Pet Sitter Career Guide: How Pet Sitting Works as a Job

A pet sitter looks after animals while the owner is away.

BLS describes pet sitters as workers who typically feed, walk and play with pets daily in the owner's home, so the animal stays in familiar surroundings and keeps its routine.

Experienced sitters may also bathe, groom or train the pets they cover.

Sitting is not one fixed service.

Rover's service menu runs from boarding and doggy day care to house sitting, dog walking and drop-in visits — and pet sitting companies carry their own task lists, covered in the day-to-day section below.

Formally, there is no pet-sitter occupation code.

Federal statistics count sitters inside SOC 39-2021 Animal Caretakers, the same occupation that holds dog groomers, kennel staff and dog walkers — so national pay and employment figures for the occupation cover all of those jobs mixed together.

The job overlaps dog walking — feeding, walking and playing with pets is BLS's description of the work — but sitting centers on covering the owner's absence, however long it runs.

The daily work is the owner's routine, done for them.

BLS describes it as feeding, walking and playing with pets each day in the owner's home, and experienced sitters may add bathing, grooming or training.

A visit can cover the care the occupation's federal definition lists — feeding, watering and exercise — plus whatever the owner's instructions add.

Company work can carry a wider list — one franchise describes sitter tasks running from pet visits and dog walks to cat playtime, puppy care, feeding and pet transport, with boarding in the sitter's home or overnight care in the client's home at some locations.

The rest of the job is judgment: you are working in someone else's home, on their pet, under their instructions.

A pet care worker notices and reports; a veterinarian diagnoses and treats.

Pet sitting reaches clients three ways, and the setup you choose shapes the work — from scheduling to who handles the taxes.

• Pet sitting companies. Fetch! Pet Care, a franchise, hires through local franchise owners and says its office books your appointments and provides insurance, with an orientation to its standards for new hires.
• Apps and platforms. Rover states that sitters and walkers on its platform are independent contractors running their own small businesses, not Rover employees. Wag!'s help center says its caregivers are independent contractors too — not Wag! employees, and responsible for their own taxes.
• Your own business. Pet Sitters International says the majority of its membership is sole-proprietor pet sitting businesses, many founded by career changers from education, business and medical or veterinary support work.

The federal numbers cover the whole occupation, not these setups separately.

In 2025, 25% of the 365,300 animal-caretaker jobs were held by self-employed workers and 40% were in other personal services — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook figures for the whole occupation, not for sitters alone.

The work happens in the client's home and, for boarding, sometimes the sitter's own: Rover lists house sitting and boarding among its service options, and Fetch says some locations offer boarding in the sitter's home or overnight care in the client's.

Formal requirements are light on paper.

O*NET places animal caretakers — sitters included — in Job Zone 1-2, with on-the-job training from a few days to one year, and 64% of surveyed respondents said a new hire needs a high school diploma or equivalent.

BLS notes many employers prefer to hire animal care and service workers who already have experience working with animals — a record you can start building with shelter volunteering, kennel shifts, or your own pets.

Certification is voluntary.

BLS says certifications are not required for animal care and service workers; its example is dog trainers, for whom professional associations and private vocational and state-approved trade schools offer certification.

The requirement that surprises new sitters is paperwork, not skill.

BLS notes many states require self-employed animal care workers to have a business license — a general filing, not a sitter-specific license.

The apps add their own gates, starting with age: Rover, Wag! and Care.com all require users to be at least 18.

Rover's sign-up runs through service choices, rates and availability, a profile with photos, testimonials from past clients, a safety quiz, and a background check with identity verification.

Rover says to expect a response within 10 to 20 business days, and its background check is run by First Advantage, covering identity, driving record and criminal history — US applicants supply their full legal name and Social Security number.

Wag!'s application adds a pet safety quiz, endorsements, and a one-time non-refundable application fee — Wag! does not publish the amount, and it varies by state and region.

If you are under 18, the platforms are closed for now: neighbor clients and family pets build the experience, and you can apply once you turn 18.

There is no separate pet-sitter occupation code in federal statistics, so there is no pet-sitter-only wage either.

