Are you looking for a career change, or would you like to earn some extra cash? Have you been thinking about becoming a cat sitter, or a dog walker? We have lots of practical free advice on how to become a pet sitter because we’ve done it ourselves.  We earn a full-time income from pet sitting and can help you avoid the mistakes many people make, so that you can get up and running really quickly. So, what are you waiting for?  This time next month you could be fully booked with appointments if you follow our tips below.

What sort of pet sitting service should you offer?

If you’re a dog lover and have a passion for being outdoors, becoming a dog walker could be the obvious career choice. Or perhaps you are a cat person, and you understand a cat’s feeding and play habits, so becoming a cat sitter to take care of people’s cats while they are away on holiday or out at work might appeal to you. Or, if you are a general animal lover with an overall knowledge of many pets, you could offer a wider range of care as a pet sitter.  It gives you more options rather than narrowing down the services you offer. Whether you focus on a niche pet business or a wider one, there are certain qualities you need to succeed.

How much does a pet sitter or dog walker earn?

Check out our blog post: How much does a pet sitter and dog walker earn in 2025?

Qualities of a pet sitter

What qualities do you need to become a professional pet sitter? Well, a love of animals is the obvious starting point but there are other desirable qualities such as:

• The ability to deal with people.
• A knowledge of animal care and first aid, or the willingness to learn.
• A reasonable level of general education to deal with authorities, advertising, and necessary admin.
• Common sense.
• A can-do attitude and a determination to succeed.

For an animal lover, becoming a pet sitter or dog walker sounds like the ideal job, but how much do they actually earn? At Pet Sitter Dashboard we are in a unique position with access to hundreds of pet businesses around the world so we know exactly what they are charging, and the results might surprise you! Check out our article which breaks down the average rate for the most common services you’re likely to offer as a pet sitter or dog walker.

How to become a pet sitter

Once you have decided whether you want to start working as a cat sitter, dog walker, or general pet sitter, and have established there is a need for the service in your area, here is some guidance for the steps you will need to take to become a pet sitter.

Choose a business name

Choosing a business name is a really important step!  We recommend you keep it simple but make sure it reflects your pet sitting business. It could be Jo’s Dog Walking Service, Felix the Cat Sitter, Pawfect Pet Sitters, etc, but before you commit to a name, conduct some Google and social media searches to make sure there is nobody else in your area with the same or a very similar name. For simplicity, check that you can get the same ‘handle’ on all social media channels, for example is @catsitterfelix available on all networks? Play around to see what works, and bear in mind that you can only have 15 characters in a Twitter handle.  Always aim to have the job title first as that will improve your chances of being found by new customers. Set up accounts on all potential channels, even if you’re not ready to use them yet, so that no one else can claim them in the meantime. If you’re planning on having a website, even in the future, it’s worth checking whether your business domain name is available.  Our favourite website hosting company, Lyrical Host, has a handy PDF guide for choosing a domain name.   You can register the domain relatively cheaply (£7.99 for a .co.uk per year and £12.99 for a .com) without worrying about building the site until you’re more established.

Set up a bank account

Banks and building societies have different rules on business accounts with some incurring hefty charges, so be sure to research the options before applying. You may not need a business account, but to make your dealings with the tax office simpler, it would be useful to have a separate account in your name that you only use for incoming payments, and outgoing expenses to do with your pet sitting business. Here is Martin Lewis’s Moneysaving Expert Guide to whether you need a business bank account. Always keep receipts for business expenditure even if they are from before you started trading, as you can offset them against your earnings, to reduce the tax you’ll pay.

Design a logo and branding

Your branding is really important and it can really help customers relate to you and spot you online.  You can hire a graphic designer to create a logo and brand pack but if you’d like to have a go yourself then we’d highly recommend using Canva. The free version of Canva is all you need and they have templates for most of the graphics you’ll need.  These include

• A logo
• Social media posts
• Leaflets/flyers
• Adverts
• Business cards

To design a logo click Create A Design and choose ‘logo’.  Then in the templates options type ‘pet sitter’ or ‘dog walker’ and you’ll be presented with a variety of logos that you can amend to suit the colours/fonts you prefer.  See below for some examples.  All you need to do is change the business name and colours and you have your own logo!

You can follow the same steps to create the other things you need.  In ‘Create Design’ type in ‘flyer’, ‘business card’, ‘Facebook post’, ‘Instagram post’ to design your brand assets. We would highly recommend using a consistent colour scheme so that your business is immediately recognisable regardless of whether people are looking at a social media post or leaflet. There are lots of Canva tutorial videos on Youtube, including How To Get Started With Canva In 10 Minutes and this Full Tutorial For Canva.

