How to start a pet sitting business

Pet sitting as a business is more than dog walks for cash.

You are selling scheduled care — drop-in visits, walks, overnight stays in clients' homes, sometimes boarding in your own — plus the operation around it: scheduling, keys and access, pricing, taxes, insurance and marketing.

The occupation behind it is sizable and growing.

BLS counts pet sitters inside animal caretakers (includes groomers), which paid a national median of $17.00 an hour across 266,910 wage-and-salary jobs in the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — a payroll figure that excludes the self-employed.

BLS's Employment Projections, which do include the self-employed, put the same occupation at 365,300 jobs in 2025, growing 12.1 percent to 409,400 by 2035, with about 62,800 openings a year.

BLS also reports that 25 percent of all animal caretakers were self-employed in 2025.

That share covers the whole occupation — pet sitters alongside groomers, bathers, kennel and daycare attendants and dog walkers — not sitters alone, but it shows self-employment is a mainstream path in this field.

What separates a business from a side hustle here is trust and professionalism.

Pet Sitters International, a trade association, calls pet sitting a "largely unregulated industry" and asks sitters to support standards and promote professionalism.

The business plan can be short.

SBA describes two common formats: a traditional plan that can run dozens of pages, and a lean startup plan of about one page.

The animal work still sets your reputation.

Sitters spot and refer: if a pet in your care stops eating or seems unwell, you call the owner and follow the veterinarian's directions — you don't diagnose.

Build that standard in before you scale past your own calendar.

If you're weighing the job rather than the business, the pet sitter career guide covers the work itself, from first visits to full client loads.

Pick a structure before anything else, because insurance, banking and taxes all hang off it.

Per SBA's comparison table, LLC owners are not personally liable for the business's debts, while sole proprietors carry unlimited personal liability; SBA calls the table only a guideline, and which structure fits you is a question for a CPA or an attorney.

The IRS defaults matter too.

A single-member LLC is disregarded as separate from its owner for income tax by default, and a multi-member LLC defaults to partnership treatment, unless the LLC files Form 8832 to elect corporate treatment.

An S corporation is a separate election filed with the IRS, distinct from state registration — and some states do not recognize the S corp election.

Then the name.

A DBA — trade name, fictitious or assumed name — is registered with the state, county or city.

SBA says registering one gives no legal protection by itself, and most states require it if you use one.

It reserves nothing either: multiple businesses can use the same DBA in one state.

For national protection, SBA points to a trademark and recommends checking names against the USPTO's official trademark database.

The paperwork is cheap by business standards.

SBA says the total cost to register a business is under $300 in most cases, varying by state and structure.

An EIN is free from the IRS and issued immediately online — SBA warns against websites that charge for one.

You will want the EIN anyway: SBA lists it as needed to pay federal taxes, hire employees, open a bank account and apply for business licenses and permits, though a sole proprietor without employees may use a Social Security number instead.

If you sit from home, zoning still applies.

SBA says zoning laws are controlled locally and ordinances can reach home-based businesses, so check with your city planning department.

On licenses, start federal and work down.

USDA APHIS, which administers the Animal Welfare Act, states that anyone housing animals for others — boarding kennels among them — is exempt from AWA licensing, with exceptions for intermediate handlers and holding facilities.

The edge case APHIS does flag: anyone hired to transport animals to and from pet stores, veterinary offices and the like, such as a pet taxi, must register as an AWA carrier.

After the federal layer, the rules that apply to you live at the state and local level.

For drop-in visits and stays in clients' homes, our research did not find a state license for individual pet sitters — that is a not-found finding, not a verified negative.

Boarding pets in your own home is different.

Missouri's Department of Agriculture says any place other than the owner's home that cares for dogs or cats overnight for pay must hold an Animal Care Facilities Act license, and it classifies home-based boarders as pet sitters.

Rhode Island exempts in-home sitters and boarders caring for four or fewer animals from its state kennel license; above that, check with its Department of Environmental Management.

So ask your state, your city and your county what applies to a sitting or boarding operation before you take bookings.

Ask your state revenue department whether any of your services are taxable, too.

Certification is a credential, not a license.

Pet Sitters International's Certified Professional Pet Sitter exam is open only to PSI members, carried a $275 application fee as of October 2026, and covers three domains: pet care; health, sanitation and safety, including basic pet first aid; and business operations.