Sitters sit inside SOC 39-2021, and O*NET, citing BLS, puts the 2025 median for animal caretakers — the occupation that includes sitters alongside groomers, kennel staff and walkers — at $17.00 an hour, or $35,360 a year.

That median counts payroll jobs only, so self-employed sitters and platform gig earnings sit outside it — and 25% of animal-caretaker jobs in 2025 were self-employed.

Setup drives the number.

Platform sitters keep a share of each booking after the platform's fee; an independent sitter sets rates and absorbs the costs behind them.

Rover's standard US service fee is 20% per booking, so the provider keeps 80% — terms its help center stated as of October 2026, with different arrangements in California and some pilot cities.

What an independent sitter charges is their own decision — with no separate sitter occupation, there is no separate federal figure to check it against.

The labeled figures — the national median, the national industry rows BLS publishes, and links to state figures for animal caretakers — are on the salary page: BLS pay data for animal caretakers (includes groomers).

The progression is less about titles and more about clients.

New company sitters may start with few assignments and build a repeat clientele — the arc one franchise describes for its new walkers and sitters.

On the independent side the ceiling is a business, not a promotion.

Pet Sitters International describes many members who left education, business and medical or veterinary support careers to found sitting companies of their own.

Adjacent moves stay in animal care: dog walking, kennel or daycare attending, dog training, or grooming.

The occupation behind sitters is projected to grow through 2035.

BLS's Employment Projections have animal-caretaker employment rising from 365,300 jobs in 2025 to 409,400 in 2035, a 12% gain — a projection for the whole occupation, with sitters included but not counted separately.

An honest ledger — the upsides and the trade-offs, each anchored to how the work is organized.

• Pro: open entry. 64% of surveyed respondents said a new hire needs a high school diploma or equivalent, and on-the-job training runs from a few days to one year.
• Pro: it can be yours. Rover lets sitters set their own schedules and prices, and Pet Sitters International describes a membership that is mostly sole proprietors.
• Pro: part-time fits. BLS says part-time work is common for caretakers, and the occupation is projected to grow 12% from 2025 to 2035.
• Con: the data hides both ways. The median blends every animal-caretaker job, and self-employed and gig income sits outside it entirely.
• Con: platform work is contractor work. Rover and Wag! both treat their sitters as independent contractors, not employees — Wag! says its caregivers are responsible for their own taxes.
• Con: fees come off the top. Rover's standard US service fee is 20% per booking, and its California and pilot-city terms differ.
• Con: client-shaped hours. Schedules can include evenings, weekends and holidays.
• Con: you carry the trust weight. At one company, coordinators screen each pet's background and temperament by phone, hold in-home consultations before service, and reassign a pet when a sitter has safety concerns; working solo, that work is yours.

The hiring doors mirror the work's three setups, plus one caution.

• Fetch! Pet Care hires locally. Its process runs through local franchises: choose a location, apply online and interview with the local owner — the company says its office books your appointments and provides insurance.
• Rover takes applications year-round. You choose services, set rates and availability, build a profile with photos, request testimonials, pass a safety quiz, and complete a background check and identity verification; Rover says to expect a response within 10 to 20 business days.
• Wag!'s application adds a pet safety quiz, endorsements and a non-refundable fee of an unpublished amount, followed by a background check through Vetty.
• Care.com is a marketplace. Local families post jobs and set the pay in each post; the platform does not employ caregivers and says it does not verify information in profiles or applications.
• TrustedHousesitters is not a paying job. Sitters do not charge, pay an annual membership, cover their own travel, and trade pet and home care for a place to stay.

The fourth door is none of these: Pet Sitters International's membership shows sole proprietors who built their own client bases, with the general business license many states require of self-employed animal care and service workers as the core paperwork.

GroomerHires lists pet sitter jobs from pet care businesses — browse open pet sitter jobs to see who is hiring.

Career information, not legal or tax advice: requirements differ by city and state, so confirm business-registration questions with your city or state, and tax or classification questions with the IRS or a tax professional.