Admin and bookkeeping tips for pet businesses

Although you can keep a paper diary of bookings and keep track of incomings and outgoings on a spreadsheet, using an app makes managing admin so much easier. We built Pet Sitter Dashboard to help manage our own pet business, and have added so many features which will get you up and running really quickly, for free.  For example:

• Setting up customers and their pets.
• Creating a list of your services and how much you’ll charge for them.
• Sending an email invite to customers so that they can book appointments with you.
• Once you’ve completed a booking, sending a report card to the customer.
• Sending invoices to customers.
• Creating bookkeeping records and other reports which you can send to your accountant at the end of the year.

You can add up to ten customers using the free version of Pet Sitter Dashboard and then upgrade once you’re earning a regular monthly income for extra benefits, including:

• Unlimited customers
• Unlimited documents such as contracts and medical consent forms.
• Membership of Pet Sitter Club for done-for-you advertising resources, business coaching tips, email templates and a supportive community.

Buy a business phone

You should consider buying a phone for business use only so that you can use this for customers to contact you, and to list on advertising material. This will ensure that you don’t get any unwanted calls during the night or any dubious calls on your personal phone. You can now buy very cheap phones with either a pay-as-you-go sim card or a cheap contract. The cost can be listed as a business expense to offset against your earnings too.

Apply for DBS check

It’s worth applying for a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check to prove to your customers that you are trustworthy. You do have to pay for one, but it can be a worthwhile investment for your business and something you can use in your advertising. You can read more about whether you need a DBS check for your pet business here.

Take out insurance

You will need to take out public liability insurance for your pet sitter business. You will also need to notify your existing home insurers and car/van insurers if you plan to have pets or customers in your home or vehicle. Find out more about pet sitting insurance here.

Advertise your pet sitting business

You may find, that as your pet sitting business becomes established, you will acquire new customers from recommendations. However, when you start as a dog walker or cat sitter you will need to advertise your new venture. There are many places where you can advertise your pet sitting business for free, including Google, social media, local pet shops, community halls, and more. Find out more about free advertising here. It’s worth sharing your services in local Facebook groups, as they can be a great source of new customers.

Pet sitter bag

Your clients will most likely provide their pets’ own leads, feeding bowls, toys, etc, but we have found that a pet sitter bag will prove to be an invaluable piece of kit to keep everything together that you need for each visit. What we keep in our pet sitter bag.

Register with your local authority

In the UK you must register with your local authority and abide by any guidelines they might have regarding running a pet sitter business from home. Also, check up-to-date legislation for pet sitting in your country. Information about doggy day care and cat/dog boarding

Register with the tax office

If you are starting any business, you will need to register for self-employment, even if you don’t think your business will meet the tax threshold. You can register your business under your own name and then list dog walking or cat sitting in the description of the work that you do. This is really useful if you might do other work as well as pet sitting, as you can update the description of work each year without needing to register a new business. Government information about becoming a sole trader You can do this step after you’ve started trading, as long as it’s before the end of the financial year (5^th April in the UK). You could alternatively set up as a limited company but this can be more expensive, in terms of accounting costs, and involves more admin – so it might be better to start as a sole trader first.  You would need to pay corporation tax on your profits as well as personal tax on your earnings.  It could be the right option for you if you take on team members or grow the business significantly, and at that point you could register as a limited company. Government information about setting up a limited company You can hire an accountant or bookkeeper to do your accounting for you, but it is generally very straightforward provided you keep a note of all your incoming payments and outgoing expenses. If your turnover is more than £85,000 then you also need to register for VAT, although we’re guessing that won’t happen for a while! Government information about registering for VAT

Gain pet care qualifications

You don’t have to have pet sitting qualifications, but it will make your business stand out if you can advertise that you have pet care and pet sitting qualifications. Attending a pet first aid course will give you the confidence to deal with any emergencies that might arise when pets are in your care or at least know where to go to get help. Find out more about pet sitting and dog walking qualifications here.

Get started the easy way with Pet Sitter Dashboard

It’s easy to create an account and download our free app to get started with managing your pet business. The quickest way to set it up is by following our quick tutorials, many of which are less than 5 minutes long.  We’ve created a YouTube playlist of Pet Sitter Dashboard tutorials which you can watch at your leisure. Whether you have decided to become a cat sitter, dog walker, or general pet sitter, we also have lots of free advice, forms, advertising templates, and newsletters to make running your pet sitting business easier and more successful in Pet Sitter Club. We hope you have found our tips for starting a pet sitting business useful.  Good luck with your new venture and do follow us on Facebook for all our latest news!

Get Set Grow​

Free news and advice for dog walkers, cat sitters and other pet business owners. Small original articles which only take a minute to read. Subscribe for free and start growing your business today.

Leave this field empty if you're human: