquainted. Give the sitter your vacation schedule, contact numbers,  feeding instructions and any medication information for your pet.
• Make sure that you are well stocked with supplies, like cat litter, food, a can opener, cleaning tools and supplies, leash, harness and so on. Make sure the sitter doesn't have to hunt for these things.
• Take steps to keep your home at a comfortable temperature. If you have a programmable thermostat, show the sitter how to reset it if there's power outage. Keep in mind that your pet will spend some time in a locked-up home, so the environment needs to be stable.
• Pet proof your home. A bored pet can be a destructive pet, so secure the things that could be torn up.