How much do you pay for neighbor kid to pet sit?

[beanma]

We've been invited to the beach by some really nice friends but have to make arrangements for the dogs. We'll probably get a friend or a neighbor teen to come by and feed and let the dogs out in the backyard. What's the going rate? It would probably be 3 or 4 times a day (could be a friend for two and a teen for two).

thanks,

[Catubodua]

our dog walking service is $15 for a 30 minute session - they take her for walks, make sure she has fresh water, some play/cuddle time, etc.

[beanma]

Thanks so much for the rate info. I don't think I want to ask anyone to walk them. Our puppy is not that large (50lbs), but is _very_ strong and has scenthound in her background so when she catches a whiff (or heaven forbid sight) of a bunny all her training flies right out of her little puddinhead. I can control her, but I wouldn't trust someone else in that situation nor would I want to put them through it. I think the backyard will be fine for a long weekend. It's a little less than half an acre and surrounded with a brand new 6 foot wooden fence. So all we need is feeding and watering and letting out in the backyard and a little hanging out.

Would you pay less for a neighbor teen? I have a friend who does some pet-sitting professionally (she's the one going to the beach) and I asked her rates. I think $15-20 per visit was what she said was the going rate, but it sounds high to me for a neighbor kid. I'm thinking in terms of babysitting (which we don't do), but $20/hr for babysitting a real live kid sounds pretty up there to me and this is just a couple of dogs (I mean I love 'em and all, but they're not as much trouble as kids). I don't wanna be cheap, though, so hence starting this thread.

[Catubodua]

for our service, they will also just let them out in your yard for the 30 minutes and play with them, new water, etc - it doesn't just mean going for a walk.


imho - i prefer to use professional services vs neighbor kids. it's just been my personal experience that neighbor kids or even neighbor adults don't take the responsibility as seriously as i would want them to.

i like that with a service there is a scheduled time, with backup available if the original person scheduled has an emergency.

for example - a friend had a neighbor watching her dog and the neighbor's little boy split his lip open pretty badly on their swingset. clearly, the mom's responsiblity was to get the kid to the hospital (he was fine with a few stitches, but they were at the hospital for a loooonnnnggg time).

so, her dogs only got outside once that day (morning visit). nor did they get fed dinner because mom was busy fussing over her child (understandable) rather than worrying about the dogs. now, it was only one day and no dog is going to starve to death only missing one meal. but, she came home to pee and poop in several rooms and much destruction because of the dog's need for exercise and probably some aniexty.

but, it's not the way she invisioned coming home from her long weekend - to a poopy, stinky house and crazy dogs who hadn't been let out or fed for 26-ish hours.

eta - before everyone jumps all over me about children being more important than animals - i'm not saying that the mom in that situation was somehow not responsible (in the example i could give for me someone was), i'm just saying that it would have been nice instead to have a service where the dog walker / sitter has a backup to handle just such a situation.

[dbsam]

We pay $10/visit. Our rates have not increased in ten years. Originally that rate included a walk. Over the years and with the addition of another dog, she tends to let them out, sits/plays with them a while and occasionally walks one of the dogs. When out of town we always had her come 4x's/day. She was not coming as early or late as we'd like so she now comes 3x's/day. When I worked she came 2-3x's/day depending upon our schedules.

As catubodua mentioned, it is nice to have someone who cares for pets as a business. The woman we use is reliable, trustworthy, and almost always available - even at the last minute. She is also familiar with our dogs and I know she would take them to the vet, contact us, or whatever else might be needed if she felt there was a problem. When our children were born in and the NICU she was invaluable. I don't know how we c/h gotten by.

[beanma]

We've always done neighbors and friends and I think we'll continue with that as long as they're available. I just don't want to short change them. Maybe I should change my title. Nothing against professional pet-sitting, but I think DH would have a heart attack if I was paying $60-80 per day. I could board 'em at a super swank place for less than that.

[lucyem]

I agree with what Catubodua said about professional sitters. I prefer to use a professional.

If you know the family well enough and it was the right situation then I would pay a local teen or pre-teen & parent. My mom only has cats and has a neighbor with cats so they trade off.

But for me with 2 old dogs, 2 cats, 3 horses & 16 chickens I pay an insured pet sitter. She gets $25 per visit for all of the above so a total of $50 a day. I forget how it was broken down per animal.

[JollyGG]

I have to make other arrangements now because one of my dogs is an excape artist so can't be left all day. However, when we had just the one dog who had free run of the yard and garage while we were gone we used to have a neighbor kid come and check on food and play with the dog for a bit. We planned to pay him $20 for the weekend (well attempted to but after we came home his Mom wouldn't let him take payment so he got a batch of cookies instead).

I'd probably figure around $10 a day to stop and check food a couple of times a day. (I'm assuming the dog has free run of the yard and some sort of shelter either in the yard or access to a garage)

[beanma]

I'm curious, but don't want to take this too far off track. I have always done friends and neighbors and growing up we always did friends and neighbors. My great friend that invited us to the beach does pet-sitting and she's a wonderful person so I'm not going to disparage professional pet sitters. I am curious, though, if folks who do professional pet-sitters only also only do professional baby-sitters for their kids (or if they're like us and don't do baby-sitters)?