Rules change.

Confirm the current requirements with your state, your city and your county before you open, and run your structure and your forms past a CPA, an attorney or both.

Pet sitting concentrates risk: animals in your care, keys to clients' homes, and your own judgment calls.

Insurance is how the business survives a bad day.

SBA lists the types to consider: general liability, product liability, professional liability, commercial property, and a business owner's policy bundling typical coverages.

For a home-based sitter, SBA also describes home-based business insurance — a homeowner's rider covering a small amount of business equipment and third-party injury liability.

The pet-specific coverage is care, custody and control.

Pet Care Insurance, one insurer, describes animal bailee coverage — which it brands "Pet Protection" — as applying when you are legally liable for injury or damage to an animal in your care, custody or control.

The insurer says that coverage is included in every PCI base policy; other insurers structure it differently, so compare.

Bonding comes up the moment sitters handle clients' keys and belongings.

Pet Care Insurance describes employee dishonesty (fidelity) insurance as covering client losses if an employee commits theft.

It contrasts that with a traditional employee dishonesty bond, which it says usually requires a credit check, often a conviction, and reimbursement of claims by the business.

The insurer notes the two terms are often used interchangeably, so ask a licensed agent which product you are actually buying.

On price, our research has no market average — only what insurers publish.

Pet Care Insurance listed starting prices of $29.43 a month (as low as $332.20 a year) for pet sitter policies and $17.92 a month for dog walker policies when we read its pages on October 12, 2026.

Those are one insurer's advertised starting prices, not a market rate; premiums vary by state, limits and add-ons.

Credentials can trim the bill.

PSI says holders of its Certified Professional Pet Sitter credential get a 15% discount on pet-sitter liability insurance and bonding premiums through its US preferred provider.

Confirm coverage details with a licensed agent in your state before your first booking.

This is a description of coverage types, not a recommendation of any policy.

Your contract is the fine print of the service: what visits include, when you work, what you charge, and what happens when something goes wrong.

Build a short stack of forms: a service agreement, a veterinary release, a key and access acknowledgment, and a medication instruction sheet.

The vet release names the client's veterinarian, an emergency contact and how much veterinary spending you are authorized to approve in an emergency.

The medication sheet records exactly what the owner wants given, when and how.

Medication stays inside the owner's and veterinarian's directions.

Your forms should capture those directions precisely, and your sitters follow them rather than improvising.

If you ask clients for vaccination records, AAHA's canine vaccination guidelines give you the reference list: core vaccines for all dogs — distemper, adenovirus, parvovirus (+/- parainfluenza), leptospirosis and rabies — and AAHA notes its 2024 update added leptospirosis as a core vaccine.

Deposits, cancellation windows and no-show fees are your contract terms.

The FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees (16 CFR part 464) applies only to live-event tickets and short-term lodging — it does not list grooming or other pet services, so it is not a source of no-show or cancellation-fee rules for a sitting business.

Your terms live in your agreement and your state's contract and consumer law.

One caution: whether a liability waiver actually protects you is state contract law, and it is not settled by the form itself.

Have a local attorney review your agreement and your waiver before you take your first client.

Price from your numbers, not from a forum.

Our research found no primary national benchmark for pet sitting rates, so build the rate card from three inputs: your costs, your time and your market.

Costs include insurance and bonding, software, mileage between visits, payment processing, taxes and your own time as the business's core cost.

Time is the visit itself plus the driving around it; visits spread across town are a different job from visits clustered in one building.

Market is what sitters near you actually charge — ask locally rather than importing a number from another city.

Platform math is the one piece with published numbers.

Rover charges US pet care providers a 20% service fee per booking, so providers keep 80% of the booking price — outside California and some pilot cities, where Rover's fees differ.

Wag! says caregivers set their own rates, and that the price a pet parent pays is roughly the caregiver's rate multiplied by 1.67, before tips, booking fees and taxes, per its help center as of August 2024.

When you set direct rates, price for what you need to keep.

On a platform that keeps a 20% service fee, the client's sticker price and your payout are not the same number.

Publish the policies that protect the rate: cancellation windows, holiday scheduling, and extra-pet or extended-visit terms, all in the service agreement above.

Software is what turns a calendar into a business: client self-service booking, staff scheduling, visit reports and payments in one place.

The pet sitting vendors build for exactly this workflow, so start there rather than adapting salon or kennel tools.

Time To Pet, a pet sitting and dog walking platform, lists Lite at $25 a month ($250 a year), Solo at $50 a month ($500 a year), and Team at $40 a month plus $16 a month per active staff member.

Its Facility plan for daycare and boarding lists at $79 a month.

Its pricing page, read October 12, 2026, also advertises a 14-day free trial with no credit card.

Precise Petcare markets scheduling, a sitter mobile app with GPS tracking, client communication through pet care journals, client self-service, staff management, and billing and payments; we could not verify its current prices.

What the pricing pages we read did not show is a free plan — Time To Pet offers a trial, not a free tier.

Budget software as a monthly cost and re-check pricing before you commit, because vendor prices move.

Choose on fit: how many sitters you run, whether clients book themselves, whether you want GPS check-ins on walks, and whether payments settle inside the tool.

Whatever you pick, keep keys, codes and access notes logged where only you and the assigned sitter can see them.

Early clients come from proof of trust, and the basics compound.

A simple website that names your service area, services and policies; a business profile so local searches find you; and reviews from every happy client, asked for politely and answered publicly.

Build referral relationships with the businesses that already serve your clients: veterinary clinics, dog trainers, daycare and boarding operators, and pet stores.

Their staff meet your customer at the moment of need, and a referral arrives with trust already attached.

A meet-and-greet is your conversion step.

Offer an intro visit, bring proof of insurance, walk through the service agreement, and collect the vet release and key forms on the spot.

Marketplaces are a channel, not the whole business, and the fee mechanics above apply there.

Rover keeps a 20% service fee per booking from US providers outside California and some pilot cities.

Wag! says the price a pet parent pays is roughly 1.67 times the caregiver's rate.

If you use the apps, read their terms before moving a client onto your own books.

Whatever mix you choose, keep the promises the marketing makes: the policies you advertise — arrival windows, visit lengths, update photos — are the ones your software schedules and your contract enforces.

The moment your calendar turns work away is the moment to hire, and the first decision is employees or independent contractors, because it changes your taxes, your paperwork and your risk.

What you call the worker does not decide it.

DOL's Fact Sheet #13 says receiving a 1099 or being paid off the books does not by itself make someone an independent contractor, and that what the worker is called is not relevant to FLSA status.

The test Wage and Hour enforces weighs seven factors, including how integral the work is to the business, whether the relationship is permanent, the worker's investment in facilities and equipment, how much control the company exercises, and the worker's opportunity for profit or loss.

It also says where the work happens, the absence of a written agreement, and holding a state or local license do not bear on status — a signed contractor agreement settles nothing.

The IRS asks similar questions across three categories: behavioral control, financial control — how the worker is paid, expense reimbursement, who provides tools and supplies — and the type of relationship.

If status is genuinely unclear, either party can file IRS Form SS-8 for a determination, which the IRS says may take at least six months.

Confirm with the DOL, the IRS or your state labor agency before you treat sitters as contractors.

The employee paperwork follows from the answer.

You need an EIN to hire employees.

Workers' compensation is state law — DOL's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs publishes a directory of state agencies for checking your own state's rules.

Age rules come from DOL too.

Under federal child labor rules, 16 is the general minimum age for non-farm work, and 14- and 15-year-olds may work only in the occupations DOL's rules specifically permit.

Animal care work is not on that permitted list, so sitter hires start at 16 under federal rules.

DOL's rules carry a narrow parental-employment exception, and states can set stricter rules — confirm with your state labor agency.

Background checks run on the FCRA's script.

Before you order a report from a screening company, the FCRA requires a written notice that stands alone — not a line inside the application — and the applicant's written permission.

Before rejecting someone based on the report, you owe a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and the summary of FCRA rights, then an adverse action notice after you act.

The FTC also notes some states restrict employers' use of consumer reports — usually credit reports.

Then close like an employer: a written agreement, a key and access policy, the medication and emergency directions from your client forms, and a backup sitter plan for every booking.

For the wider employer playbook — pay plans, onboarding, reviews — the hiring hub collects the guides.

Owner information, not legal, tax or insurance advice. Every rule above has an agency behind it — your state and local licensing bodies, the IRS, DOL's Wage and Hour Division, your state labor agency, your state revenue department, and a licensed insurance agent. Rules change, so confirm with the one that administers yours before you act.