Anyway, still interested in the going rate for a neighbor teen to drop by a couple of times a day.

[greenmagick]

I would think 20-25 a day would be good. For a long weekend, if a I had a neighbor I trusted, I would definitley use them. I did it all the time for neighbors when I was youner. Now, are they going to need to water any plants or anything else? Then I might say 25-30.

[beanma]

JollyGG, thanks. That's more what I'm looking for. I don't leave the dogs out. Our older dog who is trustworthy is a barker and he and everyone around him would be much happier if he were inside mostly and got let out to potty. Our younger puppy girl loves to be outside, but was jumping our little fence before we got the big 6 ft fence. She hasn't escaped since, but no sense tempting fate. I think she'll be okay inside w/ someone coming by 3 or 4 times a day to let her out. She has access to outside most of the day with me home, but I don't think she'll be too deprived to have it reduced back to 3 or 4 times. We were walking her only 4 (or occasionally 3) times a day for a month while we got the big fence built and she seemed fine with that.

Thanks greenmagick. I think the plants can survive. They're all outside and maybe they'll get rained on.

[dbsam]

Originally Posted by beanma

I am curious, though, if folks who do professional pet-sitters only also only do professional baby-sitters for their kids (or if they're like us and don't do baby-sitters)?

I don't know of 'professional baby-sitters' in our area unless you consider a day care. However when I do hire a sitter, which isn't too often, I do not use a neighbor or teen. I have one woman who has 19y/o twin boys and I've known her for 25 years. In the past I've used a young kindy teacher who grew up across the street from me so I've known her since she was a child. I've also, on occasion, used our dog-sitter: (she's become a family friend over the years.)
(I'm not saying there is anything wrong with hiring young sitters. I am just more comfortable with an adult.)

I also do not think there is anything wrong w/having a neighbor take care of your pets while away, just my preference to hire a 'professional'. (Plus I do not want to inconvenience neighbors. I know their summers are busy and they cannot always commit to come over at scheduled times. Prior to finding our dog sitter I hired a teen and found out her mom was doing most of the visits because the teen was at the beach or busy w/friends.

To answer your question, finally, if the teen was coming 4x's/day and not staying long I'd offer $20/day.

[Sailor]

I get a professional sitter, and they're not cheap! lol It's $70.00 per day for the one I like. However, mainly, I take my dog with me everywhere. If I absolutely can't, there's also a great kennel facility near me .... family owned, and the dogs only sleep in the crates. For the rest of the time, they're having fun outside/inside.

I don't trust teens, mainly because I was a teen! I was the perfect student, and seemed very reliable/responsible. I'm not proud of this, but when I was asked to pet sit a few times, I came by once a day and only gave food/water. Even though they asked me to come buy 2 times per day for exercise/play, and food/water.

And no one would have EVER guessed that I'd shirk on my responsibilities. I was the kind of teen everyone trusted and thought mature/responsible.

This is also why I wouldn't use teens to babysit kids. I just remember being that "responsible and mature" teen myself!

[gumby74]

Last weekend we hired our neighbor's kid to watch our two cats. This involved two days where she came over three times and one day where she came over one time and fed the cats as well as scooped the litter box. For those three days for low maintence cats, we gave her 40.00. However, in a couple of weeks we are going for five days and we have decided to hire our dogs groomer who has a lot of experience with dogs and most importantly....our dogs. It would have been a lot cheaper to hire the neighbor girl, but it was too much of a liability to have to be stressed about. Especially with my male eskie's behvior issues as of late.....I needed someone who knows them and I trust. She is going to stay the night at our house and take care of both the cats and dogs for about 50.00/night. We went back and forth about whether to take the more expensive route and decided that in the end.....we needed peace of mind. Hope all this helped!

[Irishmommy]

$15 a day here seems to be the norm.

[sunny*pa*mom]

We usually pay $10 or $15 a day for the neighbor girl to pet sit for us (she's also our babysitter). We have one old dog who sleeps most of the time so she only needs to come over twice a day to feed and let her out. She lives across the street and I'm confident that if there were a problem, she would get her parents or sister or another neighbor to take care of the dog.

[PlayaMama]

$15 per day sounds about right two me. especially if they have to hang out for a bit to let the dogs play in the backyard.

[Mama Lo]

We pay our neighbor boy $10/day or $5/feed. We have him feed our two big dogs in the morning and evening and let them outside then also.

[Pinoikoi]

When I was a kid, I found a dog I thought was a stray. I fed it every day. Turned out it was not a stray, the owner had gone out of town for work for a few weeks, and the dog had run off from the sitters.. (or perhaps the sitter was supposed to check in on the dog and the dog ran away from home, not really sure)..

Anyway.. when the owner got home and found out I had been feeding his dog, he brought me 6 king crabs for my efforts. Big ones. Although I think he was a little miffed that I had been calling his dog "Dew Drops".

Not sure how much $ that would equal out to, but your post reminded me of that.

[AndrewsMother]

My 14 year old sister charges between $50 to $100 a week, but people bring the pets to her home. I would like that $10 a day is fair if they live next door.